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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That is the process that allows us to perform automatically most of what we do during the course of our life. That’s the process that allows us to drive a car almost automatically, to use our keyboard without having to search for the letters etc. However, that process also does a lot more.

That is the process that formed most of the beliefs that we have. It’s where most of our personal views on just about every subject under the sun were constructed. These beliefs and views are neatly tucked up in our bank of reference just waiting to spring forth when the need occurs.

The problem with that bank of references is that most of it was already formed before we were three years old. That is to say that some very important evaluations were done before we were mature enough to do it. Hard to believe but true.

By the age of three, we had definite notions about love, about relationships, about money, about people and about just every imaginable subject. At the time, they were very embryonic notions but they established the basis upon which our beliefs were eventually formed and accepted as gospel truth.

Today, years later, that bank of reference is still being used to define our reality. As we developed, learned and grew, some of those beliefs were altered to adapt to new information but the original evaluations still play an important role in our belief system.

Without that bank of references we simply could not function. It is where our automatic reflexes are stored; it is through that bank of references that we can have a normal conversation without having to analyze the course of that conversation. It’s the guiding mechanism for most of our actions however it is also were our beliefs are held.

Our beliefs are extremely important because they define our reality. As such, some of those beliefs are empowering and some are not. Some beliefs contribute positively and some are major roadblocks. Some beliefs are sources of inspiration and growth while others only contribute to difficulties and hardships.

We are the steward of our own bank of references and the overseer of our beliefs. It is for us to determine what is good and what is not; what should be kept and what should be changed.

It is to be remembered that beliefs are not cast in stone. They are simply notions that we have adopted for reasons that, in some cases, may be questionable and sometimes adopted before we were mature enough to make judicial decisions.

Some people where influenced, by the time that they were three years old, to believe that they were worthless and that they could never achieve anything worthwhile in their life. Years and years later that belief still affect and run their life in spite of tons of evidences to the contrary. That’s a real tragedy.

Beliefs are simply notions that we have accepted and notions that can be questioned and changed. Changes may not always be easy because our mind has a strong need for consistency. However, with some determination, a disempowering belief can always be replaced by a positive one. That’s how we grow, mature and become wiser and more effective.

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Being able to direct and create our own version of the way we see our world gives us almost god-like power. We can shape our reality in almost any way that we want and we can direct how we experience every day that is given us.

Movie directors know that different effects of a scene can be created simply by changing the angle of the camera that is recording the scene. They also know that by changing the opening of the camera’s lens they can determine what will or will not be seen on the film.

It’s a big world and an almost limitless Universe out there. It contains amazing beauty and there is ugliness. There are scenes of joy and there is suffering. We can also see great hope and some despair. We are the Director; we get to decide what we will focus on and choose how it will affect our reality.

This liberty to choose has been called the ultimate freedom. We are not stuck in a fixed reality; we get to choose it. We have the choice between literally millions of different settings to focus on. No one and no outside influence can restrict that choice. The ultimate choice is in our hands. We are the Director.

As Director, we get to choose the theme of our movie. It can be a film about adventure, it can be about saving the world, and it can be about small or huge accomplishments. It’s our film. Whatever we want to see in the film and whatever way we want it seen is available. It’s a big Universe out there and it’s all at our disposal.

There is such a thing as reality however it cannot be grasped by the human mind. The very best that we can do is to create a representation of what we perceive reality to be. We don’t know what others are thinking; we don’t really know what is in their heart and mind.

We don’t know what others believe and we don’t know how they perceive reality. We don’t know about the nature of God and we don’t even know why we do most of what we do – yet, we profess to know what reality is all about.

Even on the tangible plane, our eyes deceive us. Quantum physic says everything that we see is in actuality nothing but energy. Still, most of the time we are left unfazed; we believe that our perception of reality is real. It’s not. It’s just a perception.

It does take maturity and some soul searching to come to the evidence that we live in a world of our own making. In a world that is mostly the fruit of our imagination. Before we can accept this theory, a very wide bridge has to be crossed. We must be willing to think outside of the box and change some fundamental beliefs. Not always an easy task.

It’s not an easy task but it is one that is very liberating. Once we have come to accept that we live in a world or our own making, we also understand that we are not tied down to just one world or one reality. It is in our power to change whatever reality we are in for another one that is more pleasant and more empowering.

We are the Director who decides what we will ignore and what we will focus on. We can change the perspective from which we look at everything tangible and non-tangible. We can create our world; we can create our reality. We’ve been doing it all along; the difference is that we did not know that we had a choice. We do have that choice – so let’s make it a world of wonderment and happiness.

