What’s Your Sign?
By Michael Werner
Whether it’s careers, dream jobs, business, or life, you’ll find that most motivational and success authors and speakers talk, at some point, about positive thinking, affirmations, and a whole variety of pump-you-up methodologies, tips, and processes.
And, I’m sure you’ve heard the stories and quotations from famous and not-yet-famous people about how your own thinking controls your moment, your day, and eventually your life.
I think it was Henry Ford who said:
“Whether you think you can or you can’t, you’re right.”
Yup, Mr. Ford, you got that right! (To this day, my 26 year-old stepdaughter throws that one at me if I show even the slightest bit of negativity about a project… as it was I who drummed that saying into her head, repeatedly, when she was a little girl.)
And, it was one of my all-time favorite motivational/success writers, Earl Nightingale (get his book, Earl Nightingale’s Secret Discovery, for an absolute great read), who created an entire publishing empire, through his and others’ books, tapes, and speaking tours, based around these six simple words:
You become what you think about.
Today, my self-help tool of choice is Mike Dooley’s Infinite Possibilities CD series, which has the following at the core of its teachings:
Thoughts become things.
Of course, I’m sure that each one of you reading these words has tried one form or another of self motivation at some point in your life. At least, you’ve probably repeated the “you can do it, you can do it, you can do it” mantra a few times before facing a tough decision, person, moment, or audience.
Back in my workshop teaching and training days where I’d travel the continent conducting computer and business seminars, every morning when I’d wake up in a lonely hotel room, the first thing I’d do after the morning’s ablutions was to stand in front of the bathroom mirror, put on a big smile, and say out loud, “It’s show time, folks!” Invariably that small step would set me in the right direction for the entire day, and I’d usually end up conducting a great workshop.
I attribute much of my positive mental attitude to small, simple — yet incredibly powerful — techniques that just about anyone can replicate.
And, whether it’s getting ready to face an audience, take the necessary steps to start talking to people in your field, or deal with those situations in life that require a little bit of backbone or willpower, you’ll likely want to develop your own internal (or, sometimes, external) self-motivational techniques.
Here’s one that works for me… every single time. Always. Never fails me.
Signs.
Yup, I put up tacky, silly and drive-my-wife-and-kids crazy signs. These are things that keep a goal right in front of me and I tack them up on the wall or bulletin board near my desk, and just as frequently on my bedroom door or bathroom mirror.
Right now I’m focusing on losing the 20 pounds I gained in the last six months while paying attention to lots of things in my work and life, with food consumption not being one of them. Now, I know what it takes to maintain the weight I feel good at, and I don’t need special diets to help me out, but I do have to focus on what I put into my body… every day. If I take my eye off that, even for a day or two, I can go weeks before I realize that my weight has spiraled out of control.
So, I have to pay attention day in and day out to my weight and to what I eat, and to what kind of exercise I get. No big deal, really; it’s just a little mental toughness (okay, a lot of mental toughness) and getting into the right habits.
For me, habits take a few days (15, 20, somewhere around there) to take hold. And… that’s where the signs come in.
Oh yeah, as each day goes by, I put a gold, silver, blue, or red star (yeah, yeah, just like our third-grade teachers used when we did good work) next to the date if I’ve maintained my food intake goals for the day. Once I’ve used up the dates I’ve listed on the poster and have stars all over the thing, my habit is usually firmly in place and I don’t need to repeat that sign; but, if I do… well, hmm, I just do.
My current sign, designed to keep my focus clearly on my food intake, says this:
There’s no one – repeat NO ONE – in all of North America with YOUR mental toughness. The gods of tenacity lay down for you, Mr. Werner!
Okay, okay… so maybe it’s a little silly.
Even a tad stupid.
But so what? It works!
So, what’s your sign going to say? It doesn’t really matter what your goal is. Just make a goofy-silly noticeable sign that you can keep in front of you to remind you what’s important.
So, again, what’s your sign?
Michael Werner runs Dream Jobs Dialog and is also the CEO of InfoSource, Inc., a company trying hard not to be like Microsoft and publisher of the teacher-to-teacher marketplace, TeachBits.com.
