Secrets of the Motivational Superstars

What are the success secrets used by the top motivational experts? It turns out that they are in fundamental agreement. Below are eight, solid principles that they all, without exception, teach.

Self help author, Michael Jeffreys, interviewed fifteen motivational gurus back in 1997, including Brian Tracy, Les Brown, Wayne Dyer, Mike Ferry, Patricia Fripp, Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen. He took notes and distilled the following eight secrets which he then published in his book, Secrets of the Motivational Superstars.

Each of the gurus were convinced that the following eight tips constitute what you need to do in order to be really successful:

Let’s take a quick look at each of them.

1. Take 100% Responsibility for Your Life

If you are striving for success right now, that essentially means you have not yet achieved the level of success you desire. So who’s fault is that? If your answer is that it is your own fault, then you are truly on the right path. Successful people never blame others when things go wrong, instead, they take full responsibility for their success and their failures too. If you think it is someone else’s fault that you have not achieved success, it’s not the end of the world, you just need to work on your attitude a bit.

2. Live Your Life On Purpose

Do you believe that life holds a purpose for you? Again, if you can answer, ‘yes’ you are on the right path. Successful people believe that they are here to make a difference and that’s how they go about living their lives, as if what they are doing matters. If you answer ‘no’ to this question, perhaps you might like to open your mind to the possibility that life might hold a specific purpose for you.

3. Be Willing to Pay the Price

Someone once commented that they would do anything to be able to make a golf shot like a professional. The professional replied that they were mistaken, because if they were genuinely prepared to do anything, then they would be able to make that shot. So are you willing to do whatever it takes? Of course, this is another question where your answer must be ‘yes’, but going a step further, have you identified what that is and are you actually doing it right now?

4. Stay Focused

You must resist all temptations to be drawn off course. Once you know what your target is, you must give it your all. If you are serious about achieving success, you need to dedicate yourself to getting there and that means doing things the other people around you are just not prepared to do. Sure they all want success too, but if you are engaged in doing what they are not, then again it is healthy a sign that you are indeed on the right road.

5. Become an Expert in Your Field

Read, learn, educate and develop yourself so that you manage to achieve complete mastery within your chosen field. Whatever you have decided to do with your life, one obstacle that may be preventing you from joining the top performers is your lack of professional competence or your incomplete knowledge about the discipline, and achieving the necessary level of competence is directly related to your own desire and willingness to transform yourself.

6. Write out a Plan for Achieving Your Goals

Your goals won’t materialise without effort on your part, no matter what anyone tells you about the law of attraction, cosmic ordering or the power of thought. You need a plan and the sooner you get it written down the better.

7. Never Give Up

There will be many times along the way that you will doubt yourself, your plan, your goals and your commitment especially when success does not come as easily as you first thought, despite putting in what you thought was all the effort that would be needed. That is the moment that separates the winners from the rest of the field because the others simply give up. But, if you want success, you will simply redouble your efforts, you will find ways of working more efficiently and you will ultimately break through provided that you don’t give up.

8. Don’t Delay

Now is the time, not tomorrow, not when you think the economic climate is better, not when you have more time, not when the kids are grown up, not when you retire, not when you give yourself permission; none of those times, but now. So, get cracking!

Sir Alexander Fleming, The guy who discovered Penicilin

Ever heard that what goes round always comes round, read this story…..

His name was Fleming, and he was a poor Scottish farmer. One day, while trying to eke out a living for his family, he heard a cry for help coming from a nearby bog. He dropped his tools and ran to the bog. There, mired to his waist in black muck, was a terrified boy, screaming and struggling to free himself. Farmer Fleming saved the lad from what could have been a slow
and terrifying death.

The next day, a fancy carriage pulled up to the Scotsman's sparse surroundings. An elegantly dressed nobleman stepped out and introduced himself as the father of the boy Farmer Fleming had saved.
"I want to repay you," said the nobleman. "You saved my son's life."
"No, I can't accept payment for what I did," the Scottish farmer replied, waving off the offer. At that moment, the farmer's own son came to the door of the family hovel.
"Is that your son?" the nobleman asked. "Yes," the farmer replied proudly.
"I'll make you a deal. Let me take him and give him a good education.
If the lad is anything like his father, he'll grow to a man you can be proud of."

