Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life: How to Unlock Your Full Potential for Success and Achievement (20 page)

Here is your strategy. When you join a club or organization, get the membership book and look at the various committees. Ask around and find out which of the committees is the most active and important to the organization.

Sometimes it is the membership committee. Sometimes it is the government relations committee. Sometimes it is the education committee or the fund-raising committee. But whatever it is, find out what committee seems to have the greatest impact on the health and growth of the organization, and then
volunteer
to serve on that committee. There will almost always be an opening for someone willing to help.

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DONATE YOUR TIME

When you attend meetings of that committee, develop the habit of raising your hand. Volunteer for assignments. Volunteer to write things. Volunteer to do work that needs to be done.

The rule is this: In every organization, fewer than 10 percent of the people do most of the work. On any committee, fewer than 20

percent of the people do more than 80 percent of the work on that committee.Your goal is to be among that top 10 to 20 percent.

The most important committees attract the best and most important people in the association. These are the kinds of people that you want as part of your reference group. These are the kinds of people that you want to form relationships with. These are the kinds of people whose names you want for your Rolodex, and who you want to be a part of your professional network.

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PERFORMING FOR YOUR PEERS

One of the great advantages of serving voluntarily on a committee for your association is that you get an opportunity to perform in front of your peers, but without ever attempting to impress them or to get them to give you anything or do anything for you.

Every time you accept a responsibility and fulfill it completely, they make a silent note of it. They may not say anything aside from an occasional thanks or congratulations, but they are making mental notes, which will serve you in good stead later on.

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LEARN TO SPEAK ON YOUR FEET

If you have any fears about public speaking, you should make a plan, right now, to get over them. Your ability to make a presentation to a small group or to stand up and give a talk or chair a meeting for a larger group can do more to bring you to the attention of people who can help you than almost any other thing you can do.

Fortunately, public speaking is a skill you can learn with practice. I have urged people over the years to take a Dale Carnegie course or to join Toastmasters International. They are both open to everyone and available everywhere.

When you sign up or join one of these fine organizations, leaders will train you thoroughly in how to speak on your feet. They will teach you how to design a talk—with a beginning, a middle, and an end. They will show you how to speak in a variety of different situations. And the better you get at speaking, by the Law of Attraction, the more you will attract people and opportunities into your life to speak to more and larger groups.

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LOOK FOR WAYS TO PUT IN

Here’s something very important that I learned. The great majority of people, being selfish, are always thinking of how they can personally and immediately gain from any interaction that they have with other people. But this is not for you. Instead, your job is to look for ways to put in.Your goal must be to look for ways to contribute.

This seems to be the strategy used by many of the top people.

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Over the years, I have worked with many wealthy men and women.

I will never forget a billionaire turning to me at the end of a meeting and privately asking me, “Is there anything that I can do for you?” Later, another man, worth more than $500 million, asked me the same question: “Is there any way that I can help you?” When I went to work for a man worth over $800 million, in our second or third meeting, he asked me if there was anything that he could do in his position to help me in my personal life. By that simple gesture, even though I could think of nothing, he earned my life-long loyalty.

Over the years, I have observed that many of the most powerful men and women, at every level of society, got there by continually looking for ways to help other people.

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LIVING THE LAW

Here is one of the greatest discoveries of the ages:
The more you give
of yourself without expectation of return, the more that will come to you
from the most unexpected sources.

Most people think that if they do something good or helpful for a person or group, their rewards should come back directly from that person or group. But this is not the way the universe works.

When you do something nice for someone else, you activate the law of attraction. Because it is a
law
, you never have to worry about your reward. As long as you continue to sow goodness, the universe will take care of the reaping. Your good will usually come to you from a completely unexpected source, and at a completely unexpected time. All you have to do is be sure that you are continually putting in. The getting out will take care of itself.

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THE BEST PEOPLE

As a professional speaker, I work with groups and associations all over the country. Without fail, the best and most talented people in every association are the ones who attend almost every meeting.

The top people are the ones who always take the time and make the sacrifice to be there. They are the ones who always sit on the committees and volunteer to help in any way possible.

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And I have noticed an interesting phenomenon. Each year, one member of the association will be elected to be the national president. As the president, he or she will have to spend as much as half of his or her time traveling around the country voluntarily, without pay, on association business.

You would think that this would really cut into the person’s ability to make a living. But it seems that exactly the opposite happens.

All the association presidents I’ve spoken to found that they made more money, did better in their careers, and made more progress in their field in the year that they took off to work for the association than in any other year of their work lives.

The more you put in, without expectation of reward, the more you get back from the most unexpected sources. And you are in complete control of what you put in. The universe will take care of the rest.

