Knowledge is Not Power

There is an old saying that "knowledge is power." Everyone has heard it before I'm sure, and probably believe that it's true. I did too for a while...but I've come to realize that this saying is incomplete. Knowledge is not power, the use of knowledge is power. It's a small distinction, but a very important one. Say the smartest person in the world (we'll call him Bill) was able to instantly memorize every bit of information that is put in front of him through books, lectures, videos, or any other form of communication. But this person always kept to himself, and never actually did anything with all of his knowledge. He never wrote any books, invented anything, drew anything, or even talked to anyone else. Do you think that person has power? I don't think so.

So let's look at a different scenario. What if a different person (we'll call him Bob) who was always thought to be a slow learner, and in fact it took him until he was 10 years old just to learn how to talk, dropped out of school in the 5th grade at the age of 16, and started working at a grocery store stocking groceries. He worked there stocking groceries for the next 10 years, in the same store doing the same job over and over. During this time, he also became good friends with the store manager and others employees as well. One day, he mentions to his department manager that he noticed that customers would often go to the canned food aisle after they picked up bags of tortilla chips even though it was at the other end of the store. He suggested that they move the salsa to the snack aisle, and the manager made it happen. Over the next week, their salsa sales doubled. The manager asked Bob if he had any other ideas, and Bob told gave him a few more suggestions. Almost every suggestion Bob gave the manager ended up increasing sales or customer satisfaction. So the manager made Bob the manager of the grocery department. Bob was a simple man who still learned slowly, but by using the knowledge he did have, he was able to help the company increase sales and customer satisfaction.

Which of these men have more power? I would suggest that it is Bob. Even though he's not nearly as smart and doesn't have nearly the amount of knowledge that Bill does, he still has more power than Bill does because he actually uses the knowledge that he does have. Wouldn't you agree?

So here's another question for you. Do you use the knowledge you have to increase your power, or do you not do anything with it? What do you think you should do? I know this is a stupid question at this point, but I am trying to get you to really think about it rather than just reading these words and dismissing it as obvious without thinking about what you do in your own life. I am betting that you have a lot of knowledge that you don't do anything with, or that you rarely use. Why? Everyone has a lot of knowledge that they can use in their everyday lives. Whether it was gained through education or experience doesn't matter. The amount of knowledge you have doesn't even matter. What matters is what you do with the knowledge you do have. Find ways to use the knowledge you possess in your everyday life. That is one of the best ways you can increase your influence and power. Start today!!!

Learn How To Learn Quickly and Well

This will be one of the most important posts I write in this blog because I think this subject is one of the most important and beneficial things you can do in order to lead a life of success. The message is simple (though not short). The application of the message is simple (though not necessarily always easy to apply). The potential impact this message could have on your life is enormous. So please read this with an open mind, and even more importantly, use it. You may even want to print it so that you can use it during times when you are not at your computer, and it will be beneficial to read this multiple times.

Learning how to learn quickly and well will serve you for the rest of your life. In these modern times, the information age, the ability to learn quickly and well is essential. There is so much new information available every day, technology is advancing at an incredible pace, and industries are being transformed into completely new ones each year. If you are not continually learning, then you are not growing. In fact, even if you are continually learning but doing it slowly, then you are only barely keeping up at best. You must continually learn quickly in order to get ahead and stay ahead. You must learn well in order to be able to stand out in the crowd and become a successful person. So how can you learn how to learn quickly and well? All you have to do is read, understand, memorize, and use the steps below:

1. Get into a relaxed, ready to learn state of mind. You can do this by closing your eyes and taking a few deep breaths and consciously letting go of any tension you feel in your body (especially in your face, neck, and shoulders). Picture yourself taking in the new information in a relaxed mood, understanding it easily, and finding it easy to remember. Then picture yourself using the information later on with very little effort. Tell yourself that you will understand this new information, and that you will remember this new information, and make sure you really believe it before you begin.


2. Take in the new information in a multi-sensory way. Everyone learns best when they use as many of their senses as possible to take in the new information. Seeing it, hearing it, AND doing it/using it will help you understand it much more easily and quickly, as well as to remember it more easily and quickly. So take in the information by reading it or watching it, listening to it or reading it aloud, and writing it working through example problems or doing/using it somehow.


