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| Are You Introverted? The "WANT" Factor Getting Organized Do Fears Block Your Success? What Should You Be? |
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| Are You Introverted? |
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| In his book, The Problems of Work, Mr. Hubbard writes: "Introversion is a simple thing. It means looking in too closely. And extroversion is also a simple thing. It means nothing more than being able to look outward. "It could be said that there are introverted personalities and extroverted personalities. An extroverted personality is one who is capable of looking around the environment. An introverted personality is only capable of looking inward at himself." (LRH) This explains why vacations are so much fun! You travel to a new location and look at mountains, buildings or oceans, for a change. Your attention goes outward and you become extroverted! The type of stress a vacation relieves is introversion. Your attention has become too focused inward. You feel exhausted, mentally drained and overwhelmed. This is how we become introverted. * We read papers and reports at work, then go home and read newspapers and books. * We stare at a computer screen all day, then go home and stare at a TV screen all night. * We give instructions or orders at work, then go home and drive our spouse and kids crazy with instructions or orders. And we do this for years. TAKE A WALK "When one feels tired on finishing his work, no matter if the thought of doing so is almost all that he can tolerate without falling through the floor, he should go out and walk around the block until he feels rested." (LRH) Do you ever feel too tired to sleep? Take a walk—you'll feel relaxed and sleepy. Want a drink, an unhealthy snack or a cigarette, even though you shouldn't? Take a walk and the urge will go away! Can't get your mind off your problems or a fear? Take a walk and get extroverted. Your problems or fears will become easier to deal with. Give it a try! Walk around your neighborhood or a park. Feel the air, look at the sky, listen to the birds, wake up your senses, focus on the present. Take a mini-vacation until you feel relaxed and optimistic. If you cannot get outside, walk around your home or yard. Touch and feel the textures of objects. Find something new to look at. Keep putting your attention on your surroundings until you relax and feel better. DOMESTIC VIOLENCE If you or someone near you is feeling violent, you now know a solution. "If one feels antagonistic toward one's wife, the wrong thing to do is to beat her. The right thing to do is to go out and take a walk around the block until one feels better, and make her walk around the block in the opposite direction until an extroversion from the situation is achieved.” (LRH) The next time you feel burned-out, angry, upset or sad, follow this simple advice: take a walk and extrovert your attention. When you see someone is introverted, stressed out or out of control, take him or her for a walk until he or she feels better. This works every time. For information about "The Problems of Work," click here. |
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The "WANT" Factor
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| How badly do you want to succeed? On a scale of 1 to 100 (with 100 meaning you are so excited and passionate about your success that you can’t sleep), how would you score right now? What would happen if you increased your score by 30 to 40 points? How important is it for you to reach your goals? How badly do you want to increase your income? How much do you want to improve your future? Providing you have NAMED (specified) your objective or your product, as covered in the article two weeks ago, you must now add some horsepower. ============================= "Where no real or valuable production is occurring, one has to ask the question, does the executive really WANT the product he is demanding? And does the staff member or members he is dealing with WANT the product?" — L. Ron Hubbard ============================= Your WANT factor is something you can control. In fact, many people succeed, not because they are experts in their fields, but because their WANT factor is so high. They really want to succeed and will do whatever is necessary to get to their goals. Many people do not really want the result of their work (the product) badly enough to make it happen. Instead of finding ways to succeed, they find excuses. Once you NAME the product, you must then WANT the product as well. 1. NAME the product or the accomplishment or the result. It is much easier to want something specific than something general. Get specific. For example, a car salesperson might want 30 test rides, 5 sales and $1000 in commissions today. A CPA might want to complete 20 tax returns and start 3 new clients. A mother might want her four-year-old to learn to tie his shoes and her 16-year-old to stop smoking pot. 2. Decide how much you WANT the result. Raise this level by deciding to do so. Increasing your want for a product will increase the odds of getting it. For example, “Sure, I’d like a successful career” is not a lot of WANT. Change your attitude to something like, “Making my career a big success is so important to me that I’ll do whatever I must to be the best in the world. I will work 10-12 hours per day. I will learn all I can, and get as much help as I can, from every source possible. I will eat, sleep and breathe my goal. I will use all my strength, time, knowledge, faith, confidence and resources to make this go right. I will become the best in this field and accomplish my goal no matter what it takes.” |
