Prosperity Horizons Educational Blog, Issue 8
Monday, July 11, 2005
Prosperity Horizons Educational Portal
http://www.prosperityhorizons.com
The X-factor
Five Ways to Stand Out from the Crowd
Why is it that some people are successful and others are not? Why does it seem so easy for some people to get the right job . . meet the right people . . be at the right place at the right time . . accumulate wealth? Are they just lucky?
The X-factor
By Neil Millar
Would you agree that today most of us
have the same set of opportunities and the same set
potential?
If you agree with me, then perhaps you might like to
consider this puzzling question: if we all have the same
opportunities and potential why are some people more
successful than others?
It could be said that some people are more privileged than
others, and while this is certainly true, you could argue
that there is proof in every day life of people who started
off with zero and went on to accumulate incredible wealth.
It could be said that some people have better academic
ability than others and while this is true you could argue
the case of all the people who achieved success after years
of under-achieving in education. It could be said that some
have more talent than others, and while this is true, there
is always someone who has achieved huge success based on
determination and a lot less talent.
And it could be said that there are always exceptions to
rules... and if this is the case then I question how, if
there are exceptions to rules, the rule came to be a rule in
the first place!
I’m a writer: a novelist and an author of personal
development material and as such, I’m a keen researcher
because I want my work to have depth. What I want to share
with you is some of that research - research that highlights
a couple of, in my opinion, the vital steps to success in
any endeavor.
What I’ve found is that the successful people start with a
couple of very important qualities. These qualities, I
believe, are so vital to success that, if you took it away,
I doubt they could ever succeed.
What’s more is this: most people who have not, or are not
succeeding in life in a way they would desire fail to do
these two things. So let me enlighten you…
People who succeed - people who live life with a purpose -
know what they want to achieve right at the beginning of
their adventure to success. They are clear on their life
path or Life Purpose. They know what they want in life and
they select only opportunities that bring them close to the
desired result. And the other thing they do?
People who succeed know who they want to be as they move
towards their success on that path of Life Purpose. They use
their past to shape their future, keeping what they like and
what works and discarding what fails and thwarts them.
Think about it and see if you agree: if you knew what you
wanted and got clear about who you are and how your past
experience could be harnessed for the good of mankind then
would anything be able to stop you if you consistently
applied yourself in that direction?
I doubt it!
Neil Millar, author of the adventure novel with personal growth, Black Water and the personal growth books Greater Steps to Happiness and Be the Hero in your Own Life, writes newsletter articles for Unstoppable Life along with Life Purpose coach, Jo Ball. Get tips, stories and ideas on achieving what you want in life in a monthly email. It’s FREE and we’ll even send you a copy of Greater Steps to Happiness as a way of saying thank you for joining our subscription list http://www.unstoppablelife.com .
Five Ways to Stand Out from the Crowd
By Terry Mitchell
Some people are content to just to be
another face in the crowd. By assuming this attitude, they
are saying, in effect, to the rest of the world, I'm just
average; there's nothing special about me. For those of us
who would rather stand out from the crowd, there are some
relatively easy ways in which we can accomplish this
mission. None of them require a whole lot of skill or money.
They do, however, require a little bit of commitment on our
part.
The first way to stand out from the crowd is to take time to
do the little things right. The old saying goes that if it
were easy, eve ryone would be doing it. Well, that's not
necessarily true, as there are some easy things most people
don't do because they just don't think those things are
worthwhile. Here are two examples. The next time you go to
the grocery store, notice how many people actually take time
to carry the carts back to the cart-return. You will
probably notice that only a very few of them do. Most will
leave them between parking spaces, in handicapped spaces, or
they'll simply turn them loose, allowing them to roll freely
through the parking lot. By default, they are saying to the
world, I don't have time to do things right or everyone else
is doing it that way and I am no different. If you always
take time to take yours back to the cart-return, you will
stand out as positive example.
The other example has to do with making proper turns while
driving, including using your turn signal. Remember how you
were taught in driving school or driver's education class to
make turns? You are supposed to make sharp rights and wide
lefts. Amazingly, many drivers will do just the opposite!
Make turns the way you are supposed to and always use your
turn signal. These are just a couple of examples, but taking
the time to do the little things right will make you will
stand out for the right reasons.
