Self Improvement Information

Something special has been taken from you, and it’s gone. Someone, by their actions, (whether intentional or unintentional) has changed your life forever. It becomes like an accident scene, the wreckage before you is your life.

What to do?

Take revenge? Pretend it didn’t happen? Try to get on with life hoping time will heal?

Is there such a thing as instant forgiveness?

A trap you could fall into is to build a shrine of remembrance, continually reliving the pain.

Some steps that might help:

1. Keep walking with your God.
2. As much as it hurts, and as insincere as it may seem, pray for the person who has caused you such hurt. In so doing you are telling God you would like to forgive but you are unable at this moment.
3. In a year or two or three you will have walked far enough away, and what you have been taught of God on that journey, will enable you to let it go. You will know it’s gone when you hear their name and your heart remains still.
(O.T. Israel walked with God through the wilderness, they came to a place called Marah, a place of bitter disappointment, they could have remained there for the rest of their life. God had not brought them out of Egypt to live in Marah, they overcame Marah and travelled to Elim, an oasis in the desert.)
4. Resist the temptation to return to the scene of the accident.

Forgiveness

• Is for your benefit, to set you free and perhaps someone else.
• Does not mean the person that hurt you is free from the consequences of their action.
• Is not reconciliation, reconciliation happens when the person who hurts you is genuinely sorry for their action.
• Maybe the person you need to forgive is yourself?
• Is about keeping your heart pure.

Matthew 5:8 Jesus said, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

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“Everyone says forgiveness is a lovely idea until they have something to forgive,” wrote author C.S. Lewis.

Think of a time when someone deliberately hurt you. Then, multiply your pain 10,000 times. You might be able to relate to how God feels when faced with a world of people who have sinned against him. Ultimately, all sin is against God.

Taylor, age 11, says Jesus can forgive because “God is him, and God has no flaws. So he is perfect, and with that job comes forgiveness.”

I’ve never thought of being God as a job. If you want to look at God’s “job” related to forgiveness, consider the function of human judges.

Are human judges unrighteous because they uphold the law by sending criminals to jail? No way. Neither would God be unjust if he immediately judged us every time we sinned against him. If he did, there would be nothing left of us but piles of ashes where lightning bolts had struck.

Jesus is forgiving because “He has no reason to hold a grudge, and He loves us,” says Matt, 11. Sentencing a criminal to jail doesn’t mean the judge is holding a grudge. And God, as the perfectly just judge, has every right to hold our sins against us.

Hayley, 10, says Jesus forgives because “He knows we are sorry.” Do you mean “sorry” as in regret or “sorry” as in pitiful? Many convicted felons are sorry for their crimes, but that doesn’t absolve them from serving time behind bars.

If you mean “sorry” as in realizing we’re in a pitiful condition because we’ve broken God’s laws, you’re headed in the right direction. By comparing ourselves to other people instead of God’s perfect righteousness, we can easily fool ourselves into thinking we’re hot stuff.

“Jesus is forgiving because he knows that we accidentally did something we should not have done,” says Haley, 7. Accidents happen, but sinning is usually deliberate and willful. Try telling a judge you “accidentally” went 70 miles per hour in a 45 miles-per-hour zone.

“Because Jesus is very nice” is the reason Hayes, 10, gives for Jesus forgiving us. Is a judge mean because he makes a thief repay the money he stole? On the contrary, justice is served when “nice” judges make thieves pay for their mean crimes.

“I think Jesus is forgiving because God sent Jesus to die on the cross to save us from our sins,” says Lauren, 10.

As Taylor, 12, adds, “It wasn’t the nails that hurt him; it was everybody’s sins.”

Jesus didn’t have anything for which he needed forgiveness. On the other hand, we have many deeds, words and thoughts that need forgiveness. Even one of the criminals crucified with the Lord Jesus recognized this: “Then one of the criminals who were hanged blasphemed Him, saying, ‘If you are the Christ, save yourself and us.’ But the other, answering, rebuked him, saying, ‘Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong’” (Luke 23:39-41).

