The other day I was tidying up in the kitchen when I heard all heck break loose downstairs. Apparently there was some sort of exchange between by 14 year old daughter and my 8 year old son. My boy came out on the short end of the stick, suffering some minor lacerations to his knee. Although it seemed clear that it was an accident the first thing my son said to me when I arrived on the scene was, “She did it on purpose.” This statement gave me pause to think about how we use the phrase, “on purpose“.

Was it really my daughter’s “purpose” to injure her brother? I don’t think so, nor is that what he meant when he said it. Usually when we say, “on purpose” what we really mean is “intentionally”. However, intention and purpose are two very different things. We might occasionally do things intentionally that have nothing to do with our purpose. But to have a purpose, a clear and meaningful one, and to be on that purpose, now that is something that can have a meaningful and lasting impact in our lives and the lives of others.

As this New Year unfolds let me encourage you to have a purpose, know that purpose inside and out, and focus your energy and efforts toward being truly “on purpose.” Being on purpose is like being on target, and that is one target you definitely don’t want to miss.

If you would like to learn more about your purpose and how to be on purpose in your life let me encourage you to sign up for a free coaching session by clicking the link below.

To Your Success!

Kip Kint
Success Coach
Mission Ignition, Inc.

I was talking to a prospective coaching client the other day. As I was explaining the emphasis we place on balance and personal success in our coaching programs he interjected and made an interesting comment. He said to me, “Kip, I know I have some things I need to improve on personally, but for right now I really need to just focus on improving my business.”

What a revelation! In one sentence he revealed a paradigm that more than anything else was holding him back from being as successful as he could be. There is one principle, one natural law, one fundamental truth that he was not recognizing and applying, and that is this:

No Success, including Business Success, can precede Personal Success.

You see this is the deal, the crux of it all really. The fastest car in the world doesn’t win the race without a highly skilled driver; the finest paint and brushes have no meaningful impact on the canvas without the hand of a talented artist; and successful, highly effective businesses are run by people who are successful and highly effective as human beings. It is a PRErequisite. Being an effective, successful person does not come after first building a successful business or career. IT COMES FIRST!!! If Business Success is the chicken, and Personal Success is the egg, then the answer to the age-old question is most definitely and emphatically “The Egg!”, and if you will take the time to nurture the egg (your personal effectiveness) you will find it results in a more robust and healthy chicken (in other words, a great business/career).

Deep down you know this is true, we all do. Yet so many would try to convince themselves they can take the shortcut that no one else has been able to take, that somehow they can have the business success they desire without doing the work on themselves first. Why do so many try it? Why do they skip the part where they work on themselves and work on other things first? The answer is fear.

Think of it this way, if I try my hand at creating a successful business and fail I can reason that it was due to any number of reasons and circumstances outside my control. However, if I work on being an effective person and fail… well, you can see how this pill might prove a little harder to swallow if we let such fears get the best of us. As a result, most of us focus our efforts in either the wrong place, or in the right place but prematurely (in other words, without working on personal effectiveness first).

My Challenge to You:

1. Focus your efforts on becoming a highly effective person, one who makes and keeps commitments to yourself and has a high degree of personal integrity and follow through, even when no one else knows of your commitment.

2. Be an excellent manager of your time. It’s not about scheduling every minute of your time, but rather doing the right thing at the right time.

3. Establish habits that will serve you throughout the rest of your life, habits that will lead you to succeed regardless of your chosen business or career endeavors.

If you will do these things I am confident you will enjoy tremendous success in all aspects of your life, including business and career.

To get a Free Coaching Session to discuss your Business and Personal Success and Effectiveness just click the link below:

To Your Success!

Kip Kint
Success Coach & President
Mission Ignition, Inc.

Imagine that you are standing on a beach. You have 100 pounds of seaweed in your right hand. It is wet, heavy, messy, smelly, tangled, and has bugs crawling in it. It is generally unpleasant in virtually every way. It is heavy enough that you are straining just to keep from dropping it. And you don’t want to drop it because you perceive that mixed in with the unpleasant seaweed are many important things you would not want to drop. So, you hang on.