3. Explore the new information with your seven intelligences. The seven intelligences that every person has are visual, audio/linguistic, bodily/physical, logical/mathematical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and musical/artistic. Try to explore the new information in as many ways as you can by using these seven intelligences because everyone learns best when they learn a certain type of information using a certain combination of their multiple intelligences. Figure out what is the best way for you to learn each new type of information, and if you don't know just use as many as possible so you will cover them all! For instance if you are trying to learn a new language then you could explore the new words by reading them and linking the words to a picture that represented that word (visual); reading them aloud and listening to native speakers pronouncing them (audio/linguistic); do what the words mean (walk around as you repeat the word "caminar," or pick up and/or eat an apple while you say "manzana" if you are learning Spanish for example) which would be exploring the information with your bodily/physical intelligence; categorize the new information (verbs, nouns, adjectives, etc.) or put it into an order that makes the most sense to you (logical/mathematical); talk about the new information with some other people (maybe ones who speak that language already) and see what they think about it or how they say it compared to what you think about it (interpersonal); think to yourself if any of the words you are learning sound like a similar English word or how they relate to other Spanish words you know already (interpersonal); and finally you could listen to classical music (or any other music you like, prefferably without words so you aren't distracted by them), draw or paint a picture of what the words you are learning represent, or make up a poem, song, or rap with the new words.


4. Memorize the key elements of new information. Imagine that you will need to give a report on it or teach it to someone else. Rewrite the information from memory after having learned it. Create a learning map/memory map of the new information which is one of the most effective ways to memorize new information (google it if you have never heard of a learning map or memory map). Also take regular breaks every 20-30 minutes because that's the average amount of time a person can actually focus on something and because studies have shown that people remember what they remember better what they learn at the beginning and at the end of a learning session than what was in the middle,...so the more beginnings and endings you have, the more information you are likely to remember. Review the new information after an hour, a day, a week, a month, after six months, and after a year. If you do this, you are 4 times more likely to retain the information in your long-term memory so that you can use it for the rest of your life.


5. Show that you know the new information, demonstrate that you know it. Test yourself with flash cards, by creating new learning/memory maps strictly from your memory and compare them to the one you made while learning the information, practice the new information by role playing or doing whatever it is you just learned, etc.


6. Reflect on what you did and how you learned the new information. Think about how well you learned it, how easy it was, and what you could have done differently or better in order to learn it more quickly and/or more easily. Keep this in mind when you go to learn similar information in the future so you will learn it more quickly and easily.

If you follow these steps when you go to learn any new information, you will learn it more quickly and easily than before. You will remember it better and longer and will be able to use it more effectively. By the way, this isn't an exhaustive list of how to do each step. Use your imagination and intuition and do what works best for you in order to apply each step in the ways that work best for you! Try applying these steps to something simple today and you will see how well they work. The more you use this system, the easier it will get, the more quickly and effectively you will learn new information, and the longer and better you will remember it.

Don't Quit!

One of the most important traits for a person who wants to be successful to have is persistence. Every book I've read, audio program I've listened to, and every seminar I've been to about success and how to achieve it talked about the importance of persisence and determination over and over again. Almost nothing is more important or a greater factor in determining whether or not you will succeed at any given task or goal you set out to achieve.

There are so many stories about how people have had a dream or goal that they really believed in, faced incredible opposition along the way but pressed on anyway, got knocked down over and over but kept getting back up, and had road blocks put in their way but they found a way to get around them or break through them until they finally achieved their goal...and every time someone asked them whether it was worth it or not, or if they would do it again if they knew how hard it would be from the start, they always said that they would still have decided to do it.

Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan 'Press On' has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.

