How to Get a Job

Whether you're looking for your very first job, switching careers, or re-entering the job market after an extended absence, finding a job whittles down to two main tasks: understanding yourself and understanding the job market. Presuming you've already chosen a career and are currently searching for jobs, here are several ways to actually get a job.

1. Network. The best companies to work for tend to rely heavily (up to 40%) on employee referrals. Make a list of all of your friends, relatives, and acquaintances. Call each one and ask them if they know of any openings that they could recommend you for. Don't be too humble or apologetic; tell them what you've been looking for, but let them know that you're flexible and that if they have any suggestions, you're open to them. This is not the time to be picky about jobs; a connection can often get your foot in the door, and you can negotiate pay or switch positions later, once you've gained experience and established your reputation.
2. Volunteer. If you aren't already, start volunteering for an organization that focuses on something that you're passionate about. You may end up doing boring or easy work in the beginning, but as you stick around and demonstrate your commitment, you'll be given more responsibilities. Not only will you be helping others, but you'll also be gaining references. You should emphasize your volunteer experience on your resume, as companies that treat their employees well tend to favor candidates who help the community somehow.
3. Develop your personal elevator pitch. Many structured interviews, particularly those at large companies, start with a question like "tell me about yourself." The interviewer doesn't really want you to go back to grade school and talk about your childhood. This is a specific question with a specific answer...in two minutes or so, the interviewer wants to get you to relax and loosen out your vocal cords, understand your background, your accomplishments, why you want to work at XYZ company and what your future goals are.
4. Prepare for a behavioral interview. You might be asked to describe problems you've encountered in the past and how you handled them, or you'll be given a hypothetical situation and asked what you would do. They'll basically want to know how you'll perform when faced with obstacles in the position you're interviewing for. Be able to give honest, detailed examples from your past, even if the question is hypothetical (e.g. "I would contact the customer directly, based on my past experience in a different situation in which the customer was very pleased to receive a phone call from the supervisor"). You might find yourself listing facts--if so, remember that in this kind of interview, you need to tell a story. Some questions you might be asked are:
   
   
   • "Describe a time you had to work with someone you didn't like."
   • "Tell me about a time when you had to stick by a decision you had made, even though it made you very unpopular."
   • "Give us an example of something particularly innovative that you have done that made a difference in the workplace."
   • "How would you handle an employee who's consistently late?"
5. Research the company. Don't just "do an Internet search, memorize their mission, and be done with it." If it's a retail company, visit a few of their stores, observe the customers, and even strike up a few conversations. Talk to existing employees--ask them what it's like working there, how long the position has been open, and what you can do to increase your chances of getting it. Become familiar with the history of the company. Who started it? Where? Who runs it now? Be creative, and do whatever you think the other candidates don't have the guts to do.
6. Settle down. If you've moved around a lot, be prepared to offer a good reason for it. Otherwise, you'll need to make a good case for why you want to stick around in the area where the job is located. A company doesn't want to hire someone with wanderlust who still wants to relocate. Be prepared to outline why you are where you are today, how long you intend to stay there, and why. Give specific reasons like "This county has the best school systems in the entire state, and I have a daughter who might find the cure for cancer" or "I was drawn to this area because it's at the cutting edge of innovation for this business and I want to be a part of that." The more details, names, and specifics, the better.
7. Make a list of work-related skills you'd like to learn. Your employer will be interested in hearing about how you intend to become a better employee. Think about which skills will make you more competent in the position you're applying for. Public speaking, project management, team leading, and computer programs are usually beneficial. Find some books and upcoming conferences that would significantly improve your abilities. In an interview, tell the employer what you're reading and learning, and that you'd like to continue doing so.
8. Cold call. Locate a specific person who can help you (usually the human resources or hiring manager at a company or organization you're interested in). Call that person and ask if they are hiring, but do not become discouraged if they are not. Ask what kind of qualifications they look for or if they have apprentice or government sponsored work programs. Ask if you can send your resume indicating what field you want to go into. Indicate whether you would accept a lesser job and work up.
   
   
   • Reflect after each phone call on what went well and what did not. You may need to write out some standard answers on your list of skills so you can speak fluently. You may need to get some additional training to break into your chosen field. None of this means you cannot get a good job it only means you need to become further prepared to do so.
9. Change your attitude. There's a difference between making phone calls and going to interviews thinking "I'm looking for a job" versus "I'm here to do the work you need to have done". When you're looking to get a job, you're expecting someone to give something to you, so you focus on impressing them. Yes, it's important to make a good impression, but it's even more important to demonstrate your desire and ability to help. Everything that you write and say should be preceded silently by the statement "This is how I can help your business succeed."
10. Fit the job to the skills rather than the other way around. Many people search for jobs, then try to see how they can "tweak" the way they present their own skills and experiences to fit the job description. Instead, try something different. Make a list of all of your skills, determine which kinds of businesses and industries need them most (ask around for advice if you need to) and find businesses that'll benefit from having you and your skills around.

Tips

• Realize that you may have to work your way up. For example, if you want to become an apparel buyer, work for a company that manufactures or sells such goods.
• Remember you are doing some HR workers a favor when you present yourself and they do not have to go out and find workers like you. If you get a rude person, be happy you don't have to choose to work for them.
• It's also possible that your true calling is to be self-employed or an entrepreneur, in which case your task is not so much to find and get a job, but to create a job. Most people who work for themselves, however, often started off with a "day job" that paid the bills until their preferred income source could take over.

If you're doing a thorough job search, you will get rejected sometimes. If you're not getting rejected, you're not putting yourself out there enough. And if you don't learn to see rejection as a chance to improve your approach, then you'll have a very difficult time getting a job.

How to Analyze Your Skills and Job Options

Want to be an astronaut or a baker or a carpenter? Perhaps you'd prefer to be a chef or a pilot or a successful entrepreneur? Choosing your options is never going to be that easy; what you need is to collate the things you are good at with the things you enjoy doing and then see where that leads you. Analyze your skills first, think about what you want to use, then choose your job options. Think about your life, and your future, and like a tree, see where the branches lead to from what you have done, and what you still want to do with your life.

1. Analyze your skills by listing your top ten achievements or career events that you are most proud of. You should do this by looking at your achievements, which are your richest source of information providing concrete and tangible evidence of what you have done so far. Use an active verb at the beginning of the phrase, and you’ll hear how much more powerful it sounds.
2. Ask yourself exactly what you did (try: where did I start?) Then think about what happened next (or perhaps - what did I say?).
3. Consider what skills you used when you did the thing you achieved (how did I do that? What did I need to do it?) You'll end up with very clear statements of your real capabilities.
4. List all of your skills so you can rate them for transferability; most of your skills will transfer to another job quite easily. Think not just "how good am I?" but ask "how much do I enjoy this?" The skills that score most highly on both counts are your most transferable skills and you will be able to use them in many different settings. Write them down (score them out of 10 then add up); the highest skills analysis scores are the ones you can use in your self-marketing statements to best effect.
5. 
   

