Curious about Rewards: What Rewards Are You Working For? What Do You Want to Receive? Have You Manifested It?

“If you believe in yourself and have dedication and pride - and never quit, you'll be a winner. The price of victory is high but so are the rewards.” - Paul Bryant, American coach

“We will receive not what we idly wish for but what we justly earn. Our rewards will always be in exact proportion to our service.” - Earl Nightingale, American entertainer

I chose “Rewards” for this week’s theme, because at last I have found the perfect title for my “Portfolio Career” e-book. And, in response, I am back to writing – vigorously and furiously. So what is the new, and what I feel, is the final title?

I have had a portfolio career (many careers at the same time) since I was in my teens, and have been asked hundreds of times, “Why?”

When I started work on the book, I wrestled with the answers to that question. I started with, How to Work Part-Time, Full-Time, and Love Every Minute. However, some portfolio careers don’t offer part-time alternatives.

Next, I titled it, Prosperity – Triumphs of a Portfolio Career. However, I didn’t want readers to feel that the reason – and it is one of many – for having a portfolio career was for the money. I also decided to focus on the triumphs, so added the words, “The Nine Major Triumphs.” However, when I ran that by people, I noticed there was confusion and that triumphs can be an awkward concept.

So what do most people crave? Yes, rewards – personal, financial, social, physical and mental.

Viola! The current title is, Healthy, Wise, and Wealthy – The Rewards of a Portfolio Career.

There are so many rewards that I decided to find out what the experts shared about them. Here goes:

• “Giving credit where credit is due is a very rewarding habit to form. Its rewards are inestimable.” - Loretta Young, American actress
• “There is nothing man will not attempt when great enterprises hold out the promise of great rewards.” - Titus Livius, Roman historian
• “Nothing I've ever done has given me more joys and rewards than being a father to my children.” - Bill Cosby, American comedian
• “There's a lot to be said for doing what you're not supposed to do, and the rewards of doing what you're supposed to do are more subtle and take longer to become apparent, which maybe makes it less attractive. But your life is the blueprint you make after the building is built.” - Richard Ford, American author
• “One of the rewards of success is freedom, the ability to do whatever you like.” – Sting, British musician
• “Dogs and philosophers do the greatest good and get the fewest rewards.” – Diogenes, Greek philosopher

A few with a different twist:

• “Rewards and punishments are the lowest form of education.” - Zhuang Zi, Chinese philosopher
• “It is indeed hard for the strong to be just to the weak, but acting justly always has its rewards.” - Eamon de Valera, Irish statesman
• “This has taught me that being pleasant is always so much more productive, for I know well the rewards for being good-natured.” - Marie Windsor, American actress
• “The pressures are intense, because the rewards for success and the penalty for failure are more and more.” - Alan Hansen, Scottish athlete
• “This joy of discovery is real, and it is one of our rewards. So too is the approval of our work by our peers.” - Henry Taube, Canadian scientist
• “Do not try to push your way through to the front ranks of your profession; do not run after distinctions and rewards; but do your utmost to find an entry into the world of beauty.” - Sydney Smith, English clergyman

Three to chew on in the coming days:

• “The rewards of virtue alone abide secure.” – Sophocles, Greek poet
• “What I am suggesting is hard work and it can be slow work, but the rewards are well worth it.” - Jesse Helms, American politician
• “There are no rewards or punishments - only consequences.” - William Ralph Inge, English clergyman

So, I ask you, “What rewards do you work toward and enjoy?”

Curious about Desire: Do You Know What You Want and Have a Burning Desire Strong Enough to Get It?

Definition of Desire : To long for; to wish for earnestly; to covet. To express a wish for; to entreat; to request. The natural longing that is excited by the enjoyment or the thought of any good, and impels to action or effort its continuance or possession; an eager wish to obtain or enjoy. Anything which is desired; an object of longing.

“Desire is the starting point of all achievement, not a hope, not a wish, but a keen pulsating desire which transcends everything.” - Napoleon Hill, American writer

“Desire! That's the one secret of every man's career. Not education. Not being born with hidden talents. Desire.” - Bobby Unser, American celebrity

I chose “Desire” for this week’s blog theme for several reasons. First, because I am re-reading “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill – you have just read his thoughts about the importance of a true desire. Bobby Unser agrees whole heartedly. But, most of all, because when people are asked about what they want and/or what are their dreams and desires, most say they don’t know.

