Category Archives: Ideas

Actions, Celebrities, Ideas, Tips

CELEBRITY – Jack Canfield – How to Take Action

Jack CanfieldAction is an important part of success in any arena and Jack Canfield certainly understands what goes into being a successful author, speaker and business person.

Jack Canfield is the co-author of the highly successful, best selling book series “Chicken Soup for the Soul” and “Success Principles” among other books.  Jack is also a professional speaker and trainer.  The short video below features Jack talking about “Taking Action!”, an important part of TheWishBuilder process.

About Jack Canfield:

Source: www.wikipedia.org

Jack Canfield (born August 19, 1944) is an American motivational speaker and author. He is best known as the co-creator of the Chicken Soup for the Soul book series, which currently has nearly 200 titles and 112 million copies in print in over 40 languages. According to USA Today, Chicken Soup for the Soul and several of the series titles by Canfield and his writing partner, Mark Victor Hansen, were among the top 150 best-selling books of the last 15 years (October 28, 1993 through October 23, 2008). In July 2004, Jack Canfield founded the Transformational Leadership Council, a group of speakers, authors, coaches and other leaders in the fields of personal and professional development. The members of TLC meet semi-annually, and as of January 2012, membership numbered 120.

In 1990, Canfield shared with Mark Victor Hansen the idea for the Chicken Soup for the Soul series and after three years, the two had compiled sixty-eight stories. Canfield has appeared on numerous television shows, including Good Morning America, 20/20 and NBC Nightly News. Canfield is the founder of “Self Esteem Seminars” in Santa Barbara, and “The Foundation for Self Esteem” in Culver City, California. He is also the founder and CEO of the Canfield Training Group. One of Canfield’s most recent books, The Success Principles (2005), shares 64 principles that he claims can make people more successful. In 2008, he wrote The Success Principles for Teens with Kent Healy, as a result of the success of his original book. In 2006, he appeared in the DVD, “The Secret”, and also in the book titled “The Secret” by Rhonda Byrne and shared his insights on the Law of Attraction and tips for achieving success in personal and professional life. In the summer of 2004 Canfield founded The Transformational Leadership Council (TLC), a closed membership, invitation only members’ club.

Apart from being an author, Canfield is also a speaker and trainer. He conducts seminars focused on peak performance, such as Break Through to Success. He also trains speakers and trainers about training and teaching the Success Principles through his Train the Trainer program.

 

Actions, Brainstorming, Ideas

What are good ACTION Steps?

TriangleLogo-2Are there good action steps?  vs. “bad” action steps?  When you start out brainstorming, there are no “bad ideas” because any idea may lead to a good idea or action.

Once you move from brainstorming to executing your action steps you begin to notice that some actions seem better than others.  Maybe more effective or easier or just more fun.  The other ones … are they bad?

Well . . .  yes & no.  

You want to keep them around because there will be additional brainstorming as you progress through your 1000 Cranes project and these “bad ideas” may spark some other, more useful, ideas down the road.  They may even help you overcome obstacles or challenges because they could get you thinking about some counter-intuitive strategies you might be missing.

When you are deciding which idea or action step to tackle, you should consider “The Seinfeld Strategy“.   An online article by James Clear for Entrepreneur magazine describes it this way…

Brad Isaac was a young comedian starting out on the comedy circuit. One fateful night, he found himself in a club where Jerry Seinfeld was performing. In an interview on Lifehacker, Isaac shared what happened when he caught Seinfeld backstage and asked if he had “any tips for a young comic.”

Here’s how Isaac described the interaction with Seinfeld…

He said the way to be a better comic was to create better jokes and the way to create better jokes was to write every day.

He told me to get a big wall calendar that has a whole year on one page and hang it on a prominent wall. The next step was to get a big red magic marker. He said for each day that I do my task of writing, I get to put a big red X over that day.

“After a few days you’ll have a chain. Just keep at it and the chain will grow longer every day. You’ll like seeing that chain, especially when you get a few weeks under your belt. Your only job is to not break the chain.”

A key part of creating your “chain” of action steps is choosing the right ones.  If they are too easy or inconsequential you risk not making any progress toward your goal.  If they are too difficult or overwhelming, you risk not doing them at all.

The key according to the Seinfeld Strategy…

… is to choose a task that is simple enough to be sustainable. At the same time, you have to make sure that your actions are meaningful enough to matter.

For example, researching good jokes each day is simple, but you’re never going to write a joke by merely researching. That’s why the process of writing is a better choice. Writing can actually produce a meaningful result, even when it’s done in small doses.