   Success Square
   Draw yourself a square box. Divide this box into four by drawing a horizontal line across the middle and a vertical line up through the middle. The horizontal line we're going to call "Enjoy Doing" with a scale running from left to right. The vertical line we're going to call "Good At" with the scale running from bottom to top; what we've got now is a 2 x 2 quadrant so admired by MBAs.
   • At the top left we've got high "Good At" with low "Enjoy Doing" so this is often where we've developed a high level of skill to deal with a task that's unavoidable but we don't want to do any more than is strictly necessary. Some people who don't manage their careers too well often end up here because their organizations push them to where they're seen to be good. Think about the Finance Assistant who ends up as an unwilling Credit Controller because he had some success getting some bills paid.
   • Lower left is where too many people find themselves job wise - doing something they don't enjoy and are not particularly good at. This is where necessity and stress sometimes come head-to-head, causing regular sick-leave. You'd be advised to try and change this if it's you.
   • Lower right is where enjoyment is high but skill not necessarily so. The person who enjoys amateur dramatics may be an example or a spare-time painter or the average DIYer.
6. *The small square at the top right is where the high scales of "Good At" and "Enjoy Doing" end up, and this is where we all want to be. Success usually springs from enjoying and being good at something, but only if you want to repeat it. To choose your options bear this in mind and don't start with a job title. Instead start with the ingredients of a successful role, based on your honest appraisal of what you enjoy and want to do, plus an objective view of what you are good at and can replicate.

Tips

• An achievement is something that you have done which has made a difference to you or to others. You may have done it on your own or with and through others. It is not necessarily momentous or world-shattering, but will be something that you feel good about. It doesn't matter whether it comes from your "official" job or some other activity. If you've achieved something, you have used a level of skill which could be a valuable job skill elsewhere.
• For example:
  • Convinced colleagues of the need to change working practices
  • Launched the new product line in record time
  • Reduced supply costs by 15%
  • Taught my dad how to use his new computer
  • Secured a 10% increase in sales by...
  • Raised lots of money for a local charity through a new fund-raising event.
  • Completed a two year part-time MBA course while balancing work and family commitments
• These can relate to unpaid as well as to paid work and also to leisure activities. Ask yourself this: do your successes tend to involve just your own work or that of others? In other words, are you most effective when in a team? Are they mostly to do with work or are there some from other parts of your life? Can you detect a theme to your achievements and if so, what is it?

if you think you might be lacking in some essential skill area, one other thing you just might want to consider is: should I set out to learn a new skill now?

How To Unleash Your Power Of Concentration

It’s the most powerful success strategy of them all!

More success and fortunes have been attributed to sheer concentration or rather focus than any other success strategy in existence.

Why?

Well the fact of the matter is that there many of us have great ideas and hopes of accomplishments in our lives or businesses.

It starts as a twinkling in your eye after receiving an inspiring marketing message or some phenomenal idea that came to you in the shower or some other place where your mind was free to think without distraction.

The problem is that when it comes down to actually getting it done, we often fall short because of things like procrastination, distractions, self-doubt, inconsistency and even fear.

The unfortunate truth is, that the world is literally littered with the “carcasses” of abandoned ideas and potential accomplishments that never became a reality for the simple reason that the person behind them became unfocused, procrastinated, or began to doubt the validity of their idea in the first place.

Think about this:

“Star Wars” has become one of the most profitable movie and product franchises in history but, the reality is, back then the simple idea of “Star Wars” was turned down by every movie studio in Hollywood before 20^th Century Fox accepted it!

Can you imagine that?

Through the simple power of concentration, George Lucas was able single-mindedly move forward through constant rejection and bring forth the legendary “Star Wars” films that have been released from 1977 to 2005.  (I think even more to come)

Fact is, this is not an original case.   There are countless stories of triumph and accomplishment, fame and wealth because of Focus.

Now there are simple steps anyone can take to truly achieve greatness through focus. 

Three simple steps really…

1. Find and define a definite purpose for your idea or desire.  Realize that ideas and desires will come and go but, it only takes ONE idea or desire to achieve success.  Everyone at some point in their lives has too many ideas and not enough time to accomplish them all.  Pick the one you are most passionate about.

2. Form the habit of concentrating on that one idea or desire without allowing distraction.  You must control your impulses, passions, emotions, actions and poor habits.  If not you will end up throwing yet another carcass in the ditch of failure.  Simply and habitually, seek to control those things as you work toward your idea or desire.  Questioning to improve your idea is fine, but questioning to find a reason to quit is what most of us do all too often.  Remember, the grass doesn’t always look green everyday and there will be times that you question your own actions.  Use them wisely and with progress in mind. 
   2.  

3. Build and strengthen your thoughts and mind as you work toward fulfilling your idea or desire.  Different thoughts and people are always among us.  There are always good ones and bad ones in both.  As you work towards achievement, your thoughts and mind must work with positive energy in order to conquer your mental and personal adversaries.  (that would be negative thoughts and people)

 Following and sticking to these three steps is the true path of a champion.

The greatest book ever written on the subject of Focus is “The Power of Concentration” by Theron Dumont.

In it he says,

“It is of the utmost value to learn how to concentrate. To make the greatest success of anything you must be able to concentrate your entire thought upon the idea you are working on. The person that is able to concentrate utilizes all constructive thoughts and shuts out all destructive ones. The greatest man would accomplish nothing if he lacked concentration.”

Through focus or the power of concentration, ANYONE can achieve greatness on an epic scale. 

Come to think of it, is “Focus” the real “Force”? 

Become the Master of Focus and you WILL achieve greatness and prosperity!

Do you know anybody that you consider to be particularly engaging and lively? Take a moment to picture that person in your mind. What is it about that person that you find most attractive? He or she may have a charming voice and a great laugh, but it is also very likely that you find their face very expressive. That person is probably quick to smile and laugh and seems to always have a twinkle in their eye.

A face that never shows any emotion, and never smiles is not very appealing. No matter how attractive or how plain a person’s facial features may be, a great smile can make that person look beautiful to others. When you smile at other people, they will assume that you are in a good mood and that you are happy to see them. This will make other people more likely to want to spend time with you and to know you better.

Allowing our face to show emotions is actually an advantage in developing relationships. Other people are constantly trying to read and respond to our body language and facial expressions, often on a subconscious level. They are trying to sense whether we really care about them or not, whether we are concerned with what is going on in their lives.

If you are a person who is very emotionally sensitive, this sensitivity can be an asset in forming relationships. Use your sensitivity to show empathy for other people. Don’t suppress your emotions, trying to be “cool”. Don’t waste your sensitive nature being sensitive only to yourself and your own emotions. Imagine being in the shoes of the person you are talking with, and let yourself feel the sadness, happiness, excitement or pride that is present in the story they are telling you.

If we repress all our emotions from showing on our face, people will feel frustrated trying to get a sense of who we really are. When we let our emotions show up on our face, sharing in our conversation partner’s joys and sorrows, worries and frustrations, as well as their hope and excitement, both of us feel less alone. Both people will feel more connected to each other.

Sometimes we worry about our facial expressions. We may sense that our smile looks forced, or makes us look nervous. We may worry that we don’t smile enough, or that we frown too much.

One way you can check on your facial expressions is to have yourself videotaped in conversation with another person. When you review the tape, does your smile looks forced, or natural? Do you look extremely serious? Are you able to portray a feeling of fun and light-heartedness?

If you are not able to analyze the tape effectively by yourself, have someone else you trust give you some feedback.

If you think your facial expressiveness could be improved, you can practice in front of a mirror. Watch your face as you imagine yourself feeling various positive and negative emotions. Imagine yourself hearing a very funny joke. Or winning the lottery. Or receiving a nice compliment. Meeting your neighbor. Getting a present. Having a secret.

Also imagine yourself experiencing negative situations and watch your facial expressions in the mirror. Exaggerate them. Switch back to imagining positive emotions. Are you normally this expressive? Do you let other people see the real you? Or do you try to hide yourself from everyone? Do you like the person you see in the mirror?

Your smiles and other facial expressions will be more natural and more appealing when you are relaxed, rather than tense. If you get nervous when you are talking with others, you may find it helpful to practice body relaxation techniques until you can easily relax at will. Consciously tell all the muscles in your body to relax, even if you have to give instructions mentally to each part of your body, one section at a time. When you are with other people, let your mental focus be on enjoying the situation you are in, rather than imagining what others are thinking about you, or worrying what you will say next.

Let you emotions come from deep within you, and spread to your face, rather than trying to artificially manufacture facial expressions.

With the long-term trend of protecting employees' individual self esteem added to an overriding concern over expensive employee lawsuits, accountability is more a buzzword than a way of life at most companies.

This is a state of mind that has existed since the 1960s, so the average employee has never received real quality negative feedback -- the kind of feedback that might help startle him or her out of career-dashing behavior and toward a more lucrative and successful work life.

Smart employers realize that people are their only sustainable competitive advantage. Companies hiring this year will be looking for people who are highly capable in their fields of expertise and who energize the other people with whom they work. This will hold true for traditional employees as well as independent contractors who will continue to make up a larger and larger part of the workforce.

Don't wait for this new world of employment, prepare yourself now to get the feedback from others that will help you develop into the powerful person you can be. First, begin to change the way you feel about receiving feedback. Listen to the messages you get from those close to you: your spouse, children, close friends, other family members. Write them down and consider them as food for thought. Begin to analyze common pieces of feedback objectively and develop ideas about what you might do if you wanted to change their perceptions.

A key factor to remember about all feedback: it is one opinion coming from another individual's unique perspective. It is up to you to consider it thoughtfully, compare it to other feedback you have received and do something positive with it. It is impossible for us to see ourselves as others see us, but very important that we don't allow these blind spots to jeopardize wonderful opportunities.

Here?s a system for taking in feedback for maximum benefit:

 

1. When receiving any feedback, listen without comment, looking directly at the person. When they have finished, don't make any statements, but do ask questions if you want clarification. Don?t accept, don't deny and don't rationalize. Because we are rarely taught to give feedback well, you will often get feedback when the giver is angry about something in the moment. Quality feedback may be emotional when it touches a heartfelt issue, but it is not abusive. If a co-worker's critique gets to this point you should ask to stop the discussion and have it at another time when cooler heads prevail.
2. Recognize the courage it took to give you the feedback and consider it a sincere gift intended to help you grow. Thank the giver for feedback - make it short, but something you can say sincerely, such as "You've really given me something to think about, thanks." It is hard to feel real appreciation when you hear negative messages about your behavior, so it is important to have simple words of gratitude prepared ahead of time.
3. Immediately write down all you can remember of the feedback, recording as many words used by the giver as possible. Allow yourself at least 2 days to process the information, taking no action to change your perceived behavior. Watch what you do and how other react to it. After a few days, go back and look at your original notes. Take out the emotion-packed words and look for the basic message.
4. Know that feedback can be tough to receive, even if we solicit it and are grateful for it. Although it is simply another's perception, it can shake up your feelings about yourself. Plan to do something nice for yourself when you know you are facing tough feedback. Try to do something that bolsters self-esteem - dinner with friends, or engage in an activity that you are particularly good at.
5. Discuss the feedback with friends or others whose opinions you respect, but ask them not to react to the message. Tell them you are only looking for sympathy for the difficulty of going through a rigorous self-development process, but that you don't want them to agree or disagree with the feedback. It would be normal to want to invalidate negative feedback, and to get others to help you, but you will lose what may be a critical grain of truth if you do.
6. Use feedback in a positive way as soon as practical, not with the giver, but with others. Over time you may even want to tell others to lightly remind you if you slip back to old ways. "Jack, I don't want to bug you, but you asked me to remind you if you started to get behind on those reports."

You are ready to receive feedback when you:

 

1. Want to know yourself as others see you and you are clear that this is their perception, not necessarily what is true about you inside.
2. Trust your co-workers to care enough about your development to risk giving their opinion.
3. Have a place outside work you can talk it through.
4. Have opportunities for additional feedback so you get validation of the changes you have made.

Things you can do now to get more feedback at work:

 

1. Find out if your employer has a 360 degree review program or is willing to allow you to work with your human resources department to develop a feedback program tailored to you.
2. Look back at old performance reviews and see if there are common comments you can use.
3. Consider hiring a personal development coach to give you alternative methods of getting feedback, such as personality testing.
4. Decide to use the feedback to get a promotion or change career direction so that you have a reason to get involved in the process.

As you get to know yourself better, feedback will become less painful. You learn how to put it into a larger perspective and how to allow it to help you achieve your dreams.

Achievement and Happiness the 80/20 Way

If there was ever a principle that was responsible for the most happiness and achievement in the world, it would be the 80/20 Principle.

The 80/20 Principle or Pareto Principle was discovered in 1897 by an Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto while he was searching for patterns of wealth and income in England.

What he found was that 80 percent of the wealth was enjoyed by only 20 percent of the population. Additionally, it was consistent in different countries and in different times.

This has been found in present day as well and in almost any activity that we perform, business or otherwise.

In other words, 80 percent of your results in a given activity, are generated by 20 percent of your input or effort. Just the same, 80 percent of revenue or profits are generated by 20 percent of your efforts or sales.

The 80/20 relationship can also easily be documented in personal achievement and happiness.
Most people have never taken the time to count their achievements or much less figure out what makes them happy. If they did, they would have realized that there are very few things that contribute to most of their happiness. They would also have found that there are very few things that they have done that has resulted in most of their achievements.

A great example of the 80/20 Principle in achievement would be to look at some achievement that you've made in your life, and write down all of the things that you did that "truly" got you there. If you're looking at it honestly you'll see that it took consistent effort on very few things to get you most of your results.

Now, although achievement makes us happy, what else does?

