Why Your Personal Development is Critical
Your own personal development is the key that will unlock everything you want in life – the relationships, health, financial success, and spiritual connection you wish to have. Let’s revisit a classic story from history to uncover why.
In the very early part of the 19th century, two brothers (John and Abe) walked out to a forest to cut down trees. In the spirit of friendly competition they agreed to see who could cut down the most trees in six hours. They arrived at their spot in the forest, and John immediately went about chopping down a tree, while Abe, on the other hand, sat down and began sharpening his axe.
After an hour, John had one tree down and was shocked to see Abe still sitting sharpening his axe. Confident now he would probably win, John went on to the next tree, and an hour later John had a second tree down. Abe, surprisingly, was still sharpening his axe.
John, convinced now there was no possible way Abe could catchup, went on to his next tree. And an hour later, it was down, and at that point Abe stood up and began chopping, while John started on his fourth tree.
After about 20 minutes, John heard a loud WHOOMF and spun around to see that Abe had felled his first tree. “Just lucky” he thought to himself. 20 minutes later, Abe’s second tree fell, and another 20 minutes later his third.
After six hours Abe had felled nine trees, while John had felled six. John’s dull axe blade simply wasn’t capable of cutting through more than one tree per hour, while Abe had ripped through three trees per hour with his razor-sharp blade.
Abraham Lincoln, “Abe,” once said “If I had six hours to cut down trees, I would spend the first three hours sharpening my axe, and the last three cutting down trees.”
“Sharpening your axe” in life is synonymous with personal development. John represents all of the people in the world who work really hard, who want more for themselves and their families, and who can’t understand why life isn’t working out better than it is. They create good results, but will never create outstanding results. Abe represents the miniscule population of the planet (less than three percent) who invest in themselves to sharpen their thinking and their attitudes.
From one perspective, this is what K&A’s seminars are all about – sharpening yourself so you’re more effective. Many of the belief systems we adopted as children, and still unconsciously carry with us, have a dulling effect on our effectiveness in business and relationship. By shifting those belief systems we can become exponentially more effective!
Scott Cundy
Personal Mastery Facilitator
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Perspective
Personal Mastery – Perspective
Simply put, what you see is what you get. I though that meant with purchases only. I have learned in the past few years that what I see about my life is what I get more of.
If I choose to look for joy and that is what I choose to see, that is what I get more of. If I look for love and that is what I choose to see in all situations, I get more love. We are such powerful beings and we have an amazing ability to create the world that we want by simply changing how we see it.
Personal Mastery and Perception
Opportunities will pass us by if we are not looking for them or if we have a perspective on ourselves that we can’t achieve the desired result within that opportunity. There is a millisecond between the time that we look at something and we decide what that thing is. In only a millisecond we create our world.
Our interpretation of anything is simply that, our interpretations. From the perspective that we carry about a thing, we attach an interpretation that simply confirms our perspective and gives us the desired result of “being right.” I am trying to reverse engineer my thinking lately and start to see a world that is full of all the love and joy and peace that I desire to experience.
I no longer care to lay my head down at night with anxiety and worry because I simply needed to be right about anything. When I change my perspective, I change my world. Its amazing that what I choose to see is what I get. I guess that old used car salesman was right after all when he said, “What you see is what you get.”
Can you see it? I can.
Ronnie Doss
Champion’s Workshop Facilitator
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The Crucial Step
How would you like one more “tool” to help you get unstuck? As an avid rock climber and as a facilitator with Klemmer and Associates, I am constantly noticing parallels between my experience “on the rock” and those many of us have when in pursuit of our goals and dreams.
Often when lead climbing above my ability – with the fear of falling wedged in my mind – I’ll reach a point where I don’t see how to climb through the next section of rock. The wall is smooth where the foot holds “should” be, I don’t see any reliable hand holds to climb toward, and even farther up I don’t see any reliable holds to grab were I to actually get up there. What this means is that climbing higher will result in a longer fall, and I don’t see a way to not fall! I’ll get “Elvis Leg” which is where a climber’s heel begins to uncontrollably bounce up and down. My hands will sweat, and I’ll feel panic rise in my chest.
Then, on the successful climbs, something happens. My focus sharpens. My mind becomes clear. I see a tiny foothold just 6 inches higher than the one I’m smearing on and I step onto it. As I step up, my entire world changes – it’s only a 6 inch change but my perspective becomes vastly different than it was a moment ago. What looked like a tenuous hold is actually pretty solid, so I reach for it and pull up. Then another one catches my eye and I pull on it, balancing my body as I need to. Before I know it, the climb is over with.
And so it is in life. We’re at an impasse. We don’t see how to make something happen, we’re afraid of failing or making a mistake, and there seems to be no hope. If we keep going we will have more to lose if we do fail. We stress, we get tired, we distract ourselves with our little everyday addictions like television, food and busy work.