Similarly, doing 10 pushups per day could be simple and meaningful depending on your level of fitness. It will actually make you stronger. Meanwhile, reading a fitness book each day is simple, but it won’t actually get you in better shape.

Choose tasks that are simple to maintain and capable of producing the outcome you want.

Another way of saying this is to focus on actions and not motions…

So as you evaluate all the possible actions that will build your path to your wish, be sure to craft the action steps so they are “simple enough” that you can do them again & again” while also “meaningful enough that they matter” toward your desired outcome.

Remember, you can always break down your action steps to make them simpler but you are the one who decides how much one action step contributes compared to all the other possible action steps.  Take ACTION NOW !

Actions, Brainstorming, Ideas

Brainstorming Tool # 1 — Random-Word-Generator

Random words can be a great tool for brainstorming and the Random Word Generator below was provided by www.wolframalpha.com.

How do I use a Random Word Generator for Brainstorming?

It is actually pretty easy.  When you feel like you have run out of ideas toward your goal, just grab a random word and figure out an angle or way that the word might be related to your goal.

It could be a characteristic of the word, the opposite of the word or just simple “word association“.  What does the word make you think about?  How can that be tied to your goal?

Random Word Generator:

Simply click on the “Random Word” button and a random word will be generated for you. This is done via javascript so if it does not work, you may want to update the java version on your computer.

 

Brainstorming Rule # 1:

Remember, there are no wrong answers when you are brainstorming. The value of an idea or action step will be evaluated later. The goal of brainstorming is to come up with as many answers as possible so you have more options to choose from.

A Random Word Generator is a great tool to spark your creativity and can be used either by yourself or with a partner or group. The more people who are involved, the more associations you will find for each word and the more ideas you will generate for your project.

Actions, Brainstorming, Ideas, Tips

Brainstorming Tips

smartWhen you are brainstorming actions, inevitably you will run out of ideas before your reach 1000.  Even if you make it to 1000, you may need more ideas if you encounter something unexpected in your path, aka an obstacle or challenge, or you may find that the rest of the ideas just don’t fit the “last mile” of your journey toward your wish.

That is where it is helpful to have some “tricks” or tips to fall back on.

Here are some of my best Brainstorming tips…

– Go Crazy !  Go beyond the “regular, commonsense way”, which is really pretty boring and consider the CraZY way.  What is the craziest idea you could think of?

– Write down random words and figure out a connection to your goal.  It may take multiple steps but each one will get you thinking in a new way.

– Consider doing the opposite of what you planned.  Is there a way to go back one step that leads to 5 or 10 steps forward?

– Get someone else’s opinion, preferably someone who thinks very differently from the way you do.

– Write gibberish as a warm up.  It can stimulate your brain to go in a new direction.

– Ask a question … and then relax, pause, and wait for your mind to give you an answer.  You will be surprised by what your subconscious mind will give you when you give it a chance.

What brainstorming tips do you have?  Please leave a comment below and share them with other visitors to this site.

 

Actions, Focus, Goals, Ideas, Wish

Why it works

TriangleLogo2The Wish Builder process works because it leverages 3 important characteristics of successful people: a clear goal, a strong mental focus and massive action … all wrapped up in a simple process.

Of the 3 aspects, goal setting is probably the most commonly used but how many are actually successful with just goal setting?  On the other hand, clear mental focus is probably used by less than 5% of the world’s population (according to Earl Nightgale).

If you look around, you will find that very few people actually take massive action toward the achievement of their goals.  The ones that do might have beenraised with a strong work ethic but how many have the strong mental focus to go along with it?

The use of the 1000 cranes is how The Wish Builder is able to help you continually focus on your goal while doing the steps necessary to succeed.

Why so many action steps?

If you think of more ways to succeed, the odds of you succeeding goes up.  If you take multiple paths to your goal, there are few obstacles that can stand in your way.

How is The Wish Builder
different from a To Do List?

Most “to do” lists don’t have the focus that The Wish Builder does.  “Bring in a new client” might be listed right before “pick up milk” or “grab a beer with a friend” on your “to do” list but it is unlikely that they are all pointed toward achieving your primary goal.

How does the folding help the process?

First, learning to fold an origami crane means, for most people, learning a new skill.  This creates new neural pathways in your brain while also building dexterity in your hands.  The tactile process reinforces the focus on your project while the completed cranes provide physical evidence that you are making progress.

The Wish Builder’s bottom line…

The Wish Builder process succeeds because it helps you work better and smarter.  If you don’t work, it won’t work.  All 1000 actions and the outcome of your wish are in your hands.