100 Action Principles

Starting with this defining moment Love Friendship Respect Prosperity Security Peace Happiness All await you in the 100 Action Principles 100Action Pri n c i p l e s By Bill FitzPatrick Although the American Success Institute has re s e a rched many sources to ensure the accuracy and completeness of the information contained in this book, the Institute cannot accept any responsibility for errors, inaccuracies, omissions, or any other inconsistency herein. Any slights against people or organizations are unintentional. 100 Action Principles. Copyright © 2000 by the American Success Institute, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be re p roduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, e l e c t ronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the American Success Institute, Inc. 100 ACTION PRINCIPLES ™, MASTER SUCCESS ™, 100 ACTION PRINCIPLES OF THE SHAOLIN ™, POSITIVE MENTAL ATTITUDES ™, AFRICAN-AMERICANS ON SUCCESS ™, S P O RTS LEGENDS ON SUCCESS ™, WINNING WITH SMALL BUSINESS ™, TENGA UNA ACTI- TUD MENTAL POSITIVA ™, WOMEN ON SUCCESS ™, SPORTS LEGENDS ON SUCCESS ™ and ATTITUDES MENTALES POSITIVES ™ are all trademarks of the American Success Institute, Inc. Educational and motivational materials from the American Success Institute are available at spe- cial discounts for bulk purchases. For additional information, contact: American Success Institute, 5 North Main Street, Natick, MA 01760 w w w . s u c c e s s . o rg Phone: 508-651-3303 e-mail: info@success.org C o v e r, book design, typography, and electronic pagination by Painted Turtle Pro d u c t i o n s , Newton, MA. www.paintedturtle.com Printed in the United States of America ISBN 1-884864-13-9 Table of Contents I n t ro d u c t i o n . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 0 100 Action Principles . . . . . . . . . . .1 3 1 . Set Goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 4 2 . Divide and Conquer . . . . . . . . .1 5 3 . Write A Personal Mission Statement . . . . . . . . . .1 6 4 . Follow Thro u g h . . . . . . . . . . . .1 7 5 . Submit to a Higher Power . . . .1 8 6 . Don’t Complicate Matters . . . . .1 9 7 . Commit to Never Ending I m p ro v e m e n t . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 0 8 . Be Frugal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 1 9 . Make Today Special . . . . . . . . .2 2 1 0 . Record Your Thoughts . . . . . . .2 3 1 1 . Use the Power of Patience . . . .2 4 1 2 . Maintain A Positive Mental Attitude . . . . . . . . . . . .2 5 1 3 . Risk Failure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 6 1 4 . Get To u g h . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 7 1 5 . Cause Change . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 8 1 6 . Let Them Be . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 9 1 7 . Accept Diff e re n c e s . . . . . . . . . .3 0 1 8 . Master Success . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 1 1 9 . S p read Your Enthusiasm . . . . . .3 2 2 0 . Applaud the Beginner . . . . . . .3 3 2 1 . Give Yourself the Gift of S e l f - R e l i a n c e . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 4 2 2 . Lead by Example . . . . . . . . . . .3 5 2 3 . C o n t rol Conflict . . . . . . . . . . . .3 6 2 4 . Listen to Your Instincts . . . . . . .3 7 2 5 . Face Fear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 8 2 6 . Don’t Be A Perf e c t i o n i s t . . . . . .3 9 2 7 . Remain Adaptable . . . . . . . . . .4 0 2 8 . Think Wi n - Wi n . . . . . . . . . . . .4 1 2 9 . Be Pro u d . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 2 3 0 . Be Decisive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 3 3 1 . Be the Wa r r i o r . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 4 3 2 . Embody Integrity . . . . . . . . . . .4 5 3 3 . Stay Centere d . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 6 3 4 . Love Many Things . . . . . . . . . .4 7 3 5 . F o rget Everybody . . . . . . . . . .4 8 3 6 . Maintain Your Pre s e n c e . . . . . .4 9 3 7 . Act as You Feel . . . . . . . . . . . .5 0 3 8 . A p p reciate Your Appeal . . . . . .5 1 3 9 . Develop Your Sense of Humor .5 2 4 0 . Become Grateful . . . . . . . . . . .5 3 4 1 . Show Loyalty . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 4 4 2 . Practice Forg i v e n e s s . . . . . . . . .5 5 4 3 . Demonstrate Your Love . . . . . .5 6 4 4 . Be Prudent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 7 4 5 . Develop Your Special Ta l e n t . . .5 8 4 6 . Be Persistent . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 9 4 7 . Develop Winning Habits . . . . .6 0 4 8 . Do What Others Can’t . . . . . . .6 1 4 9 . Accept Hard Wo r k . . . . . . . . . .6 2 5 0 . Ve n t u re Outside The Box . . . . .6 3 5 1 . Communicate with Ease . . . . . .6 4 5 2 . Avoid Negative People . . . . . . .6 5 5 3 . Stay Fit and Healthy . . . . . . . . .6 6 5 4 . Relax Your Body . . . . . . . . . . .6 7 5 5 . Invest In Your Future . . . . . . . .6 8 5 6 . R e t i re Early . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 9 5 7 . Have Faith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7 0 5 8 . Follow Your Code of Honor . . .7 1 5 9 . Enjoy Quiet Ti m e . . . . . . . . . .7 2 6 0 . Look in the Mirro r . . . . . . . . . .7 3 6 1 . I m a g i n e . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7 4 6 2 . Hold Sacred … . . . . . . . . . . . .7 5 6 3 . Focus on Your Stre n g t h s . . . . . .7 6 6 4 . Understand Courage . . . . . . . .7 7 6 5 . Ask Yo u r s e l f . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7 8 6 6 . Run the Short Road . . . . . . . . .7 9 6 7 . M a rch the Long Road . . . . . . . .8 0 6 8 . Close the Door on the Past . . . .8 1 6 9 . Avoid Thinking That … . . . . . .8 2 7 0 . Count the Ti m e . . . . . . . . . . . .8 3 7 1 . Act With Boldness . . . . . . . . . .8 4 7 2 . Rejoice In the Day . . . . . . . . . .8 5 7 3 . Do What You Love Doing . . . .8 6 7 4 . A p p reciate Your Customers . . . .8 7 7 5 . Build Networks . . . . . . . . . . . .8 8 7 6 . Build Your Te a m . . . . . . . . . . .8 9 7 7 . Negotiate With Power . . . . . . .9 0 7 8 . O ffer Fre e l y . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9 1 7 9 . Work At Wo r k . . . . . . . . . . . . .9 2 8 0 . L e a rn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9 3 8 1 . Ask a Lot of Questions . . . . . . .9 4 8 2 . Read Biographies . . . . . . . . . . .9 5 8 3 . Be Open to New Ideas . . . . . . .9 6 8 4 . Heed the Wa rn i n g s . . . . . . . . .9 7 8 5 . Observe and Be Aw a re . . . . . .9 8 8 6 . Read, Read, Read . . . . . . . . . . .9 9 8 7 . Respect and Defend All Life . .1 0 0 8 8 . Honor The Military . . . . . . . . .1 0 1 8 9 . Tre a s u re the Earth . . . . . . . . .1 0 2 9 0 . Allow Your Opponent To Save Face . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 0 3 9 1 . Thank Your Ancestors . . . . . .1 0 4 9 2 . Practice Peace . . . . . . . . . . . .1 0 5 9 3 . Make Everyone Feel Important 1 0 6 9 4 . Give Genero u s l y . . . . . . . . . .1 0 7 9 5 . S h a re the Cre d i t . . . . . . . . . . .1 0 8 9 6 . P romote The Action Principles 1 0 9 9 7 . Walk The Ta l k . . . . . . . . . . . .1 1 0 9 8 . Teach Our Childre n … . . . . . .1 1 1 9 9 . Be A Mentor . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 1 2 100. Call to Action . . . . . . . . . . . .1 1 3 Master Success Maxims . . . . . . . . .1 1 4 The Two Rules of Master Success .1 1 5 The Master Success Daily Dozen . .1 1 6 3 Rules To Master Success In Business . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 1 7 20 Distinguishing Characteristics Of A Master . . . . . . . . . .1 1 8 S u c c e s s . o rg . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 1 9 About Our Publications . . . . .1 2 0 - 1 2 1 Please Join Us In Our Wo r k . .1 2 2 Action Challenges . . . . . . . . .1 2 3 R e a d … . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 2 4 What people are saying about Master Success . . . . . . . .1 2 5 About Bill FitzPatrick . . . . . . .1 2 6 Let’s Begin . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 2 7 - 8 I n t ro d u c t i o n What is so inviting about the tried and true advice of the Action Principles is that the beneficial results are immediate. You don’t have to spend a year in graduate school, two days fasting or an hour chanting. Just stop, take a few deep breaths, read for a moment and think. Yo u can change your life for the better in an instant. You can make an immediate deci- sion to become more aware of how you are living your life and recognize your personal choice to be happy. Guided by your aware n e s s and these Action Principles, you can act. You can listen more, smile more, be more patient and volunteer m o re often. You can take the lead and be in control. You can choose to be a better partner, parent, friend, son, daughter, e m p l o y e r, employee and citizen. In short, you have the God given power to choose a life of self-improvement and a commitment to help- ing others. And, no one can take this power from you. You can live an active life and be successful, happy and at peace. The tone of the 100 Action Principles is motivational. These Action Principles are for you, a self-reliant take-charge person of action willing to study and work hard for yourself, your family and the larger community. The Action Principles are not p resented as religious principles but rather as ideals common to all major re l i g i o n s . The Action Principles are not commandments but inspirational guides to re i n f o rc e your own value system. The intent is to challenge and stimulate your thinking as you create your own independent success philosophy formalized in your daily action plans, your to-do list. Give the Action Principles a month. Enroll in our free e-mail program on S u c c e s s . o rg. Every morning, we will send you one of the Action Principles and a short Master Meditation Mantra. Commit a few minutes to reading and re f l e c t i n g upon each day’s principle. Next, commit to telling one new person every day about the Action Principles. Challenge