Cultivating the Faith and Desire to Succeed
by Bill Havens / Winners-Bounce.com

“Far better it is to dare mighty things… To win glorious
triumphs even though checkered with failures… Than
to rank with those poor spirits who neither Enjoy… nor
suffer much because they live in that gray twilight…
That Knows… Neither. Victory nor Defeat.”
--Teddy Roosevelt

A burning desire to reach your goals is a factor that
sets you apart from one who wishes or is a dreamer.
Without desire nothing can be accomplished. It creates
the energy necessary to do what is ever needed to
achieve success. What is desire?

There is a story of a wise, old sage who lived in the
mountains. A youth trying to find the meaning of
desire traveled into the mountains to find this wise
old sage. Upon finding the old sage the youth asked,
“Sire, it is said that you can tell the true meaning of
desire. Is that possible?”

The wise old sage said, “Follow me and I will show
you the true meaning of desire.” The old sage led
the youth to a lake.

“Follow me,” continued the old sage as he waded
into the lake followed closely by the youth.

The old sage stopped and turned to the youth and
commanded the youth to place his head under the
water. The youth did what he was told and placed
his head under the water. The old sage placed his
hands on the back of the youth’s head and held it
there.

The youth struggled with all his might to lift his head
out of the water as his lungs were burning and
crying for air. Finally, he was able, with a mighty
effort to force his head out of the water and take
that precious breath of air.

The old sage then said, “Now, when you want some-
thing as badly as you wanted that fresh breath of air,
you now know, my son, what true desire really is!”

Think for a moment about this statement, “When
you have everything to gain and nothing to lose, by
all means try!”

Many of us are preoccupied with a search for certainty.
Let me give you an analogy to explain what I mean...
We travel a busy highway and there were traffic lights
along the route. All of us would like nothing better
than have all green lights so we could get to where
we are going very quickly. But that is not the way it
works, there undoubtedly are going to be some red
lights.

All of our life must be built on faith and belief. We have
to make a decision; we must know where we are and
understand the values by which we are going to live
life. Then we have to take action.

We don’t always have to know we are right. We will
either live our life by faith and commitment or we live
with doubt and fear. Just about all negative attitudes
stem from this ugly twosome, fear and doubt. It crops
up as worry, self-concern, helplessness and discourage-
ment. Some people like to think you can conquer fear
and doubt by positive thinking, but it is not that simple.
We’re too much in their grasp.

Worry and fear are the same garment - they produce
fatigue, they hold us back and they restrain the mind.
They are opposite of courage and faith. They affect
our total health and they make us miserable.

What is fear? We are born with only two fears: The fear
of falling and the fear of loud noises. The rest are learned.
They are nothing more than habits of thoughts or our
attitudes. They are faith misplaced.

We get into a dark pit of fear and we dig deeper instead
of using our strengths to get out. It is easy to develop
the habit of fear and worry. The human mind is more
intrigued with the shocking and the bizarre. The awful
headlines crying about the demolished car, the mad
dog slayer... The newspapers every day are talking
crime and violence. We start to verbalize these bad
happenings and we are actually programming our
subconscious mind and it becomes part of our life.

Fear and doubt are devastating! They rob us and hold
us back.

There is a saying that is very powerful. “Fear knocked
at the door, faith answered, and no one was there.”

So the very first thing you must do is have positive faith.
Your degree of success may very well be measured by
your degree of belief and faith. We must be willing to
face rejection and problems with no effect on our positive
direction. Faith and belief provide for a foundation for
life of achievement and fulfillment.

Live one day at a time. There was a sign on a bridge,
“Warning 5 ton load limit.” That bridge handles hundreds
of tons daily, But you see, not all at one time. Almost all
fear and worry is something in the future, 90% of which
never occurs. Why carry the load? So stop and smell the
roses, live one day at a time. Shut off the past, the dead
yesterdays and shut off the future, too.

The load of tomorrow added to that of yesterday carried
today, makes the strongest falter. That is powerful - let
me go over that again...

The future is today. Plan for tomorrow but concentrate
on being the best you can possibly be today!

Finally, have a sense of humor. This is one of the least
used gifts for handling fear, doubt and problems. It serves
as a safety valve. Laugh at your serious situations. John
Glenn, the astronaut, just before going into space, was
asked what he would do if the retro rockets would fail to
ignite? He laughed and replied, “It would probably spoil
my whole day.”

These are things that all of us can do. Start doing them
today!
 

How To Develop Enthusiasm
by Bill Havens / Winners-Bounce.com

In the game of life, enthusiasm can make the
difference between winning or losing. Enthusiasm
is contagious; it is an emotion that can be
communicated more easily than words. It is a
force that springs from person to person like an
electrical spark. It is almost impossible to be
exposed to enthusiasm for any length of time
without acquiring some of it.

I learned this lesson when I was a teacher. We
had an in-service meeting after school. The
meeting was about teaching reading. I had no
interest in teaching reading; I was a physical
education teacher. I did not want to attend that
meeting but it was mandatory. Needless to say,
I attended.

I'll never forget the presenter. His name was Tony
Dibiasio and he was a teacher from Lakewood,
Ohio. When he started talking about reading, a
subject I had no interest in, almost immediately I
was caught up because the speaker was totally
caught up in his subject. He totally believed in the
techniques of teaching reading and he loved it.

His enthusiasm energized the whole audience and
everybody was listening to him. Not only did I learn
about how to teach reading, which I used later in
my career, but I saw the importance of enthusiasm
and what it would do for a non-interested audience.

Almost all aspects of life requires some skill in
persuading or motivating people, and there is no
characteristic that will help you more than
enthusiasm.

