Personal Development

Restored from the Empower Network archive (2011–2017), lightly edited to meet our current advertising standards. Views are the original author’s.

Say hello to my friend Tom. He is writing today’s guest post and I really admire his creative ability to write about personal development.

Prepare to be absorbed with the majestic writing of his skills and realize right now that you are in the right place at the right time.

So without further ado:

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This i my first guest blog post for Cesar Soto’s Blog

Personal development is a journey it is not a destination, for you never truly reach your destination…You are always learning. There are twists and turns and you may go backward to move forward, it all depends on what is inside you and whether you can bring it to the surface enough for it to give you the life you want. (What I should have said was “give you what you already have”…you never want to tell your subconscious anything but what you imagine having…that way your subconscious will work on the discrepancy between what you really currently have and what you want and help you get it.) The subconscious does not like contradictions and it will work to fix them until they happen. Ask, believe, really believe and you shall receive
That’s the great part of personal development. It comes from deep within your subconscious mind. Personal development is both for leaders and for followers. A true leader is one that steps aside surrounds him or herself with people much better than themselves and helps them achieve greatness.
Bushido Code
Ancient Samurai lived by a set of rules they developed over centuries. These rules were defended to the death. That is how fully they committed themselves to this set of personal development principles. See how many traits and principles you admire in the Samurai Bushido Code below that can be reflected in the way you think about your business or life.
There are 12 traits in the Bushido Code(that we will use for our discussion) that I am constantly in a state of developing them, in myself. It is my intension, but I do not always succeed. So then, like today, I start over with clear intensions, get back up on “that horse and I ride toward my success.” The Samurai have a saying that reflects their love of nature and beauty in the world that goes something like this:
“It may take a person an entire lifetime to find that one perfect cherry blossom, but oh what a wonderful life that would be, looking for that perfect blossom” -Samurai. In this Video we will go over the Bushido traits. This is me talking about them at my pond in Whiting Indiana, USA. I built this pond with my hands for the love of my life. She wanted a lily flower.