A serious "Happiness Analysis" is also something all of us should do at least once in our lives. If you documented the things that contribute to your happiness then number the things that make you the happiest, you will find that there are only a few things that contribute to most of your happiness. In other words 20 percent of the things that make you happy, contribute to 80 percent of your happiness!

With that said, if you were to spend more time doing the things that result in most of your happiness or achievement, you WILL double or even triple your results.

In the past what I’ve found is that most people don’t hesitate to point fingers at whom or what they think is responsible for their failures or lack of success in life. The problem is that they never look in the mirror and see that the main problem is them! At that time I believed that there were two groups of people, successful and unsuccessful.

Recently however I came across another group of people who all want to be successful and realize that they must change. When they ask me how they can achieve success, I give them all the same answer. I’ll get to that in a minute, because first I want to tell you why.

When I was a baby about two months old, my parents sent me from New York to the island of Trinidad to live with my Grandparents. During those early years, I was given love, attention and I was taught the importance of hard work. You see, my Grand***her and all of his brothers for that matter were entrepreneurs. My Grandpa was a poultry farmer. He raised *******s! Not just any *******s, but the best tasting, natural *******s around. Not just a few *******s, but anywhere from 20,000 to 40,000 at a time. Not only that but, he still worked at his job as the Pay Master at the Texaco oil refinery.

To little me, Grandpa was the strongest man in the world and he knew more than anyone!

Over the course of the years I would be taken away from my Grandparents many times by my parents, only to be sent back again. Each time I would learn something new. I learned how to run a poultry farm and business, how to handle money, how to deal with customers, how to give a quality product, the importance of learning by doing and most of all what I tell my clients and people wanting success.

No, I’m not going to tell you yet! ;-P

Fast forward to 1990-91 and I’m homeless on the streets of New York. Of course my Grandparents had no control over these events. It was my parents that left me no choice.

There I was a skinny 15 year old with big glasses, no money and nowhere to live. I had lived in fear for so long in the past that I looked like an owl on crack!

I had no clue what to do and I had already been on the streets a couple of weeks. I was hungry, cold (it was winter) and tired.

As events unfolded a severe beating by four 22 year olds, put me in the hospital near death and I would later end back up on the streets. This time I had learned of other options by listening to other peoples’ conversations. I had heard about a place called Covenant House in Manhattan. It took another week or two before I ended up there because I didn’t trust that anyone would help me.

The people at Covenant House took me in one cold night and gave me a place to stay, warm food and counseling.

There I met a 17 year old guy who would become a big brother to me for a short while. His name was Tony. He as it turned out was in New York because he was running from some very dangerous people in Florida who killed his friend. Tony was a “metal-head,” head-banger type but was a good natured person and took a liking to me. He protected me from the other kids who were in gangs and were too rough and dangerous for me to handle at the time. He taught me how to fight, how to think on the streets, and the same thing my Grandpa taught me.

No, I won’t tell yet.

That wasn’t the end of my street life but, that’s where we’ll fast forward into my twenties.

My mind had been made up since I was a child that deep down I really wanted my own business. So I went out and did what any normal kid would do. Go to college right!

Well after a few semesters, I realized that I was really in for long frustrating hours of studying things that I did not want to know. So while still in school and working full time, I started to self educate myself with self improvement books and business books.

Needless to say, I got hooked! Paycheck after paycheck I would buy and read these books, online and offline. Wow I really knew my stuff I would think. Then I would look at successful businesses and say, “Wow I still have a lot of learning to do.”

So I started out on my quest to conquer the internet. Or so I thought.

Again, I purchased and read many e-books, reports, software and services and began to build a small income online.

Thousands of dollars and some successful clients later, I had very little to show for it other than all of the money I made others and the vast library of knowledge in my head. (I do have a pretty big head -- ;-D )

Then one day through world famous internet marketer Jo Han Mok, I met Mike Litman, then Dave Lakhani & Steve Watts. Mike and Dave showed me what I was doing wrong, what I needed to know and how to apply it. Most importantly they showed me what they had learned so that I didn’t have to make the same mistakes.

If you fast forward to today you will see that I’m now helping change the lives of thousands of people around the world through my newsletter and coaching system and I’m well on my way to creating millions in revenue!

So what’s the 80/20 Success Secret?

It is….

Finding Mentors or Coaches and learning everything you can from them.

Instead of investing tons of money in books and programs, invest in a mentor and you WILL get the most results!

Remember very few actions generate the most results. Instead of taking 1,000 steps and many years to achieve your desired results, you’re only taking one step and very little time to get your results this way. You’re paying them to learn from their mistakes and successes.

No book or program can offer you that!

So when you’re ready to leap towards success and break through your obstacles, seek out your mentor(s) and be ready for anything!

The most important quality you can ever develop is having belief in yourself. The belief that you can, without a shadow of a doubt achieve success in every area of your life. Virtually every person has the capacity to do wonderful things with his or her life. But the greatest single obstacle for most people is self-doubt. Many people wish they could accomplish certain things but lack the belief that they can actually do it.

When people under achieve in any part of their life, it is their beliefs more than anything else that hold them back. Self-limiting beleifs act as breaks on our ability to achieve our goals. Many of us have high hopes, dreams, and aspirations, but we let doubts creep in and undermine our talents, abilities, and effectiveness.

Each one of us has feelings of inferiority because we feel that we are not good enough. We think that we are not as good as other people, and we feel that we are not good enough to acquire and enjoy the things we want in life. Often we feel that we don't deserve good things. Even if we work hard and have some achievements in our life, we often feel that we are not really entitled to our successes.

The Universal Law of Belief says that whatever we believe, with feeling becomes our reality. We don't beleive what we see; instead, we see what we believe. Our beliefs form a screen as to how we see the world, and we never allow any information that is not consistent with our beliefs to pass through it. Even if we have beliefs that are totally inconsistent with reality, we won't let them through because our beliefs have become true for us.

The most common and also the most harmful beliefs are the ones that are self-limiting. These are beliefs about yourself. For example, believing that you can't acheive something because you don't have enough money or education. You might believe you can't acheive something because you are the wrong ***, race, age, or it is because of the economy. Most of these beliefs are not true, but they will hold you back nonetheless.

The fact is, you deserve every good thing that you are capable of acquiring through the use of your talents. The only real limitation on what you can be and have, is if you lack the desire. If you you set a goal and want to achieve it badly enough, nothing in the world can stop you from achieving it, as long as you're willing to persist long and hard enough.

To develop positive beliefs, you have to decide exactly where you want to end up in the future. The clearer you are about the result you want in your future, the easier it will be for you to change your actions and behaviors in the short term. This in turn,will assure that you achieve what you want in the long term.

Once you've clearly decided on the type of person you want to be, you will have already taken a major first step in developing new beliefs. In order to incorporate your new beliefs into your every day life, you have to discipline yourself to act exactly in every situation as if you already were that person. When you begin to act like the successful person you want to become, you will actually adopt their values, qualities, and characteristics. And they will then become a permanent part of your personality.

If you consistently act like the person you want to become every day and in every situation it will begin a chain reaction. Your attitude will change and become more postive. This will then build stronger and more postive beliefs. And your beliefs will then, exert a positive influence on your values.