You don’t have to be a convict on death row to express outrage against injustice or to realize our need of forgiveness when we stand before the cosmic Supreme Court. Convicted criminals and upstanding citizens alike will stand guilty as charged unless they’ve trusted the one who suffered unjustly on our behalf.

Point to ponder: Jesus can forgive us because he paid our debt to God the Father when he allowed himself to be crucified.

Scripture to remember: “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (II Corinthians 5:21).

Question to consider: Will you receive Jesus’ forgiveness by believing in him as your savior?

Carey Kinsolving is a syndicated columnist, producer, author, speaker and website developer. To see Carey’s Kid TV Interviews and more, visit KidsTalkAboutGod.org/ KidsTalkAboutGod.org/ The Kids Talk About God website contains free, online content for children and families. Print free lessons from the “Kids Color Me Bible” and make your own book. Watch for free the adventures of an 11-year-old girl traveling around the world, visiting missionaries in the Mission Explorers Streaming Video. Print Bible pictures drawn by kids that illustrate Scripture verses. Receive a complimentary, weekly e-mail subscription to our Devotional Bible Lessons. Bible quotations in this column are from the New King James Version.

Copyright 2006 Carey Kinsolving

I’m going to talk about something which is so important that I’d say it is the foundation on which your success will be built. If you want to achieve success as an independent musician you’re going to have to know, learn and more importantly, put into practice, this vital ‘key’. You simply can’t and won’t experience true and lasting success without it. Not taking the time to learn this would be like building a house without taking the time to put in a solid foundation for the house to stand on.

That key is “belief”. It’s the foundation of success and whether you like it or not you will become who you believe you will become. To put it simply and in a practical sense, your thoughts (which come from your ‘beliefs’) will dictate your physical actions and they of course will ultimately dictate your success.

Have you ever felt angry, depressed or even really happy? Of course you have and you also know from your own experience that it affects what physical actions you do or don’t take. For example, when you’re happy you do and say things that you wouldn’t do or say if you were angry or depressed.

These ‘feelings’ come from your ‘beliefs’. You feel angry because you ‘believe’ you have been wronged or you feel happy because you ‘believe’ something makes you happy.

Given that ‘beliefs’ are so important to attaining success, it would be helpful if we could have a way to prove and measure these beliefs to ensure that they are helping us get the success we’re after, right?

Well guess what? You can test whether your beliefs are ‘helping’ you to achieve success because your results are the ‘proof’ and they are also measurable.

If you want to get good at something, you have to study it, right? So it makes sense that if you want success you need to study it. There are people everywhere (in all kinds of businesses or pursuits) who are achieving it and you need to study these successful people and learn what they know and what they are doing.

I guarantee you that if you are not yet successful you will find that all the people who are successful will have different ‘beliefs’ about success than you. You absolutely need to have the ‘belief’ part in place to succeed because even your circumstances are not going to prevent you from achieving success. You must know of people who have had unfortunate circumstances or hardships before they achieved their success. Ever heard of Oprah Winfrey, Colonel Sanders (founder of KFC), Honda and Helen Keller. There are many, many people who have achieved success regardless of their circumstances. The point here is that it doesn’t matter if you like any or all of these people but it proves that ‘circumstance’ is not a barrier to success unless we ‘believe’ it to be and I’ll guarantee that not one of these people ‘believed’ that their circumstances prevented them from achieving success.

What successful people ‘believe’ is the rocket fuel that along with taking action, got them their success.

I might warn you though that confronting your own ‘beliefs’ is not an easy thing to do, in fact I’d say it’s the ‘hardest’ part of attaining success. They are your ‘beliefs’ for a reason and it takes a lot of courage to admit that your success (or lack of it) is because your ‘beliefs’ are preventing you from doing what it takes to succeed. But it’s not about self blame, it’s about being empowered, because if your lack of success so far is down to you, it must also mean that so too is your ability to create success?

We’ve all got an ‘inner voice’ telling us our beliefs, you know the one that says things like “you can’t do that”, “you’ll never make it”, “successful people are not like me” etc. You get the idea. They’re your beliefs and that’s what you need to work on if you want to be successful.

Go to work on your beliefs and I guarantee you, your life will turn around. It will probably be an ongoing work in progress though, as old beliefs like to sneak up on you when you’re not paying attention and they’ll throw you right back.

