What Can we Learn from Lewis Hamilton?

How did the boy from the other side of the track become the fastest man on it?

I saw an interesting programme about the Lewis Hamilton, the 22 year old, black, English racing driver who looks set to take the World Championship in his very first season.

His story started at age 7 when he played with remote control racing cars. Even at that age, his focus was intense following a release of emotion by punching the air in a victory gesture.

He moved on to karting. His dedicated father and he were “sick with ambition”. As a family they had nothing but his father took on extra jobs to pay for the karting. Motor racing is traditionally a sport for white boys with financial backing. His younger brother was born with cerebral palsy so also required financial help and attention. He is now Lewis’ biggest fan.

At age 10, Lewis was featured in a “Black Britain” documentary. He went on to become a black belt in karate to deal with bullying at school. He was disciplined, always did his homework and concentrated on karting. His father said he always knew success for Lewis was going to happen. He wants his story to inspire other kids.

At age 12 Lewis was featured on Blue Peter and again at 15.

At the 1995 Annual Autosport Awards, Lewis met the McLaren boss, Ron Dennis. He asked him for his autograph, address and telephone number. Dennis wrote, Contact me in 9 years, we’ll sort something out then”. Three years later he signed a driver’s contract with McLaren. He was not even old enough to drive a car on the road!

From winning every karting contest Lewis moved into car racing with Formula Renault in 2002, followed by Formula 3 in the F3 Euro Series 2005, then G2 and finally Formula One. This rookie now looks set to take the World Championship on Sunday in Brazil. He was on the podium every race for the first nine. He would have won the championship in China on Sunday were it not for a technical failure.

Even if Lewis does not win which is unlikely, he has still achieved so much by such a young age. His rise to success has been compared to that of the young black golfer, Tiger Woods. He is actually of mixed race with a modern image, a sense of calm, determination and self-belief which are all good qualities for him to portray as a young male role model.

Murray Walker, the former motor racing commentator, said that Lewis is likely to become the highest paid UK sports person ever. Kimi Reikkonen’s manager believes Lewis will be the first racing driver to earn £100 million pa.

Polite, clean cut, pretty hip, girls love him and guys want to be him. He is a marketeer’s dream just like David Beckham although as someone said, “Beckham did not win the World Cup. Hamilton will win the World Championship.”

When suggested that Lewis will be the next David Beckham or Michael Schumacher, he replied, “He’s going to be the next Hamilton”

One of a kind. He deserves all the success.

Ten Commandments of Goal-Setting

"A goal without a plan is just a dream".

NOTHING in life happens without goals. Nothing ! When you get up in the morning you have a goal of making it to work safely and having a productive day. When you go on vacation you have a goal of having fun. When you get married you have a goal of making each other happy. Everything you strive for is goal driven. And, as a result, the manner in which you go about achieving these goals is is CRITICAL !!!

That having been said, I would like to share with you what has become known to me as THE TEN COMMANDMENTS OF GOAL SETTING...

1. THOU SHALL BE DECISIVE: Success is a choice. You must decide WHAT you want, WHY you want it and HOW you plan to achieve it. No one else can, will, or SHOULD do that for you. It's your goal and your responsibility.

2. THOU SHALL STAY FOCUSED: A close relative to being decisive, but your ability to sustain your focus from beginning to end determines the timing and condition of your outcomes. Don't let outside distractions make your goals out of focus.

3. THOU SHALL WELCOME FAILURE: The fundamental question is not whether you should accept failure. You have no choice but to expect it as a temporary condition on the pathway of progress. Rather, the question is how to anticipate failure and redirect resources to grow from the experience. Remember what Les Brown said, "If you fall down, fall on your back because as long as you can LOOK UP you can GET UP".

4. THOU SHALL WRITE DOWN THY GOALS: Your mind, while blessed with permanent memory, is cursed with lousy recall. People forget things. WRITE DOWN YOUR GOALS !!! Put them where you can see them every day. Send a copy to a friend, family member or a member of your upline. Establish accountability.

5. THOU SHALL PLAN THOROUGHLY: It is a proven fact that planning saves time at a 10:1 ratio in execution. PROPER PLANNING PREVENTS POOR PERFORMANCE !!!

6. THOU SHALL INVOLVE OTHERS: Nobody goes through life alone. Establish your own "Persoanl Board of Directors", people whose wisdom, knowledge and character you respect, to help achieve your goals. Once again, USE YOUR UPLINE!!! That's what we are here for.