In your left hand you have one tiny, shiny grain of sand. Though it is small it is very pleasant to look at as it catches the sunlight. Have you ever noticed how a beach sparkles in the sunlight? If you were to look at this shiny grain of sand under a magnifying glass you would see that it looks almost like a jewel or gem because it has been polished by the pounding waves for thousands of years.

What weighs more, the seaweed or the grain of sand? Of course the seaweed far outweighs the grain of sand. But what does each represent?

The seaweed represents all the problems, trials, challenges, annoyances, frustrations, overwhelm, inundation and stress that often accompanies some of the weighty, urgent, important things in our lives.

The tiny, shiny grain of sand represents the little things in life that we feel good about. It could be any little thing, even as small as cleaning your sock drawer and feeling good about it, or doing a good deed for someone, or getting a hug from a child, or appreciating the beauty of a rare double rainbow. The point is that these are the small things in life that we feel good about. As nice as these little things are, and as good as they make us feel, the seaweed still far outweighs the individual grains of sand. However, where did I say you were standing? That’s right, on a beach. And what weighs more, the hundred pounds of seaweed or the entire beach? Of course, it is not even close. The beach may weigh millions of tons. The seaweed pales in comparison. There is an old saying, “I can’t see the forrest for the trees.” Well, sometimes we cannot see the beach for the seaweed. We need to count the tiny, shiny grains of sand in our lives so that they can accumulate in our hearts and minds, thus forming a beach of happiness, peace, and success.

Oh, the seaweed will still be there, but I can promise you it will pale in comparison to the beach full of wonderful things in your life.

I will leave you with a little poem I wrote to remind you of this principle of the Sand and the Seaweed:

The Shining Sand
by Kip Kint

The other night I had a dream
I was standing on a beach
Heavy seaweed filled my arms
Relief could not be reached

I wondered why this burden was mine
Such heavy weight to bear
This seaweed filled with sorrow
Requiring all my care

Then in my dream I understood
The meaning of it all
The seaweed was all my trials
And bearing them was my call

Then in the midst of my labor
I saw the sand sparkling bright
At once it came to me with clarity
The shortness of my sight

Each grain of sand had been polished
Over thousands of years of time
By the pounding waves of the ocean
Into priceless jewels sublime

These little gems, though lighter
Than the seaweed in my hold
Represent the small but priceless things
With worth much greater than gold

And though the weight of the seaweed was great
And weighed upon my mind
The weight of the entire beach was greater
With those grains of sand combined

When you can’t see the forest for the trees
Because the weight of challenges demand
You may be focused on seaweed so much
That you cannot see the sand

That precious sand, those little things
They have so much to teach
But only if we count them up
Will they ever make a beach

A beach of blessings, a beach of joy
A beach where one can stand
And know that life’s heavy seaweed is light
When compared to its shining sand

To Your Success!

Kip Kint
Success Coach & President
Mission Ignition, Inc.

Okay, so last time I wrote about the 4 Levels of Competence. Here is a quick reminder:

1. Unconscious Incompetence (You stink and don’t know it)
2. Conscious Incompetence (You stink and you know you stink)
3. Conscious Competence (You are pretty good, but you have to think about it)
4. Unconscious Competence (You are really good, and it is automatic - a habit)

So, this week I want to talk about how to progress through these levels in order to maximize your effectiveness.

I want you to imagine that you are driving down the road in a high-powered Ferrari Testarosa. You are traveling 100 mph on a 6-lane Superhighway. It is long and straight; really built for speed. As you look far off into the distance you come to the sudden realization that you are not headed where you want to go. In fact, you realize that you are not driving at all. You look over to see who is in the driver’s seat only to discover that your “brain” is at the wheel. You have just moved from Unconscious Incompetence to Conscious Incompetence.

When I say your “brain” I mean that part of your brain that is responsible for processing your reactions to external stimuli. You ”your higher self, your values, mission, and vision for what matters most to you” that’s the part of you that is in the passenger’s seat. You see, your brain is primarily concerned with how quickly it can process the particular stimulus it is presented with. To do that it uses something called Neural Pathways. These pathways in the brain are created by repetitive use. The more use they receive, the more of a Neural Superhighway they become, meaning stimuli can be processed and action (or rather reaction) can happen almost instantaneously. The only problem is that the pathway your brain uses may not lead to the response that your higher self might prefer and the ultimate outcome you desire.

