The Daily Dozen

John C. Maxwell is one of the greatest writers/motivators in our day. We encourage all to take a look at his books, he has written a handful of helpful guides on encouraging success and reaching ones full potential. His website is here John Maxwell.



One of our favorites is Today Matters: 12 Daily Practices to Guarantee Tomorrows Success.



In it, he gives us 12 daily practices to guide us in the right direction of achieving success. Here is The Daily Dozen:

1. Attitude: Choose and display the right attitude daily.
2. Priorities: Determine and act on important priorities daily.
3. Health: Know and follow healthy guidelines daily.
4. Family: Communicate with and care for family daily.
5. Thinking: Practice and develop thinking skills daily.
6. Commitment: Make and keep proper commitments daily.
7. Finances: Earn and properly manage finances daily.
8. Faith: Deepen and live out faith daily.
9. Relationships: Initiate and invest in solid relationships daily.
10. Generosity: Plan for and model generosity daily.
11. Values: Embrace and practice good values daily.
12. Growth: Desire and experience improvements daily.

Doing all 12 of these on a daily basis can be overwhelming at first. We suggest you pick 3-4 practices that you find to be the most difficult for you to do. Once you have mastered those, pick another 3-4 and so on until you naturally are integrating all 12 into your daily regime. Can you imagine how much more motivated and driven you would be if you did all 12 of these on a daily basis? We encourage all to start now. Remember, if you don't start today, you'll never start tomorrow!

"To get what you've never had, you must do what you've never done.”

The following is an amazing excerpt from a book written by Brian Tracy called The Power Of Discipline:
Why are some people more successful than others? Why do some people make more money, live happier lives and accomplish much more in the same number of years than the great majority?

I started out in life with few advantages. I did not graduate from high school. I worked at menial jobs. I had limited education, limited skills and a limited future.

And then I began asking, “Why are some people more successful than others?” This question changed my life.

Over the years, I have read thousands of books and articles on the subjects of success and achievement. It seems that the reasons for these accomplishments have been discussed and written about for more than two thousand years, in every conceivable way. One quality that most philosophers, teachers and experts agree on is the importance of self-discipline. As Al Tomsik summarized it years ago, “Success is tons of discipline.”

Some years ago, I attended a conference in Washington. It was the lunch break and I was eating at a nearby food fair. The area was crowded and I sat down at the last open table by myself, even though it was a table for four.

A few minutes later, an older gentleman and a younger woman who was his assistant came along carrying trays of food, obviously looking for a place to sit.

With plenty of room at my table, I immediately arose and invited the older gentleman to join me. He was hesitant, but I insisted. Finally, thanking me as he sat down, we began to chat over lunch.

It turned out that his name was Kop Kopmeyer. As it happened, I immediately knew who he was. He was a legend in the field of success and achievement. Kop Kopmeyer had written four large books, each of which contained 250 success principles that he had derived from more than fifty years of research and study. I had read all four books from cover to cover, more than once.

After we had chatted for awhile, I asked him the question that many people in this situation would ask, “Of all the one thousand success principles that you have discovered, which do you think is the most important?”

He smiled at me with a twinkle in his eye, as if he had been asked this question many times, and replied, without hesitating, “The most important success principle of all was stated by Thomas Huxley many years ago. He said, 'Do what you should do, when you should do it, whether you feel like it or not.'”

He went on to say, “There are 999 other success principles that I have found in my reading and experience, but without self-discipline, none of them work.”

Self-discipline is the key to personal greatness. It is the magic quality that opens all doors for you, and makes everything else possible. With self-discipline, the average person can rise as far and as fast as his talents and intelligence can take him. But without self-discipline, a person with every blessing of background, education and opportunity will seldom rise above mediocrity.

The Ten Cannots

1) You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.

2) You cannot help small men by tearing down big men.

3) You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.

4) You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.

5) You cannot help the poor man by destroying the rich.

6) You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income.

7) You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.

8) You cannot establish security on borrowed money.

9) You cannot build character and courage by taking away men's initiative and independence.

10) You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves.