Research Your Life

I was asked recently by someone posting on my self help blog what were the best self motivational books I have read. Although there are several thousand self motivational books published each year I have come to the conclusion that there is very little that can be added to the many words of self motivational wisdom that have been written over the last century and a half. From the early pioneers like Napoleon Hill to today’s monumental giants like Tony Robbins. It was said, I think by the latter of these two gurus, that we arrive on this planet without an instruction manual. I think for that reason alone there is not just a thirst for knowledge but a greater need for a guide to how to survive life which drives the market for self help books. You don’t need to have suffered a deep psychological trauma to want to invest in one of these guides. But for those who say you can’t deal with serious issues like depression then I disagree. Where my own doctor and a clinical psychologist were unable to help me a number of the books on my all time classic list gave me the support to get my life back on track. However its not reading self motivational books that gets results its taking action on the advice that is given therein. So my advice is read a small amount of self motivational books but take a lot of action if you want to significantly improve your life.
Can self motivational books bring happiness? Now there is a million dollar question! Depends on your definition of happiness of course. Many people would define it as achieving a certain amount of wealth. However as many wealthy people often say the wealth in and of itself doesn’t bring happiness. In addition have you ever noticed that wealthy people never seem satisfied with what they have got and continually seek to make more and more money. The truth is that happiness is not a destination it is more likely to be a state of continually striving to achieve goals, achieving them and setting more goals to strive to achieve. If thats your definition then I think self motivational books will help you and my list of all time classics have certainly helped me in that respect. There are many out there who will disagree with my choice of self help books and have their own favourites all I can say to them is that these are the ones that gave me the focus and the necessary poke in the ribs to take action and I still revisit them for ideas.

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If you do what you’re expected to do, don’t expect an outstanding result.

Study successful people and you’ll sure to discover one thing that many of them would have in common- they live by that words of “always do more than what is expected of you.”

It could be sleeping an hour less everyday to have more time to build your wealth or whatsoever.

Whether you are mowing people’s lawn or someone is mowing your lawn, when you are teaching a seminar or being a participant, when sharing your knowledge or giving advice to others, always do or give more than what people expect. Then they will flock around you, lining up to meet you and support you in whatever thing that you want to do next.

If you’re training to be a champion, don’t just train like an average player. Train more than you’re expected to train.

If you’re building a multi-level marketing business, increase the numbers of prospects you would like to meet everyday. If it used to be 10, now you would have at least 12. By just increasing your effort 20%, you’ll now get 60 new prospects a month. Now, that’s what I called exponential growth.

Trying to court a girl? I’m not surprise that you could be “competing” with five other guys for the same girl. And you can only win if you’re giving more than all of them (if everyone’s equal). I’m not saying giving more money or buying stuff- give love, time or whatever that she appreciates.

Whenever you are interacting with people or in a relationship, treat extremely well.

Whatever is expected of you in that relationship, be it with your girlfriend, wife/husband, business partner or client or your friend, always do or give more than what is expected of you in that relationship because that is the secret of making it a success.

Don’t be mistaken that it you need to give a whole lot more; you have to do just a little bit more than the rest. That’s it.

To do this, it’s not difficult. But most people are just too lazy to put in the effort. I’m one of them but I’ll always keep reminding myself this- winner takes all. There is no second place, my friend. I would rather strive with the extra effort to get #1 because the pay off is many times greater than #2.

Do you remember who the second best basketball player is? Nope. You can remember Michael Jordan because he’s #1. In fact, as far as I know, there’s no such place as the ‘the second best basketball player’.

Who’s the second fastest runner in the world? Who knows. I just know the #1.

Others have called this ‘more than expected attitude’ as ‘going for the extra mile’. Notice that they don’t say the extra 10 miles.

How come?

Because the average persons doesn’t bother to do more than what is expected of them and that’s the awful truth.

To most people, “always do more than what is expected of you” are mere words and they don’t put substance to it.

And guess what… successful people are never your average people.

To be generous and to treat others extremely well, you must come from the perspective of abundance thinking. Then only “always doing more than what is expected of you” will come easy and naturally.

So the next time you are with somebody, in a business negotiation, or just interacting with another person, ask how can I help you… without even expecting any return.

As the other saying goes, commonly heard in self improvement — you have to give, in order to get. In fact, if you want to gather riches you have to be as generous as you can. Touch people’s lives profoundly in ways that they would never forget. Give it forward- help another and that person will help another. Always do more than what is expected of you. Do this and the reward will come in 10 folds or 100 folds when you are least expecting it.

Do you think you can do more than what you’re doing right now? Of course you can. The question is… DO YOU WANT OR NOT? You’ll have to decide for your own future on that.

Note: This article is written by Patric Chan who shares his experience about achieving success and wealth at his self improvement blog. You can also join his self improvement forum for free and meet like-minded positive people.

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