==================================================== MESSAGES FROM THE MASTERS WEEKEND DIGEST Saturday, January 4, 2003 ==================================================== Welcome to MESSAGES FROM THE MASTERS newsletter from DailyInbox.com. MESSAGES FROM THE MASTERS WEEKEND DIGEST brings together the week's daily success messages from many of today's most noted masters of success and achievement. =================================================== DIB Presents...(http://www.dailyinbox.com/dibpresents.html) puts you within one "click" of the best daily inspirational and educational content the Net has to offer. =================================================== <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> Begin The New Year With Purpose! What if in the next 12 months you can be part of a program where you will learn/receive 12 Pillars of Success Geared to Help You Achieve a 10%-40% Increase in the areas of Personal Development, Goal-setting, Health, Financial Independence, Relationships, Time Management, Networking/ Referrals, Selling/Negotiating, Communication/Presentation, Leadership, Accelerated Learning and Creating Your Legacy/Contribution. Plus 52 Unique, Weekly Strategic Game Plans, 12 Conference Calls with experts such as Jim Rohn, Brian Tracy and Zig Ziglar, along with a library of training CDs, DVDs, books and much more. Take advantage of this Special Offer: http://jr1.jimrohn.com/ps.dll?a=rrabj6257 <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> ==================================================== FINDING MORE TIME TO SPEND WITH YOUR KIDS by Michael Grose ==================================================== Despite the best intentions there are occasions when parents don't have enough time to spend with their children. When work commitments pile up or the social calendar becomes unusually crowded our family must temporarily take a backseat. There is little wrong with this as long as it doesn't become a habit. Stephen Covey, in his best seller, The Seven Habits of Effective People, has good advice for parents who struggle to balance their time between each family member, work and other commitments. Covey believes that if relationships are to be successful those involved must build up a strong emotional bank account through shared, positive experiences. Parents build up goodwill with their children through listening; encouraging, talking and doing those nurturing things that are generally considered part of the job. According to Covey the more positive experiences parents share with their children the stronger their relationship is likely to be. When parents show discourtesy, disrespect, ignore kids or are simply too busy getting on with life to spend time with them the emotional bank account becomes overdrawn. Covey's emotional bank account concept is forgiving for parents because we can put back what we take out, but it takes effort and time to make the necessary deposits. While the first five years of a child's life is vital for his development it is the next five years that the relationship-building stuff occurs in families. It is during middle childhood that parents, and fathers in particular, have the chance to share enjoyable activities with their children that build strong and lasting relationships. If family time is at a premium try the following ideas: * Enlist paid help, if possible, to create more personal and family time for you and your partner. Get a cleaner in for a few hours each week to keep the house in order. If your budget doesn't stretch to pay home help, enlist the support of family or friends to save you time or even give you a break. Spending an hour with family is far better use of your time than pushing a vacuum cleaner over the floors or a lawn mower around a backyard. * Plan one-to-one time with each of your children. Do something that you and each child enjoy. Establish a special interest with each of your children so that you have something in common. Look back at the fond memories you have of time spent with your own parents and they will nearly always involve just you and your mother or father enjoying each other's company. * Establish strong rituals that promote communication and relationships. Rituals are those non-negotiable activities that cannot be moved or broken. Evening meals or bedtime stories are examples of ritualized activities that some families enjoy. * Get yourself and everyone else off the endless activity roundabout and schedule 'at home days or evenings' when no one has to go anywhere. * Keep your children informed about the areas of your life that affect them or keep you from them. If you are going through a busy period at work let your children know what it is that you are doing and how long you expect to be tied up. * At busy times when you don't see enough of your children stay in touch through notes, letters and via the telephone. Phone each child at different times just to say hello - they really appreciate the personal touch. * Place special events such as birthdays, school plays and speech nights in your diary as soon as they come up and work around those dates. Children expect their parents to be there for them on special occasions. If you can't be there then it is important to acknowledge and take an intense interest in them. * Make up for long absences with enjoyable family events rather than compensating by providing toys, presents or other material goods. Don't get me wrong. Gifts are great to receive but don't let them be a substitute for the important things kids really