For example, I have an uncle who every time someone comes even remotely close to cutting him of on the road he automatically responds by letting the other driver know how passionately he feels about it, generally using colorful sign language punctuated with the generous use of his horn. Surely it is not the most effective response, but it is the response his brain is conditioned to give because of the frequent use of that particular Neural Pathway, or in this particular case, Neural Superhighway.

So, what to do about it. Once again, imagine you are in the Ferrari. For now, the brain is still driving. You look out to the right side of the highway and see a beautiful place far off in the distance that you would like to get to. Then you notice that in between the highway and the place where you want to be there is a field of incredibly tall grass with no road or pathway of any kind through it. Yet, you know you want to get there. So, you decide to propose a change of course to your brain. Of course, your brain immediately fixates on the fact that there is no pathway at all, let alone a marvelous Superhighway like the one you are currently on, and says to you, “This is exactly why I am driving and you are not. Can’t you see how fast we are going. So what if it is not where you want to go. That is a minor detail compared to how fast we can travel on this Superhighway.”

It is difficult to argue this logic with your deeply scripted brain, primarily because your brain does not make these decisions based on logic. As we said before, to the brain, speed of response is all that matters. For you there is only one thing left to do. You must grab your brain by its metaphorical collar and yank it out of the driver’s seat. You must assume control, pull the Ferrari over, drag your brain out of the car and arduously press forward through the field of tall grass, forcing your way through, dragging your brain kicking and screaming behind you until you reach your desired destination. You will be happy you did. This is Conscious Competence, getting to where you want to go even though it is not easy, nor automatic. Your brain, though it will know it is a good place you have arrived at, will focus on the difficulty of the journey. If you don’t travel that same course again soon the grass that was briefly bent as you made your way through will show no trace of your journey shortly after.

You must travel your new course again, and again, and by so doing the grass becomes matted down, then slightly worn away into a small path, then a byway, then a highway, and before you know it you will have a new Neural Superhighway leading you to a more effective response and course of action. In fact, you could even put your brain back in the driver’s seat and it will prefer that new Superhighway you have created since the old one has now fallen into disrepair from lack of attention and use. This is the highest level of competence where you become Unconsciously Competent.

So, get in the driver’s seat and forge a new Superhighway… a Superhighway to Effectiveness!

To your Success!

Kip Kint
Success Coach & President
Mission Ignition, Inc.

Sometimes the road of life feels bumpy…

…although we don’t usually get the warning sign.

But is it the road of life that is so bumpy?  The road might actually be like this…

…and still feel quite bumpy.  Why is that?  Well, it may not be the road that is the problem.  It may well be the wheel you are traveling on.

There is a certain balance to life, call it the Wheel of Life, and if your Wheel of Life is out of balance your ride is going to be bumpy, even if the road is smooth.  Your Wheel of Life has 8 “spokes” if you will.  Each spoke on the Wheel of Life represents a different significant role or segment of your life.  They are:

1. Business/Career
2. Finances
3. Health
4. Family and Friends
5. Romance
6. Personal Growth
7. Fun and Recreation
8. Physical Environment

When you look at these areas in the Wheel of Life they look something like this:

Once you self-assess your performance and satisfaction on a scale from 1 - 10 in each area your actual Wheel of Life may look a little more like this:

Now, imagine driving on such a wheel.  It wouldn’t matter how smooth the road is, the ride is going to be quite bumpy.

“What if I am all 3’s?” you might ask, “Isn’t that balanced?”  Well, technically speaking, yes.  However, that would be a little like putting perfectly balanced skateboard wheels on a Ferrari.  The car would have to work hundreds of times harder to travel only a fraction of the distance and speed.  We don’t just want balance, we want optimal balance.

So, do you have to be all 10’s?  Not necessarily, but consider this: You decide what a 10 is for you.  We are not talking about perfection; we are talking about what you want in any given area of your life and fulfilling your vision for that part of your Wheel of Life.

Whatever the heart and mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.

~ W. Clement Stone, American Best Selling Author and Founder of Combined Insurance Company (now part of Aon Corp.), 1902 - 2002

If you lack balance how can you stand, let alone travel from where you are to where you want to be.  Balance is the very key to lasting success, in any part of your life.

Take your own Wheel of Life Personal Assessment by clicking on the Wheel of Life below:

To Your Success!

