All too often we look at the world and never see it.

If you ever hope to succeed this bad habit must be changed. You need to cultivate the habit of really looking, thinking, and absorbing what's there before you. Take the trouble to see. The human mind likes to be lazy. It just does not bother to put new combinations together. It sees old patterns and settles for them. It takes old ruts when new trails would be far more exciting and worthwhile. We have to fight against this tendency and do so consciously and consistently. Simple changes in our habits can often help.

Suppose you always take the same route to work. Is that the only way you can drive there? Why not try a different way? When we take a new way an intriguing thing happens. We first realize how rut-bound we've become, and how lazy our perceptions have gotten. Have you ever walked along a route you thought you knew while driving it? What happened? Didn't you see new things? Buildings, which you hadn't noticed, are standing there, big as life. There are little shades of differences in the neighborhood. Many details are there that were blurred while you drove past.

Your mind begins to wake up and things around you are more welcome than before. Suddenly you wonder how many other things you've missed. If you've missed this much on a familiar street, how much have you missed on unexplored streets? Don't be lazy, wake up and SEE the world.

Have courage and combine it with Awareness. Be aware of the world outside of you - events and people. Also be aware of your world inside that mind of yours. This internal world interacts with all that is outside, from the simple to the complex.

Awareness is not a given. Our level of awareness fluctuates constantly, usually without our being aware of it. We can control it and we must if we are to be successful. If you really make a sustained effort to cultivate your awareness, it can climb to dramatically elevated levels.

For instance, if you're in a battlefield situation and every sound or sight in the darkness can mean your life or death, you can just bet your awareness will be keener than usual. A subtle shift in shadows to your right or left, the snap of a twig, or the squeak of a boot, all of these make a terrible difference!

We become aware of sounds in the night that pass without notice in the day. The scraping of a branch against the window outside, or the squeak on the stairway, wakes us and captures our imaginations. When awareness matters to us, we can do something to improve and increase it.

Awareness makes a real difference if you want to succeed. Without it, little or nothing positive can happen. As before, you must first become conscious of just how careless your mind has become. How rut-bound you've allowed your perceptions to be. But quickly move on. Use this discovery to propel you in a positive direction. Now you are more aware than you were yesterday and you don't have to repeat old habits. Make a genuine and persistent effort and you will become more aware. Then awareness will make a real difference in your life.

Now ask yourself, does success matter to you? Oh sure, people rattle on about how much they want success but their words are pretty cheap. Push yourself harder. Do you want success enough to cultivate habits of thought and action, which will help you achieve it? Are you willing to work on increasing your, awareness your level of discipline, dedication and commitment? If so, you can begin right now. In small important ways, you can start to turn up your awareness level.

How do you feel right now? Most people don't know. They have some vague bodily impressions; otherwise their body is little more than a fuzzy blur, which follows them around. Their emotional awareness isn't much better. Do you feel angry? Tense? Happy? Sad? Anxious? How do you feel about this exercise? What are you aware is in the room right now? Can you feel your own skin? Your hand? Your hair? You’re breathing? Your bones? Your joints? Your heart? Perhaps you cannot feel some of these things immediately. Even that can be useful in its own way.

Once, in an encounter group, people were asked to lie on their backs on a carpeted floor. The therapist instructed them to alternate between relaxing their bodies and tensing them. Especially with men, many could not tell much difference. They were so tense all the time, they couldn't relax.

Was this result a failure? No. It helped to demonstrate how they felt, and therefore how they had lost a connection with themselves. Even our bodies don't get the attention they need unless some catastrophe forces it upon us.

A negative outcome was still an outcome and an important one. Once the therapist got this message across, the members were more attentive to other lessons.

A marriage counselor once asked a young lady a list of questions about how she felt concerning various aspects of her relationship with her fiancée. She breezed through it. She knew her feelings very well. Then he asked her how her fiancée would answer those questions. She wasn't so sure on a few of the questions. Then, he asked her how her fiancée would answer if he were her. Utter confusion. She had no idea how he would answer because he had never taken her point of view on anything during their long courtship. He was not empathetic.

The picture was clear, she really didn't know him nor did he know her. Quite a discovery for a couple just about to be married. However we respond to a serious question, there's a lesson to be learned. A laugh says one thing, an angry retort quite another. But silence is the most revealing of all responses. It suggests a void, a vacuum, something that deserves special attention. If you have had trouble with any of the questions in the exercise above, you've just found out something very important about yourself, haven't you?

You can learn to be more aware. If you can't answer simple questions about a significant other, much less anyone else, you still have time to learn. You can be more aware of them. Use your senses and all parts of your body and your feelings to become more sensitive to your world and yourself.