And that he did. In time, Farmer Fleming's son graduated from St. Mary's Hospital Medical School in London, and went on to become known throughout the world as the noted Sir Alexander Fleming, the discoverer of Penicillin.
Years afterward, the nobleman's son was stricken with pneumonia.
What saved him? Penicillin.
The name of the nobleman? Lord Randolph Churchill.
His son's name? Sir Winston Churchill.

My friend when u are kindhearted, people may accuse u of self-seeking, ulterior motives: But be kind anyway. What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight: But create anyway. If u find serenity, peacefulness and happiness, some may be jealous. But be happy anyway. The good you do today, may be forgotten. But do good anyway. You give the best you have, and it may never be enough: But give your best anyway. In the final analysis, it is between you  and God: it was never between you and them anyway.“

“People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered; forgive them anyway” - Mother Teresa.

The Amazing life of Mother Teresa

Recently, I got a chance to visit the Maasai  MaraNational Reserve with a team of colleagues. The visit left me excited; not just because of the beautiful spectacle of Wildbeasts migrating from The Mara to Serengeti via the Mara River, or the wonderfull array of Flora and Fauna available, but because of an insight that came into my mind . As our game drive progressed on, I saw beautiful animals that were equally amazed at seeing me and a question popped into my mind, what’s the purpose of living for these wild animals, what do they think about most of the time, do they have a mission and a vision in life. I could certainly realize that these animals always think about one thing, or two - what they will eat. Others also go about this business by being cautious not to become food to some others. Imagine how boring life would be just to wake up to eat, drink, sleep, 24 hours, 7 days a week and 365 days for the rest of your life. Yet we as human beings are spared this great tragedy by our maker, because we can think, reason, plan, execute, make mistakes, learn from them and go on with life. But there is a certain group of people who tend to borrow heavily from the Maasai Jungle way of life, these people just go to school, graduate, get a job, get married, have kids, retire and wait to die. This kind of thinking, or living certainly puzzles me, there must be a better way to live, there must be a great purpose for our living.

Nobody exemplified the need to live a purposeful life better than one Mother Teresa Who was Born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu  on August 26^th 1910,in Albania. By age 12 she was convinced that she should commit herself to a religious life. She left home at age 18 to join the Sisters of Loreto as a missionary. On 10 September 1946, Teresa experienced what she later described as "the call within the call" while traveling by train to the Loreto convent in Darjeeling from Calcutta for her annual retreat. "I was to leave the convent and help the poor while living among them. It was an order. To fail would have been to break the faith."She began her missionary work with the poor in 1948, replacing her traditional Loreto habit with a simple white cotton sari decorated with a blue border. Mother Teresa adopted Indian citizenship, spent a few months in Patna to receive a basic medical training in the Holy Family Hospital and then ventured out into the slums. Initially she started a school in Motijhil (Calcutta); soon she started tending to the needs of the destitute and starving. In 1982, at the height of the Siege of Beirut, Mother Teresa rescued 37 children trapped in a front line hospital by brokering a temporary cease-fire between the Israeli army and Palestinian guerrillas. Accompanied by Red Cross workers, she traveled through the war zone to the devastated hospital to evacuate the young patients. When Eastern Europe experienced increased openness in the late 1980s, she expanded her efforts to Communist countries that had previously rejected the Missionaries of Charity, embarking on dozens of projects. She was undeterred by criticism about her firm stand against abortion and divorce stating, "No matter who says what, you should accept it with a smile and do your own work." She visited the Soviet republic of Armenia following the 1988 Spitak earthquake, and met with Nikolai Ryzhkov, the Chairman of the Council of Ministers.Mother Teresa traveled to assist and minister to the hungry in Ethiopia, radiation victims at Chernobyl, and earthquake victims in Armenia.By 1996, she was operating 517 missions in more than 100 countries. Over the years, Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity grew from twelve to thousands serving the "poorest of the poor" in 450 centers around the world. The first Missionaries of Charity home in the United States was established in the South Bronx, New York; by 1984 the order operated 19 establishments throughout the country. President Ronald Reagan presented Mother Teresa with the Presidential Medal of Freedom at a White House ceremony, 1985