If you’d like to practice personal development in your life by growing as a person click the link below or to the side:
I’d like to thank Dan Kreutzer, my main mentor that has gotten me to this point in my personal development using the principles of Bushido to be my governing principles for business: Dan Kreutzer is a Founding Partner of Samurai Business Group, a business development consulting and training company specializing in sales and sales management. The company provides programs in prospect generation, consultative selling, sales process, inside sales, customer service, sales management, sales organization, sales coaching, and identifying and hiring producers. He is the published author of “Put the WIN Back in Your SALES” and “Buyer Process Management”. His new book on sales management will be available in 2013. He can be reached at 312-863-8580 or d.kreutzer@samuraibizgrp.com or visit www.samuraibizgrp.com.
Dan Taught me his own version of the Bushido Code that with his permission, I will share with you now:
Honor is the adherence to what is right or to a conventional standard of conduct. A Samurai will do anything, including death( of business in this case), not to be dishonored. Likewise as a salesperson, demonstrating honor at all cost should be your mode of operation. Your personal integrity must transcend everything, so much so, that you would rather quit, or fire yourself ,rather than to do something that dishonors you.
Service is the action of helping or doing work for someone. And, the essence of service is placing others above yourself. This must become your personal mission in life. Rotary International is a Worldwide Organization that helped cure Polio and their Motto is “Service Above Self”
Commitment means dedication. A Samurai exhibits an intense dedication to be the best at everything he or she does and to do whatever it takes to achieve their goal. He carries a “no-excuses” approach to even the most challenging aspects of life.
“The Last Samurai” exemplifies intense commitment to learn the ways of the Samurai as he suffers through bloody swordplay. This is the same kind of commitment that you must exhibit to be successful. Your mentality should demonstrate a refusal to settle for where you are, because it’s not good enough. Your commitment to your profession, self, company, and product should drive you to always push to be better.
Rectitude is morally correct behavior or thinking. It’s simply doing the right thing, just because it’s the right thing. Because doing the right thing is not always without personal consequence, rectitude is tied to courage.
Courage is the ability to do something that frightens one. It is your willingness and ability to do what must be done, regardless of the personal consequences. It means action in the face of fear or consequence and is based on rectitude and honor.
Loyalty is giving or showing firm and constant support or allegiance to a person or institution. It is demonstrated through the support you give to all of your constituents: company, customers, colleagues, family, etc.
Honesty-Tell the Truth No Matter What. Enough Said.
Compassion is the concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others. It’s your demonstration of care for others. To fully apply this within the context of sales, you must believe that what you do helps the customer or prospect in some way, i.e., takes away fear or pain, enables gain, etc. Compassion is more than feeling concerned, it goes further. It requires some demonstration of that care or concern. This is the foundation of service.
As you consider the world you live in (one of abundance or scarcity), do you:
Show willingness to give?
Help whenever possible, especially when there’s nothing in it for you?
Respect is a feeling of admiration or due regard for someone or something. Respect should be shown toward everyone you meet, regardless of their position.
Self Control is the ability to control oneself, in particular one’s emotions and desires or the expression of them in one’s behavior, especially in difficult situations. Simply put, keep your emotions in check!
If you show that you can’t control yourself in conflict, stress, or crises, what does this say to the client about your dependability? Will they trust you in crunch time?
Live In the Moment
To “Live in the Moment” means to put all of your energy and concentration into what you are doing right now. Don’t allow yourself to be distracted by past occurrences or future possibilities.
As human beings, it is very easy to drag “the baggage” from the past 5, 10, or 20 years into the present. Forget the past, you can’t change it! Dwelling in the past only robs you of the energy and focus needed in the right here and now.
Likewise, focusing on the future and imagining what could happen is equally as detrimental. It can hinder your ability to do the best you can do right now. Resist the temptation of thinking too much about the past or future and concentrate your energy on what you’re doing now.
This is how the samurai appeared fearless in battle. They didn’t allow themselves be distracted by the possibility of being injured or killed. They focused totally on what they were doing.
Keep a Beginner’s Mind
To “Keep a Beginner’s Mind” means to approach life as an opportunity to constantly learn. It is vitally important for you to keep a beginner’s mind because when you act like you know everything and take on the role of “expert,” you set yourself up for a fall. This is referred to as “Expert’s Learning Disability,
Appreciate the Arts
To “Appreciate the Arts” means to take time to smell the roses. Don’t live to work, but work to live. How might this play out in a practical sense?
Take care of yourself (e.g., physical, mental, and emotional health)
Enjoy life – Make every effort to appreciate both the great and the things and opportunities of everyday living (e.g., time spent with family and friends, taking a long walk, eating an appetizing meal, reading a good book, etc.).
Why this is so important:
Helps make you a person people are comfortable with
Provides life-work balance
Helps prevent burn out
Improves your outlook and perspective on life
The Power of Optimism – People with a high level of success are optimistic. They expect things to turn out successfully. They watch for it! Conversely, if you carry a negative outlook, always expecting setbacks and failures, you can easily become discouraged and give up at the very hint of a minor hurdle. Learn what you can from challenges and move on. Keep in mind that everyone is in the same boat; trying to do the best with what they have and know right now. Stay committed to what you are doing, why, and how it will affect people, and you’ll stay on track.
If You Think You Can or You Think You Can’t You’re Right. Henry Ford said that. Brilliant man. This very statement encompasses you’re Empower Network Business. The way you think controls your outcomes and results.
The concepts we cover in this blog post are not hard or complex, in fact When you were a very little Baby you were perfectly developed to have great success in everything you did…Or did You? No, not really. You had to fall down many times before you actually figured out how to walk. You already have accomplished the hardest thing that a human can do.
Watch a baby the next time you get the chance. They have no governors, no breaks, no maybes, what-ifs, no regrets…If they want something they grab it! If they do not want something they say No by crying or raising a fuss. Their world is brand new, everything is exciting to explore…What a great way to live. Not as a baby, but not afraid of anything or anyone, willing to try everything and be completely honest about everything.
People that are successful do the same thing. They take massive action and do not stop until they achieve what they set out to do.
It is only if we watch older children that we see, that society, parents, teachers, government and religion and other factors in the community, start to wear away on this sense of wonder and excitement about life. Responsibilities, deadlines, rules can tend to get in the way of us exploring the world we live in, like we’d like to. Why? Well, social norms dictate to us that we assimilate to society and become good little worker bees. I say NO! Nope, we do not work for someone else. We set the rules for our behavior now. We live and die(again I mean our business, not literally) by our decisions
Notice Henry Ford did not say “If you think maybe you can or maybe you can’t you’re maybe right or maybe wrong.”
But when things get hard in direct sales, Internet Marketing, Affiliate marketing or in any business, or life for that matter, we began to doubt what we want. These concepts are the key to understanding personal development. It starts within us.