There's the story of a saleman named Harry who
broke every rule in selling that was ever written.
But before the sales meetings, his sales manager
would tell him, "Now Harry, I am going to teach
the other salesman how to sell. I want you to sit
in the back of the room and ignore everything I'm
saying. You keep on making the same mistakes
that you have been making."

You see, Harry was his top salesman and it was
no mystery to his sales manager why. He revealed,
"I have never seen a salesman with more
enthusiasm than Harry. He seems to have so much
faith and conviction about the product, he cannot
keep it bottled up. He just seems to bubble all the
time. Harry isn't selling, he's on a crusade to
convince everyone he contacts that they would be
better off owning his product. You can't stop a guy
like that."

How is enthusiasm acquired?

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, "Nothing great
was ever achieved without enthusiasm."

Charles Schwab started out as a laborer and ended
up as chairman of the board in the Bethlehem Steel
Company has said, "A person can succeed at anything
for which there is Enthusiasm."

As a football coach, I was teaching a young player to
tackle. I told him to throw his heart into the tackle
and his body would follow.

If you're going to be enthusiastic you must first want
to be! If you're mired in self pity, criticism and a lot of
negative thinking about your job and your position in
life, enthusiasm is not going to ascend from the
heavens like a bolt of lightning and strike positive life
into you.

Look at the word enthusiasm. Now look at the last
four letters - iasm. "I am sold on myself." I'm talking
about the affirmation "Be the model yourself." I'm
talking about your self image. Liking yourself is a big
part of enthusiasm.

Look at the letters again - iasm. "I am sold on my
product." You totally believe in what you are doing
whether it be teaching, selling, homemaking,
engineering, whatever it may be. Loving what you do
is also a part of enthusiasm. Combine belief in what
you're doing and loving your product with liking
yourself... Now you're going to have an enthusiastic
individual!

You don't need to be loud or boisterous to emit
enthusiasm. Just the quiet confidence that you have,
the way you look people in the eye, the smile you
have on your face, the way you shake hands, the way
you take an order and even the way you walk can
express enthusiasm and denote inner confidence. You
can be very quiet and sincere and people will still pick
up on your enthusiasm.

It's easier than you think to become a natural wellspring
of enthusiasm that energizes and motivates everyone
you contact. Just focus on integrating these four basic
principles into your daily life; Love what you do, believe
in your product, like yourself and spend time with other
enthusiastic people on a regular basis. When you do,
your life and achievements will change dramatically,
even within the first month! Start today.
 

How To Motivate People
by Bill Havens / Winners-Bounce.com

You spend all of your life motivating people,
getting them to do things for you. As an infant,
your life depends upon getting others to care
for you. As an adult, your success largely
stems from your ability to get others to do
things.

It seems you're always faced with motivating
someone to do something. You want your
children to get better grades, salespeople to
work harder, customers to buy, boss to
advance you, your spouse to treat you better
or others in the department to take a deeper
interest in their work.

There is a rule that you can follow that will
enable you to achieve those objectives. In
other words, be a good motivator. You have
heard this rule before, "To the extent that you
give others what they want, will they give you
what you want."

The secret of this rule is that you must give
others what they want first. Then they will
give you what you want. Most people do not
discover this. That is why motivation of
employees is said to be the number one
business problem of America today.

Most people try to employ the rule in an
opposite way. The employer says, "Let the
individual put forth the effort then I'll give the
raise. One spouse thinks, I wouldn't be so
grumpy around the house if my mate would
show a little more love and affection toward
me. The sales manager waits until the sales
person achieves the high standard performance
before recognition is given.

But you see, that's applying the rule backwards.
That is like saying, "I'm going to wait for you to
give me what I want, then maybe I'll give you
what you want. You must give others what they
want first. This is the key to motivating others.

But what do others want? Is it money or personal
benefits that people want most? It is all called
psychic satisfaction. People will work harder for
psychic income than they will for monetary
income! People need more than financial security.
They need boss security, leadership security,
person to person security.

And people look to you for that psychic security.
Unethical conduct, dishonesty, favoritism or under-
cover deals never motivate anyone to high levels
of achievement. People must see that you settle
issues and make decisions on the basis of fact
and logic rather than emotion. They must know
that you like them, respect them, understand them
and accept them not only for their strong points,
but also for their weaknesses. They want you to
be fair. They must see you have integrity and a
set of values that they can depend on. Your
standards must be ones that stimulate the best
in others.

Why? It is believed that as many as ninety percent
of the things we do are prompted by a desire to
feel important. Unfortunately, most of a person's
experience is communicating exactly the opposite
message.

Let's take Josh. He feels like a born loser. Here's
why... The other kids call Josh peewee, the teachers
tell him he's stupid and lazy, his mother nags him
about his sloppy appearance, he's told that he sure
doesn't have the ambition and spirit kids had when
his dad was a boy. He doesn't make the football
team, girls don't like him, the customers bawl him
out and call him names, everybody else at the office
is trying to get ahead of him, nobody thinks he is
important, especially Josh, himself.

Now you come along. You want to motivate Josh, so
you make him feel ten feet tall and bulletproof. You
overlook his crooked nose and big ears. You tell him
he has the greatest smile in the world. You become
the coach that thinks he could be the star quarterback.
You're the one that sees him being the president of
the company. You become a lot of people to him - the
people he wanted to impress but didn't. You see him
as a human being loaded with untapped potential and
you go out of the your way to express this attitude.

By your treatment of him, do you think Josh will be
motivated to give you what you want, too? Motivating
people by noticing the best in them first is extremely
powerful, both to the recipient and to you. Apply these
principles in all of your relationships, starting right now,
and your world is in in for a dramatic positive change!