You have no limitations on your potential except for those that you believe you have. Successful people are not extraordinary or special in any way. They are not different from you or I. But, all successful people do have the unwavering belief that they can accomplish anything that they really want in life. You are a good person. From this day forward, see yourself as the very best you can be, and refuse to accept any limitations on your possibilities. Once you develop that belief in yourself, and you act in accordance with your beliefs, your future will be unlimited.

Happiness 

Happiness is not in our circumstances but in ourselves. It is not something we see, like a rainbow, or feel, like the heat of a fire. Happiness is something we are.
John B. Sheerin

The pursuit of happiness is a most ridiculous phrase: If you pursue happiness you'll never find it.
C.P. Snow

Happiness is more a state of health than of wealth.
Frank Tyger

Giving of yourself, learning to be tolerant, giving recognition and approval to others, remaining flexible enough to mature and learn - yields happiness, harmony, contentment and productivity. These are the qualities of a rich life, the bounteous harvest of getting along with people.
Jack C Yewell

Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love and something to hope for.
Joseph Addison

If you have nothing else to do, look about you and see if there isn't something close at hand that you can improve! It may make you wealthy, thought it is more likely that it will make you happy.
George Matthew Adams

Happiness is a perfume you cannot pour on others without getting a few drops on yourself.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

May we never let the things we can't have, or don't have, or shouldn't have, spoil our enjoyment of the things we do have and can have. As we value our happiness let us not forget it, for one of the greatest lessons in life is learning to be happy without the things we cannot or should not have.
Richard L. Evans

Happiness is the only good. The time to be happy is now. The place to be happy is here. The way to be happy is to make others so.
Robert G. Ingersoll

Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.
Buddha

Happiness is not a destination. It is a method of life.
Burton Hills

There are two types of people in this world, good and bad. The good sleep better, but the bad seem to enjoy the waking hours much more.
Woody Allen

Those who have easy, cheerful attitudes tend to be happier than those with less pleasant temperaments, regardless of money, 'making it', or success.
Dr. Joyce Brothers

The search for happiness is one of the chief sources of unhappiness.
Eric Hoffer

It's pretty hard to tell what does bring happiness. Poverty and wealth have both failed.
KIN HUBBARD

When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one that has been opened for us.
Keller, Helen

There is no point to samba if it doesn't make you smile.
Alma Guillermoprieto

Life is to be fortified by many friendships. To love and to be loved is the greatest happiness of existence.
Sydney Smith

Did you ever see an unhappy horse? Did you ever see bird that had the blues? One reason why birds and horses are not unhappy is because they are not trying to impress other birds and horses.
Dale Carnegie

Many people think that if they were only in some other place, or had some other job, they would be happy. Well, that is doubtful. So get as much happiness out of what you are doing as you can and don't put off being happy until some future date.
Dale Carnegie

Prosperity is living easily and happily in the real world, whether you have money or not.
Jerry Gellis

It is not the place, nor the condition, but the mind alone that can make anyone happy or miserable.
Roger L'Estrange

You have succeeded in life when all you really want is only what you really need.
Vernon Howard

We are more interested in making others believe we are happy than in trying to be happy ourselves.
Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld

Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace and gratitude.
Denis Waitley

Happiness will never come to those who fail to appreciate what they already have.
Anonymous

Happiness is in the heart, not in the circumstances.
Anonymous

Real happiness comes from inside. Nobody can give it to you.
Sharon Stone

Happiness is the art of learning how to get joy from your substance.
Jim Rohn

It doesn't get any better than this.
Author Unknown

The happiness of your life depends on the quality of your thoughts.
Marcus A. Antoninus

The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance, the wise grows it under his feet.
J. Robert Oppenheimer

Life  

Men take only their needs into consideration, never their abilities.
Napoleon Bonaparte

Start living now. Stop saving the good china for that special occasion. Stop withholding your love until that special person materializes. Every day you are alive is a special occasion. Every minute, every breath, is a gift from God.
Mary Manin Morrissey

You've got to sing like you don't need the money, love like you'll never get hurt. You've got to dance like no one is watching. It's gotta come from the heart, if you want it to work.
Susannah Clark

The consciousness of loving and being loved brings a warmth and richness to life that nothing else can bring.
Oscar Wilde

Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood.
Thomas Carlyle

Nor has he spent his life badly who has passed it in privacy.
Cicero

The art of life is to know how to enjoy a little and to endure very much.
William Hazlitt

Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature.
Helen Keller

Life's more amusing than we thought.
Andrew Lang

As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.
Seneca

Don't be afraid your life will end; be afraid that it will never begin.
Hansen, Grace

Do not take life too seriously. You will never get out of it alive.
Hubbard, Elbert

Death is more universal than life; everyone dies but not everyone lives.
Sachs, A.

Life is partly what we make it, and partly what it is made by the friends we choose.
Tehyi, Hsieh

Life without love is a shadow of things that might be.
Unknown

Some people are so afraid to die that they never begin to live.
VanDyke, Henry

Live all you can; it's a mistake not to. It doesn't so much matter what you do in particular, so long as you have your life. If you haven't had that, what have you had?
HENRY JAMES

Find a purpose in life so big it will challenge every capacity to be at your best.
David O. McKay

Life is a tragedy for those who feel, and a comedy for those who think.
Jean de la Bruyere

Your living is determined not so much by what life brings to you as by what you bring to life.
John Homer Miller

Live not one's life as though one had a thousand years, but live each day as the last.
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus

Destiny is not a matter of chance; it is a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be waited for; it is a thing to be achieved.
William Jennings Bryan

Here is the test to find whether your mission on earth is finished: If you're alive, it isn't.
Richard Bach

Opportunity
 

Men take only their needs into consideration, never their abilities.
Napoleon Bonaparte

Learn to smile at every situation. See it as an opportunity to prove your strength and ability.
Contributed by Joe Brown

In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.
Albert Einstein

There is no security on this earth, there is only opportunity.
General Douglas MacArthur

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.
Thomas Edison

If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door.
Milton Berle

Opportunity dances with those who are ready on the dance floor.
H. Jackson Brown Jr.

Don't wait for extraordinary circumstance to do good; try to use ordinary situations.
Charles Richter

Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.
Theodore Roosevelt

Too many people are thinking of securty instead of opportunity. They seem more afraid of life than death.
James F. Byrnes

The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.
Winston Churchill

I always tried to turn every disaster into an opportunity.
John D. Rockefeller, Jr.

Accept yourself as you are. Otherwise you will never see opportunity. You will not feel free to move toward it; you will feel you are not deserving.
Maxwell Maltz

If you view all the things that happen to you, both good and bad, as opportunities, then you operate out of a higher level of consciousness.
Les Brown

It is better to be prepared for an opportunity and not have one, than to have an opportunity and not be prepared.
Whitney Young, Jr.