7. THOU SHALL TAKE PURPOSEFUL ACTION: Success is not a spectator sport. Achievement demands action. You cannot expect to arrive at success without having made the trip.

8. THOU SHALL REWARD THYSELF: Rewards work !!! Think of what you will give yourself as a result of hard work, focus and persistance. Create your own ACTION = REWARD program and implement it. You DESERVE IT !

9. THOU SHALL INSPECT WHAT THOU EXPECTs: The shelf life of all plans are limited. No plan holds up against opposition. Everything changes. Therefore, inspect frequently and closely what is going on with your plan. It's an insurance policy on your success.

10. THOU SHALL MAINTAIN PERSONAL INTEGRITY: Maintain your COMMITMENT to your COMMITMENT! Set your goals, promise yourself that you will achieve them and eliminate wiggle room and excuses. That's personal integrity. EXCUSES and LAME JUSTIFICATION are the poisons that kill all goals!!!

Remember, these "Ten Commandments of Goal Setting" nor anything else ever placed in front of you will help you achieve your goals if you do not IMPLEMENT THEM ! Like I told someone very close to me the other day, "Those motivational cd's aren't going to do you a bit of good until you take the plastic wrap off the sleeve".

Source: Success University

Donny Osmond on Having to be Perfect

In 1972, I was in love with Donny Osmond. I was a teenybopper but that is not why I want to talk about Donny here.

I watched him on Biography Channel when he revealed his social anxiety disorder and the panic attacks he suffered.

After a lost decade in the 80s, he won the part of Joseph in the London show of "Joseph and His Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat". The show became very successful with Donny in the lead role for six years. He had known how hard it was to restart his career after losing it and so developed the idea that he had to give a perfect performance every night because he was performing for standing room only audiences. He would beat himself up mentally if he made any mistakes as he told himself he had to be perfect. He did not want to lose his career again. He went in to therapy with medication. He was scared to go on stage, even though he was delighted that he had his career back.

He pinpoints the attitude of perfectionism to the early days when the Osmonds appeared on the Andy Williams Show and were known as the "one-take Osmonds". They had to live up to that reputation and Donny had to keep up with his brothers, even though he was only seven.

He recalled a negative press review after a concert in Nashville when he was 13. He thought it was a great show but the press slated him - a child. It really hurt.

One night before appearing as Joseph, he was literally shaking and said they should call for the understudy because he could not perform. His wife gave him some excellent advice,
"Why don't you do yourself a favour? Go out there and be average. Do an average job tonight for yourself and for the audience." Donny felt the weight had been taken off his shoulders. He gave the best performance ever because the pressure was gone and he had licence to be "average". He did not have to be perfect any more.

Finally, Donny said that adversity builds strength if you allow it. You let it be the foundation of your personality.

When the Why is Big Enough

To succeed in anything, especially something that requires change from the current situation, we must have a WHY that is big enough.

• What is it that gets you so excited you can't sleep at night?
• What is the real reason for you becoming what you want to be?
• Why do you want to break out of the rat race and achieve your freedom?

When the WHY is big enough, the HOW doesn't matter!

Any obstacle can be overcome if you know WHY you want to overcome it.

When you decide to make changes, people around you will feel uncomfortable as you are challenging their comfort zones. You are going against the norm and they will try to keep you as one of them. They may laugh at you. They may tell you are crazy to even imagine you could achieve what you want. They may tell you that you are just dreaming and will never be able to do that something different.

It will take guts to stick to your plans, your wishes, your hopes and dreams. You will need to be laser-focused. Others will try to stop you, try to keep you back.

But nothing will happen until someone becomes excited. If that someone is you, you need to know WHY you are planning this future. WHY do you want it? WHY are you prepared to leave your comfort zone to seek a better life?

When the WHY is big enough, the HOW does not matter. The WHY will remove the obstacles if you become a RHINO head set on success. You will become so tough that nothing will stop you.

To remind yourself constantly of the WHY, W-R-I-T-E I-T D-O-W-N.

You have heard that before, right? But have you done it? Have you written down your goals with the WHY clearly stated?

A dream only becomes reality when it is stated as a goal with a WHY translated into WHY you MUST have it. Think about that. You might say that you would like an idyllic holiday on a tropical island. That is a vague dream. Now turn it into a WHY: "I want to take my family on an idyllic holiday on a tropical island because the children want to see tropical fish when snorkelling and I want to improve my windsurfing in the heat." That sounds better than taking the kids to see fish in an aquarium and swimming in a crowded seaside holiday resort whilst your windsurfing is done in a wet suit on a reservoir in the cold.