This article and other and tools for achieving success as an independent musician are part of the free “Tools For Success” e-zine available by subscribing to theindiemusician.com/” target=”_blank The Indie Musician.

Jo Brew publishes a blog called

So many in the world today believe that in order to attain wealth that you must be smarter than the “average person”, be fortunate enough to be able to afford an education at some prestigious university, that you must “work harder and longer”, that you must “invest wisely”, or “just be plain lucky.”

These misconceptions run rampant in our societies today and are perceived to be truth by the majority. Many mistakenly perceive these falsely held beliefs to be the only logical means to attain such a state as true abundance and happiness, because that is what they have been led to believe to be true.

While it is true that a college education can be helpful in your life long endeavors, whole societies teach that a college education is essential and necessary to attain a good job unless you are one of the lucky few.

If this is true, what becomes of the multitudes who are not fortunate enough to attain a formal education? What becomes of the many who for whatever reason are unable to attend a college?

Are they doomed to a life of mediocrity and struggle? Are they hopelessly bound to unfulfilling low paying jobs with no hope of ever realizing any sort of success and financial independence? Absolutely not!

Sadly, because of these widespread traditional misconceptions that have been taught for hundreds of years, and that the masses have accepted as truth, millions of people today do believe that they are hopelessly stuck in jobs that they dislike, that they must work long grueling hours, spend little to no time with their families, and get so caught up in making a living that they fail to make a life.

In looking at the world, it has become obvious that something isn’t working quite right. Although two income families are more prevalent than ever before, technology is far more advanced, and opportunity at an all time high, why is it, that so many seem to have to get by with so little?

If one were to look at the statistics of rising emotional and mental dysfunction, rising bankruptcy percentages, stress related dis-ease, staggering rates of divorce, and the ever increasing rates of homelessness, it would certainly raise questions as to why.

Could it be that that the harder people try to cure the deficient areas of their lives by following ill given advice, provided through a flawed educational process, that is actually the cause for these ever increasing and unfortunate situations? Is it possible that the majority have lost sight of the true means of where real and lasting abundance comes?

Is it possible that our educational system is severely flawed and not teaching the real life principles that would allow the majority to live lives of plenty rather than struggle?

Is it possible that there might be a simple answer to the rising numbers of poverty stricken families, ever increasing divorce rates, single parent homes, world hunger, etc. etc.

There is! It’s called education. I’m not talking about the kind of traditional type education that is received in the majority of our government controlled schools., or learning a new trade at the local Vo-tech.

I’m talking about an education that teaches people the truth about who and what they were really created to be, and taught correct principles concerning the kind of lives that they were really intended to live, that would teach each individual the unlimited potential that each is capable of attaining.

I’m talking about an education that helps people to understand that life doesn’t have to be a “I wonder what’s going to happen tomorrow” type of existence wondering if the electricity, phone, or water is going to be turned off because they didn’t have enough left over to pay the bill.

Why is this education not taught to the masses? It’s readily available to all who will take the time to find it and certainly provable if they will only take the time needed to discover, learn, and apply the simple principles that are required.

Many would have you believe that such talk is a bunch of nonsense, and that so many struggle in our societies because “that is just the way life is.” Many would have you believe that is just the nature of people and to some extent, I would have to agree. The reason that many people find themselves in these unpleasant and uncomfortable situations is because that is what they have been taught and come to believe to be the truth.

All any person or family needs to do is learn the true principles that control our entire universe and learn the simple, unwavering, and predictable laws that govern the entire cosmos. All any struggling single mother has to do is rewrite the nonsense subconscious programming that they have allowed to be absorbed through the education that they have received and learn to replace the self limiting teachings of the nay sayers that they have associated with and replace that false teaching with universal truth. All it would take is a slight shift in the thought processes that have been taught to them throughout their lives.

All that is required is developing an awareness of who they truly are as individuals and learn the real truth of what they were created to be and capable of becoming.

All it takes is a change in belief. Your beliefs are determining where you are at in your life right now. Your current beliefs are determining what kind of job you are capable of, the amount of money that you can make, and what type of home you live in.