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| Getting Organized | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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As covered in two previous articles, to succeed you n
eed to NAME and WANT whatever product or result you are after. The third component is GETTING ORGANIZED. The purpose of organization is TO MAKE PLANNING BECOME ACTUALITY.” — L. Ron Hubbard When you organize, you decide which steps you will take to get the product. You remove or deal with distractions or opposition to your production. You work out the rules to ensure production occurs. As a manager, you ensure your staff knows what to do, where to do it, how to do it and when. Exceptional organization includes contingency plans. What will you do if certain things go wrong? If someone drops the ball, who picks it up? Well-organized operations make it simple for all employees to follow the set procedures. For example, McDonald’s restaurants can train a high school student to run the cash register, fill orders and provide good service with just a few days of training. Everyone in McDonald’s does it the same efficient way, from Boise to Berlin. Successful individuals are also well organized. They get the most possible productivity with the least amount of time and effort. Their living space is orderly and clean. Their possessions are kept in good working order and easy to locate. They are punctual. Dependable. Efficient. They stay on top of the routine actions necessary to successful living. Their cars run well, their desks are clean and their closets are orderly. They get things done. You, too, must be organized to achieve your dreams. Six Key Ingredients L. Ron Hubbard lists six essential parts of good organizing. 1. Observation: Before you start, make sure what you want to produce or accomplish is actually valuable. Restaurants, businesses, books, products and services that fail usually fail because no one wants them. The entrepreneur is so excited, he or she forgets to observe what people need and want. Individuals who succeed are good observers. They understand what is going on. They can see what they need to do. They observe before acting. For example, before deciding you are outraged at someone, you look. You observe if he or she means to insult you. Before starting anything new, such as a new business, a new house, a new school, a new project or whatever, you observe. If it’s a new job, you look at the other employees to see if they are happy. You look at the company’s customers to see if they are satisfied. You carefully look where you will be working. When organizing your employees or your home, you look at the current scene. You do not assume anything. You listen to no one. You observe for yourself so you can more accurately do the rest of the steps. 2. Planning: List all the steps you will need to take to reach the final result. Make sure the steps are doable and not based on fantasy. Start with the end result and work backward. For example, you want to build a new house. You start by writing down a complete description of the house. This is the end result. You then work backward to work out the steps. The last step is the house is inspected. Before that the landscaping goes in. Before that the carpet is laid. And so on. 3. Communicating: Talk to those who will help you, work with you or do the work. Coordinate your actions with those who are involved. For example, you have problems if you plan a large family without talking it over with your spouse. If you assume a bank will give you a loan after you order expensive equipment. When you change your business without discussing it with your partners. 4. Supervision: Train yourself or others on what it will take to get the job done. Resolve any barriers to the final result. Give the orders. Everyone is a supervisor, even if just yourself. Someone has to put things into motion. If no one supervises the activity, it dies from lack of attention. 5. Production: Throw yourself and others into the task. Focus on accomplishment. Do whatever you need to make the plan into an actuality. Until this point, it’s been all thinking and talking. Now you take action. Because you have properly organized the activity, you get more done in less time. Your planning steps pay off. 6. Users: Make sure whoever receives your product or service is satisfied. For example, a new software program that is incredibly powerful, but too complicated for anyone to use, will not lead you to your dreams until you change it. As an employee, your user may be your boss, your customers or your coworkers. For example, you might think you do a good job, but unless your customers agree, you won’t make much money. Constantly improve your final product or service. Delighting your users is essential to your ultimate success. Summary NAME your product. Get very specific about what you need to produce or accomplish. WANT your product. Raise your desire and passion to the highest levels possible. ORGANIZE yourself and the activity. Use the six ingredients to quickly and efficiently reach your goals. With all three factors in place, you perform better, accomplish more and make your dreams into reality. |