Now make it a MUST: "I must take my family on an idyllic holiday on a tropical island because I want my children to experience the thrill of seeing tropical fish close up on a coral reef and I must windsurf with the sun on my back."

Now transform that dream into a vision statement from the MUST sentence and paste it in large letters where you can see it everyday, along with photos of those tropical fish and someone windsurfing in the sun.

Your subconscious mind believes that what you tell it is your reality. Turn the dream into a statement IN THE PRESENT TENSE. Now you have the WHY you MUST have it, your subconscious will find the HOW and remove the obstacles.

Click here for a Hypnosis MP3 download to help you stick to your goals

Antonia Stuart-James is an English Hypnotherapist in Belgium helping people to make positive change.

Kind Words Do Not Cost Much

"Kind words do not cost much. They never blister the tongue or lips. They make other people good-natured. They also produce their own image on men's souls, and a beautiful image it is."

Blaise Pascal, 1623-1662, Scientist and Philosopher

I remember the positive experience gained early on a personal development course. We were asked to come out to the front of the group one by one and the rest of the group were invited to look at the person intently and read into their soul then write down positive, empowering traits of the person's character. Group members were very insightful in the characteristics they found which were quite deep, not just superficial glib suggestions. Each person was given the list to take away. I have lost the list unfortunately but I remember that whenever I read it, it empowered me so I considered it a gift.

A woman once said that "We spend 80% of our time complaining about the 20% of someone that we don't like, usually our spouse, instead of focussing on the 80% that we do lik." How true. I think it is unrealistic that we could ever like someone else a full 100%. Just given the basic differences between men and women, there will always be something we do not like or which niggles us. However, overall, most people have good points and that is what attracted us to them in the first place. I stuck a quote on the fridge: "Don't let a little disagreement ruin a great relationship."

I also like this quote:
"Edify a person in advance for the positive traits you want him or her to have, and you'll find them making a concerted effort to live up to your praise."
- Bob Burg


Switched-on companies realise that people do more for recognition than for money or power. A pat on the back and public recognition will often spur that employee with loyalty to even greater achievements. A child whose efforts are noticed and praised by a parent will want to achieve even more. Star charts work wonderfully in motivating children to do their homework, tidy their rooms and carry out little tasks.

So, say something uplifting to someone today without an ulterior motive.

© Antonia Stuart-James 2007

The 4 D's for Change

I found this on a website and thought it was useful:

No one migrates toward change until these 4-"D's" are a condition of their lives:

1. Discontent: (to the point of total disgust).
2. Desire: (dissatisfied enough to be willing to do something about it).
3. Due Diligence: (willing to take the time to enter into a process of investigation to determine their options).
4. Discipline: (to go through a process from start to finish).

If YOU lack discipline, work with a mentor until you have developed discipline
as an unshakeable conscious habit!

"God’s gift to you is more
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Your gift to God is to develop
and utilize as much of that
talent and ability as you can,
in this lifetime."

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Passionate curiosity of Einstein

“I think and think for months and years. Ninety-nine times, the conclusion is false. The hundredth time I am right.”
- Albert Einstein

It took years for Einstein to formulate his theories of special and general relativity. As he himself said, it was through “no special talent” that he unlocked these insights into how the universe works, but due to his “passionate curiosity”. Einstein thus found the will and inspiration to persevere, transforming physics and how we look at our world.

Now, I’m no Einstein, and you’re no Einstein, but what could you or I create if we had the same perseverance and “passionate curiosity” as he?

Taking Action

A poor, hungry young man sat moping on a bridge, watching a group of fishermen. Looking into a basket and seeing a bunch of fish nearby, the young man said, "Boy, if I had a mess of fish like that, I'd be in good shape. I'd sell them and buy some clothes and something to eat."

"I'll give you that many fish if you do a small favour for me," a fisherman replied.

"Sure."

"Tend this line for me awhile. I've got some errands to do up the street," said the older man.

The young man gladly accepted the offer. As he tended the man's pole, the fish were really biting and he reeled in one fish after another. It was not long before he was smiling, enjoying the activity.

When the older man returned, he said, "I want to give you the fish I promised so, here, take all the fish you caught. But I also want to give you a piece of advice. The next time you're in need, don't waste time daydreaming and wishing for what could be. Get busy,cast the line yourself and make something happen."

******

I received this story in a business email. It contains good advice about taking action to achieve what we need and want to see in our lives.