yourself and challenge 30 others to be their best! This is what it’s all about; helping yourself as you help others. With the habit of reviewing an Action Principle each day, you will become the beneficiary of both tangible benefits like more money, a better job and impro v e d health and intangible benefits like love, respect, friendship and peace of mind. As you begin to fulfill your own personal and financial goals, you will find that you will have the re s o u rces, time and peace of mind to share your good fortune and positive attitude with others. You will have created success to share. Your life will evolve from making a living to making a diff e rence. Achievement by achievement, better day by better day, with persistence, you will continue to find that your poten- tial is almost unlimited. No one is choosing you to become successful. You are selecting yourself. Most people will not be able to see the power contained in the simplicity of these words. They will read them with casual interest and move on. You can choose to be dif- f e rent. You can choose to be extraordinary. In this defining moment, you can choose to make the 100 Action Principles your principles for your life. The Action Principles are Level One, the Aw a reness Level, of the six levels of the Master Success System. To learn more about the life enrichment possibilities of the Master Success System, visit our website at Success.org . Bill FitzPatrick The Action Principles The Action Principles present an outlook on how to live harmoniously yet comfortably in the modern world. They are gems of action-oriented advice that can guide us in our lifelong quest for spiritual and mental growth, health and financial prosperity. The principles evolve from the important lessons to be l e a rned from self-reliance. The principles offer us a perspective to assess where we are and where we hope to go. There are many time tested motivational max- ims embedded in the principles. The Action Principles should help us to develop a mental and physical tough- ness to handle the rigors of everyday living as we work toward our goals. The Action Principles should help us to develop a mental and physical softness e x p ressed in an inner peace from the knowledge that we are putting forth our best eff o r t s . 1 Set Goals Unless you shape your life, circumstances will shape it for you. You have to work, sacrifice, invest, and persist to get the results you want. Choose them well. You can’t start your planning until you know where you want to go. You are the sculptor of your own image. Have others already done what you want to do? Study them and do what they did. Start anywhere, at anytime, and persist. Stop worrying what others think about what you can or can’t do. Believe in yourself and your abilities. Have the self-confidence to challenge your current situation. This is your life to live; it’s day by day and step by step. Write down your goals. Only three percent of people have written goals and only one percent review those written goals daily. Be in that elite one percent. Vi s u a l i z e the attainment of your goals often. Goals are dreams with dates attached. You will only become as great and as happy as the goals you choose. 2 Divide and Conquer A common denominator among the successful is that they are focused on the immediate accomplishment of specific objectives. Separate the important f rom the urgent and allow time for both. Break down any large task into a series of small tasks and start taking action. In the beginning, don’t be too concern e d with how you will achieve your goals. With commitment, re s e a rch and patience, the means will come. Answers materialize when the facts have been collected. Your goals will evolve into a set of action-oriented objectives, which will become a series of to-dos. Now prioritize. If you don’t prioritize your day’s activities, everything is of equal importance. Whether one thing gets done or not doesn’t matter. You want your activities to be important, to have had a clearly defined purpose. Write your to-do list every day. Prioritize it. Make at least one of your daily objectives a chal- lenge. At the end of each day, you’ll be able to relax and bask in that wonder- ful feeling of accomplishment. 3 Write a Personal Mission Statement Create for yourself an evolving document that outlines your purpose in life. Who a re you? What are your values? What do you intend to do with your time to make your one life meaningful? Excepting acts of God, it is you who determines your f u t u re. You don’t have to listen to those who say you are too old, too young, too p o o r, too unattractive, too uneducated or the wrong color, gender or nationality. They are not speaking of someone following the Action Principles. When you read inspirational passages in other books, magazines or newspapers, write them down or clip them out. Put everything together in a folder or box. This will serve as your motivational reserve and will help you create a personal mission statement. Your mission statement only has