If what you currently believe isn’t serving you, you have the power to learn new information and the free will to choose to establish new beliefs. You have the capability and the power within yourself, without any help from anyone, to accomplish your lifelong dreams and goals if only you will only acquire the right kind of education that will empower you to do so, and allow you to establish the real truth concerning who you truly are and what you are truly capable of becoming.

You also have the power to remain as you are. You possess the power to continue to make your life decisions based on what you have come to know as truth. You have the power to allow your previous teaching to control the rest of your life or you also have the power to discover for yourself what you are truly capable of doing, achieving, and becoming.

If you are able to develop your awareness of the true and limitless possibilities that are available to you and develop your consciousness to the point of conceiving a life of Abundance and Happiness for yourself, you are certainly able to achieve it, regardless of what you have been previously taught.

Now you have to decide if this is a bunch of nonsense, or if it is in fact possible that what is being shared might be true. There is plenty of credible information available to you to prove it for yourself. This proof comes in many forms. It can be found through scientific study. It can be found through correct teachings in the right spiritual circles which has been practiced, talked about, and understood for thousands of years.

The truth is readily available as well as the steps that it will take for you to live a life of purpose, joy, fulfillment, and inner peace.

Does it require some effort on your part? Absolutely! Does it take a specific amount of discipline to accomplish it? Definitely.

The truth is available to those that will seek it. The steps have been laid out for those that have a sincere desire to transform their lives in a dramatic and powerful way.

Now it only becomes a matter of choice. Your Choice. What do you choose?

Your life is limited only by your beliefs. Change your beliefs and you can change your world.

© Chuck Danes. All rights reserved worldwide.

Chuck Danes has been assisting individuals for the past 25 years in the areas of self improvement and personal development. His passion is assisting others in becoming aware of and fulfilling their unlimited potential. He is currently assisting individuals worldwide with life changing tips, techniques and resources through his site, Abundance-and-Happiness.com Abundance-and-Happiness.com

When Betty Eadie was 31, she died in a hospital after undergoing surgery. What happened next has been called by some, “the most profound near-death experience ever.” Betty journeyed to a beautiful world beyond this life. She met Jesus there. Jesus gave her a message to give to others when she returned. These quotes from her books, Embraced By The Light, The Awakening Heart, and The Ripple Effect give a glimpse into her experience.

“[God] remembers, while you cannot, everything the two of you spoke of and planned together for your life. He knows how best to help you along the path of your eternal purpose. Begin noticing his hand in your life behind even the most surprising things that come onto your path. Sometimes these can be part of the original plan. Sometimes they are God’s way of bringing you back to the original plan when your own choices lead you elsewhere. Remember that God is perfect, therefore his plan for you and the particular way he chooses to implement that plan are perfect as well. To understand this is to view all the events of your life from a changed perspective.”

“By coming here without our eyes fully open, we are forced to follow the whisperings of our spirits—those quiet truthful impressions that spring from the subconscious. As we follow them, we begin to hear also the whisperings of God.”

“Our Father in Heaven created man in his own image—which is that of a perfect and multifaceted man. Women, too, are in the image of God and are multifaceted. Women’s bodies are co-creators of mortal life, and this makes us Godlike in a literal sense. In heaven, women and men are perfectly balanced in their roles and are equal. Standing side by side, they are perfect complements of each other.”

Dorothy M. Neddermeyer, PhD, Life Coach, Hypnotherapist, Author, “101 Great Ways To Improve Your Life.” Mind, Body, Spirit healing and Physical/Sexual Abuse Prevention and Recovery. As an inspirational leader, Dr. Neddermeyer empowers people to view life’s challenges as an opportunity for Personal/Professional Growth and Spiritual Awakening. drdorothy.net drdorothy.net

There is nothing like a tall cold glass of lager or Scotch on rocks to toast an occasion or to nurse a grievance. The average age when Americans initiate their intimacy with alcohol is calculated at 15 years. If one works out the volume guzzled daily as an expression of dissent, impulsiveness or sensationalism, it is a concern.