The second way to stand out from the crowd is to find
alternatives to profanity. A person who relies on profanity
in his or her speech patterns comes off as someone who is
boorish and has a limited vocabulary. There are plenty of
ways to tell someone exactly what you think about him or her
without being profane. Even a person who is not all that
intelligent seems a lot smarter when he or she avoids the
use of profanity. At a minimum, that person seems more high
class than people who just can't help themselves from using
profanity.
The third way to stand out from the crowd is to memorize
things that most other people commonly forget. Most people
have short memories when it comes to subjects like politics
and world events. For example, I'd wager that 90% of the
citizens of my home state cannot name the losing candidate
in the last gubernatorial election. Ten years from now, the
majority of Americans will not be able to name John Kerry as
the loser of this year's presidential election! Too many
people are just so caught up in their own little worlds that
they don't bother to retain certain things that don't
directly affect them. You don't need a photographic memory
to memorize stuff. Anyone who doesn't have some type of
memory-affecting brain disease can do it. All you have to do
is practice. Write things down. Repeat them to yourself over
and over. If you can commonly remember things that others
have long forgotten, you'll really stand out.
The fourth way to stand out from the crowd is to live below
your means. This is probably the toughest item on my list to
follow as our culture dictates that we mortgage ourselves to
the hilt. We are taught to keep up with the Joneses. We are
taught to buy everything the banks and our credit cards will
allow us to buy, whether we can afford it or not. However,
we should strive to leave as big of a gap as possible
between our income and our bills. I know there are people
out there who have large families and/or limited incomes and
are struggling to make ends meet. I know that not everyone
can have as big of a pad as I have between my income and my
bills. However, it hasn't always been that way for me. I
grew up in a very poor family. We lived in the housing
projects from the time I was six until the time I was 18.
However, we were always able to pay our bills on time
because my parents didn't buy things they couldn't afford.
When I began my career, I didn't make much, but I still
always had some money to spare after paying my bills. If I
couldn't afford something, I didn't buy it until I could
afford it. There were even some things that I was able to
afford but still didn't buy because I wanted to have some
money left for unexpected expenses. I didn't buy my first
car until I was more than a year into my first full-time
job. This is a lot of freedom that comes with living below
one's means. When everyone around you is struggling to make
ends meet and you're not, you really stand out.
The fifth way to stand out from the crowd is to make
decisions based on logic and reason instead of emotion
and/or dogma. Too many people react emotionally to
situations, rather than thinking them out rationally. For
example, many people will get upset if someone calls them a
name or flashes a particular gesture at them, even though
there's no logical reason to get so agitated by such
behavior. It doesn't make you a blankety-blank just because
someone calls you one. However, many people react as if it
does!
Other people get caught in the dogma trap. They make up
their minds first and then look at the facts and evidence
later. Even when they do get around to the facts, they will
seek only those which seem to support their views while
disregarding or explaining away those which seem to support
a contrary view. You've met people who are staunch
supporters of one particular political party or the other,
for example. To them, their party is always right and the
other is always wrong, even though common sense tells us
that one particular side of any issue is never right all the
time. Reasonable people realize that the truth usually lies
somewhere between the two extremes. Many times, I've come
across rah rah partisan sites in the web, which disregard
the dictates of common sense in favor of the fact that their
extreme side has cornered the market on all truth. By using
logic and reason to make your decisions in an open-minded
fashion, you give yourself a major advantage over much of
the population.
There are other ways to stand out from the crowd, even
though I've just highlighted five of them here. They include
things like using proper grammar and spelling, volunteering
for thankless jobs, and always being courteous. I'm sure you
could think of many others. The point is that, if you want
to stand out from the crowd, there are ways within the power
of almost anyone to do so - if he or she is only willing.
Terry Mitchell is a software engineer, freelance writer, and trivia buff from Virginia, USA. He operates a website - http://www.commenterry.com - on which he posts commentaries on various subjects such as politics, technology, religion, health and well- being, personal finance, and sports. His commentaries offer a unique point of view that is not often found in meanstream media. terrymitchell@verizon.net
ADVERTISEMENTS:
TO ADVERTISE in The Prosperity Horizons
Educational Blog, go to
http://ezshoppingportal.com/edu/adform.htm
See you soon!
Norm and June McHardy
http://prosperityhorizons.com