I also feel that we settle on “not knowing” because if we do know, we will have to go after it or them, which produces a state of fear. We are afraid that we won’t succeed at receiving our desire and hate the idea of failure.

How about you? What is your burning desire? Realize that anyone who experiences failure is so far ahead of those who never try that it makes sense and is worthwhile to take the risk. Another known fact is that those working on a desire often experience a down turn just before the break through and success. It is easy to give up at this point. Don’t. Those who persevere and stick with it, do achieve and receive their desire.

Many uplifting quotations resulted from my search for “desire:”

• “The key to success is to focus our conscious mind on things we desire not things we fear.” - Brian Tracy, American author
• “My secret? A desire to work, years of dedication and loving what you do; I can't live without music.” - Compay Segundo, Cuban musician
• “Plant the seed of desire in your mind and it forms a nucleus with power to attract to itself everything needed for its fulfillment.” - Robert Collier, American publisher
• “Out of need springs desire, and out of desire springs the energy and the will to win.” - Denis Waitley, American writer
• “When desire dies, fear is born.” - Baltasar Gracian, Spanish philosopher
• “Have the courage of your desire.” - George Gissing, British novelist

A few more with a bit of a different twist:

• “I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.” - E. B. White, American comedian
• “A desire presupposes the possibility of action to achieve it; action presupposes a goal which is worth achieving.” - Ayn Rand, Russian writer“
• "In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure.” - Bill Cosby, American comedian
• “The desire to fly is an idea handed down to us by our ancestors who... looked enviously on the birds soaring freely through space... on the infinite highway of the air.” - Wilbur Wright, American inventor
• “It is psychological law that whatever we desire to accomplish we must impress upon the subjective or subconscious mind.” - Orison Swett Marden, American writer
• “This life is a hospital in which each patient is obsessed with the desire to change beds.” - Charles Baudelaire, French poet

In addition, two for the road (ones that speak to me especially):

“The size of your success is measured by the strength of your desire; the size of your dream; and how you handle disappointment along the way.” - Robert Kiyosaki, American author

“Whatever you vividly imagine, ardently desire, sincerely believe, and enthusiastically act upon must inevitably come to pass.” - Paul Meyer, French writer

What is your desire? Have you written it down? Do you state it several times a day and just before you go to sleep? Make it your focus, and we all will be celebrating victory before long.

Curious about Vision: How Are You Making Use of Yours? What Kind of Vision Have You Created for Yourself?

Definition of Vision: The act of seeing external objects; actual sight. The faculty of seeing; one of the five senses, by which colors and the physical qualities of external objects are appreciated as a result of the stimulating action of light on the sensitive retina, an expansion of the optic nerve. Especially, that which is seen otherwise than by the ordinary sight, or the rational eye; a supernatural, prophetic, or imaginary sight. Hence, something unreal or imaginary; a creation of fancy.

“Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion.” - Thomas Hardy, English novelist

“If we are to survive, we must have ideas, vision, and courage. These things are rarely produced by committees. Everything that matters in our intellectual and moral life begins with an individual confronting his own mind and conscience in a room by himself.” - Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., American historian

I chose “Vision” for this blog’s theme because I have been re-strategizing mine – along with my mission.

The more I read about and watch “The Secret,” the more I realize how important visualization of what we choose to attract is. Besides spending quiet time basking in my vision, I am working on a new “vision board.” The one I did previously and in a bit of a hurry is a start, but is not strong or definite enough to help with producing my exciting results.

