... diamond status

Personal Development and You … diamond status

The beauty of personal development and you … is you get to choose whatever you want.

You choose the role models who you aspire to be like. You choose your goals. You choose who you want to be in whatever profession you choose.

You choose to develop interests and desires by matching them with skills offered in the marketplace. And, if there are none, you make them up.

I had to add that last sentence because I didn’t see a set strategy for being the creator I want to be. I found myself taking part in one training, adding another from somewhere else, and then even another from another place to make up my own strategy.

My journey went from personal development to personal growth and back to personal development. The second time around to personal development I knew my passion was to create content specific to the beauty of breakthroughs.

The beginning of my journey was like looking out at the world for something that represented everything I wanted to do, with the skills and resources I had at the time.

I couldn’t see the one strategy, the one training, or the one course whereby if I took it, it would be my ticket to work my passion in the marketplace. Still, I couldn’t sit and do nothing. I had to make a move … and I did. I made many.

I wished, many times over, there was a set strategy I could follow. It would have been so much easier. Since that didn’t happen I kept moving forward by matching interests and desires to the things that would help me express what’s important to me.

Speaking of which, this phase continues. The difference is it becomes more focused and specific to your interests and desires. Whereby, the next thing becomes big, colorful, resonant within your heart, and feels just right.

Tony Robbins refers to CANI, Constant and Never Ending Improvement, which describes exactly what I mean to say here.

Having said this, I respect wherever you are in your journey to reaching diamond status.

I love this metaphor because it helps you gauge where you are in your life. Tony says, progress equals happiness ...

You see each step you take reaching for diamond status by creating and working your own personalized personal development plan with the metaphor.

Looking back on my small library of books I found some highlights which represent to me the beauty of what can be …

How to Stop Worrying and Start Living By Dale Carnegie

How to Stop Worrying and Start Living by Dale Carnegie

Chapter 10 | Page 96 | Put a “Stop-Loss” Order on Your Worries | Excerpt …

“Man alive! How I wish I had had the sense, years ago, to put stop-loss orders on my impatience, on my temper, on my desire for self-justification, on my regrets, and on all my mental and emotional strains.
Why didn’t I have the horse sense to size up each situation that threatened to destroy my peace of mind and say to myself: “See here, Dale Carnegie, this situation is worth just so much fussing about … and no more”? … Why didn’t I?”

Are you ready for this? Dale Carnegie tells you how he came from being a diamond in the rough … what he did to reach diamond status and what his acres of diamonds looks like in a few short pages at the beginning of this book.

If you’ve never read a book by Dale Carnegie I have to say he writes like the friend you want to have conversations with.

And, on top of that, he really did his homework to overdeliver with his books.

How to Win Friends and Influence People was written before How to Stop Worrying and Start Living.

I love the story of how these books came to be in the Preface | How This Book Was Written -- and Why on page xv.

 

A Better Way to Live by Og Mandino

A Better Way to Live by Og Mandino

Chapter VI | Page 48 | Excerpt ...

How do you get the most benefit from all seventeen of the following Rules to Live By? Easy. Just remember that all of us have a pretty large collection of bad habits that weaken our chance to succeed in life.

I love reading Og Mandino. He just has a way of reaching into your heart.

His start, shared in chapter IV on page 28, was most definitely a diamond in the rough. Really rough.

You’re invited to take a tour of Og Mandino’s studio on page 15. And, you’ll learn how this book came to be on page six.

And, most importantly, you will learn the key to a better life on page 48.

 

The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale

The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale

Chapter 7 | Page 98 | Excerpt ...

Heart is the symbol of creative activity. Fire the heart with where you want to go and what you want to be. Get it so deeply fixed in your unconscious that you will not take no for an answer, then your entire personality will follow where your heart leads.
Throw your heart over the bar” means to throw your faith over your difficulty, throw your affirmation over every barrier, throw your visualization over your obstacles. In other words, throw the spiritual essence of you over the bar and your material self will follow in the victory groove thus pioneered by your faith-inspired mind.
Starting With Chapter One | Believe in Yourself

When I first read The Power of Positive Thinking I had no idea of any strategy I could work to make any kind of progress doing what I love to do.

It seemed foreign to me to read and act on what I’d just learned, see myself in a new light, speak to myself in empowering ways, and all on a continual basis.

At this point I would say I was a diamond in the rough just entering the diamond status phase. It was the beginning of how I would personalize my own personal development.

 

Staying the Path by Dr. Wayne W. Dyer

Staying on the Path by Dr. Wayne W. Dyer

Excerpt ...

Preface: “I have created this book for those of you who are already on the path as well as those of you who are just trying to get there.

 

My observations may strike a chord in your life at present, or you might find that they come in handy a little way down the line.

 Whatever the case, just by picking up this book, you are already making headway on your particular course.

 May your journey be a safe and loving one.-Dr. Wayne W. Dyer 

I let the book open to any page as I grabbed it to include with this list for the personal development phase. It opened to page 9 and I quote …

Did you ever notice how difficult it is to argue with someone who is not obsessed with being right?

And then I stuck a sticky note on the page with the question, “What if that someone could be me … no matter what the circumstance?

 

Zig Ziglar's Secrets of Closing the Sale

Zig Ziglar’s Secrets of Closing the Sale by Zig Ziglar

My journey started with trying to jump into a personalized personal development strategy before the necessary actualizing of personal growth, which needed to happen first.