Calvin Coolidge (1872 - 1933)

How many times have you been told that you shouldn't quit. Now how often have you actually thought about what that means or why you shouldn't quit. I'll tell you why... it's simple. If you quit, then it's impossible for you to achieve your goal! That's it. As long as you are still trying, you still have a chance, however small that chance may be. But when you quit, you have absolutely no chance anymore. For instance, if your goal is to sell a bunch of a certain product so that you make $100,000 in one year, and you have a hard time selling any of them for the first couple of weeks, would you quit? What if you really believed in the product, and that you actually could accomplish your goal if you just found the right market (people) to sell them to? If you kept trying and only accomplished half of what you set out to achieve, you still would have made $50,000!!! But if you had quit, how much would you have made? That's right, NOTHING! Which one would be better? Plus if you didn't quit, then you would have also learned how to be a better salesman which will help you accomplish even more during the rest of your life. If you had quit, you wouldn't have learned anything on top of the fact that you didn't make any money!

I know it's hard sometimes. I know that you may feel like crap, or that it's not worth it, or that you can't actually accomoplish your goal because it's too hard or you're not smart enough or good enough at something. Believe me, I've been there more than once. But if you persist, you will eventually accomplish anything you set out to achieve...I was able to, and I will continue to. If you really believe in what you are trying to accomplish, then there is always a way. All that it takes is time in order for you to find the right way, and the appropriate amount of effort to make it happen once you do. Don't quit! Be persistent and keep your sense of determination. Often times it's right when the going gets toughest that people quit when if they would have just stuck it out for a little bit longer, they would have acoomplished their goal.

Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. 

-Thomas Edison

Mistakes are Good!!!

Mistake. That word might as well be a swear word. There are so many people that are afraid of making mistakes, that the word even conjures up feelings of anxiousness, hesitancy, and stress. But why? Good question! Let me tell you the answer. It's because these people look at mistakes as failures, and no one ever wants to fail - at anything.

Is this how you feel about mistakes? I used to. Then I learned something about what mistakes really are than changed the way I look at them and has increased my self-confidence by at least fifty percent. I'm sure you've heard it before, but do you really believe it? What is it you say? It's this:

Mistakes are not failures, they are learning opportunities.

That's right, a mistake is nothing more than an opportunity to learn something. What you can learn is that whatever you did that didn't bring about the results you wanted was not the way it should be done in the future unless you are aiming for the results you obtained. It's that simple. Thomas Edison was one of the most successful inventors who ever lived, and I bet he probably made more mistakes than most people who have ever lived as well! It's almost common knowledge now that he went through over 1,000 attempts at making a light bulb before he finally figured it out. Who knows how many mistakes he made while trying to make everything else he invented work!

Mistakes are good in fact! The more mistakes you make, the more you learn about why something didn't work the way you thuoght it would, and the better you'll perform in the future, and the better decisions you'll make in the future because of everything you learn from all of the mistakes you made in the past. This is not to say that you should go out and purposefully make mistakes. You don't learn anything from that, because if you make a mistake on purpose, you already know it's not going to work. That's just being stupid. Don't do that. Instead, stop being afraid of doing something because you think you might make a mistake. You probably will, and that's okay! You will learn from it and be better off in the future because of it!

I have a theory that many of the most successful people in the world, are people who have made many, many, many more mistakes than everyone else as well. So go out and do what you want to do, whether or not you think you'll make mistakes. When you do make a mistake, learn from it and move on. When you stop making mistakes, step out of your comfort zone again so you can keep growing and learning and make some more mistakes. I know it probably sounds crazy, but the more mistakes you make, the more successful you'll be.

A Little Bit Extra

What is the difference between a 4.0 GPA and a 3.9 GPA? Just a little bit. What's the difference between a perfect score of 300 in bowling and a less than perfect 299? Just 1 pin to remaining standing after the entire rest of the game full of perfect shots. Okay, last question... What's the difference between an extraordinary person and an ordinary person? That's right, just the little "extra."

There are so many people out there who for one reason or another just do the minimum that they need to do in order to get by in their job, their marriage or relationship, their friendships, their church, and any other aspect of a person's life you can think of. There are many reasons people put forth to try to justify this, but none of them are good enough as far as I'm concerned. This is because there are tons of people who have gone through horrible things and turned their lives around to become amazingly successful and good people. If they can do it, so can everyone else - especially if they haven't had anything terrible happen in their lives.