Look for opportunity. You can't wait for it to knock on the door. . . . you might not be home.
Jinger Heath

Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises.
Demmosthenes

A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.
Francis Bacon

Nowadays some people expect the door of opportunity to be opened with a remote control.
M. Charles Wheeler

Some men go through a forest and see no firewood.
English Proverb

It is no disgrace to start all over. It is usually an opportunity.
George Matthew Adams

When written in Chinese, the word 'crisis' is composed of two characters—one represents danger, and the other represents opportunity.
John F. Kennedy

The sad truth is that opportunity doesn't knock twice. You can put things off until tomorrow but tomorrow may never come. Where will you be a few years down the line. Will it be everything you dreamed of. We seal our ***e with the choices we take, but don't give a second thought to the chances we take.
Gloria Estefan

Opportunities are usually disguised as hard work, so most people don't recognize them.
Ann Landers

Many an opportunity is lost because a man is out looking for four-leaf clovers.
Anonymous

Perseverance 

The difference between perseverance and obstinacy is: that one often comes from a strong will, and the other from a strong won't.
Henry Ward Beecher

The greatest results in life are usually attained by simple means and the exercise of ordinary qualities. These may for the most part be summed up in these two - common sense and perseverance.
Owen Feltham

Water continually dropping will wear hard rocks hollow.
Plutarch

God helps those who persevere.
The Koran

The will to persevere is often the difference between failure and success.
David Sarnoff

Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after another.
Walter Elliott

Persistence is to the character of man as carbon is to steel.
Napoleon Hill

Try not to do too many things at once. Know what you want, the number one thing today and tomorrow. Persevere and get it done.
George Allen

Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no help at all.
Dale Carnegie

You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.
Margaret Thatcher

Water continually dropping will wear hard rocks hollow.
Plutarch

Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.
John Quincy Adams

Great works are performed not by strength but by perseverance.
Samuel Johnson

Most people give up just when they're about to achieve success. They quit on the one yard line. They give up at the last minute of the game, one foot from a winning touchdown.
H. Ross Perot

A jug fills drop by drop.
Buddha

If you want to get somewhere you have to know where you want to go and how to get there. Then never, never, never give up.
Norman Vincent Peale

I'm proof that great things can happen to ordinary people if they work hard and never give up.
Orel Herhiser

How long should you try? Until.
Jim Rohn

Perseverance is a great element of success; if you only knock long enough and loud enough at the gate you are sure to wake up somebody.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Perseverance allows you to get back on track when you hit a detour.
Catherine Pulsifer

We can do anything we want to do if we stick to it long enough.
Helen Keller

Perseverance is failing nineteen times and succeeding the twentieth.
Julie Andrews

Success 

Men are born to succeed, not fail.
Henry David Thoreau

Nothing happens until I make it happen.
contributed by: Scott Wilson

That some achieve great success, is proof to all that others can achieve it as well.
Abraham Lincoln

People seldom see the halting and painful steps by which the most insignificant success is achieved.
Anne Sullivan

The dictionary is the only place where success comes before work.
Mark Twain

Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.
John Wooden

Ones best success comes after their greatest disappointments.
Henry Ward Beecher

It's simply a matter of doing what you do best and not worrying about what the other fellow is going to do.
John R. Amos

Thre is only one success - to be able to spend your life in your own way.
Christopher Morley

What would you attempt to do if you knew you would not fail?
Robert Schuller

Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go.
William Feather

The gent who wakes up and finds himself a success hasn't been asleep.
Wilson Mizner

Success usuallly comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.
Henry David Thoreau

Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.
Robert Collier

Just don't give up trying to do what you really want to do. Where there is love and inspiration, I don't think you can go wrong.
Ella Fitzgerald

Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.
Albert Schweitzer

Do a little more each day than you think you possibly can.
Lowell Thomas

People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing.
Dale Carnegie

Success is never wondering what if.
Karrie Huffman

It takes 20 years to make an overnight success.
Eddie Cantor

Success is getting what you want, and happiness is wanting what you get.
Dave Gardner

The first and most important step toward success is the feeling that we can succeed.
Nelson Boswell

Time

Time stays long enough for anyone who will use it.
Leonardo Da Vinci

One realizes the full importance of time only when there is little left of it. Every man's greatest capital asset is his unexpired years of productive life.
P.W. Litchfield

Many of us spend half our time wishing for things we could have if we didn't spend half our time wishing.
Alexander Woollcott

Time heals what reason cannot.
Seneca

Nothing is a waste of time if you use the experience wisely.
Auguste Rodin

Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils.
Hector Berlioz

Don't say you don't have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michaelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.
H. Jackson Brown

You will never find time for anything. If you want time you must make it.
Charles Buxton

It is never too late to be what you might have been.
George Eliot

It takes time to build a castle.
Irish Proverb

A minute now is better than a minute later.
Anonymous

Today is the tomorrow we worried about yesterday.
Anonymous

One thing you can't recycle is wasted time.
Anonymous

You may delay, but time will not.
Benjamin Franklin

Half our life is spent trying to find something to do with the time we have rushed through life trying to save.
Will Rogers

Just as you began to feel that you could make good use of time, there was no time left to you.
Lisa Alther

Time is the most valuable thing a man can spend.
Diogenes Laetius

The value of life lies not in the length of days, but in the use we make of them ...
Michel de Montaigne

Time is really the only capital that any human being has, and the only thing he can't afford to lose.
Thomas Edison

We must use time as a tool, not as a crutch.
John F. Kennedy

Nothing is worth more than this day.
Goethe

If you want to make good use of your time, you've got to know what's most important and then give it all you've got.
Lee Iacocca

One today is worth two tomorrows.
Franklin

Every morning you are handed 24 golden hours. They are one of the few things in this world that you get free of charge. If you had all the money in the world, you couldn't buy an extra hour. What will you do with this priceless treasure?
Author Unknown

Don't be fooled by the calendar. There are only as many days in the year as you make use of. One man gets only a week's value out of a year while another man gets a full year's value out of a week.
Charles Richards

Ability 

Ability is the art of getting credit for all the home runs somebody else hits.
Casey Stengel

Natural abilities are like natural plants; they need pruning by study.
Francis Bacon

Ability will never catch up with the demand for it.
Malcolm S. Forbes

Every person is responsible for all the good within the scope of his abilities, and for no more, and none can tell whose sphere is the largest.
Gail Hamilton

It is a fine thing to have ability, but the ability to discover ability in others is the true test.
Elbert Hubbard

The Creator has not given you a longing to do that which you have no ability to do.
Orison Swett Marden

Martyrdom is the only way a man can become famous without ability.
George Bernard Shaw

They are able because they think they are able.
Virgil

The world cares very little about what a man or woman knows; it is what a man or woman is able to do that counts.
Booker T. Washington

We all have ability. The difference is how we use it.
Stevie Wonder

Ability is a poor man's wealth.
M. Wren

What I need is someone who will make me do what I can.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

If I accept you as you are, I will make you worse; however if I treat you as though you are what you are capable of becoming, I help you become that.
Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

If we did the things we are capable of, we would astound ourselves.
Thomas Edison

Ability is what you're capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it.
Lou Holtz

Our work is the presentation of our capabilities.
Goethe

We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done.
Longfellow

Great ability develops and reveals itself increasingly with every new assignment.
Baltasar Gracian

You have to have confidence in your ability, and then be tough enough to follow through.
Rosalynn Smith Carter

Achievement

We would accomplish many more things if we did not think of them as impossible.
C. Malesherbes

"I can't do it" never yet accomplished anything; "I will try" has performed wonders.
George P. Burnham

Throughout the centuries there were men who took first steps down new roads armed with nothing but their own vision.
Ayn Rand

Start by doing what's necessary, then what's possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible.
Francis of Assisi

To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream, not only plan, but also believe.
Anatole France

There are three types of people in this world: those who make things happen, those who watch things happen and those who wonder what happened. We all have a choice. You can decide which type of person you want to be. I have always chosen to be in the first group.
Mary Kay Ash

Don't limit yourself. Many people limit themselves to what they think they can do. You can go as far as you mind lets you. What you believe, you can achieve.
Mary Kay Ash

Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.
Dale Carnegie

The reward of a thing well done is to have done it.
RALPH WALDO EMERSON

If not us, who? If not now, when?
Kennedy, John F.

Don't let what you can't do interfere with what you can do.
Anonymous

Never be satisfied with what you achieve, because it all pales in comparison with what you are capable of doing in the future.
Rabbi Nochem Kaplan

All good things are difficult to achieve; and bad things are very easy to get.
Morarji Desai

Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together.
Vincent Van Gogh

The future is not a gift - it is an achievement.
Harry Lauder

The search for wisdom is a great challenge; to act on wisdom is an even greater challenge.
Siddhaswarupananda Paramahamsa on wisdom

If life were measured by accomplishments, most of us would die in infancy.
A. P. Gouthey

There is no great achievement that is not the result of patient working and waiting.
J. G. Holland

High achievement always takes place in the framework of high expectation.
Jack Kinder

An achievement is a bondage. It obliges one to a higher achievement.
Albert Camus

Action

***e knows where you are going, but it is up to you to drive there.
Michelle Keesling

Nothing happens until I make it happen.
Contributed by: Scott Wilson

You can’t build a reputation on what you're going to do.
Henry Ford

I think one's feelings waste themselves in words; they ought all to be distilled into actions which bring results.
Florence Nightingale

Ideas without action are worthless.
Harvey Mackay

I think there is something, more important than believing: Action! The world is full of dreamers, there aren't enough who will move ahead and begin to take concrete steps to actualize their vision.
W. Clement Stone

Create a definite plan for carrying out your desire and begin at once, whether you are ready or not, to put this plan into action.
Napoleon Hill

There are costs and risks to a program of action, but they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction.
John F. Kennedy

What you do speaks so loud that I cannot hear what you say.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Leadership is practiced not so much in words as in attitude and in actions.
Harold S. Geneen

Never confuse motion with action.
Benjamin Franklin

Just Do It!
Nike Running Shoes Advertisment

A man is the sum of his actions, of what he has done, of what he can do, Nothing else.
Mahatma Gandhi

Drive thy business, or it will drive thee.
Benjamin Franklin

Do or do not. There is no try.
Yoda

As I grow older, I pay less attention to what men say. I just watch what they do.
Andrew Carnegie

Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.
Theodore Roosevelt

Go for it now. The future is promised to no one.
Wayne Dyer

You will never plough a field if you only turn it over in your mind.
Irish Proverb

The great end of life is not knowledge but action.
Thomas H. Huxley

Action may not always bring happiness; but there is no happiness without action.
Benjamin Disraeli

Commitment leads to action. Action brings your dream closer.
Marcia Wieder

Character isn't inherited. One builds it daily by the way one thinks and acts, thought by thought, action by action.
Helen Gahagan Douglas

I have long since come to believe that people never mean half of what they say, and that it is best to disregard their talk and judge only their actions.
Dorothy Day

Think like a man of action, act like a man of thought.
Henri Louis Bergson

The true gentleman does not preach his beliefs until he does so by his actions.
Source Unknown

Good intentions are not good enough... ultimately we are measured by our actions.
Source Unknown

Conditions are never just right. People who delay action until all factors are favourable do nothing.
William Feather

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
Edmund Burke

Success seems to be connected to action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, bu they don't quit.
Conrad Hilton

To do nothing is in every man's power.
Samuel Johnson

Your life will be no better than the plans you make and the action you take. You are the architect and builder of your own life, fortune, destiny.
Alfred A. Montapert

Courage 

The stories of past courage... can offer hope, they can provide inspiration. But they cannot supply courage itself. For this each man must look into his own soul.
John F. Kennedy

All our dreams can come true - if we have the courage to pursue them.
Walt Disney

A man full of courage is also full of faith.
Cicero

Courage is grace under pressure.
Ernest Hemingway

Courage is the first of human qualities, because it is the quality which guarantees all others.
Winston Churchill

Courage is resistance to fear; mastery of fear - not absence of fear.
Mark Twain

Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of a readiness to die.
G. K. Chesterton

Perfect courage is todo without witnesses what one would be capable of doing before all the world.
LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

We gain strength, and courage, and confidence by each experience in which we really stop to look fear in the face ... we must do that which we think we cannot.
Roosevelt, Eleanor

The fact is, that to do anything in the world worth doing, we must not stand back shivering and thinking of the cold and danger, but jump in and scramble through as well as we can.
Robert Cushing

In order to discover new lands, one must be willing to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.
Anonymous

He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.
Muhammad Ali

You can't test courage cautiously.
Anne Dillard

It is easy to be brave from a safe distance.
Aesop

I'd rather give my life than be afraid to give it.
Lyndon Baines Johnson

Determination

I learned that if you want to make it bad enough, no matter how bad it is, you can make it.
Gale Sayers

Where there's a will there's a way.
English Proverb

Determination gives you the resolve to keep going in spite of the roadblocks that lay before you.
Denis Waitley

The surest way not to fail is to determine to succeed.
Richard B. Sheridan

If you really want something, you can figure out how to make it happen.
Cher

A determined person will do more with a pen and paper, than a lazy person will accomplish with a personal computer.
Catherine Pulsifer

The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a person's determination.
Tommy Lasorda

If you doubt you can accomplish something, then you can't accomplish it. You have to have confidence in your ability, and then be tough enough to follow through.
Rosalyn Carter

What this power is I cannot say; all I know is that it exists and it becomes available only when a man is in that state of mind in which he knows exactly what he wants and is fully determined not to quit until he finds it.
Alexander Graham Bell

There is no chance, no destiny, no ***e, that can hinder or control the firm resolve of a determined soul.
Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Don't let go of your dreams. If you have determination and belief in your dreams, you will succeed in spite of your desire to let go.
Catherine Pulsifer

A man can be as great as he wants to be. If you believe in yourself and have the courage, the determination, the dedication, the competitive drive and if you are willing to sacrifice the little things in life and pay the price for the things that are worthwhile, it can be done.
Vince Lombardi