Kip Kint
Success Coach & President
Mission Ignition, Inc.

The following is a short Fable I wrote some years ago.  I believe it teaches a very important principle.  Enjoy:

Ladies and Gentleman, gather ’round and lend your attention full.
As I venture to tell a tale of woe, the Parable of the Farmer’s Bull.

Once upon a time, not so long ago, there was a gentle and kind-hearted farmer. Though he lived in meager times, he had an industrious mind and an entrepreneurial spirit. He was quite successful in his farming business, having specialized in such crops as corn, wheat, barley and hay. He also enjoyed a small but thriving dairy farm.

One day this farming entrepreneur was struck with an idea. “Cattle ranching could be quite profitable”, he thought to himself, “This could be just the thing to add to my small but growing enterprise.” He already had a fair number of cows from his dairy business that he could begin with, but what he was lacking was a quality bull to act as sire for a growing herd. So, the farmer conducted some research and diligently shopped around. Finally, he found a rancher in a nearby village that had a quality bull for sale. One thousand dollars was his asking price. Not cheap for the time period, but then again quality never is.

The farmer and the rancher conducted their business and closed the transaction. The farmer paid the rancher one thousand dollars cash and promptly began his journey home with his new bull in tow, mulling over his plans with excitement along the way.

About a week later the rancher from whom the farmer had purchased the bull came to call. He said to the farmer, “I know this is going to sound strange, and I am sure you will not be pleased, but I need you to pay me another thousand dollars for that bull.”

The farmer was indeed not pleased. In addition he was also confused. Had he not alreadypaid one thousand dollars for the bull? Hadn’t the price already been agreed upon?Was the bull not already his? All these thoughts and more went through to the farmer’s mind. Finally, all he could bring himself to ask the rancher was, “Are you sure I need to pay you another thousand dollars?” The rancher replied, “I am sure.” And with that the farmer reached into his satchel, retrieved another thousand dollars, and handed it to the rancher.

Trying to ease his troubled mind regarding the circumstances surrounding the purchase of his bull, the farmer quickly immersed himself back into his new cattle business and soon forgot all about the rancher and the extra thousand dollars.

However, after another week had passed, the rancher came to visit the farmer once again. He began much the same way as he had during the previous visit. “I know this is going to sound strange” said the rancher as he went on to explain that yet again he required another thousand dollars for the bull. All the same thoughts again went through the farmer’s mind about having already paid, the bull already being his, and also about how expensive this was getting. But, once again all the farmer could bring himself to ask was, “Are you sure?” “I am sure” said the rancher. And with that the farmer paid the rancher yet another thousand dollars for the bull.

This continued for several weeks until eventually the farmer had no more money left to pay. In fact, the farmer found he was bankrupt. He lost his new cattle business, his previously successful farm, his beautiful home, and all that he possessed. The farmer was left with nothing. He was destitute.

Now, in the beginning I told you this was a tale of woe, but this sad little story is not without a moral.

The moral of the story is:

Never, never, buy your own “BULL”!!!

Now, I am fully aware that my little parable is blatantly corny, maybe even a little too obvious in its play on words. And even though you may have rolled your eyes, I am pretty sure you won’t forget this story any time soon. The truth that it speaks is quite plain.

There is an old saying, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” It is one thing for us to buy our “bull” once, maybe even twice, but to buy our own “bull” again, and again, isn’t that just too expensive? To fool ourselves over and over, isn’t the price just too high?

The choice is ours, but we have to be awake and aware as to what our own “bull” really is. We must be willing to acknowledge within ourselves that we are responsible, that we are accountable for the choices we make. Ultimately it was the farmer who was responsible for the demise of his business and financial well-being, not the rancher. Sure, we could rightly say, “Shame on the rancher” for fooling the farmer once, but shame on the farmer for being fooled time and again.

So as my little parable draws to an end, keep this thought in mind my friend

Over your own eyes never pull the wool, and never, never buy your own “bull”.

To your Success!

Kip Kint
Success Coach & President
Mission Ignition, Inc.

© Kip Kint; Mission Ignition

Have you ever heard of the children’s book entitled, “The Little Engine That Couldn’t“?  Very few have.  It never sold any copies.  The biggest problem was that there was only one page:

“The Little Engine didn’t think he could.  So, he didn’t.”
The End

Not very inspiring either.