need that build up the emotional bank account that you share. If you have hardly seen your children for the last few weekends make the next one a weekend to remember. Don't be fooled by the idea of quality time. It is a huge con job. The notion that it is okay to spend limited time with kids as long as the quality is good doesn't make sense. Time is not something to be rationed out or given in portions to our kids like crumbs falling off a table. Time needs to be prioritized and managed so that families do come first. If we leave it up to chance then something will always crop up and get in the way. ==================================================== Michael Grose is a popular parenting expert. For great ideas and inspiration to help you raise happy, confident kids and resilient young people subscribe to Happy Kids at http://www.Parentingideas.com.au. ==================================================== PLUSSING YOUR GOALS FOR OUTRAGEOUS RESULTS by Mark Victor Hansen ==================================================== Setting goals is one of the most important things you can do to guarantee your personal, professional and financial success. Goals are like a road map to your target destination. Each goal accomplished is another mile behind you on the way to where you want to be. Most of us set goals in one form or another. But most of the time we don't ask for enough. We say, 'I want to have a great job. I want my marriage to be successful. I want to have a million dollars.' These are goals for people who dip their toe into what they really want, but they're afraid to go for it. It's time to stop tiptoeing around the pool and jump into the deep end, head first. It's time to think big, want more and achieve it all! One of my favorite life-changing assignments to have people do is to write down 101 goals for themselves. This helps to create a solid list of what they want to do and to have in their lifetime. Then, after that initial list has been written, I ask them to create 10 outrageous goals by plussing, or adding to, their initial goals. These are things so extraordinary that 10 goals are all they need. Why should people have 10 crazy goals? In order to come up with 10 outrageous goals you must thinking outrageously. You must expand your mind and your realm of what's possible. The bigger you think, the bigger your world becomes. You begin to think outside of yourself. The more you think outside of yourself, the more you begin to think and do for others. The more you do for others, the more rewards and benefits come back to you. It's a cycle that works for the betterment of both you and the world. 'Big goals get big results. No goals get no results or somebody else's results.' Mark Victor Hansen ==================================================== Mark Victor Hansen, co-author of the Chicken Soup for the Soul Series, has, for more than 25 years, uniquely focused on the vital elements of human behavior that most affect our personal and professional lives and has influenced society's top leaders and the general public on a global scale. To learn more about Mark and to receive 20% off Mark's best-selling audio programs, Sell Yourself Rich, How To Think Bigger, The Aladdin Factor and How to Build Your Speaking and Writing Empire, visit http://www.YourSuccessStore.com. ==================================================== ACHIEVING YOUR DREAMS by Jim Rohn ==================================================== While most people spend most of their lives struggling to earn a living, a much smaller number seem to have everything going their way. Instead of just earning a living, the smaller group is busily working at building and enjoying a fortune. Everything just seems to work out for them. And here sits the much larger group, wondering how life can be so unfair, so complicated and unjust. What's the major difference between the little group with so much and the larger group with so little? Despite all of the factors that affect our lives - like the kind of parents we have, the schools we attended, the part of the country we grew up in - none has as much potential power for affecting our futures as our ability to dream. Dreams are a projection of the kind of life you want to lead. Dreams can drive you. Dreams can make you skip over obstacles. When you allow your dreams to pull you, they unleash a creative force that can overpower any obstacle in your path. To unleash this power, though, your dreams must be well defined. A fuzzy future has little pulling power. Well-defined dreams are not fuzzy. Wishes are fuzzy. To really achieve your dreams, to really have your future plans pull you forward, your dreams must be vivid. If you've ever hiked a fourteen thousand-foot peak in the Rocky Mountains, one thought has surely come to mind "How did the settlers of this country do it?" How did they get from the East Coast to the West Coast? Carrying one day's supply of food and water is hard enough. Can you imagine hauling all of your worldly goods with you...mile after mile, day after day, month after month? These people had big dreams. They had ambition. They didn't focus on the hardship of getting up the mountain. In their minds, they were already on the other side - their bodies just hadn't gotten them there yet! Despite all of their pains and struggles, all of the births and deaths along the way, those who made it to the other side had a single vision: to reach the land of continuous sunshine and extraordinary wealth. To start over where anything and everything was possible. Their