 | This book by the late millionaire Charles Givens, though not a formal philosophical treatise, bursts forth with Success Principles that the author argues "work, work every time, and work for everyone." He employs these to outline an integrated body of Success Strategies which he argues persuasively meet that three-fold requirement.
Objectivists will appreciate his message as he shares stories about how his use of the SuperSelf Life Blueprint methodology allowed him to achieve millionaire status, visit nearly every country in the world and achieve many other of the dreams on his lengthy Dreams List.
I found his book useful enough to build my personal page around its core strategies.
Sadly, Givens died in 1998 and the publisher no longer prints this book. However, Amazon sells used copies of the hardcopy version for very affordable prices. I have outlined his book here for the benefit of the reader.
This outline emphasizes the book's two major components and their relationship to each other:
SUCCESS PRINCIPLES are are written in standard text. They represent the underlying principles of nature that make the Success Strategies work, work all the time, and work for everyone.
SUCCESS STRATEGIES are written in bold italics text. They represent the actions necessary to achieve a desired result, regardless of who you are.
Introduction
Doing more of what doesn't work won't make it work any better.
Live your life as most people do and you will be forced to settle for what most people settle for.
Learn from the experiences of others, rather than your own.
PART I - EXPERIENCING YOUR SUPERSELF
Where You Is, Is Where You Is
Your only point of power is in the present moment.
To design and control your future, you must first let go of your past.
To go where you want, firmly plant your feet on ground where you are.
Use losses and failures of the past as a reason for action, not inaction.
Playing to Win: The Ballpark Principle
Being right is often in conflict with winning.
To win in other people's ballparks, play by their rules.
Accept the rules or change ballparks.
Trying Is Lying
Failure is the refusal to establish a plan and work toward its accomplishment regardless of the obstacles.
When striving to achieve your goals, there is no such thing as trying.
You never fail until you quit, make excuses, or die.
Cut your losses short and run your wins long.
Use near misses as sign you're off course, not sign that you have failed.
Use negative feedback to make positive course corrections. PART II - PLANNING AND CONTROLLING YOUR FUTURE
Developing Your Blueprint
Organize your blueprint into a three-ring notebook.
Use the Givenizer for the ultimate in planning and control.
Discovering Your Dreams
Begin your life's blueprint with a Dreams List.
Prepare your Dreams List as if there were no limits to your life.
Crystallize your dreams by writing them down.
Allow your Dreams List to expand to form framework for your entire life.
Generating Goals
Don't confuse your goals with your expectations.
Defining what you are after is 50 percent of the battle in getting there.
Make choices, not excuses.
Accelerating your life by setting goals also accelerates but does not create the problems and setbacks you'll encounter.
The difference between dreams and goals is in commitment and the length of time required to achieve them.
Success is the progressive, timely achievement of your stated goals.
The more specific and measurable your goal, the more quickly you will be able to identify, locate, create, and implement the use of the necessary resources for its achievement.
The more specific and measurable your goal, the more quickly it can be accomplished.
The impact of doubt is directly proportional to both the level of difficulty in achieving a goal and the intensity of the doubt.
Increased clarity equals increased opportunity.
Set goals to organize and structure your mind for maximum effectiveness.
Make your goals specific and measurable.
Make your goals believable.
Overcome doubt with positive, present-tense affirmations.
Commit your goals to a written list.
State your goals as single, concise sentences beginning with action verbs.
Set a realistic target date for the completion of each goal.
Keep a copy of your top ten goals where you will see it every day.
Seeing Success
Visualize your goals clearly to achieve them more quickly.
Make visualizing your goals a regular habit.
Add momentum to your visualizations with some high-powered emotions.
Visualize your goals just before you go to sleep.
Visualize your goals as if you have already achieved them.
Aligning Your Goals with Your Values
Conflict inevitably occurs when your goals and values are out of alignment.
The only thing more destructive to your life than setting goals that are out of alignment with your values is setting no goals at all.
For maximum enjoyment of success, first determine your top ten values.
For maximum satisfaction and effectiveness, align goals with top values.
Operating with Objectives: Your Action Plans
You activate opportunity by getting into action.
By the yard, it's hard, but by the inch, it's a cinch.
Complete one Action Plan for each goal on your list.
Specify a first step as the first objective on your Action Plan.
Break each goal down into a set of manageable objectives.
Prioritizing Your Activities
The mind tends to take the path of least resistance.
You become effective by working smart instead of working hard.
To double your effectiveness, apply the 20/80 rule.
Transform efficiency into effectiveness w/ prioritized activities list.
Divide your activities list into four sections.
Record, prioritize on activities lists all important phone calls and appointments
Review, revise blueprint at year's end to assess past, chart future. PART III - DOUBLING YOUR PERSONAL EFFECTIVENESS
Doing Discipline
Discipline is a choice, not a legacy.
Focus is the process of keeping your thoughts, attention, and energy totally on the task at hand.