When does alcohol turn unpleasant? According to governmental guidelines three to four units per day for men and two to three units per day for women is the desired maximum intake. This is also subjective to health and other related problems including medicinal intake. The problem begins when alcohol is combined with drugs or we become alcohol dependent due to health, personal or psychiatric reasons. Youngsters who begin drinking from age 12 or above are more prone to alcohol dependence than youngsters who start later around age twenty-one. Another mistake we make is to splurge or binge on weekends, which has far-reaching alcohol abuse effect especially on women and teenagers and is leading cause of teen deaths through automobile crashes, homicides and suicides.

Instead of trying to hide behind statistics or play the blame game, treatment of alcohol abuse should start with children and teenagers being made aware of effects of alcohol abuse. Parents, peers and authorities need to monitor or communicate through listing on menu bars or one to one discussions on drug and alcohol abuse. We accept drinking as part of our culture and realize late when the teenager is already alcohol dependent and at risk for cirrhosis or dangerous inflammation of liver, inflammation of pancreas, stroke, cancer, depression or risky sexual behavior. Few of us are aware that effect of alcohol starts within five to 10 minutes and lasts for hours.

Once responsiveness is set up through parents, peers, advertisements or laws, it will be easy to tackle the growing menace of the alcohol abuse cause of nearly 60,000 deaths in the United States each year. Moderate drinking is permissible and medically acceptable as it reduces the risk of heart attacks, strokes, gallstones or diabetes. Abuse can result in cancer, high blood pressure, miscarriage, heart failure and related problems, damage to newborn children or, in extreme circumstances, even suicide. So the moment you suspect your child or any grown up having personality changes, black outs, increased food intake, sneaking in drinks or drinking throughout the day or from early morning it is time to individually tackle the problem or take help of private or governmental organizations.

e-AlcoholAbuse.com Alcohol Abuse provides detailed information on Alcohol Abuse, Alcohol Abuse Treatment, Drug and Alcohol Abuse, Alcohol Abuse Effects and more. Alcohol Abuse is affiliated with e-Alcoholism.com Signs Of Alcoholism.

These little known quotes bring a perspective worth contemplating–Nelson Mandela, Lao Tzu, Geroge Bernard Shaw, Stephen Covey, et al.

“There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.” Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela

“He who grasps things loses them.” Lao Tzu

“A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.” George Bernard Shaw

“The stone does not always know what ripples it has caused in the pond.” Author Unknown

“Vision without action is merely a dream. Action without vision just passes the time. Vision with action can change the world.” Joel Barker

“I know that you believe that you understand what you think I said, but I am not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.” Author Unknown

“You have to decide what your highest priorities are and have the courage - pleasantly, smilingly, non-apologetically - to say no to other things. And the way you do that is by having a bigger ‘YES’ burning inside.” Stephen Covey

“In matters of principal, stand like a rock. In matters of taste, swim with the current.” Thomas Jefferson
“Creativity is not in the finding of a thing, but in the making something of it when it is found.” James Russell Lowell

“Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skillful execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives.” William A. Foster.

Dorothy M. Neddermeyer, PhD, Life Coach, Hypnotherapist, Author, “101 Great Ways To Improve Your Life.” Mind, Body, Spirit healing and Physical/Sexual Abuse Prevention and Recovery. As an inspirational leader, Dr. Neddermeyer empowers people to view life’s challenges as an opportunity for Personal/Professional Growth and Spiritual Awakening. drdorothy.net drdorothy.net

I once heard my grandfather say that life is very much like a road. As a matter of fact, roads can be long or short, straight or curvy, rocky or smooth. Whatever your life is like, long or short, your path will inevitably run into many different roads. Some roads will take you to a life of felicity, marital union and spiritual mission. Others roads can bring you glory and abundance, or on the contrary loneliness and scarcity. You may always encounter roads to happiness or roads to misery, roads to success and joy, and roads to failure and frustration.

Now if you take a moment to reflect upon your life so far, you will surely identify similar crossroads, deviations and perhaps dead ends. As far as I am concerned, crossroads have always held some sort of fascination mixed with a sense of adventure and perplexity at times. Which way to go out of the four roads ahead of you? How do you make up your mind, especially when you do not know exactly where a particular road will lead you to? There is no guarantee that your decision will be correct, and for some the question may even be whether they should move at all or simply remain where they are.