Most of us are familiar with “The Little Engine That Could” by Watty Piper.  The text for this delightful and insightful little story follows:

A little railroad engine was employed about a station yard for such work as it was built for, pulling a few cars on and off the switches. One morning it was waiting for the next call when a long train of freight-cars asked a large engine in the roundhouse to take it over the hill “I can’t; that is too much a pull for me,” said the great engine built for hard work. Then the train asked another engine, and another, only to hear excuses and be refused. At last in desperation the train asked the little switch engine to draw it up the grade and down on the other side. “I think I can,” puffed the little locomotive, and put itself in front of the great heavy train. As it went on the little engine kept bravely puffing faster and faster, “I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.”

Then as it near the top of the grade, that had so discouraged the larger engines, it went more slowly, but still kept saying, “I–think–I–can, I–think–I–can.” It reached the top by dint of brave effort and then went on down the grade, congratulating itself, “I thought I could, I thought I could.”

To think of hard things and say, “I can’t” is sure to mean “Nothing done.” To refuse to be daunted and insist on saying, “I think I can,” is to make sure of being able to say triumphantly by and by, “I thought I could, I thought I could.”

Virtually every endeavor in this life falls into one of 4 Quadrants:

1. Those things that are EASY and WORTH IT.
2. Those things that are DIFFICULT and WORTH IT.
3. Those things that are EASY and NOT WORTH IT.
4. Those things that are DIFFICULT and NOT WORTH IT.

When it comes to Quadrant 1, the things that are both EASY and WORTH IT, should we do those things?  Of course, they are WORTH IT.  Being EASY doesn’t trivialize them or make them any less significant.  All it means is DON’T WORRY!  Don’t stress over them.  Just DO them.  After all, they are not only WORTH IT, they are also EASY.

We will skip Quadrant 2 for now and come back to it in a moment.  When it comes to Quadrant 3, the things that are EASY and NOT WORTH IT, should we do those things?  Absolutely NOT.  They are NOT WORTH IT.  Not worth the time.  Not worth the effort, no matter how easy they are.  Just because they are easy is not reason enough to do them.  They still take time, one of your most precious commodities.  Don’t waste your time on EASY things that are NOT WORTH IT.

The 4th Quadrant consists of those things that are DIFFICULT and NOT WORTH IT.  Should we do those things?  You would have to be out of your mind.  If you are not going to do things that are EASY and NOT WORTH IT, why on Earth would you bang your head against the wall and waste your time doing things that are NOT WORTH and downright DIFFICULT to boot?  To me this it the biggest no-brainer.  Being DIFFICULT doesn’t automatically make something WORTH doing.  DIFFICULTY and WORTH must be evaluated independently.  Don’t do things that are NOT WORTH IT, even if they are EASY, and certainly not if they are DIFFICULT.

Well, that brings us back to Quadrant 2, those things that are DIFFICULT and WORTH IT.  Should we do those things?  Of course we should, they are WORTH IT, meaning they are WORTH the DIFFICULTY that must be overcome in order to accomplish them.  Ultimately, it is the portion of the equation you focus on that will determine your success.

Will you focus on the DIFFICULTY?  If that is your primary focus then you will be like the “Little Engine that COULDN’T” defeating yourself with your own limiting beliefs before you ever begin.  Or, will you be like “The Little Engine That Could” focusing on the WORTH, the value, the positive, believing you can and continuing in that belief all the way until you are celebrating that you COULD.

I think I CAN… I think I CAN… I think I CAN… I KNEW I COULD… I KNEW I COULD…

I KNEW I COULD!!!

To your SUCCESS!

Kip Kint
Success Coach & President
Mission Ignition

Hello, and welcome to this week’s Mission Ignition Success Blog.  I hope to warm you up with more insight into principles of effectiveness and success, so pull up a chair and put another blog on the fire (sorry, couldn’t resist).  I hope this week’s thought will shed a little light on your path to success.