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KEEP A RECORD

Harvey Mackay, in his audio program,
How to Build a Network of
Power Relationships
, says that the most important word
not
in the dictionary (at that time) is the word “Rolodex.” He claims that, if your Rolodex is big enough, you are never more than two phone calls away from anyone in the country. Harvey Mackay has a Rolodex with more than four thousand names that he has gathered over the years. He has found that at least one of those people in his Rolodex has direct access to virtually any other person in the country with whom he wants to communicate, including the president of the United States.

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YOUR MASTERMIND ALLIANCE

Napoleon Hill, after decades of studying the richest men in America, concluded that the formation of a mastermind network was an important step to great wealth. It was the creation or joining of a mastermind group that enabled countless men and women to go from poverty and obscurity to success and affluence.

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fore be your mastermind network. This is a small group of four or five people with whom you meet and talk on a regular basis.

Getting together regularly, at least once per week or even more often, with other people who think like you do is the key to the success of a mastermind group. Don’t worry about being self-serving in these relationships. Include in your mastermind only people you can help (and who can help you).

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TAKE THE INITIATIVE

You begin the formation of a mastermind group by approaching one or two people you like and admire, and who seem to have the same positive attitude you do. They may be in your field or in another field. They may be younger or older than you, of the same gender or not. It doesn’t really matter as long as you have good chemistry.

The most important qualifications are that they have positive mental attitudes and are generally optimistic about themselves and their lives. They should have goals of their own that they are working on each day. They should be open-minded and curious. They should believe in personal development, and already read books, listen to audio programs, and attend courses and seminars.

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LOOSE OR STRUCTURED

When you get together with members of your mastermind group, you can have an agenda, or no agenda. Your meetings can be structured or unstructured. You can talk about general subjects or specific topics.You may talk about your own business or about theirs. It doesn’t matter. The very activity of spending time around other positive people energizes you, makes you more creative, and makes you feel more enthusiastic toward whatever you are doing.

An important element of your mastermind group is the amount of laughter that you experience together. This is the key measure of the quality of any of your relationships. People who laugh a lot together like each other more. They are usually more helpful and supportive of each other. The people you enjoy the most in life will always be the people with whom you laugh and joke the most.

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TWO PEOPLE TOGETHER

The most important mastermind group that you ever form is with your spouse or partner. A husband and wife together, or a couple, can be the most powerful mastermind of all. When two people are completely attuned to each other, and completely supportive of each other’s hopes and dreams, they form a powerful combination that enables each of them to accomplish far more than either could achieve alone.

People who are in an excellent relationship with a person they describe as their
best friend
are some of the happiest, most successful, and most fulfilled people in our society. Two people together can create wonderful things for both of them.

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MULTIPLE MASTERMINDS

You can have more than one mastermind network. Some people will have a mastermind network in their families. Others will have mastermind alliances with people who participate in the same hob-bies or sports. You should definitely have a mastermind network that is specifically focused on your work or career. You can even have interlocking mastermind groups with people who are involved with you in more than one area.

The more you interact with other positive people, the more positive and productive you will be. Constantly talking with and sharing your ideas and experiences with others will give you a steady flow of ideas and insights from their experiences, and help you keep a healthy perspective on what you are doing.

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GUARD YOUR TIME

Your most valuable asset is your time, and relationships with people are enormously time-consuming. The number of high-quality relationships you can form and maintain is limited. There are simply not enough hours in the day or enough days in the month.You must be selective about the people with whom you associate. You must choose them carefully.

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Baron de Rothschild, in his
Maxims for Success
, said, “Make no useless acquaintances.”

This may sound a bit cold, but remember, your life is precious, and your life is made up of the minutes and hours of each day. You cannot afford to squander it on relationships with people whom you cannot help, and who cannot help you, to live and enjoy a better life. You must guard your time carefully. As Benjamin Franklin wrote,
“Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time; for that’s the stuff
life is made of.”

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BE SELECTIVE IN YOUR CHOICES

Many highly successful people are often described as “loners.” However, this does not mean “a-loners.” They are not isolated, antisocial individuals. They are loners in that they are highly selective about who they spend time with. They do not drink coffee with whoever is sitting there, or go out for lunch with whoever happens to be walking out the door at the same time. They carefully build and maintain high-quality relationships, and they fastidiously avoid negative people who might hold them back.

If associating with positive people is a key to success, then the flip side is for you to get away and keep away from negative or

“toxic” people. Negative people are the primary source of most unhappiness. Problems with such people are most likely your major sources of stress and frustration. Negative people do more to diminish your joy in life than any other single factor.

It’s much easier to bounce back from financial loss or reverses in your career than it is to deal with negative people in your work or personal life. One major negative relationship can be enough to cut off all your chances of achieving your full potential in your career.

Choose your relationships with care.

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SEEK OUT A MENTOR

Most successful people have mentors at different stages of their lives. A person whom you know and who knows you and helps you on a regular basis often determines your success in life. The right ccc_tracy_7_118-135.qxd 6/23/03 2:48 PM Page 130