The quotations I found are some of the best, so let’s share:

• “A dream is your creative vision for your life in the future. You must break out of your current comfort zone and become comfortable with the unfamiliar and the unknown.” - Denis Waitley, American writer
• “Vision without action is merely a dream. Action without vision just passes the time. Vision with action can change the world.” - Joel A. Barker, American businessman
• “You will encounter many distractions and many temptations to put your goal aside: The security of a job, a wife who wants kids, whatever. But if you hang in there, always following your vision, I have no doubt you will succeed.” - Larry Flynt, American publisher
• “Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream, so you shall become. Your vision is the promise of what you shall one day be; your ideal is the prophecy of what you shall at last unveil.” - James Allen, American author
• “Where there is no vision, there is no hope.” - George Washington Carver, American scientist
• “I like to tell people that all of our products and business will go through three phases. There's vision, patience, and execution.” - Steve Ballmer, American businessman

And, some more:

• “Capital isn't scarce; vision is.” - Sam Walton, American businessman
• “Strategic planning is worthless - unless there is first a strategic vision.” - John Naisbitt, American businessman
• “It takes vision and courage to create - it takes faith and courage to prove.” - Owen D. Young, American businessman
• “Vision - It reaches beyond the thing that is, into the conception of what can be. Imagination gives you the picture. Vision gives you the impulse to make the picture your own.” - Robert Collier, American publisher
• “Vision is the true creative rhythm.” - Robert Delaunay, French artist
• “The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding, go out to meet it.” – Thucydides, Greek historian

A couple to live by:

“The best vision is insight.” - Malcolm Forbes, American publisher

“Leaders establish the vision for the future and set the strategy for getting there.” - John P. Kotter, American educator

Have a visionary week!

Curious about Mistakes: We All Make Them, But Don’t Always Realize Their Importance

“Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don't quit.” - Conrad Hilton, American businessman

“It is not our mistakes that define who we are; it is how we recover from those mistakes.” - Bo Bennett, American businessman

I chose this week’s theme of “mistakes” because of a quotation I found on Tom Peters’ Re-imagine! daily calendar, “Bottom line: Mistakes are not the ‘spice’ of life. Mistakes are life. Mistakes are not to be tolerated. They are to be encouraged. (And, mostly, the bigger the better.)”

Also, the quotation was timely for me, because I have been trying several new avenues of relational marketing on the Internet. So, as you may imagine, I have been making many big and bigger mistakes. Peters is completely right, because I know that I learn so much more from my mistakes than those tasks that come easily.

You may also imagine the overwhelming number of quotations to read and choose from – with lots of variety, along with the general agreement that mistakes are good. If we are not making mistakes, most of the experts indicate that we are getting nowhere.

Here is the first sampling:

• “There are no mistakes, save one: the failure to learn from a mistake.” - Robert Fripp, English musician
• “A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.” - George Bernard Shaw, Irish dramatist
• “Mistakes are a fact of life. It is the response to the error that counts.” - Nikki Giovanni, American poet
• “There are no mistakes or failures, only lessons.” - Denis Waitley, American writer
• “You're not the only one who's made mistakes, but they're the only things that you can truly call your own.” - Billy Joel, American musician
• “Take chances, make mistakes. That's how you grow. Pain nourishes your courage. You have to fail in order to practice being brave.” - Mary Tyler Moore, American actress

In addition, some with a different twist:

• “Intelligent or not, we all make mistakes and perhaps the intelligent mistakes are the worst, because so much careful thought has gone into them.” - Peter Ustinov, English actor
• “We are a people who do not want to keep much of the past in our heads. It is considered unhealthy in America to remember mistakes, neurotic to think about them, psychotic to dwell on them.” - Lillian Hellman, American dramatist
• “Mistakes are the portals of discovery.” - James Joyce, Irish novelist
• “You make mistakes. Mistakes don't make you.” - Maxwell Maltz, American scientist
• “If you have to make mistakes, make them good and big, don't be middling if you can help it.” - Hildegard Knef, German actress
• “Know when to tune out, if you listen to too much advice you may wind up making other peoples mistakes.” - Ann Landers, American journalist
• “Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations.” - Steve Jobs, American businessman

A couple more that I like especially:

“Failure is good. It's fertilizer. Everything I've learned about coaching, I've learned from making mistakes.” - Rick Pitino, American athlete

“The only man who makes no mistakes is the man who never does anything.” - Theodore Roosevelt, American President

And, one of my favorites (you know how involved I am with computers):

“People think computers will keep them from making mistakes. They're wrong. With computers you make mistakes faster.” - Adam Osborne, American author

Make a list of your bigger mistakes and what you learned from them. They are the lessons we need for success.