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It matters little whether we call him Super-ego or Conscience however what does matter is to understand the little guy’s function, how he works and how he can be influenced to intercede in our favor.

One of the problems that we find with that little guy is that he’s very much influenced by the Ego. And that was especially true when we were very young. If for some reason our Ego was bruised by some disparaging remarks, the little guy would take it way too seriously and lower our level of self-esteem and by the same token, our level of self-confidence.

In some cases, those negative remarks came from parents, teachers, friends and peers. Not necessary individuals who were qualified to give valid opinions on the subject of our true worth. However our little guy took those opinions to be the gospel truth and lowered our self-esteem.

So in order to build that self-esteem again, we need to have several talks with the little guy and make him understand that some of those degrading remarks were certainly not warranted and that he has to disregard them.

Early age self-assessment of our worth created a powerful belief regarding our identify and how we perceive ourselves. In cases where a negative self-image was created, the belief has to be changed. That can be accomplished by repeatedly using positive affirmations and by finding evidences that will disprove the original belief. The process might require intense and prolonged efforts but the results can be spectacular.

Every day that we live, our little guy keeps on assessing our performances. His main concern is the level of our commitment to be all that we can be. When we perform as well as we can, he will raise our self-esteem. When we don’t, self-esteem will suffer.

We cannot fool the little guy. He knows when we use excuses and pretexts to cover an unacceptable performance. And he also knows when we assume the victim role to please our ego. Failing to assume personal responsibility for whatever happens to us is seen as a cardinal sin that is simply not acceptable.

What the little guy inside our brain wants to see is for us to face life’s challenges with courage, give our best and be true to ourselves. He understands that there will be setbacks and that we will fail sometimes. In those instances we will not be penalized so long as we acted courageously, performed to the best of our ability and did not shy our responsibilities.

Self-esteem should depend almost exclusively on how we evaluate our performances and to a much lesser extent on the results that we achieve. That is something else that we should make sure that our little guy knows about. He’s the one who sets to tone for the level of our self-esteem but we’re the one who should set the rules.

One of the most precious possessions that we can ever hope to have is a strong and healthy self-esteem. With it we see life through an entire different set of lens. Getting to like and appreciate ourselves has been called the ultimate seduction. So called because when we have it, little else is needed to make us feel happy. Thus the importance to please the little guy that resides in our brain.

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Seriously, if you are willing to invest just ten minutes a day toward achieving your goals using this technique, in less than a few months you’ll be amazed with the results. I know that it works because I’ve used it for over three decades.

The first thing that you need to do is to give yourself the title (and the job) of CEO for a business conglomerate who’s only mission and function is to manage your brain and see to it that it is as productive as it can possibly be.

The second thing that you need to do is to see yourself as two distinct individuals. The first is the CEO whose main function is to define where the conglomerate (which is you) is going, what its goals and objective are and the strategies to get there.

The second person is the manager who will implement the CEO’s strategies. Now it’s very important to respect the integrity of these two persons. When you’re the CEO, you think and act as a CEO and when you’re the manager you only act as a manager.

The reason for that is simple. As a CEO you may have to make demands that the manager may not be quite comfortable with. However, as manager he has no choice in the matter. He simply has to follow the boss’ orders.

At first sight, this role-playing may seem a little silly. So what? It works. That is, it works if you work it. That’s the recipe and like any recipe, if you don’t use all the ingredients the way that they should be used, the finished product will not be what it was supposed to be.

Now that the stage is set, it’s time for the nitty-gritty of the ten minutes exercise. That ten minutes daily period will be devoted to the CEO’s personality and it will consist of working on the conglomerate’s Journal.

No responsible company or organization would even dream of working without a Journal. That’s a book in which the mission of the company is defined. It’s a place where the objectives are recorded along with the strategies necessary to reach these objectives. In the case of a one-person organization that book is called a Personal Planner.

The Personal Planner consist of a small loose leafs binder with separators for the different subjects to be treated. These subjects should include: the overall mission or prime objective of the individual, a list of all the goals with the strategies to reach these goals, a “must do today” list, a list of important contacts along with pertinent info regarding these people. Other items or subjects can also be included if so desired.

Once you’ve created the two personalities (CEO and Manager) and that your Personal Planner is set up, all you have to do is to spend ten minutes a day doing the planning and deciding what should absolutely be done for that day.

The exercise is extremely simple in it’s application and will give tremendous results so long as both personalities take their function seriously and conscientiously. Running a large conglomerate or a single individual only differs in the size of the organization. The principles are the same and so should be the methodology.

Take yourself seriously, manage and conduct yourself in a professional way and you will reap outstanding results. It cannot fail. The best of luck… and see you at the top.