Don’t Take Anything For Granted In Life

When you take your first step onto a new road, you will never really know where it will take you until you are already on that road. Most importantly, you should know that life doesn’t offer any guarantees. Even doing the right thing does not necessarily translate into happiness. Similarly, you may love someone with all your heart and not be loved in return. Recognition and prosperity do not either guarantee a happy life. In fact, life is such that you have little control of the far too numerous possibilities and potential outcomes. What you do have control over however are the choices you make, and how you decide to act and react to different situations in life.

Go For It!

Remember, life doesn’t offer any guarantee and you never really know if your decision is right or not until you’ve made it. So, my suggestion to you is to dare make up your mind and take your chances. This mindset will most certainly avoid you get stalled in an unpleasant rut.

While a single decision can ruin your life as well as be the start of a new adventure and open more roads, it is always a matter of perspective. You have the choice between living your life or “watching” it happen to you. In any case, avoid taking decisions randomly or taking careless risks.

Live A Life With No Regrets

Obviously if you knew in advance that the decision you are about to make is wrong, you would immediately change your course. And that would be the right thing to do, since nobody with common sense would embark on a road leading to nowhere or very little. But - and that is a big but - whenever you have to make a decision, there’s no way for you to know for sure that this is going to be the right decision. The only way to know is to wait for the outcome of that decision, and consider whether the positive consequences outweigh the negative effects or the other way round.

Stay tuned for Part 2!

Copyright © Luc Andria

A Harvard-educated seasoned entrepreneur, lucandria.com Luc Andria is the owner of the world’s first Internet Network Marketing School. He leads the GelDiamonds.com GelDiamonds to create leveraged global residual income.

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In order to manage anything that involves our self it is required to have control of our lives and self. Indeed it is impossible to control over anything, but we all have a degree of control over most things that involve us. When we are strategizing a time management scheme, we have to factor in all details of life because all things in life affect us in some way.
Albeit many people think that it is so, time management is far from a quick process. You will notice this, once you start your calculations. Especially when you are alone in time management the road can be rocky.

For this problem time management has its own stop, go, and yield signs. In order to start a time management plan you need to calculate and analyze your plan carefully to weed out flaws, evaluating where your time is spent.

The beginning process of controlling time management is to calculate time with factors like family and work. Moreover you have to calculate problem areas like troubles with your computer that may arrive. You regard this by calculate large and small disasters into the equation of time management. But when you have done this the process, you have not finished for a long time yet.

The fact is that there is no end to managing time, because we have to include personal factors. When we calculate time management, we must include details such as, entertainment, relaxing and everything that makes us who we are. If you are spending too much time in one area, you can cut back time by spending more time in important areas.

For example, if it takes you a long time in the morning to get motivated you have to think about why is it taking me such a long time? In the majority of cases this is caused by a desideration of preparation. Now, to win back time you will need to think! Why is it taking me so long to get dressed in the morning? When you are searching through your closet trying to find a suit the solution is taking a few minutes each night to pick your suit fore the next day, so that when you get up in the morning you only need to dress.

If you are spending for example 45 minutes dressing, you are wasting time. If you do not waste time, we can subtract at least 30 minutes from dressing and move forward to other areas in our life where our time is either spent well, or wasted.

The question coming up is: What are you doing at work? Are you chatting online with someone, or standing around drinking coffee? If your workday looks like this, you are not only wasting company time, you are wasting your time. As long as you do not have a goal in mind, this is not a controlling way in time management.

Johannes Nefischer is a successful Business Consultant and publisher of
TakeAction101.com He provides more information on
takeaction101.com/timemanagementsystem Time Management System on his website.

President, CEO, Owner, Supervisor…Does a title make a leader? Do you need a prestigious label to be in charge? Can a janitor or a waiter be a leader? Of course! Then what makes a great leader? Good leaders have the ability to delegate, the capacity to solve problems, and the power to manage others. Great leader’s use learning and teaching, personal drive, and empowerment of the people around them.