It was courage, faith, endurance and a dogged determination to surmount all obstacles that built this bridge.
John J. Watson

So long as there is breath in me, that long I will persist. For now I know one of the greatest principles on success; if I persist long enough I will win.
Og Mandino

Within each of us is a hidden store of determination. Determination to keep us in the race when all seems lost.
Roger Dawson

Determination is the wake-up call to the human will.
Anthony Robbins

Nothing great will ever be achieved without great men, and men are great only if they are determined to be so.
Charles De Gaulle

An invincible determination can accomplish almost anything and in this lies the great distinction between great men and little men.
Dr. Thomas Fuller

Never go backward. Attempt, and do it with all your might. Determination is power.
Charles Simmons

Those who don't understand determination call determination stubbornness or too driven. To be determined is to see it through!
Catherine Pulsifer

Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough.
Og Mandino

You've got to get up every morning with determination if you're going to go to bed with satisfaction.
George Lorimer

We will either find a way, or make one!
Hannibal

Never stop. One stops as soon as something is about to happen.
Peter Brock

Difficulties

Real difficulties can be overcome; it is only the imaginary ones that are unconquerable.
Theodore N. Vail

The individual who know the score about life sees difficulties as opportunities.
Norman Vincent Peale

There are two ways of meeting difficulties: you alter the difficulties, or you alter yourself to meet them.
Phyllis Bottome

You can't fly a kite unless you go against the wind and have a weight to keep it from turning a somersault. The same with man. No man will succeed unless he is ready to face and overcome difficulties and is prepared to assume responsibilities.
William J.H. Boetcker

The greatest difficulties lie where we are not looking for them.
Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

When I hear somebody sigh that Life is hard, I am always tempted to ask, Compared to what?
Sydney J. Harris

Undertake something that is difficult; it will do you good. Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow.
Ronald E. Osborn

If you would only recognize that life is hard, things would be so much easier for you.
Louis D. Brandeis

Our greatest battles are that with our own minds.
Jameson Frank

The man of character finds an especial attractiveness in difficulty since it is only by coming to grips with difficulty that he can realize his potentialities.
Charles de Gaulle

No matter how difficult the challenge, when we spread our wings of faith and allow the winds of God's spirit to lift us, no obstacle is too great to overcome.
Roy Lessin

If I were asked to give what I consider the single most useful bit of advice for all humanity, it would be this: Expect trouble as an inevitable part of life, and when it comes, hold your head high. Look it squarely in the eye, and say, "I will be bigger than you. You cannot defeat me.
Ann Landers

Difficulties should act as a tonic. They should spur us to greater exertion.
B. C. Forbes

The Difficult is that which can be done immediately; the Impossible that which takes a little longer.
George Santayana

It is surmounting difficulties that makes heroes.
Louis Kossuth

Into each life some rain must fall, some days be dark and dreary.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Difficulties are meant to rouse, not discourage. The human spirit is to grow strong by conflict.
William E. Channing

Triumphs without difficulties are empty. Indeed, it is difficulties that make the triumph. It is no feat to travel the smooth road.
Source Unknown

Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs.
Henry Ford

It is a good rule to face difficulties at the time they arise and not allow them to increase unacknowledged.
Edward W. Ziegler

In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.
Albert Einstein

To be successful you must accept all challenges that come your way. You can't just accept the ones you like.
Mike Gafka

Troubles, like babies, grow larger by nursing.
Lady Holland

For every mountain there is a miracle.
Robert H. Schuller

I know God will not give me anything I can't handle. I just wish that He didn't trust me so much.
Mother Teresa

Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortune; but great minds rise above it.
Washington Irving

A desire can overcome all objections and obstacles.
Gunderson

Obstacles are like wild animals. They are cowards but they will bluff you if they can. If they see you are afraid of them... they are liable to spring upon you; but if you look them squarely in the eye, they will slink out of sight.
Orison Swett Marden

The true measure of a man is not how he behaves in moments of comfort and convenience but how he stands at times of controversy and challenges.
Martin Luther King Jr.

Smooth seas do not make skilful sailors.
African Proverb

It's not whether you get knocked down. It's whether you get up again.
Vince Lombardi

Stand up to your obstacles and do something about them. You will find that they haven't half the strength you think they have.
Norman Vincent Peale

You must do the thing you think you cannot do.
Eleanor Roosevelt

Life's challenges are not supposed to paralyze you, they're supposed to help you discover who you are.
Bernice Johnson Reagon

Dreams

Among all human constructions the only ones that avoid the dissolving hands of time are castles in the air.
Frederico de Roberto

A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery

If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; there is where they should be. Now put foundations under them.
Henry David Thoreau

Dreaming is an act of pure imagination, attesting in all men a creative power, which, if it were available in waking, would make every man a Dante or a Shakespeare.
H.F. Hedge

If you can DREAM it, you can DO it.
Walt Disney

All our dreams can come true - if we have the courage to pursue them.
Walt Disney

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you've imagined.
Henry David Thoreau

We've removed the ceiling above our dreams. There are no more impossible dreams.
Jesse Jackson

Dreams come true; without that possibility, nature would not incite us to have them.
John Updike

I have heard it said that the first ingredient of success - the earliest spark in the dreaming youth - if this; dream a great dream.
John A. Appleman

You are never given a dream without also being given the power to make it true. You may have to work for it, however.
Richard Bach

The moment of enlightenment is when a person's dreams of possibilities become images of probabilities.
Vic Braden

Don't be afraid of the space between your dreams and reality. If you can dream it, you can make it so.
Belva Davis

Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die tomorrow.
James Dean

Dream no small dreams for they have no power to move the hearts of men.
Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

If you don't have a dream, how are you going to make a dream come true?
Oscar Hammerstein

All men of action are dreamers.
James G. Huneker

Some people follow their dreams, others hunt them down and beat them mercilessly into submission.
Neil Kendall

There are those that look at things the way they are, and ask why? I dream of things that never were, and ask why not.
Robert F. Kennedy

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.
K Denis Waitley

Without dreams, there is no reality!
Luis B. Couto

Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.
Goethe

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.
Eleanor Roosevelt

You can't just sit there and wait for people to give you that golden dream. You've got to get out there and make it happen for yourself.
Diana Ross

Man, alone, has the power to transform his thoughts into physical reality; man, alone, can dream and make his dreams come true.
Napoleon Hill

If you're going to be thinking, you may as well think big.
Donald Trump

Enthusiasm 

The real secret of success is enthusiasm.
Walter Chrysler

Enthusiasm releases the drive to carry you over obstacles and adds significance to all you do.
Norman Vincent Peale

I studied the lives of great men and famous women, and I found that the men and women who got to the top were those who did the jobs they had in hand, with everything they had of energy and enthusiasm.
Henry Truman

A man can succeed at almost anything for which he has unlimited enthusiasm.
Charles M. Schwab

The great accomplishments of man have resulted from the transmission of ideas and enthusiasm.
Thomas J. Wats