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We like to believe that we are creatures of reason, motivated by logic and common sense. We are not. As the saying goes, we are creatures of emotion, bristling with prejudice, and motivated with pride and vanity.

That may be a hard pill to swallow. But it’s the truth; and unless we are willing to swallow that pill, there won’t be much that we can do about it. Ignoring a problem won’t make it go away.

If we are to be honest about it, we must admit that a large part of the problems and hardships that we face are ego related. Ego and unchecked passion go hand in hand. Both can be formidable enemies. What adversely affects the ego will be leashed out through irrational emotions.

The ego is so sensitive and so fragile that we will go to almost any length to protect it; and it is so precious that we’ll even deny reality to boost it. That’s easy to understand when we consider that a bruised ego will hurt more and take a longer time to heal than a broken bone.

The other disturbing reality about the ego is the fact that it is almost never blamed for the hurts or deceptions that it causes. No one ever says, “I was hurt because my ego is too fragile.” So, once again, if we cannot lay blame on whatever is causing the problem, how can we fix it?

The ego, like a wild animal, is only a problem when it feels vulnerable or is not well fed. A strong and healthy ego needs to dwell in and feed off a healthy and confident self-image. When well taken care off, it can be our best friend; when neglected, it becomes our worst enemy.

We can fool ourselves but we cannot fool our ego. It knows our true worth. It knows if we are true to our values and if we have the courage of our convictions or if we are only the shadow of the person that we know we could be.

We are our own worst enemy when we play down what we expect of ourselves in a futile effort to fool our ego. Instinctively, we know what we should be and what we are capable off. We also know whether we are leading a courageous battle to fill our rightful place in the world or if we have abdicated for lack of courage.

Even if he lost the war and suffered a major setback, a valiant and courageous General will not feel belittled or humiliated if he gave his all. That man will not feel like a failure. He was true to himself, respected his commitment and that’s what matters most.

It is the same in our own life. We can be our best friend or worst enemy. By having the courage to do what’s right, do it with courage while using the best of our abilities, the ego will be taken care off, the self-image will shine brightly and we will feel good about ourselves.

One the other hand, if we are less than truthful, try to deceive ourselves, try to get by with as little effort as possible by using the easy way out, we are heading for disaster. We may be able to fool ourselves, but we cannot fool life. We may be creatures of emotions but life is not. It unfolds according to implacable laws.

Either we follow those laws or we pay the price. Either we live our life in a courageous and honorable fashion or we face our worst enemy, ourselves.

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Were they born with that belief? Certainly not. We are born with instincts but beliefs are acquired. Beliefs are the results of teachings, observations and auto-suggestions. People can get themselves to believe almost anything that they want. It is done by the constant repetitions of a specific theme. A technique called affirmations.

Those of us who are old enough to remember Muhammad Ali in his younger days have had a perfect example of how a belief can be created. Mr. Ali kept on repeating, “I am the greatest.” He said it so many times that, not only did he get to believe it, soon the entire world believed it also.

Before they ever got to be great, all the great men and women had to believe that they were entitled. They had to believe that they were born to be great. That’s what gave them the energy, the drive and the wherewithal to become great. They had certainty, the winner’s edge, working for them.

That sense of entitlement and certainty is not a special gift reserved to the chosen few. It is a tool that is available to anyone who is willing to put in the time and effort to create it for themselves.

Anyone who has read a biography of Sylvester Stallone has seen what belief in self can do. Stallone had infallible faith in his capacity to become a premier movie actor when nobody gave him the shadow of a chance to seriously get into the movies business in the first place.

Lately, we have seen Barack Obama do the same thing. A very unlikely candidate for the Presidency. Could Mr. Obama have done it if he ever had one doubt that he could not do it? Very unlikely. He felt destined to break through the color barrier and reach to highest office in the world. And he did it.

Faith in ourselves and a sense of certainty are the corner stones upon which personal success is founded. Unfortunately there is no place in the arena of achievement for the timid or wavering soul. Life is either an act of courage or one of desperation. Either we surf the waves or struggle to stay afloat.

We were all born with a clean slate upon which we were given dominion. Who and what we believe to be is inscribed on that slate. Most of it was written for us by family and peers. It was originally accepted through suggestions from others. We were told that we were that we possessed certain characteristics and we accepted that.

That slate is not cast in bronze. We are free to change or remove whatever does not serve us as it should. As we expand and grow, this slate must be updated to conform to today’s reality. The beliefs about our personal identity must change as we do. Yesterday’s truth has to be changed to conform to today’s reality.