If you don't become aware, nothing you ever accomplish will amount to much. If you can turn up your awareness of self, you have come a long way. Just knowing your body and your feelings better is important. You've begun to answer, "Who am I?" You are how you feel, what you think, how you react, what and how you decide. You are all these things and the awareness which presides over them. You are the questioner and the questions themselves. Getting in touch with all of this makes you a success even if your steps take you no farther. But they will lead you. You will take more steps.

They will take you to more exotic locales. Each destination will allow you to know yourself a little better. Knowledge is success. Savor it. But what good is success if you aren't there to meet it? Some people give so thoroughly of themselves in the quest for success that there is nothing of them to appreciate success. What a cruel irony!

Now, you're probably beginning to see why success really can't be separated from self-knowledge. Nothing can compensate for loss of self-respect and self-esteem. These are among the things that make us unique. This requires us to achieve a level of awareness, discipline, and commitment, which is not for the timid.

These standards change as we change. Those who achieve a temporary success and resist all further change and upward movement quickly stagnate. Their minds and spirits return to a slumbering state once more. Success is not a place which can be fortified and defended. It is a process of attitude, a way of viewing. It is also a way of acting which allows us to change and encourages our continued development. Success stimulates us to look for better solutions to questions which did not previously exist. Success is an attitude, which not only celebrates that which is possible, but creates new possibilities. It teases the future into taking new and more exciting shapes. It reshapes the dead past into the source of new inspiration and insight. Success is a way of being. At the same time, it is a way of seeing, feeling, thinking, and acting. While it requires openness and freedom, success is not possible if liberty is regarded as license also. Disciplined effort must be your friend.

Instant success is probably a contradiction. Those who may appear to receive it may have prepared themselves for years before they break through. Or, success may come too quickly to others and they crash and burn on the jagged rocks on the other side. Success is not just feeling good, powerful, wealthy, or in control. Those things are transient. Success requires wisdom and understanding which together weld thought to action and theory to practice.

The truly successful person is necessarily a visionary. They are not trapped by the immediacy of the here and now, but are keenly aware of such brutal facts. They are in touch with an imagined future, yet aware of the obstacles strewn about on the path to that dazzling goal. The successful person combines patience with perseverance, energy with focus, high ideals with a solid sense of the practical.

The "why" in its highest sense with the humbler "how" does the successful person always know? They know the importance of direction and control. This means they know when and how to direct, realizing when control is constructive and when it's destructive. A successful horseback rider brings out the best in the team rather than struggling to show who is better. A balance is created allowing each to find its best expression, resulting in a functional unity. Success calls for direction and a sense of purpose. It calls for clear thinking and decisive acting, not obsessive musings followed by fumble-fingered groping. There may be considerable thought involved with some types of projects, but when the time comes for action; the successful person knows when not to hesitate. Simple impatience is not the same thing as acting decisively and with strength of purpose, of course. Instead, it's an emotional and spiritual immaturity at odds with long-term success and personal or professional fulfillment. Learning the difference between being overly eager and just being prepared for real opportunities is not always easy. It requires the same sense of balance required in careful analysis of success and what it takes to achieve it. You must be willing to wait when appropriate, but never allow this to become the excuse for laziness. Never lose the sense of purpose and special focus, which brings all your creative energies to bear on the appropriate target. Focus is one of the most important ingredients in the formula for success. Without it, little or nothing can be accomplished.

The typical person wanders around, walking aimlessly, even if they have articulated goals. They expend energy doing nothing except taking them further from their goal. They'd tell anyone who asked they are closing in on their goal, when, in fact, they may be even farther away from it. We can see their meandering path, but they have no such clarity. The effort becomes proof that their work is being accomplished.

We tend to measure the accomplishments in our life by how much effort we've expended, rather than by attainment of the goal itself. An ineffective and misguided person can expend a vast amount of energy in useless activity, all the while believing that they have actually accomplished something. They can't understand why good things aren't happening because they have all that sweat on their brow. They will continue to waste hours and days if they do not get the message that they have to change.

Such people, (are you one?) need to realign the way they view the world. Hard work is to be respected, but the successful person is not necessarily the person who puts in the longest hours. Hours at the grindstone can keep our attention away from where it should be. Our eyes may be fixed, but they aren't focused. We may be hypnotized rather than focused.

But success must involve body and mind, the theoretical and the practical. Analyze the power to act decisively. You need perspective, the ability to step outside the present moment long enough to ask what's really going on. This is something we can't do as long as we're totally absorbed with the task before us. We need to be able to think things through. Not as a substitute for acting but as the prelude to intelligent action. This brings us closer to our goals.

While the thinking phase may seem lonely and isolated, it doesn't have to be that way. The resourceful person knows that consulting other people, through talking or reading is the source of validation and fresh insight. Whether they agree or not is beside the point. Just stating our ideas in a form clear to others is a fruitful exercise. It is not always because of new input from others, but because we hear our ideas anew, we can detect something we've missed before. We become our most valuable critic. This is true whether the other person has something to contribute or not.