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| Do Fears Block Your Success? |
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| Succeeding is easy if nothing scares you. If nothing makes you hesitant, shy or nervous. When you do not act, it is probably because of some FEAR. Fear is the inability to face someone or something. When you cannot face an issue, it causes complexity and stress. For example, if you cannot easily discuss money, you have money problems. Whenever you need to take financial action, you freeze. You end with less money. If you are an employer and avoid staff problems, production statistics decline. Work becomes serious. Since no one resolves the staff problems, the problems persist while your business suffers. Avoiding topics with your spouse is the most common reason for marriage problems. Hiding, withholding or suppressing your feelings and thoughts from your spouse is a giant leap toward divorce. When fears control your life, L. Ron Hubbard points out you are controlled by shadows. If you reach out and take action despite your fears, you will discover how thin and weak the fears really are! To illustrate this point, Ron wrote, "On Lake Tanganyika* the natives have a very interesting way of catching fish. There on the equator the sun shines straight down through the clear water. The natives take blocks of wood and string them along a long rope. They stretch this rope between two canoes and with these abreast begin to paddle towards the shoal** water. By the time they have reached the shoals, schools of fish are piled and crowded into the rocks and onto the beach. The blocks of wood on the rope make shadows which go all the way down to the bottom of the lake and the fish, seeing the approach of these shadows and the apparent solid bars which they form in the water, swim fearfully away from them and so are caught." There are several ways you can blow away the shadows that stop you for succeeding. One effective method is role playing or drilling. Once you identify the area you have difficulty confronting, you pretend to confront the situation in a role-playing exercise. Drilling allows you to discover which parts of the problem are really problems and which are simply shadows. For example, you need to ask your boss for a raise. Before talking to him you practice the conversation with your friend. You work out some details, change your approach and work out your best possible presentation. Because you are prepared for the meeting, you are not as nervous. Another method of reducing fear is to approach the problem with gradient steps. You cut the problem into small bites. You successfully deal with the small parts and thus reach a full resolution. For example, you need to fill out your tax forms. You’ve done your own taxes before, but this year is more complicated. You earned money in new ways this year and also bought a house. Instead of trying to take on the entire task in one day, you spend one day just working out how to report the new income. You spend another day just figuring out how to deduct the house-buying costs. Pretty soon, you’re down to the routine tax work you’ve done before and finish off the job. Simply talking about the fear can reduce the effects of fear. After you openly discuss it with someone who listens, the problem often feels less difficult. For example, you are afraid of flying in an airplane. Your spouse agrees to listen to you and you spill your guts. You describe everything about flying that scares you. After a while, you decide you can fly. L. Ron Hubbard discovered that talking and listening is a powerful form of therapy when done correctly. He spent years developing an entire technology for one-on-one communication that removes fears for good (see link below). In many cases, the best approach to dealing with a fear is to close your eyes and jump in. You face the fear without any regard for your feelings and emotions. You might get nervous or even terrified, but once you take the leap, you discover the walls are merely shadows. Confronting a fear can be tough, but the reward is enormous. Confronting just a small part of a fear is an accomplishment. Succeeding despite a fear means you have done something you could not do before. And that is real success. * East-central Africa ** Shallow Click here for more information on resolving fears. |
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| What Should You Be? |