to be a few sentences or paragraphs. Refer to your mission statement periodically and don’t be afraid to change it as you grow. A mission statement will help you to establish a foundation upon which you can build your dre a m s and goals and from which will flow your objectives and daily to-do list. 4 Follow Thro u g h Follow through to make sure that you’ve done the job right. Follow thro u g h to say thank you and offer new ideas. Follow through to ask for more business. You earn respect by saying what you’re pre p a red to do and then doing exactly that. Follow through shows that you are a person of your word and someone who cares. It shows that you are accessible and that you want to keep the lines of communication open. You may make mistakes and follow t h rough gives you the opportunity to correct and to learn f rom those mistakes. Personalize your follow-up with handwritten notes and phone calls. Small gifts, tickets and lunches may also be appro p r i a t e follow-up incentives. Check up on yourself and reap the rewards. Follow through ampli- fies your eff e c t i v e n e s s . 5 Submit to a Higher Power Look at the big picture. You build your life upon your faith. You cherish your faith. You aren’t afraid to tell others of your beliefs. You stand for positive val- ues. You are ethical in your dealings. You pray and meditate to have the courage to face your fears. You pray and meditate to have the strength to accept, endure and triumph over the hardships and small daily annoyances that the path to suc- cess will present. You celebrate the good that you find in the world. With humility, submit. You are but one fragile, fallible human. Every re l i g i o n has prayers. A prayer is your conversation with God. Your success and happi- ness is God’s answer. Your selfless good works in helping others are your prayers put into action. 6 D o n ’t Complicate Matters Don’t complicate your life. Think before you act. Look for the simple ways or answers first where less can go wrong. Work from your basics. Make sure that you understand the assignment or the problem before you begin. What are the time and perf o rmance expectations that will indicate satisfactory completion? Reexamine how you are doing things. Is a task consuming all of your time? Is it worth the time you are investing? Do you have the necessary re s o u rces? Can it be delegated? If so, is the right person assigned to complete the job? Yo u r re s e a rch, your quiet time, your commitment to teamwork and your prioritized to-do list should all help. Pare away the unnecessary. Even the philosophy underlying these Action Principles can be stated very simply. Improve yourself and help others. 7 Commit to Never Ending Impro ve m e n t Constantly seek ways to do things better in all areas of your life. The Japanese have a word for the concept of never ending improvement, kaizen. Pro g ress and ultimate success come to those who train and keep training. If you choose to stop and become aware, you can become a better spouse, son, daughter, friend, e m p l o y e r, employee, athlete and citizen. Commitment comes from the inside out and is tested often. Measure yourself against the best. Most others will choose to be average. This is what average means. You won’t know your limits if you don’t keep trying. Reject the idea of good enough. Commit to excellence. Take each of your goals and think of how you can improve one percent each month. Success is a journey. It is not a quick fix. The joy is in the doing. Think of success not as a peak to be climbed but a high plateau to be walked. Always encourage children or employees to do their best and to keep going. Set the bar high for yourself and them. You will all be the better for it. 8 Be Frugal Separate your wants from your needs. You want to work for all you need, not necessarily for all you want. You do not have to sentence yourself to a lifetime of hard labor for the false trappings of status. Living on less can eventually yield much more. The simpler you make your life, the easier it will be to maintain. Think in terms of moderation. It is easier to buy things than to sell them. Yo u can make a comfortable life for yourself by finding contentment in the things you already have and holding reasonable expectations. Be pragmatic. To build an investment bankroll, you can work more or you can spend less. Many people who write and stick to a household budget find that the simple act of thinking and organizing before spending can yield savings of between 10% - 15% of their earnings without seriously compromising their lifestyles. Give yourself a raise by being frugal. 9 Make Today Special Many people enjoy using the first few minutes of the day for their re f l e c t i v e time. How did yesterday go? What do you want to accomplish today? What will be most important? This, of course, becomes your prioritized to-do list. How will today vary from your usual routine? Can you think of any small things that you can do? Perhaps there is something that you’ve been avoiding, that, if you do it,