There's something invaluable about getting our ideas down in tangible terms. Sometimes the best form may be an outline, a brief talk, or complete with chalkboard and diagrams. Whatever the form, externalizing our ideas makes it possible for us to see them in a new light. If we are serious about improving what we've developed, rather than protecting our fragile egos, we can reach the Truth about ourselves.

When you see your ideas in front of you, you can begin to be your own critic. You can determine what's good and bad about them. You will see what will make it possible for them to work, and the features, which might make them, blow up in your face.
Keeping things to yourself seldom allows you to become successful. This doesn't mean you have to share your secrets with everyone. What it does mean is that you should develop a core group of trusted confidants who are dedicated to telling you the truth about your ideas. This is an important step in testing your ideas in early stages and in smoothing out some of the rough spots.

History provides some wonderful examples here. Fanatical leaders will not share their ideas because they are paranoid. They shout orders, rant to cheering crowds, and blather away to their fawning, frightened yes-men. They do not ask nor desire critical feedback. Because of this, they always go off target. A good idea will become absurd. Enthusiasm becomes fanaticism in these situations when an unbridled outlook ignores criticism. We need those of like mind around us to create a harmonious atmosphere. But the cowardly seldom expose their ideas to constructive criticism. They never advance, like a turtle with its head in the shell.

What begins as a bid for safety becomes a pathetic parody of this.
We need those of like mind around us to create a harmonious atmosphere. But the cowardly seldom expose their ideas to constructive criticism. They never advance, like a turtle with its head in the shell. What begins as a bid for safety becomes a pathetic parody of life. They have no plan that ever gets beyond Square One. No idea ever becomes livelier than a spark cast up randomly by a campfire and allowed to die in the blackness of night.
You have to be wise enough to select the right people to whom to expose your ideas. This is no time to be foolish. Choose people you respect, whose input you genuinely value. They must think enough of you to share their responses so that you will be improved by their comments. Do not select idea-snappers, those intellectual hit men, who enjoy shooting down new concepts. Clam up when such people come by. You do not need to lose confidence because of their negative words.

We also need those who disagree with us when they see us taking false steps. Stimulation generated by spirit, good-natured debate, is invaluable when they see us taking false steps. Stimulation generated by spirited, good-natured debate, is invaluable when making new plans and options. Too much criticism can crush us; too little can give a false sense of security and well-being.

Balance similarity of spirit with enough contrast to allow mild conflict. This team can be two people or several, but keep it small. Be courageous enough to listen to the criticism of people who know what you are thinking. Expose your ideas to the glaring light of the judgment of others. Develop this quality because your ideas will otherwise spend their lives on some dusty bookshelf. Pick the people and pick the time to expose your ideas. You are in control

Sometimes we look at the world and never see it. Take the trouble to really see your world.

Success stimulates us to look for better solutions to questions that not previously exist. It celebrates not only what is possible, but also it creates new possibilities.

The successful person combines patience with perseverance, energy with focus, high ideals with a solid sense of the practical.

You need perspective. Expose your ideas to people you trust.

Financial Questionnaire

What does financial independence mean to you?

Analyze your financial position to determine how close you are to financial security.
What plans can you make in the struggle to earn more, to save and invest prudently, and to have success with your money?

Describe your present financial condition. Do you have a budget; are you living within your income? Do you have enough after expenses to save and invest? Do you have good control over your spending?

Do you really want financial success? Do you want to pay the price of long hours, sacrifice, specialized training, and the constant battle that is business?

Would you choose rather to operate on a nominal level, whatever your particular profession pays, live within your income, and just enjoy things as you go along?

Do you have a systematic savings program? If not, how can you get started?
What type of investments do you know the most about? What kind of investments fit into your present income?

Do you have diversified investments?

Does your present investment portfolio give you a substantial monthly income?

Do you have part of your assets invested in inflation-resistant things such as real estate or good common stocks?

What kind of investment program do you want that suits your present money and time budget?

Remember, after-tax dollars determines our financial position, present and future, as individuals, families, and corporations.

Do you have diversified investment portfolio? Are you in the process of building one?
Describe:

At what age would you like to retire?
After you retire, how much per year will it cost you and your dependents to live?

Do you expect to do any work after you retire?

How much capital do you think you should accumulate so that when you retire you can live comfortably on the income from it? Remember, it would require $100,000 in savings at 5% yield to produce a yearly income of $5000.

Write out your complete plans for your personal financial future. Today it isn't a question of whether you want to invest or not. You must invest. Money is decreasing in value. By investing you participate in the growth of the economy and you protect the purchasing power of your lifetime savings from deteriorating further through continued inflation.

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