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HREE BIG SECRETS OF SUCCESS

James Allen says in As a Man Thinketh, A Man is literally what he thinks, his character being thecomplete sum of all his thoughts. As the plant springs from the seed, so every act of man springs from thehidden seeds of thought.

What you make of your life and career depends mostly on your mental attitude and not so much onaptitude. Aptitude is readiness to learn or natural ability. Attitude is a collection of opinions hardened intoa studied position. It is more important than aptitude in the matter of career advancement.

You can regard the routine study and effort as a boring round of familiar, uninspiring chore. It is easy tobrush it away as unnecessary framework for achievement. In the same way, you can take either apositive or negative attitude to your success and failure.

You can dismiss success as a fluke, unlikely to happen again. Or you may regard it as an opportunity forfuture and further achievement. It is your attitude that matters.

You can allow failures and setbacks to brake your progress, looking on them as proof that you cannot

succeed. you may invent an alibi that you aimed too high.

Alternatively, you may take the positive line of learning. Obviously, the right attitude is the positive one.This attitude leads to achievement.

You can acquire this attitude. Yes. you have to break the hold of the negative. You cannot cultivate thepositive attitude if your mind is dominated by the negative. You cannot achieve anything if you donot have the courage to try. Try to throw the negative out. Replace it with the positive.

Assess your abilities. Know your strong as well as weak points. Strengthen your plus points. Fill in thedeficiencies. List the qualities that make you, in your own estimation, a unique person. This will make youfeel more positive about yourself.

Watch your words. use bright, optimistic expressions about your own self; steer clear of discouraging anddisparaging. Draw attention to the positive. Turn your back on back-biting. When a person is beingpainted black, do not join the chorus. Try to put in a good word.

Keep distance from chronic nags. They always speak destructively. Do not talk with them about yourfuture plans and programmes. It is foolish to invite discouragement. Drop the chronophages, and thenags. They prove millstones round your neck.

Positive mental attitude means refusing to cave in when things go wrong. There is nothing bad in failing,but it is a disgrace failing and not trying again. Give yourself another chance, gaining from the experienceof failure.

You can believe in success by acting as though you already had this valuable quality. The right attitudeturns even the worst of negative, crippling failure to a positive, thrilling success. your mental attitude must

be turned to achievement if you want to achieve.

Even the blazing sun cannot burn a hole in a tissuepaper unless its rays are focused and concentrated onone spot! The fact is that you have the spark which can ignite success. You have the mental ability thatcan take you high. Then, what is wrong? What is holding you back? You are using only a fraction of yourreal brainpower. If you do not focus your mind, you lack determination to get to a goal. Your desire to getto the goal is not strong enough.

Concentration is another name of stickability. Improve your power of concentration by coming to a

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realisation of the cost of its opposite-inattention. Lack of concentration means failure to hit the bulls eyewhich means waste of energy, time and effort. But more than that, it means shattering of self-confidence.

Focus now on a course you had enrolled in but abandoned because you had a wandering mind.Incomplete or badly done tasks give you a let-down. They make you pay a high price for inattention andlack of concentration.

Discipline your mind to ward off distractions. Deal with one thing at a time. Be like the doctorwho says, One patient at a time.

Harness imagination to accomplish your goal. Visualise to realise. See yourself enjoying the privilegesand power which follow after you reach your goal.

Concentration means directing the wayward mind into a predetermined stream. You do it by assaultingyour mind with questions that collect the wayward threats and put them on the main theme.

Shut out the irrelevant. This helps you reach the desired objective. You cannot concentrate effectively onsomething trivial or of no significance. Visualise the completed task. See yourself finishing it.

Work

People who perform complicated tasks at work, tend to develop an intellectual flexibility that they carry toother parts of their life and are more independent-minded and open to new experiences than thosewho perform routine jobs. They also select intellectually activities for their leisure pursuits. A satisfiedworker is more productive than one who is not. Instead of satisfaction contributing to greaterob accomplishment, it is the sense of accomplishment, doing well on the job that makes the one feelcompetent and contended.

WellnessFor most, earning salary is the primary incentive for having a job. But other factors do play their role.

Among them are the needs to feel productive, to meet challenges, and to be creative. These lead to innerwellness. A job can build a sense of competence and self-esteem. Individuals attain social status throughtheir jobs.

Many people also cite the companionship of their co-workers as a reason to work. Which factors are mostimportant, depend on the individual and his or her background, expectations and goals.

In most surveys, majority of professionals report enjoying their work. This is partly explained by the highincome levels in such professions as medicine and law.

Experts now believe that instead of being the right kind of person, a successful executive is one whohappens to be in the right place at the right time. Events then mould the individual into an effective one.

His capability depends on how his or her leadership style fits the work situation involved. The mostrevealing trait is whether he tends to give priority to getting a job done or to having good relations withworkers.

Job-oriented chiefs fare better in situations where workers already get along well with one another andthe task to be done is clearly defined.

A chief is not likely to get the best out of employees, if he or she is constantly giving mixed signals,delegating responsibilities but not power, and failing to define the job to be done. A poor communicatormakes a poor leader. So does a one-man company.

The effectiveness of a chief may change with circumstances. For example, an entrepreneur can beoutstanding in spurring a small group to start a successful enterprise but may not be good at handling thecomplex organisational problems of an expanding organisation. One may be good at expanding but not at

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handling.