So now that we've gotten that out of the way, why are there so many people who want to be happy and successful but aren't? I think it's because of one of two reasons; either they haven't realized that all they need to do is a little bit more, a little bit extra than others do, or they haven't given themselves enough time to reap the rewards of their hard work. This second reason has to do with persistence, which I will talk about in a future blog. But the first reason is the more predominant one, and the easiest one to change. All you have to do in order to be successful is just a little bit more than everyone else does...just a little bit extra. That is all it takes to get better results than normal people do, and stand out in the crowd. (The being happy part takes a little more work and will be addressed in a different post as well.)

So what do you do with the different areas of your life? Do you do the minimum necessary to get by like so many others do? Do you do more than that, but still about the same amount as everyone else? Or do you do the same amount as everyone else, and then a little bit extra? If you answered yes to any of the questions above other than the last one, then I challenge you to change your ways. Do the little extra from now on. Your effectiveness will be multiplied, and you will have given yourself a boost to help you travel down the road of success even faster!

The Law of Attraction

Recently there has been a lot of talk about the law of attraction (the law that like attracts like) from self-improvement gurus, and movies like the Secret. Buy what you may not know is that this was spoken about a long time ago in a little book I called the Bible. Both in positive and negative ways.

• Matthew 7:7 - Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.


• Job 22:28 - Thou shalt decree a thing, and it shall be established unto thee; and the light shall shine upon thy ways.


• Job 3:25 - Because a dreadful thing I have dreaded, it has come upon me. And what I have been scared of comes to me.


• Psalm 34:4 - I sought the Lord, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.


• Proverbs 23:7 - For as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.

Since this "secret" has been around for so long, it's in the bible, and so many people believe it to be true and have seen it working in their lives (including myself), I believe it is true. Maybe it can't be proven, but you can observe it happening in your own life and in the lives of others around you as well. The law of attraction basically states that whatever you focus on, you attract into your life. This is because thoughts are not just metaphysical things, meaning that they have no real substance or action that is measurable associated with them. In fact they do! Any and every thought you have produces a set of subsequent electrical signals being fired in your brain, as well as a release of specific chemicals in your brain and your body. Just because we haven't determined a good way to measure them (thoughts) yet, doesn't mean that they can't be measured. If you put someone in an MRI machine and show them pictures of different things or ask them to think about different things, you can see the different parts of their brain being triggered depending on the thought and even more so the feelings associated with those thoughts. So thoughts are actually things, not just immaterial phenomena.

Since thoughts are actually things and produce physical reactions, it makes sense that they also influence the physical world in a very real way. Everything in the universe that we know of is made of the same stuff (energy in one form or another), and anything that happens causes something else to happen, which causes something else to happen, and so on. This is because everything is connected to everything else because it is all made of the same thing. So when you think of something, it causes something to happen that attracts that thing that you were thinking about, into your life. Why this happens or how it happens I cannot say exactly because I don't know for sure. But as I said, I think it has something to do with everything being made of energy, and everything being connected in such a way that the law of attraction naturally happens through some medium I do not and maybe can not comprehend so I just chalk it up to being God's will.

So if the law of attraction is real, and you need to pay attention to what you focus on, then you need to also specifically pay attention to what you think about on a regular basis. If I tell you NOT to think of a pink elephant, can you do it? Of course not, ...even though I told you not to, you just thought about a pink elephant didn't you? You are probably even picturing one in your mind's eye right now. And the longer I write about pink elephants, the more likely you are to keep thinking about them because you are reading this, which means you are thinking about what you are reading, which means you are focusing on what I am writing. So you need to pay attention to what you think about and therefore what you focus on.

You have already experienced the law of attraction in your life many, many times. Have you ever had a bad morning when you just couldn't get whatever the negative thing that happened in the morning out of your mind (you focused on it), and then things just kept getting worse and worse all day long? Or maybe the opposite happened, you had a great morning, focused on that and things kept getting better and better all day! Or maybe you were playing a sport and you did something really great and you kept thinking about how good that felt, and you kept doing better and better at that sport that day or even that whole week or month! Or you may have had to deal with a crappy customer at work and you focused on that for some reason, and you seemed to keep getting crappy customers for the rest of that day. Or the same thing could have happened but with good customers. Maybe you saw something you really wanted and didn't tell anyone about, but someone got it for you for your birthday or Christmas anyway. These are just a few of countless examples.