And since it happened that way for me, I reached for what I thought I needed to be successful in any career choice I was about to make … and that was to become a better salesperson.

I picked up a copy of Zig Ziglar’s Secrets of Closing the Sale in 1998. It says right on the cover and under the title, “For anyone who must get others to say yes!”. And, as a mom, daughter, sister, and in any and all of my roles this sold me.

Part Two | Page 79 | Excerpt ...

The Heart of Your Sales Career | Objectives …[followed by] The “Believer’s” Close | The Ownership Closed Revisited | The “Get “Em Smiling” Close | The “Empathy” Close | The “Physical Action” Close | The “Can’t Afford It” Close | The “Go Giver” Close | The “Columbus” Close | The “Courtship” Close | The “Testimonial” Close | The “Love” Close

Zig Ziglar hooked me into reading this book right off the bat with a story he told about how he and his wife got their dream home.

The “Household Executive” Saleslady on page thirteen is the Redhead, Zig Ziglar’s wife. She uses The “Snooker” Close | The “Ownership” Close | The “Embarrassment” Close | The “1902” Close | The “Affordable Close” to win Zig over in getting their dream home. How cool is that?

 

Og Mandino's Great Trilogy

Three Complete Books | Og Mandino’s Great Trilogy

The Greatest Salesman in the World | The Greatest Secret in the World | The Greatest Miracle in the World

Failure will never overtake you if your determination to succeed is strong enough. -Og Mandino (pg 45).

I bought Mission: Success and A Better Way to Live both by Og Mandino in April 1998. I later saw Og Mandino’s Great Trilogy and had to have it …

The Greatest Salesman in the World

Page 12 | Excerpt …

But, as you can observe, there is nothing here except a small chest. Now, come forward.”

The two men crouched beside the chest and Hafid carefully proceeded to unroll the leather strapping which encircled it. He inhaled deeply of the cedar fragrance from the wood and finally he pushed against the cover and it quietly sprung open.

Erasmus leaned forward and started over Hafid’s shoulder at the trunk’s contents. He looked at Hafid and shook his head in bewilderment. There was nothing inside the trunk but scrolls … leather scrolls.

This is a small sampling of, from my perspective, the rhythmic, energetic, and empowering writing of Og Mandino. Amazing story!

The Legend of the Ten Scrolls from

The Greatest Secret in the World

I would never have pictured me reading scrolls three times a day every day over a set period of time.

I would never have imagined my voice sound like it did when I read a scroll aloud at the end of the day.

Og Mandino’s writing is magical. I didn’t follow through on the first two attempts of using the Success Recorder Diary.

Why? I needed to experience personal growth in my life. This isn’t an excuse. It’s why I made excuses.

The personal growth I needed was to unconditionally love myself and the lover in me wouldn’t allow for anything to come between us until that happened.

The Greatest Miracle in the World

If you believe you have a passion for something and it’s a gift you want to share with the world, would you be open to the wisest of the wisest, whoever that may be for you, through comparison to the story Og Mandino shares in this book, The Greatest Miracle in the World?

NuSpeak Become a Powerful Speaker by Geoffrey Lane

NuSpeak Become a Powerful Speaker by Geoffrey Lane

The challenge for the speaker is to become one with the audience, sharing one reality. This occurs when the speaker ceases to be self-conscious as the one who is engaged in speaking to the audience. Once it is realized that both listener and speaker are one, there is the possibility of some greater form of communication. Geoffrey Lane

Introduction | Page 7 | Excerpt ...

NuSpeak is organized around the following four elements, which represent the dynamics involved in a great presentation experience:

The ARCHER (which represents you, the presenter) provides the energy to shoot the arrow to the target.

Learning how to manage, maintain and develop that energy is important and forms a major part of any presentation.

The mind of the archer clearly focuses on the target, determining purpose, expected outcome, timing, speed, etc.

This gives direction to the presentation so that the arrow can hit the target.

The round that the archer stands on represents his/her knowledge of the subject matter to be presented, as well as his/her skill at presenting.

The BOW represents the delivery system. What is the most effective medium through which to deliver the arrow -- the message: overhead transparencies, slides, handouts, flip chart, audio-visuals, etc.

The ARROW represents the message or information to be delivered to the audience.

The material must tell a story -- just like a movie--whether it is sixty minutes, six minutes or sixty seconds long.

I bought this book at a Toastmaster event … and although I was petrified to speak in front of audiences I loved the feeling of comfort I got from what could be.

I loved how NuSpeak showed me how it could be to become a powerful speaker. Not for presenting to audiences, but in everyday life.

Remember ... I used to think that if I learned how to speak with books and events I could free the ache I felt inside from not expressing myself.

I’m sure you have it by now … I was looking in all the wrong places for personal growth.

It’s with a smile I say personal growth is personal growth. Personal development is personal development. They’re not the same thing. At least, not for me. This was a lesson I needed to learn.

The cool thing is once you learn a skill … even if it’s partial learning, you have it as a resource. You can go back to it anytime and either finish developing it or continue to develop it.

No failures, right? No failure here because I was indeed creating new empowering beliefs.

I haven’t included everything on personal development but enough to give you a sense of what it meant to me to explore a whole new world that was opening up for me starting with an appreciation of what could be different with personal development.