It is okay if you can think of more characteristics. One should always look for ways to improve, but these qualities are the difference between good and great. If you do not currently exercise these techniques or if your employees do not apply them, it is okay. There is no such thing as a born leader! Well…maybe one. A consultant friend of mine was speaking to a large group of people when he said, “There is no such thing as a born leader.” Immediately, a person in the crowd stood up and announced that he was a born leader. My friend replied, “Interesting comment. What is your name sir?” He responded, “James D. Leader.” Now that man was a born “Leader”! However, everyone (including Mr. Leader) needs training on how to lead others effectively. What experiences have taught you? What skills do you have that help you lead others? Would you like to be a leader or would you prefer to follow? How can you improve?

The first two qualities of a great leader are the willingness to learn and the ability to teach. By having the ability to ask yourself questions like the ones you have just read, you will be on the path to setting yourself apart from the others. How many people can name the last ten books they have read that can help them lead? Or three? Or just the last one? The average person goes to school for 12-19 years and then quits advancing knowledge. The people who continue to further their education after high school or college are included in the nation’s top one percent. This top percent makes and maintains 40 percent of the nation’s wealth! The way to make it there is to educate yourself a half an hour a day. Read! This is one of the keys to success in leadership. The second part of this concept is to teach others. Training is easy: Take the information you learn and share it! People working for you must be taught something new a minimum of every 90 days. Now think about corporate America. Countless companies quit training people after the first month of hire. How effective do you think that is in the long term? Learn and teach!

The next value of a great leader is personal drive. The way to promote personal drive is through goal setting. What do you want out of life? It may sound easy but take some time to think about it. It may not be as easy as you thought. Once you have an answer write it down. Next, think about why you want it. Write that down. The response to the Why question is your driving force and is important to motivate yourself. It is what inspires you, your purpose. The last question that you should ask yourself is “When?” When do you want to complete your goal? Be realistic and do not procrastinate. Come up with a plan of action to complete it. A study conducted in 1953 on the graduating class at Yale asked students 20 questions. Of those 20, three had to do with goals: Have you set goals? Have you written them down? Do you have a plan to accomplish them? Only three percent of the class answered yes to those questions. Twenty years later, in 1973, surviving members of the class of ‘53 participated in another survey. The three percent who had said yes to the goal questions were more happily married, more successful, had a better family life, better health, and they held 97 percent of the net worth of the class of ‘53! Would you have fit in that three percent?

The last skill of a great leader is the ability to empower people around you in two ways. Have you ever had a boss that never said thank you? How about a manager that never acknowledged your work? How did that make you feel? The first way to empower the people around you is by making them feel good! Say good things about them in front of coworkers and upper management. Recognition. Thank them for a job well done. The nation’s most profitable companies reward their people for the smallest things and constantly challenge themselves to find even smaller accomplishments to praise their people. The second way to empower the people around you is by making them all leaders! Delegate power and responsibility. How many times have you heard, “I’ll have to ask my manager,” or “That’s company policy”? Employee empowerment raises productivity levels and professionalism sky-high. Members of upper management will experience a hundred times less stress. Would you like a business that operates itself? That is one benefit of empowering your people. You do not have to relinquish control, but, rather, share the responsibilities. Allow your people to make business decisions. The reality is your people know more about the problems than you ever will because they are in the field talking with the customers and other workers. They are taking out the trash. They are sweeping the floors. They deal with problems on a daily basis. They are the business! Ask them! What can we do to make your job easier? How can we improve the production in your department? How can we make our customers’ experiences better? You will be amazed by the responses you get. They know!

With the information given earlier: “One percent of the nation makes and maintains 40 percent of the wealth,” “97 percent of the net worth of the class of ‘53 was in the hands of that three percent,” and “The nation’s most profitable companies reward their people for the smallest things,” it makes one thing very clear: There are enough followers. We need more leaders! Are you willing to change? Are you willing to lead?

Author Bio: Adam DesAutels – President and CEO of DesAutels Communications Agency. A full service business development firm that specializes in planning, marketing advice, research, and general business Q and A (consulting). DesAutels supports the most successful small businesses around the nation in growing their companies. For more information on our services, please call 866.521.3780.