Then, if we’re willing to step out of fear and into courage, something happens. We see a tiny next step and we know it is right. With faith and focus, we take action and other steps begin to unfold. Momentum builds. Our confidence grows, and the next thing we know we’re past that obstacle and on to the next one.
The crucial step could be reaching out for some mentorship from someone we respect, it could be calling a prospect that ends up leading to a major leader, it could be a small financial move that creates space, it could be a membership at a gym, it could be attending one of K&A’s seminars.
Bottom line – don’t discount the small, but crucial steps when you’re stuck – it could be the exact step that will change your world!
Scott Cundy
Personal Mastery Facilitator
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There are NO Secrets to Personal Mastery!
I recently came across a YouTube video about the “secrets” of Personal Mastery. My first thought was, “There are NO secrets to Personal Mastery.” By definition, a secret can be something that is: hidden or concealed; a mystery; a reason or explanation not immediately or generally apparent; a method, formula, plan, etc., known only to the initiated or the few; a classification assigned to information, a document, etc., considered less vital to security than top-secret but more vital than confidential.
Personal Mastery Secrets
So when it comes to personal mastery of your life, where can you find the “secrets?” First off, don’t buy into this myth that there are “secrets.” Why? Because based on the definition above, there are no “secrets” to personal mastery. There are however principles, concepts and strategies to achieve personal mastery. And THAT, is no secret!
From the beginning of time, people from all walks of life have created great success and achieved high levels of personal mastery. They did so through awareness, breaking through self-limiting beliefs and the implementation of many, many others factors such as intention, goal setting, vision and conviction.
Here’s the deal. Are there people out there that have created and achieved great results in a field or arena that you wish to play in? Of course there are. Is it possible they may have some insight or experiences you don’t, that would cause or support you in moving forward at a more accelerated rate? Most definitely.
So my challenge to you this week is to find out through recommendations or checking people out on the internet, who are the top 5 people you are interested in gleaning insight, principles, concepts and strategies from to accelerate your success?
What are the proven “non-secrets,” tools and techniques they used to actively move them forward to create the success you’d like to achieve? Get their information, books, cd’s and start applying what you learn to your life today to continue your journey towards achieving Personal Mastery!
Here’s to you Embracing Risk, Embracing Success in 2010 -
Tom Haupt
Personal Mastery Facilitator
PS – Attend our free Online Champions Workshop and learn the million dollar formula thousands of people use to solve problems and create more success in their life.
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Which Way Is Right?
I was all set to do a three part blog on setting goals when I got an interesting question Skyped to me by a Samurai Camp grad. He was wondering about two seemingly opposing concepts that he had heard from two different successful sources.
One source was the movie, “The Secret.” The Secret talks about how you get what you think about. On the other hand, he heard in the K&A courses that what you resist, persists. He asked, “Which is it?” He wasn’t sure he understood the concepts behind these two points of view. I thought this was a fascinating question and if he’s asking it then others are wondering about this too.
What Are You Focused On?
In looking at this from another angle, both concepts are really saying the exact same thing. To think is to create is the lesson here; intention wins or what you focus on grows are other ways of explaining it. In The Secret it says to visualize what you want and you will attract it to you. Or if your intention is clear the mechanism will appear for you. Or if you “BE” what you want to be, you will end up creating it by the state you are in. These are all different ways to explain the same concept.
It appears the concept of what you resist, persists is exactly the opposite. That it is saying what you don’t want will happen. How is that possible my friend was asking? Well, it is actually saying the same thing. What you are resisting is really what you are focusing on, perhaps more subconsciously than consciously.
It’s saying that the focus is on what you don’t want but it is still what you are focusing on, so you continue to create it through the same mechanisms as what was explained in The Secret. And you continue to create evidence that it is what is real, so therefore it still persists. So how do you manage these two concepts my friend was asking?
The key is to focus on what you WANT, not on what you don’t want or the obstacles. So if you want more money for example but you are always focusing on what you don’t have, how little money you have, how bad you feel about being broke, then you are in resistance to receiving more and focused on what you don’t have at the same time. If you were to shift into an abundant mind set, visualize the abundance coming in, seeing it, feeling it, imagining how you will spend it, believing you have it, then you are focusing on what you want to happen NOT the current state of events.
So if one is lamenting about their current miserable state of affairs, that’s where their energy and state of mind is. If one is focused on what will be and engaged in the emotional experience of having it, that’s what they are focusing on and that is the energy trail that is being created. So it truly is to think is to create, so it’s important to be aware of our thoughts and focus them in the direction of what we want.
When you find yourself starting to resist where you are at, shift into the mindset that creates what you want and get excited about it. In our Personal Mastery workshop we learn repetition and emotional involvement is the key to creating new habits, new programs and what we really want in life.
I hope this was helpful and solves the mystery my friend was wondering about. It’s always great to explore these concepts…it gets us growing, shifting, moving and shaking. And that’s a good thing!
Janet Henze
Samurai Camp Facilitator
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