The loyalty and trust of other people generate the cooperation necessary for achieving your dreams and goals.
Excuses are only made for failure, never success.
Increase your level of effectiveness by learning to maintain focus.
Increase effectiveness, earn confidence and trust of others by keeping agreements.
Promise only what you can deliver, and deliver what you promise.
Controlling Your Time Line
Leave your life to chance and chances are you won't like the way you live your life.
Take control of your time or time will control you.
Avoid triggering the no-slack principle by making, sticking to your plan.
Arrive on time, every time.
Arrive early, but never late.
Don't make getting ready the last thing you do before leaving the house.
Leave your car keys in the same place every time you arrive home.
Combine all frequently used keys into complete duplicate sets.
Change door locks so that one key fits all.
Ignore the telephone and doorbell when getting ready.
Plan ahead for dual use of the shower or bathroom.
Practice effective time management on yourself, not those around you.
Fill up your tank on your time--not at stress time.
Add a ten-minute fudge factor to your travel time.
Carry a local map in the glove compartment of your car.
Allow an extra five minutes to find the correct address or office.
Prioritizing Your Personal Time
It's what you accomplish, not how long it takes, that determines your level of success.
Schedule personal time w/ same priority, attention to detail as business time.
Schedule personal activities as if appointments that cannot be canceled.
Don't allow job-related problems to interrupt scheduled personal time.
Stop treating your family as second-class citizens.
Managing the Mundane
Increase your effectiveness by eliminating mundane maintenance activities.
Think of cost of hiring out mundane maintenance as investment, not expense.
If cost is less than your per-hour value, hire someone else to do the job.
When in doubt, let someone else do it.
Begin giving up mundane maintenance now.
Eliminating Interruptions
Take back control of your time by eliminating interruptions.
Break telephone interruption habit; ignore telephone for an entire day.
Become the caller instead of the callee.
Let an answering device screen and record your incoming calls.
Check your incoming messages no more than twice a day.
Make all callbacks at the same time.
Use built-in speaker on answering machine to monitor for "must take" calls.
Keep unwanted guests out of your bedroom.
Unlist your phone numbers.
Install separate personal and business lines at home.
Don't give business number to personal acquaintances; don't give personal number to business contacts.
Stop playing switchboard for other family members.
Don't allow thought of emergency to compel you to answer phone at all times.
Install phones in your cars and use them for "callbacks".
Install a personal fax machine in your home.
Intercepting Office Interruptions
Install voice mail on your business telephone system.
Install fax machines in each department.
Write all letters, memos at same time during your Peak Performance Period.
Install select code security locks on departmental doors.
Keep customer service people in their seats w/ research support.
If you work in an office, create a controlled open-door policy.
To be successful in your own business, hire the best people.
Handling Talkers and Dumpers
Dumpers are drainers.
Don't get caught in someone else's problems, or they become your problems.
Screen talkers and dumpers with your telephone-answering machine.
Immediately set a limit for the time you will spend with a talker.
Listen, listen to the whole story, listen only once.
Ask the dumper, "What can I do to help?"
Cutting the Commute
Cut your one-way commuting time to twenty minutes or less.
Use commuting time to increase your knowledge by listening to audiotapes.
Use your commuting time to make necessary phone calls from your car.
Keep mini-cassette recorder in glove compartment for capturing ideas, dictating letters.
Extending Your Peak Performance Period
Determine your hours of peak performance.
Use Peak Performance Periods for activities that require maximum mind power.
Get best out of Off-Peak Performance Periods by scheduling routine, non-critical activities.
Avoid negotiating, potentially confrontational meetings during off-peak hours.
Exercise at least every other day.
Cut down on both the quantity of food and the quantity of fats you eat.
Fighting Fatigue
Push past fatigue.
Drink plenty of water.
Breathe deeply and sit up straight.
Do some quick exercises.
Trigger your adrenal glands.
Refocus on your goals and objectives.
Use short naps to overcome fatigue.
Flattening Your Fears
Caution is a mental process; fear is a destructive emotion.
Fear causes the reaction of avoidance or inaction.
Worry is an accumulation of thoughts about future, potentially negative outcomes.
Worry is the process of mentally creating potential negative outcomes.
The first step in confronting fears is to identify what you fear.
Eliminate worry by refocusing your thoughts on the present.
Constantly confront the things you fear.
Act even in the face of fear.
Visualize a positive outcome for every fear-triggering situation you face.
Create a mind-movie to experience the event you fear in a non-threatening environment.
Handling Stress
The intensity of emotion experienced by an unmet demand is directly proportional to the intensity of the demand.
Exercise for twenty minutes to one hour every other day to help drain stress.
Eliminate negativity from your life.
Continuously affirm to yourself, "It's just an event".
To reduce stress, don't make value judgments about people or events.
To cut stress, disconnect your emotions from the outcome of events.
State preferences instead of expectations or demands.
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SuperSelf by Charles Givens