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| Question: What is the best personality or the best identity for you to assume? Answer: Anything you want to be! A cheerful friend, a businesslike executive, a caring listener. Whatever is best at the time. Different circumstances require different attitudes. For example, to be a bossy manager at work might be appropriate, but you might drive your spouse crazy if the identity continues at home. To be a rowdy sports fan at a game is great, but not what you should be when asking for a raise. The reason people have trouble determining who or what they should BE is because they don't start with HAVE. "Children in the West are commonly asked `What are you going to BE when you grow up?' It is a silly question and can drive any child up the wall. Because it's the wrong question—hits the wrong end of the cycle." "He is also asked, `What are you going to DO in life?' That's just as bad. It is quite difficult to answer." "If we asked children, `What do you want to PRODUCE in life?' we could probably get a workable answer. From that he could figure out what he'd have to do to produce that and from that he could know what he had to BE. Then, with a little cooperation he would be able to lead a happy and valuable life." "A lot of people and businesses fail because they don't do this." — L. Ron Hubbard Example: A young man likes to cook and make people happy. He may decide the product (HAVE) he wants to produce is: "Properly fed, happy people who pay a lot of money for the dining experience at my successful restaurant." Based on this decision, he works out his career by listing the steps (DO) which include enrolling in a cooking school, working at several restaurants for the experience, saving money, and so on. His planning is accurate and efficient. The young man then works out the best identity for the job (BE). He needs to BE a successful restaurateur: proud, charming, service-oriented, smart and wealthy. To put his plan into action, this young man starts the cycle with BE and assumes this identity as the first step. He strolls around BEING a successful restaurateur from day one. He's proud, charming and service-oriented. He even feels wealthy. He can then easily DO the steps needed to get what he wants to HAVE: a successful restaurant with happy customers. He accomplishes this much faster and more easily than a person who cannot BE a successful restaurateur until he owns the restaurant. If you want success and wealth, BE wealthy or successful before you get there. It’s fun! Assume a wealthy identity. Test drive a big new Mercedes. Stroll through a $10-million building as if you own it. People will want to be around you. Bankers will try to lend you money. You'll feel great! Exercise While this exercise focuses on making money, you can do this with any goal. 1. Take out a blank piece of paper. At the bottom of the sheet, write down how much money you want to earn per month, one year from now. 2. Above the dollar amount write down what you need to produce (HAVE) that someone would pay you that much money for. What final product must you produce that is worth the amount of money you want to earn? For example, a plumber wants to earn $8,000 per month in profit. He calculates his overhead costs and determines he needs to produce or HAVE "$20,000 per month in high-quality plumbing work to happy customers who refer." A dental receptionist who wants to earn $3500 per month might determine she needs to produce much more than "scheduled patients." She talks to the dentist and decides she needs to produce "a dental practice that doubles in production because of my efforts so I can earn $3500 per month.” The partners of a law firm decide they want their group to bill and collect $500,000 per month. What do you need to produce to earn the money you wrote in step 1? Write this down. 3. In the middle of your sheet of paper, write down what you need to DO to reach that level of productivity. This is planning at its finest; you start with the final result and work backwards. Before you achieved the above product, what would you do? Before that? Before that? Plan your steps from this future point in time back to the present. For example, the plumber needs to DO more promotional actions, delegate responsibility to his assistants and make sure every customer is completely satisfied. The dental receptionist needs to organize the schedule better, make more reminder calls to patients and keep the doctor busier. The law firm needs to hire more associates, attract wealthier clients and win more cases. 4. At the top of the page, write what you need to BE to accomplish the plan and obtain the final product. The plumber might need to BE a responsible manager and not a fun-loving worker. He may decide he needs to BE a successful business owner. The dental receptionist needs to BE the boss of the patients’ and doctor’s time, not just be a receptionist. She needs to BE a successful manager. The law firm needs to BE the most powerful law firm in town. It moves to the biggest building in town, hires the best decorators money can buy and gives an overwhelming feeling of strength. Whatever you write at the top of your paper is what you need to BE. It's the most effective identity you can assume. BE THIS PERSON RIGHT NOW. Now that you are BEING the correct identity for this goal, DO the action steps. You will then HAVE the money or goal. Use this exercise in other areas of life. For example, to HAVE a successful marriage, what should you DO and BE? What do you need to DO and BE to HAVE a cheerful family, a successful business, a happy life? |
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Copyright © 2003 TipsForSuccess.org. All rights reserved. Grateful acknowledgment is made to L. Ron Hubbard Library for permission to reproduce selections from the copyrighted works of L. Ron Hubbard. Programmed in the United States.
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