Personal Development

Do You remember how excited you were when you first started something new in your life or in your business? Why? You had real hope, and I hope you still do! Believe in yourself! You have more power inside you than you even know. For the next Thirty Days I want you to practice hearing your inner voice through one of these meditation exercise. One is a Video, One is an Audio. Look at them and then come back for more gold nuggets in this post. You will be glad you did. Or continue reading and come back to them later.
Put differently, or looked at from a Biblical perspective, “Ask and You Shall Receive” But the Bible does not say, “Ask and then doubt what your asking for.” It says you must ask with complete clarity. Meditation will help you develop the neurons you need to get complete clarity of what you want. I am not sure what other religions of the world say about this topic area. If you know please comment below. I’d love to learn from You!
When we were first starting as a species we had ingrained in our beings the Fright or Flight Response. It kept us alive from being eaten by saber toothed tigers and other nasties in the World. But that resonse is out-dated no one is trying to eat you. Relax, learn and grow. Leave fear and embrace feeling better enough, until you trick your mind into feeling great!

Personal Development

Complaints
First of all, continue to complain about your life. People love it when you do. In fact,there is never a situation where you should not, not complain. It is so productive. If you are complaining people will look at you as always right and really look up to you because you have been given a bad break in life. We should all complain everytime something is difficult. I am sure that would fix everything wrong with the World and your life. In fact for the next day I want you to complain about everything that happens to you and pay attention, really pay attention to how people react to your complaining. Stay in the rabbit whole for one whole day. Come out after a day and never go back Alice.

*Screeching Halt*

Then I realized that the very act of writing those negative words above, even though I was trying to make a point that complaining is never the right, correct or the appropriate thing to do, was in itself attracting a negative energy to myself, and I could actually feel myself getting gradually more upset as I was writing.
OK, Do I have your attention now?
The number one thing that you can do to develop yourself as a leader and someone that people do look up to is
NEVER EVER COMPLAIN Replace Complaining with Observation, Learning and Gratitude. You have two ears and one mouth use them accordingly.(Listen more with your two ears…you will learn so much more in life about people that way)
Appreciate what you have, even if it sucks! Be grateful that you are alive, if that is all you have at the moment…. and now I am going to give you a secret……..If you appreciate what you have now, whatever it is, the very act and emotional energy of appreciation is so positive, that you start to feel better, and then when you feel better enough, you start to feel good, and when you start feel good enough, you start to feel great!
It is that simple….Because most of society is not OK, it takes practice to learn how to feel good again. Do this for 30 days in a row and it will become a habit. Once it does then you start telling the Universe by your energy what you really want…and somehow, some way you start to figure out what action steps you need to take.
Finally, I’d like to share with you my version of an exercise for your personal development that I learned at The Wright Leadership Insitute in Chicago, and I apologize ahead of time for what this may look like(Ready, Shoot, Aim) Use the concepts as directions for what you will do with this exercise. Do the exercise…it will help you get crystal clear in your mind. Sometimes we second guess ourselves about what to think. This exercise will prevent that. You only need to do each one once and you will open up a world you never knew existed. This one set of exercises blew my mind and then there is one more that was done there that was life changing…..ask me about that sometime, it’s too complex for this 30,000 foot view of Personal Development
What do you hate? This exercise is easy. Of all the emotions this is the easiest to fall into. Why because deep down if you cut out all the bull!#@&* hate is fear disguised in what we think is socially acceptable. It’s not OK to be afraid, that shows weakness. At least that is what we think, and it hold us back from being successful.
What do you Love?
I you really do not want to go down the Rabbit Hole Alice, leave the matrix of having a job and working for someone else, then do not watch all 12 of the following Videos. If you want to live in the Matrix and not really experience the power of Personal Development, do not watch these 12 Videos..
Don’t watch these 12 Videos below if you want to stay the way you are, if you like getting the same results your getting right now. Don’t watch these 12 Videos if you are happy where you are in life, in your relationships, your finances, your communication styles and the results you are getting in your life right now.
If you are like the rest of us watch these 12 videos(they’re short ) and gain each of the golden nuggets from another one of my mentors(as soon as I hit my first financial goal I start working with him on advanced training) Bob Wright and his wife Judith Wright of the Wright Leadership Institute. I’d like to thank YouTube and Wrightprivate for these golden nuggets
Check out their amazing leadership training at It will change your life for the better. You will love stronger and want harder and achieve more than you ever have in your life.
In my 51 years of life on this physical plane I have come to realize that sadly we as humans on this planet are judged, not by our intelligence, but by what financial value our intelligence produces.
My goal for society is that as many people as possible in my lifetime, realize their life to the fullest extent they are capable of, until they pass that torch off to the next generation. I have a vision that eventually, human knowledge and Intellegence will be judged on it;s merits alone, and not on the financial value they produce. But until that time. go out and sell something! LOL …..No what I realy meant to say was……Namaste!

Tom Lincoln “I’ll see You on The Beaches of the World!”

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Personal Development