Are your Habits Helping or Hurting You?…

Posted on September 11th, 2007 in Personal Development by Tina Gregory

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Excellence is Not an Act - It’s a Habit !

‘Your net worth to the world is usually determined by what remains after your bad habits are subtracted from your good ones.’
-Benjamin Franklin

Are your habits helping or hurting you?

I want to share with you a success story and great example of how good habits can help us achieve great goals.

My good friend and mentor Nido Qubein was born in and spent his childhood living in the Middle East. He was raised mainly by his mother because his father passed away when Nido was six. While his mother had only a fourth-grade education, Nido says she had ‘a PhD in disciplined common sense.’ His mother worked long hours to support her family and never wavered from teaching Nido solid values and principles to live by. Of the many important lessons Nido’s mother taught him, one of the most important is that good habits are hard to develop and easy to live with, and bad habits are easy to develop, but hard to live with.

At the age of 17, Nido came to America. He spoke no English, had no personal contacts and just fifty dollars in his pocket. Nido decided to attend Mount Olive College, a Baptist school in Eastern North Carolina. He chose it because its name reminded him of the Mount of Olives in the Bible. During college, he applied the values and wisdom his mother instilled in him and made hard work his habit. Nido worked ten hours a day to pay his way through college and he thought he was covering the costs.

At the end of his 2nd year, the president of the college revealed that the money Nido was paying the college only covered a small percentage of his expenses and that the shortfall was being picked up by a local doctor who wished to remain anonymous. Nido was stunned. To the point that he made a commitment to God - someday he would start a scholarship fund to help others in the way that he had been helped.

Since making that commitment, Nido has made service to others his habit. It drives him everyday and has become a fundamental part of who he is. He believes that the more you give the more you get-as long as you don’t give just to get something in return.

By continuously developing good habits throughout his life, Nido has had a spectacular career in corporate America and is now the president of High Point University in North Carolina. He has achieved many of his goals and is still moving towards others. His good habits have also benefited others. Nido did start that scholarship fund and, as a result, over 600 young people have been given the chance to receive a college education.

We all need to take an inventory of our habits from time to time. Are they making us better or bitter? We all know that it takes about 21 days to make or break a habit. It’s important today to take what I call a 360° Life Circle Assessment, and that is basically looking at all aspects of our lives that impact our success and failure. Your personal 360° Life Circle centers around these growth areas: spiritual, family, physical, mental, and professional. My grandmother used to always say if you are not growing you must be ripe and then it won’t be long before you rot. An adjustment I made several years ago was to try not to speak on the weekends so I can come home and go to church. That adjustment has made a tremendous impact on my spiritual growth and my overall attitude.

Take a look at your habits. Are they motivating you to become the person you strive to be? Are they driving you to reach your goals? Remember, excellence is not an act-it’s a habit.

Have a super-fantastic week!
Keith Harrell

Written by Keith Harrell and submitted by Tina Gregory


You Know You are a “Blue” if….

Posted on September 11th, 2007 in Colors Training by Tina Gregory

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…you are scattered and dis-organized, you start 100 things a day and only manage to complete a few, if that many! You have sticky notes all over your home and you very rarely follow up with anything. You LOVE to have fun, and if it’s not fun, then you are not very interested in doing it and that includes work! You love to talk and often exaggerate. You will voluntarily tell your life story with very little prompting and the minnow you caught while fishing in the neighbors back-yard pond will turn into the shark you caught while fishing from the deck of a cruise ship! You are “direct” in your answers and very “open” and you make up 15% of the entire population. You are confident in what you know and in what you do. You love being with people and you are often the life of the party. The “blue” craves excitement and things that are fast paced, you would rather drive the race car than to watch it on TV. You are an excellent promoter, are enthusiastic, bubbly, motivating, convincing and very creative. “Blue” personalities are some of the most creative people on earth! You also have a short attention span. If you were an animal you would be a curious cat, a friendly dolphin or an unpredictible monkey. The “Blue” will enjoy hobbies such as scuba-diving, jet ski riding, parasailing, dirt-bike riding, rock climbing, hiking and drag racing, anything that is fast paced and exciting.