We were all conceived to fulfill a special mission. A mission for which we were entitled special gifts. Both the mission and the gifts are encompassed in the dream life that we have imagined for ourselves. Our primal task is to find that mission and fully exploit those gifts. We have already been divinely entitled. Now it’s our job to turn the gifts and dream into reality.

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This quote by Mr. Andretti sums up the messages that can be found in most books on motivation, success or achievement. They are very powerful words that carry an essential message about the science and art of success. However in that quote and in most works treating the subject of achievement one element is blatantly missing.

The teachings of self-improvement focus intensively on attitude but it is sorely lacking on character building. Even with the best attitude in the world, true success is not attainable if there is a character flaw. It would be wrong to say that successful people share the same character traits as those who are still struggling.

To be truly effective, any work done on self-improvement should concentrate more on character building than on attitude, techniques or methods. Before it is possible to achieve, a person has to be the kind of person that can do the type of things that needs to be done in order to get whatever the person is after.

Success is more attracted than pursued. If we ask successful people how they managed to acquire their success, the answer is invariably the same. They will say that it was easy. They cannot even understand why anyone else could not do it. The reason for that is simple. These people were already successes before they became successful.

How can you be a success before you become successful? Success is above all a state of mind. A person who feel like a success will think and act like a successful person and reap the rewards. A person who simply would like to become a success probably won’t achieve more that stay at the level of an “I-would-like-to-be-a-success.”

Maxwell Maltz of psycho-cybernetic fame says, “Self-image sets the boundaries of individual accomplishment” To get the things that we want the most, the first thing that need to be done it to change the self-image. In order to do that, a fundamental change in character is required.

If we want to change the results that we get in any area of endeavor, the first thing that must be done is a change in self-image and the only way that a true change in self-image can be affected is by changing our character.

According to Stephen Covey, our character is basically a composite of our habits. So, to changes character and thus change the self-image, we must change our habits; especially change the habitual way that we perceive ourselves.

A new thinking pattern has to be created regarding the self-image. The negative self-views have to be erased from the mind and be replaced by the image of the vibrant, effective and successful person that we basically are. We were born successes; at age three we were the most important person in the world.

Sadly, as time flew by, we experienced setbacks. Instead of experiencing those setbacks as learning experiences, they were viewed as evidences of personal flaws. In many cases, the self-image suffered permanent damages.

Anyone who is serious about a life of success and achievement has to restore that winning self-image. Until that is accomplished, the best intentions and the best techniques on self-improvement are not much more than vague and ephemeral theories. We have to be… before we can do… before we can have.

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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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One of the strongest forces in the human organism is the need for consistency. Once a pattern has been established in our life, it is very difficult to change it and once a belief is accepted, it is seen almost as a dogma; good for eternity.

The human body and the human mind are ruled by homeostasis mechanisms. The function of those control mechanism is to keep our internal environment at what it believes to be ideal conditions for the person.

Both, the body and the mind are regulated by those mechanisms. In the case of the mind, those mechanisms try to keep the person in the comfort zone. That is, it tries to maintain the status quo of the patterns that have worked before.

Those homeostasis mechanisms will not discriminate. Even if a pattern was less than fully effective, it will try to maintain it. Changes are resisted and frowned upon. As far as the mind is concerned, if a pattern has kept us alive in the past, it’s good enough and there is no need or even desire to change it.

That is the challenge that self-improvement faces. Consciously, a person may have a desire to change and to improve but unconsciously, that same person holds onto a very strong resistance to changes. It could be said that we have a bit of a dilemma here.

Knowing about this situation will not solve it but it will show us how to best work with it. We know that we will unconsciously resist most changes. But, we also know that if a certain pressure is applied to affect a specific change, after a certain period the desired change will become the norm and then it will be readily accepted.

As the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer stated, all truth goes through three steps. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Finally, it is accepted as self-evident. It is the same for any personal changes that we wish to affect.

Let us take the example of a neophyte in the world of self-improvement who decides to stop dwelling on the negatives and start focusing on the positives. At first, it will be violently rejected by the unconscious. In spite of conscious efforts, little progress will be made. However, if the pressure to change is maintained long enough, the new habit will become the norm and a new self will emerge.

Most changes are slow and only come about after constant and repetitive efforts. Personal changes are not about learning new skills. It’s about integrating new beliefs and new habits. It’s about in depth neurological changes. It’s about rewiring the brain differently.

Knowledge is moot unless it is used and it cannot be automatically used unless it is integrated. That’s the challenge that we face in the self-improvement world. No wonder it demands work, diligence and patience.

Alexis Carrel said it best when he wrote, “It’s not easy for man to change because he is at the same time the block of granite and the artisan who must, through power strokes of the hammer, chisel out of his own substance the masterpiece that he wants to become.”

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