This week’s blog is just a little longer than usual, but will be well worth the extra two minutes you spend reading it. I thought I would share one of my favorite stories.  It is based on actual facts and statistics provided by the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) and it has significant relevance to our journey to success.  I help my clients all the time with their missions, values and visions.  These documents are not only very touching and inspirational, but they typically paint a pretty lofty picture, as they should.  In fact, many clients will describe the mission they discover and the vision they create as a description of their “ideal” or “perfect”.  There is just one problem - they are not perfect.  I am not perfect.  You are not perfect.  So how does an imperfect person live a perfect (or near perfect) mission?  The answer is “Constant Course Correction.”  Enjoy the story; it illustrates this principle beautifully.

TO ERR IS HUMAN
by Raymond Jones

If you were to take a long trip, say from San Francisco to Hawaii, aboard a 747 with several other people, you might be appalled if you knew who was flying the airplane.  It is not the pilots; it is a couple of guys named Fred and George.

Fred and George are two black boxes, and they really are referred to as Fred and George.  Fred is a gizmo called an Inertial Navigation System.  Fred knows at every moment exactly where the airplane is and where it is supposed to be.  In the old days a human navigator took a look at his instruments and did some figuring, and by the time he had the position worked out the plane was long from that spot.  Fred knows now where the plane is.

George is the autopilot.  He moves the controls to guide the airplane this way and that, speed it up or slow it down.  He and Fred talk to each other constantly.  If their conversation were in English, it would sound something like this:  Fred will say, “George, we’re off course two degrees to starboard. And George will say, O.K. Fred, I’ll fix it.”

“George, we’re off course three degrees to port.”
“O.K. Fred, I’ll fix it.”
“George, we’re forty knots below our airspeed.”
“O.K. Fred, I’ll fix it.”
“George, we’re three hundred feet too low.”
“O.K. Fred, I’ll fix it.”

This conversation continues all the way to Hawaii, and George and Fred bring the giant plane within a thousand yards of the runway in Honolulu within five minutes of the scheduled time of arrival.

The incredible thing is not so much the accuracy of Fred and George, but the fact that the airplane has been in error 90% of the time of its flight.  In error 90% of the time and still it lands on target and on schedule!

The secret is that George made thousands of errors in driving the airplane, but for each error Fred called out a correction and George corrected.  The flight line was made up of thousands of small jogs that criss-crossed the ideal straight flight line and still put the airplane at its destination when it was suppose to be there.  A rocket to the moon travels in exactly the same way.

If we human beings could see that we can get a 747 to Honolulu or a rocket to the moon even having been in error 90% of the time, we might be a little less uptight about being in error ourselves.

There’s nothing that kills performance like fear of failure, fear of being foolish, fear of being caught in error.  We are particularly prone to this fear.

The secret to the success of Fred and George is correction.  They work as a perfect team.  Fred spots an error.  George corrects it immediately.  Some human beings work that way.  Most don’t.

To be in life means we are constantly off course.  What is important is not that we are off course, but whether or not we make the corrections that need to be made.  Human beings differ from Fred and George in one important and often fatal respect - the desire to protect one’s position.

Suppose Fred and George were human and Fred had just pointed out for the fiftieth time that George was wrong.  George, the human George, would likely reply, “Will you leave me alone!  I’m doing the best that I can.  If you think you can do any better, come and fly this thing yourself.”

Fred and George, the machines, don’t do that.  They work together and get the job done.  Human beings don’t like correction.  They prefer to protect the position they have taken.  But, in reality, any response that takes offense to correction is inappropriate.  If the person who gives you correction is a fool, to be upset by a fool is to make yourself an even greater fool.  If the input is of value, then to not consider it places you once again in the position of a fool.

Most people don’t make the necessary corrections because they are too busy being concerned with protection.  Most people’s failures in life are a product of protecting themselves when they should have been correcting themselves.

It is almost as if people drive down the highway of life and suddenly notice that the gas gauge is nearly empty.  Instead of correcting, pulling into a gas station, they cover up the gauge and pretend it isn’t there, hoping that when they wake up in the morning, an elf, Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny will have filled up the gas tank.

The unwillingness to be in error and correct it is the source of most failures.  Somehow the notion persists that you can get away from failure, that we can succeed enough to never fail again.  That possibility just doesn’t exist.  It is like trying to eat once and for all.

Successful people, like the 747 airplane, are willing to live in error and are willing to correct.  They are people who are busily doing what they don’t know for sure how to do.  They recognize that life is not a riskless process.