In 1979, Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, "for work undertaken in the struggle to overcome poverty and distress, which also constitutes a threat to peace." She refused the conventional ceremonial banquet given to laureates, and asked that the $192,000 funds be given to the poor in India stating that earthly rewards were important only if they helped her help the world's needy. When Mother Teresa received the prize, she was asked, "What can we do to promote world peace?" She answered "Go home and love your family." Building on this theme in her Nobel Lecture, she said: "Around the world, not only in the poor countries, but I found the poverty of the West so much more difficult to remove. When I pick up a person from the street, hungry, I give him a plate of rice, a piece of bread, I have satisfied. I have removed that hunger. But a person that is shut out, that feels unwanted, unloved, terrified, the person that has been thrown out from society—that poverty is so hurtable [sic] and so much, and I find that very difficult." She also singled out abortion as 'the greatest destroyer of peace in the world'.

Mother Teresa died on  5^th September 1997 aged 87. Her death was mourned in both secular and religious communities, in both Christian and other religious circles all over the world. Her life-long devotion to the care of the poor, the sick, and the disadvantaged was one of the highest examples of service to our humanity." Following her death she was beatified by Pope John Paul II and given the title Blessed Teresa of Calcutta. She has been memorialized through museums, been named patroness of various churches, and had various structures, Universities, Children  and roads named after her, including Albania's international airport and probably my yet to be born daughter.

Back to where I began, what’s your purpose in life, how would you want to be remembered in this life, how can you leave it  better than you found it?  What lesson can you draw from the selfless life of Mother Teresa? Les Brown says “ Oh God to reach the point of death only to realize that you have never lived, only to realize that you have never scrapped the surface of your potential” Are we going to have this bitter realization when it is too late to turn back ? , Let me leave you with this quote from Martin Luther King Jr and then rest my case ‘Be ashamed to die until you have won a victory for humanity’

No arms, No legs, No Problem; The amazing story of Nick Vujicic

No arms, no legs, no problem .Imagine being born without arms. No arms to wrap around someone, no hands to experience touch, or to hold another hand with. Or what about being born without legs? Having no ability to dance, walk, run, or even stand on two feet. Now put both of those scenarios together: no arms and no legs. What would you do? How would that effect your everyday life?.Thats Nicholas james vujicic speaking to you.would you believe him?  Well, you would rather do coz that is the life that he has had to content with, he doest survive, he doest complain, he lives his life to the fullest. The eldest child of a Serbian family Vujicic  was born in Brisbane, Australia with Tetra-amelia. He was limbless, missing both arms at shoulder level, as well as legless. His feet were toeless except for two toes on one foot. Initially, his parents were devastated, though Vujicic was otherwise healthy.Originally prohibited by Victoria state law from attending a mainstream school because of his physical disability, even though he was not mentally impaired, Vujicic became one of the first disabled students integrated into a mainstream school, once the laws changed.

Bullied at school, Vujicic grew depressed and by the age of 8, contemplated suicide. At age 10, he tried to drown himself in 4 inches of water, but did not go through with it out of love for his parents. After praying to grow arms and legs, Vujicic eventually realized that his accomplishments could inspire others – and became grateful for his life key turning point came when his mother showed him a newspaper article about a man dealing with a severe disability. Vujicic realized he wasn't unique in his struggle  and began to embrace and transcend his disability.

He began to master the daily tasks of life. He learned to write using the two toes on his left foot with a special grip that slid onto his big toe. He learned to use a computer and type using the "heel and toe" method. He learned to throw tennis balls, play drum pedals, get himself a glass of water, comb his hair, brush his teeth, answer the phone and shave.

In grade seven he was elected captain of his school and worked with the student council on fund-raising events for local charities and disability campaigns.

When he was seventeen, he started to give talks at his prayer group and eventually started his non-profit organization, Life Without Limbs. Vujicic graduated from university at the age of 21 with a double major in Accounting and Financial Planning. Subsequently he became a motivational speaker, travelling internationally and focusing on teen issues. Having addressed over three million people in over 24 countries on five continents,he speaks to corporate audiences, congregations and schools and has been here in Kenya. Nick is now Maried to Kanae Miyahara and they have one son named Kuboshi.

Watching his videos in youtube, I kept on asking myself, why do we  place limitations on our own lives, why  cant we live a life without limits.If  Nick can make it, why not me? I will make it, afterall my motto has been and will always be “ I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me”  what about you?