by Sunil Bali, 25-01-15

Given that it was Martin Luther King Day in the USA last Monday, social media has been awash with King’s inspirational words.

But what seems to have been forgotten amidst the poetry and platitudes is the fact that Martin Luther King didn’t just have a dream. He also had a plan.

Research by Professor Sonja Lyubomirsky at UCLA shows that most unsuccessful people actually know what it takes to be happy and successful. It’s not that they don’t have the knowledge, it’s that they don’t plan for success and do what they know.

When it comes to self help, the problem is that there’s plenty of help but not enough self.

There’s a $20billion industry telling us how to be more successful, so we should be tripping over successful people, but that’s clearly not the case.

The reason is that most people are practising shelf development rather than self development. Typically, they read a book or watch a video which inspires them, put it back on the shelf, and then do nothing different because they’re afraid of failing.

Robin Sharma taught me an invaluable lesson to overcome fear: have quarterly goals, a weekly plan and daily schedule before you start each day. When it comes to delivering your vision, the process of:

  • think it
  • ink it
  • do it
  • review it

works

When inspiration has dried up and you’re going through hell, your schedule will give you the focus to keep going.

Even with a schedule, fear will be a persistent visitor that knocks on your escape hatch telling you to check your e-mail or do what can wait.

Don’t listen. Keep surprising us, keep delighting us and keep showing up ….. every day.

Humour

  1. Give a man a fish, and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish, and he will sit by a river and drink beer all day.
  2. My neighbour’s New Year’s resolution is to lose 20 pounds in weight by Easter. He’s got 22 pounds to go.
  3. Most people are bad at counting calories. They’ve got the figures to prove it.
  4. I play the triangle in a reggae band ….. I stand back and ting.
  5. If you line up all the cars in the world end to end, someone would be stupid enough to try and overtake them.
  6. Two cows in a field. One says, “You must be worried about Mad Cow Disease.” The other replies, “No. I’m a helicopter."

 

Sunil

www.sunilbali.com