Why don't you try something if you don't believe that the law of attraction is real, or even if you do just to play with it a little bit...try this: Think of something simple like a cup of coffee for instance, that you want to attract into your life soon. Close your eyes and picture it, see it, smell it, touch the coffee cup and pick it up, feel the texture of the cup and warmth of it. Experience the feelings of satisfaction as you put the cup to your mouth and take a sip. Feel the warm coffee traveling down your throat as you swallow that sip of coffee. Hold on to this sensation and these feelings for a little while, and then open your eyes. Do this a few times today and I bet you will get a cup of coffee soon. Or try it by focusing on something else instead if you don't like coffee. Maybe think of an old friend who you haven't talked to in a while but would like to catch up with. Do the same kind of thing, close your eyes and picture calling them on the phone or meeting up with them in person. Picture their face and the sound of their voice. Think about some of the good times you shared in the past. Imagine what you would talk about and where they might be in their life right now. Do this a few time a day too and I bet you will either meet them soon in an unexpected place, they will call or email you, or you can call them and I bet they will tell you that they've been thinking about you recently as well!

The law of attraction is real, and you can use it to your advantage once you understand how it works. All you have to do is focus on what you want and feel the feelings of happiness, gratitude, contentment, excitement, etc. that you would have if you already had it...and you will eventually get it. But if you don't consciously pay attention to what you focus on, the law of attraction can work against you too. If you keep focusing on how much debt you have and that you never have enough money, you'll keep getting more debt and probably have even less money! If you focus on how crappy a customer was, you will probably keep getting crappy customers.

So pay attention to what you focus on, and consciously decide that you are going to focus on good, positive things that will help you on your journey down the road of success. You will notice a difference, and the people around you will too!

Your Past Does Not Equal Your Future

Being the first day of the new year, I think it would be fitting to write a post about the future. So here goes...

Everyone has made mistakes in their lives. Whether they be big or small, there are things in everyone's life that if they had the chance to do over again, they would probably do something different. It may be something as small as turning the light off in their living room before they left the house to go to work, or as large as wishing they would have said "I love you" one last time to someone who they never got to see again. And for many people, there are common situations that they face over and over in which they continue to make less than optimal decisions. For most people, this is a situation where something needs to be done but it doesn't have to be done right away. So either they do it anyway, or they procrastinate even though they know they shouldn't. Could this be you?

If you procrastinate often or commonly make poor decisions in other situations, it doesn't mean that you can't be successful. It just means that you won't be as successful, as quickly. Sorry, but it's true. However, obviously you can change. It doesn't matter how many times you've done something that you knew wasn't the best thing to do in the past, or how many mistakes you've made in the past. Why? Because the past does not equal the future. Maybe you faced some situations last year that you'll probably face again this year where you didn't make great decisions, but that doesn't mean you have to do the same things this year. Or maybe it wasn't last year, maybe it was last month, maybe last week, maybe yesterday, maybe even just a few minutes ago....it doesn't matter!

You are not the same person you were in the past. Think about it, you have something around 10 trillion cells in your body, millions of which are being dying and being replaced by new ones every minute. You experience new situations every day, which cause you to make decisions, which effect what happens afterwards. You meet new people constantly and think about new things all of the time! So obviously, you are constantly changing and will never be the same as you were last year, last month, yesterday, or even a minute ago. Since you are not the same person, you aren't locked into having to make the same decisions you made in the past. And if you didn't like the result of a decision you've made in the past, then you obviously shouldn't make that decision next time. Albert Einstein said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

The past doesn't equal the future. You are not who you were in the past. You have the ability to make new and better decisions in each and every situation in you encounter in the future, and I challenge you to do so concerning situations in which you didn't like the outcome resulting from the decision you made. If you've been keeping up with this blog and applied any of my suggestions in your own life in the past, then you've already begun to change yourself for the better. So rather than challenging you to start changing your life for the better by making new year's resolutions and all that....I would rather just offer you encouragement on your continuing journey down the road of success.