1. Take100% Responsibility for Your Life/Business
The first principle states that there is only one person who is 100% responsible for my life – it is me. This is the first principle of success. If we want to be successful in life, we first have to take total responsibility for our lives. We are responsible for all our successes and failures, health, relationships, financial situation, our feelings and everything else.
It is me who has created the life I am living now so I must take full responsibility for it. If I do not take full responsibility, I cannot achieve things which are important to me and I cannot re-make my life. To really take 100% responsibility for our lives, we must stop blaming others for our problems and failures. We have created our current situations by our thoughts and activities so there is no reason to blame anybody. We can blame only ourselves, but that is also useless because the past is the past; we cannot change it. But now we can create our future. We have always had the power to do it, but for different reasons we have not. Now we can do things differently and get the results we want. This is because of the rule: E+R=O (Event +Response=Outcome). The rule says that every outcome we experience in life (good or bad) is the result of how we respond to the events in our lives.
We can see that in the same situations, people react differently. Some are successful, some are not. We can see that, by responding in a different way, we can get different results. That is why blaming events for our failures are pointless. We must change our responses to the events and then we can get the results we want. We do not have control over a lot of the events in our lives, but we have control over our responses. We can change our thinking, our behaviour, and our communication. We can also change our old habits into the new, better ones.
“Everything you experience in life – both internally and externally – is the result of how you have responded to a previous event.”
~ Jack Canfield
Everything I experience today is the result of the choices I have made in the past. I have control over three things in my life: my thoughts, my visualisations, and my actions. So, to change my life, I need to change my thoughts, my visualisations and my actions to positive ones. If I keep my negative responses from the past, I will keep getting the same negative results. So, now is the time to stop complaining and blaming others for my bad results and take full responsibility for my life.
This principle is the prerequisite to a successful life. It is the basic principle. I personally started with this principle because without this principle I would not be able to implement the other principles.
2. Believe It Is Possible
According to this principle, we are able to achieve whatever our minds can conceive and believe. The important conclusion for us is that we must replace all our negative expectations with positive ones, and then our minds will start working to accomplish the outcome we want.
People often do not reach their goals, not because they lack required skills, but because they do not believe they can reach them.
3. Believe In Yourself
This principle is connected with the previous one. I am able to achieve whatever my mind can conceive and believe, so I must believe in myself. If I want to create the great and successful life I desire, I must believe that I can make it happen. I have to believe that I have all the abilities, skills and inner resources to do it. I need to choose to believe that I can achieve whatever I set my mind on. If I think that something is impossible to achieve, I will not do everything necessary to achieve it. If I believe that it is possible for me to achieve something, I will do everything necessary to achieve it. To be successful, I need to give up the “I can’t”. My brain is able to solve any problems I give it, and reach any goals I have. But my negative words and thoughts have a negative and limiting influence on my mind, so I give up all my negative thoughts and words.
Jack Canfield gives some examples which prove that belief in you is more important than knowledge, training, or schooling. Quite a few very successful people dropped out of college.
4. Release the Brakes
According to this principle, most people drive through life with their psychological brakes on. The brakes are negative images about themselves, inaccurate beliefs about reality, guilt, and self-doubt. These brakes cancel out people’s good intentions, no matter how hard they try.
Successful people release the brakes. All our unfounded beliefs are like prison, they disallow us to go out and reach our goals. So, we must first get out of our self-imposed prisons. The author presents three methods for doing it. They are: a) affirmations and positive self-talk; b) creating powerful and compelling new internal images of having, doing and creating what we want; and c) changing our behaviour.
5. See What You Want, Get What You See
This principle is about visualisation. Visualisation is the act of creating compelling and vivid pictures in your mind. What is important for me is that, “Visualisation simply makes the brain achieve more”. When I visualise my goals in my mind as already achieved, my subconscious mind will work to turn my visualisations into reality.
The process is quite simple. I need to close my eyes and see my goals as already achieved. To make the process more powerful I should add sounds, feelings and emotions to my pictures. Emotions are the most important ingredient of visualisation. We must enjoy the visualisation. It cannot be a chore. Doing visualisations properly, we feel happy doing it, and we are creating a happy future.
6. Take Action
Many people spend time analysing, planning, and organising, but they fail to take action. Successful people also do these things, but they always take action. They are very eager to take action. When I take action, things start happening. I have observed that I learn much more quickly while I am in action. Things become clear. The next steps become obvious. The point is, “To be successful, you have to do what successful people do, and successful people are highly action-oriented”. There is no point in being overly cautious, because even if I make some mistakes, I can learn from them, and can still achieve my goals. If I do not take action because I am too careful or afraid, I will not reach my goals anyway. Taking action brings satisfaction too.
7. Commit to Constant and Never-Ending Improvement
This principle says that if I want to be successful, I must always try to do things better. I must always try to improve, so I need to look at my goals, and I need to find out what I need to improve to achieve them better and faster.
Canfield advises making small, achievable steps which we can easily improve. In this way we will not become overwhelmed and discouraged because something seems too difficult to achieve or do. To improve takes time. It does not happen overnight, but if I improve and learn a little bit every day, one day my skills and knowledge will be very useful in my life.
8. Practice Persistence
Persistence is one of the most important qualities of successful people. Obstacles happen in life, so without persistence, it is impossible to achieve much. People often quit just before reaching their goals because they lack persistence. But “if you hang in there long enough, you will eventually reach your goal”.
9. Learn More to Earn More
This principle is about learning. The more I learn and the more knowledge I acquire, the more successful I can be. Canfield recommends reducing the time I spend on watching television and using this time for reading. He suggests reading inspirational books, books on psychology, finance, sales, health, etc. He also recommends reading biographies of great people.
Another way to learn is to attend success rallies, conferences and retreats. To learn from other people, I must be teachable. That means that when I have the opportunity to listen or learn something from people who know more than I do, I should listen and try to learn from them and not try to impress them. Some humility is required.
10. Start Now! … Just Do It!
According to this principle, “There is no perfect time to start”, so let me start now. As Canfield says, “Once you start moving and producing results, all manner of things begin to happen that will take you further and faster than you ever imagined.”
Thank you Thania Rodrigues for the background image https://pixabay.com/photos/world-world-in-your-hand-4959653/