dreams were stronger than the obstacles in their way. You've got to be a dreamer. You've got to envision the future. You've got to see California while you're climbing fourteen thousand-foot peaks. You've got to see the finish line while you're running the race. You've got to hear the cheers when you're in the middle of a monster project. And you've got to be willing to put yourself through the paces of doing the uncomfortable until it becomes comfortable and until you realize your dreams. To Your Success, Jim Rohn ==================================================== Jim Rohn is considered to be America's Foremost Business Philosopher. To subscribe to the Free Jim Rohn Weekly E- zine send a blank email to mailto:subscribe@jimrohn.com or go to http://www.jimrohn.com and also receive 20-60% off on all audios, books and tapes. Also review the complete Jim Rohn archive of articles, vitamins for the mind and Q and A. Copyright (c) 1999, 2002 Jim Rohn International. All rights reserved worldwide. ==================================================== GOALS GET YOU GOING by Les Brown ==================================================== Goals give you a purpose for taking life on. People who live without goals have no purpose and it is obvious even in their body language. They are on permanent idle, they slouch, they list from side to side. Their conversations dawdle. They telephone you: "Hey, I'm just calling. I wasn't doing anything, so I thought I'd call you." Well, don't call ME. I'VE got things to do. Many people just muddle through life. They don't read informational material, they don't even pay attention when they WATCH television. If you ask them what they are watching, they mumble mouth, "Nothin', I'm just lookin'." What are your goals for your career? For your relationships? For your spiritual life? Develop a schedule for the next month, the next six months, the next year, five years and ten years. Write it all out. Let's take one of the most common goals: You want to make more money. If that is your goal, then take some practical steps toward realizing it. First, determine specifically how much money you want to make. Then, double that amount and make THAT your goal. Even if you don't reach the higher amount, you will probably still find yourself making more than your original goal. Second, decide the amount of energy you are willing to expend to reach your goal. How many hours are you willing to work a day? How many jobs are you willing to hold down? What sort of work are you willing to do? A third step in this process is to develop a practical plan of action and get started immediately. Chart out where you want to be in relation to your goal in the next month, six months, one year, five years and ten years. Get started today. Go apply for that second job NOW! Go enroll in that career training program NOW! Ask for that raise NOW! And finally, make sure that you have all of this written down so that you can review it every morning and every night and envision yourself taking these steps, DOING THEM and SUCCEEDING! ==================================================== Les Brown is an internationally recognized speaker and author. To receive more information on Les's best-selling audiocassette programs, including Sell Your Way to Greatness, Choosing Your Future and Speaking With Power and Passion, visit http://www.yoursuccessstore and save 20%- 40%. ==================================================== COMMIT IT TO PAPER by Josh Hinds ==================================================== Commit it to paper - You have the idea so therefore you have within you the ability to make it a reality. Admittedly it may not always be obvious, but rest assured deep down you're capable. The catch is that often we don't lay the correct foundation so that we have a plan as to what it will take to make the idea a reality. First off we must understand that things often don't just happen. Rather they are the result of following out carefully planned steps. Say you wanted to take a trip. Most likely you'd take the time to chart your course wouldn't you? You'd at least take the time to know where you were headed! This is the same idea behind achieving our goals, yet you'd be amazed by how many folks simply go day in and day out without having a basic plan of where they're headed. The main thing to know is that your goals should be committed to paper. This is the same as having a map. Each time you begin to feel as though you're drifting away from what you want you may simply refer back to your goals. Sounds pretty simple doesn't it? Well that my friend is because it is! Even so there still are so many people that go along without a charted course. I won't lie to you here it's going to take commitment. It takes the understanding that all things are changing. Life is about change! The better we become at adapting to life's changes the better prepared we will be... Your friend in cyberspace, Josh Hinds ==================================================== This article was submitted by Josh Hinds. Josh is the host of http://www.joshhinds.com, one Of The Largest Motivational Community Sites On The Web! With 13,000 Searchable Quotes, Encouraging Stories and Message Boards. ==================================================== ###TARGET_3### =================================================== Why not share this motivating publication with a friend or colleague? Enlighten their day by giving them a FREE MESSAGES FROM THE MASTERS subscription at http://MailRoom.DailyInbox.Com/mm/addFriend.iphtml