“Blues” are loving and attentive parents and they show their children how to have fun at an early age. They are the parents you often see riding the bikes and playing catch in the front yard. They show they care and give the children the love and attention the kids need. The “Blue” sees the big picture immediately! They will make an instant decision on the spot with NO information at all. They love to drive fast, always over the speed limit and they drive sports cars or anything fast. It MUST have a V-8 engine a V-6 simply will not do! If the car needs an oil change at 2,500 miles the “blue” will push it to 5,000 miles and justify it by saying that they drive a lot of highway miles. They keep their vehicles clean and the chrome polished, ready to drive off at a moments notice.

Money to a “Blue” is an opportunity to get the things to have fun with. The dirt bikes, the fast cars, the boats! “Blues” also love doing the things that make big money, starting your own business, singing in a band and building race cars. To a “blue” the actions themselves often mean a lot more than the actual money they receive. The money is often easy to get for a “blue” and can be risky if credit cards are involved. They are too optimistic to ever worry about the consuquences, and can often end up in debt with no way to pay if not very careful. Because a “Blue” is so creative and they see the big picture so easily as soon as they start looking at an opportunity they are thinking up ways to market it. They don’t really work out well in the normal work force. They want to be creative and someone is always holding them back, it’s a constant battle to keep their interest. The “blue is a spontaneous buyer and shopping is pure torture! They go into a store with tunnel vision and pity the poor fool who gets in their way. They have buyers remorse and often ask themselves if they payed too much. They don’t like to shop but when they do go they go in a store with laser focus. They get what they came for and get out. You don’t want to waste your time looking at other things. For entertainment the “blue” will be more than happy to go to the drag strip, the boat races or the nearest amusement park and ride all the rides, they’ll stop at a fast food joint and go through the drive-thru. When they go to a restaurant they’ll try anything, you don’t care about the days special. It’s all about trying something new and you’re so busy talking you’re the last one to order and often still have food on your plate when everyone else is done and wanting to go home. You eat fast and talk talk talk!

The “blue” will have a pet that’s usually fun to play with and full of energy, maybe a Jack Russell Terrier or Labrador Retreiver. The pet is bouncing all over the place, full of energy and play often barking the whole time. The animal may come from the pound but more than likely you have payed for it from somewhere else.

The “blue” has many facial expressions and they dress in Hawaiian shirts, stylish and flamboyant, always colorful and fun. They wear gold jewelry, a diamond ring or necklace anything bold and flashy. You have pictures of your family, awards and acheivements on your wall in the office as well as something fun to occupy yourself with when you get bored. You may be top sales producer for months in a row, or a public speaker, entertainer or an entrepreneur. Your handshake is fast and firm, the voice loud and fast. Your desk is often messy to the untrained eye but you know exactly where everything is and don’t want anyone to touch or move anything.

A “blue” will make a good marriage partner because they get along with everyone but, their best match is with a “Yellow” personality type. A “blue” is open with their feelings and has no problem saying “I love you” or expressing themselves through words or shows of affection.

To mentor a “blue” it is vitally important to get them focused and organized. They need to use a system that will help them stay organized and committed to the follow up. They have massive chatter going non-stop in their minds and it is important for a “blue to sign up for and participate in the Mental Cleanse program, it will change your life. You must learn to listen, practice listening to someone. Ask them questions and listen to their answers. They will ask you questions as well, answer them and get right back to listening. You already have a strong connection to people and as soon as you learn to leverage listening in with that you will be unstoppable.

In summary for all you beautiful “blue” people; Sign up for and participate in the Mental Cleanse program, stop the chatter in your mind and get focused and organized. Get yourself familiar with a system that will help you with the follow up and learn to listen. Team up with those who are strong in your weak areas and you will be on your way to success in no time. For more information on the personality training and learning to identify the different colors you may contact me at;

tina@eagleslog.com

The Success in 10 Steps FREE ebook will get you started with the basics and it can be downloaded here; STS

Thank You for taking the time to read this information. Please return at a later time to read more on the remaining colors. Have a great day!