Hello,
Before I begin my success tip for this week I want to congratulate Carrie, who at the weekend seized an opportunity that was left dangling by somebody far less conscientious.
Last week I set a challenge for a youth named Patrick that could easily have made him $500 richer.
All he had to do was come to the Perth event and name the 13 principles of Think and Grow Rich but he failed to even appear, which allowed Carrie to jump in, complete the task and claim a total of $1,000 cash.
There are two valuable lessons to be found in this experience: the first is to always make the most of your own opportunities and the second is to always be alert for those that others have missed.
We’ve been talking about cutting the things out of our lives that block the path to success, all the distractions and disturbances that impede our progress.
Last week I set you the difficult task of examining the people around you to decide who is pushing you forward and who is holding you back.
This week’s lesson is a little easier but no less important.
It’s time to look at your personal habits - all the little customs and tendencies that characterise you - with an eye to discarding those that are having a negative impact on your life.
The most obvious example is smoking.
The weather here in Bathurst is getting colder by the day and every time I see somebody leave the warm company of their friends to trek outside, clutching a cigarette between their nicotine-stained fingers, I’m left entirely speechless.
I have no words to explain the mindset of somebody who would continues to smoke in this day and age, when we know – not fear, not suspect…know – that it will certainly diminish their health and probably shorten their life span.
Smoking is the extreme example that proves just how hard it can be to end bad habits – even grabbing smokers by the collar and shouting, “IT WILL KILL YOU”, isn’t enough to deter many of them from sparking up.
Of course, bad habits come in many different guises and I’ve been afflicted by them as much as anybody else.
When I was a teenager, for instance, I became addicted to one of the most poisonous, mind-damaging, potential-draining substances ever created – television.
As a high school student I would study the TV Times each week and memorise it back to front, pickling my brain with inane trivia and wasting valuable thinking power that could have been applied to my schoolwork.
Roald Dahl might have been writing about me when he neatly summarised the curse of television:
- “His brain becomes as soft as cheese!
- “His powers of thinking rust and freeze!
- “He cannot think – he only sees!”
I’ve long since kicked the habit but television, along with the newly-emerged bane of the Internet, still has a strong hold on the lives of many people.
Statistics released last month showed that, on average, Australians spend more than 13 hours a week watching television and a further 13 hours surfing the net.
That’s a total of 26 hours – more than one whole day out of seven – spent staring at a screen or monitor.
Imagine if, as a nation, we directed just a fraction of those hours towards something more worthwhile – to community service or personal development or, well, anything really.
Smoking and excessive television watching are among the easiest bad habits to recognise, but that doesn’t automatically make them the most insidious.
The habits that are most difficult to rid ourselves of are the unhealthy mental patterns that are so easy to fall into.
If you make excuses for a lack of achievement, if you blame others for your failure, if you won’t accept the possibility that you, too, can succeed then you’re stuck with habits that you need to escape.
Of course, doing so is far easier said than done.
The trouble with bad habits is that they’re like a comfortable bed in winter – easy to fall into but very hard to get out of again.
It all comes down to self-control and, more than that, self-denial.
Instead of living for the moment and accepting short-term gratification you have to look into the distance and decide what will make you happiest over the long-term.
The easiest path to walk is inevitably the one that leads downhill.
Turn away from the path of least resistance and seek the higher road, which will be considerably more difficult but infinitely more rewarding.
It’s a lesson that Patrick, apparently, still has to learn.
I’d love to know how he spent last weekend, to find out exactly what he did instead of accepting my challenge.
Of course, it doesn’t really matter. Whether he was watching television, surfing the net or wasting time with his mates the simple fact is that he took the easier path and is $500 poorer for it.
ACTION STEP:
This week I want you to sit down with a piece of paper and write a list of all the habits you have, both good and bad.
It could be fingernail biting, frequently complimenting those around you, working hard or repeatedly putting jobs off until later.
Once you’ve completed the list, take a different coloured pen and cross out all the habits you want to rid yourself of – and then immediately set to work doing so.
Stuart