“George, you aren’t going in the right direction!”
“O.K. Fred, I”ll fix it.”

To your Success!

Kip Kint
Success Coach & President
Mission Ignition

I received the following in an e-mail today.  I found it to be profound, insightful, and above all…true!  I have had this discussion many times with my own coaching clients.  This particular piece comes from Michael Josephson and CharacterCounts.org.  I encourage you to take notes on any insights you may have, and more particularly how you might apply it in you own life.

It’s been said that the line between childhood and adulthood is crossed when we move from saying “It got lost” to “I lost it.” Indeed, being accountable - and understanding and accepting the role our choices play in the things that happen - are crucial signs of emotional and moral maturity. That’s why responsibility is one of the main pillars of good character.

Many people have been seduced by the Peter Pan philosophy of refusing to grow up and avoiding the burdens implied in being accountable. Yes, responsibility sometimes requires us to do things that are unpleasant or even frightening. It asks us to carry our own weight, prepare and set goals, and exercise the discipline to reach our aspirations.

But the benefits of accepting responsibility far outweigh the short-lived advantages of refusing to do so. No one makes his or her life better by avoiding responsibility. In fact, irresponsibility is a form of self-imposed servitude - to circumstances and to other people.

Responsibility is about our ability to respond to circumstances and to choose the attitudes, actions, and reactions that shape our lives. It is a concept of power that puts us in the driver’s seat. The grand panorama of the potential of our lives can only be appreciated when we begin to be accountable and self-reliant.

Responsible people not only depend on themselves, but show others that they can be depended on. This breeds trust, and trust is a key that opens many doors.

If you want more control over your life and the pleasures, prerogatives, and power of freedom and independence, all you have to do is be responsible.

Michael Josephson

I also watched this little “poem/movie” from Michael Josephson and found it quite inspirational.  Take a moment and watch it, I think you will find it well worth your time.

What Will Matter Movie

To your success!

Kip Kint
Success Coach & President
Mission Ignition

Have you heard of The Secret?  If not, then crawl out from under that rock of yours because The Secret has hit the BIG TIME!  Just recently Oprah did an entire show dedicated to this phenomenon that is spreading faster that you can say, “The Law of Attraction”.  In fact, the response was so huge that she had an encore show the following week which had not been previously scheduled.

The Secret is not a secret anymore.  I have been coaching people on the basic principles of the Law of Attraction for years, without necessarily referring to it in those exact terms.  Stephen Covey talks about Self-fulfilling Prophecy and the Social Mirror in his best-selling book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, both of which have relevance when it comes to the The Secret and the results you create in your life.

Whatever the origins, The Secret is out and many people are seeing a profound impact in their lives.  It is sweeping the world and gaining momentum.  So, what is The Secret?  It is the Law of Attraction, which simply stated is, “Like Attracts Like“.  In other words, what you think about becomes manifest in your life.  In a sense it is a different way of saying what you “see” is what you “get”.  There is great evidence that this is in fact true, physically, mentally, spiritually, emotionally, and even scientifically.

PBS did a very interesting piece about Mirror Neurons some time back that I believe provides some scientific support to this idea of Like Attracts Like, or that what you “see” whether with your physical eyes or your minds eye, is what becomes your reality.

So, put it to the test.  As a Success Coach I encourage you to watch the movie The Secret and apply the principle of the Law of Attraction in your life.  I encourage you to make a commitment that you will no longer focus on what you DON’T WANT (i.e. “I don’t want financial problems” or “I don’t want a poor relationship with my spouse”) and start focusing on what you are grateful for and what you DO WANT (i.e. “I am grateful for the abundance I have, and I want financial freedom” or “I am grateful for my relationship with my spouse.  I want even greater closeness and intimacy in our relationship”).  Remember that what ever the picture is in your mind, even if it is a picture of what you DON’T WANT, that is what you will attract.

In the most fundamental sense, when it comes to the Law of Attraction what you “see”, with your minds eye, really is what you ultimately get.

Henry Ford may have had the Law of Attraction in mind when he uttered the words that are this week’s Success Quote:

Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t, you are usually right.

~ Henry Ford, Founder of Ford Motor Company, 1863 - 1947

To your success!

Kip Kint
Success Coach & President
Mission Ignition