jaap seminar 2012 summary notes-developing personal power

ANNUAL EDUCATION FORUM 2012 “Charting Career Advancement from the

Inside Out”

Friday, February 24, 2012 at the

Jamaica Conference Center, 14 – 20 Port Royal Street Kingston

DEVELOPING PERSONAL POWER

SEMINAR Summary Notes by Presenter:

GLENFORD SMITH Motivational Speaker, Author,

Gleaner Career Writer

JAMAICA ASSOCIATION OF

ADMINISTRATIVE PROFESSIONALS

(Kingston Chapter)

1 | DEVELOPING PERSONAL POWER Seminar by Glenford Smith • Email: [email protected], Tel. 1-876-5087460

ON A PERSONAL NOTE…

Let me thank Ms Angella Lewars, President of

JAAP (Kingston Chapter), Mrs. Jennifer

Haughton, Chairman of the Education

Committee, and all JAAP members for the

privilege of contributing to Annual Education

Forum 2012. It has always been an absolute

delight to serve JAAP on the occasions I have

done so, in the past few years. This year has

been no different.

My interactions with Mrs. Haughton have

reinforced again, the high degree of

professionalism practiced by JAAP members.

Also, I commend the association’s continuing

commitment to excellence, and to the personal

and professional growth of its members.

I also wish to commend all the companies who

invested in their Admin Professionals’

development by sending them to this seminar.

It takes foresight and a deep belief in the

development of human potential to make this

investment. In the long term however,

investment in your best people always provides

the greatest ROI. After all, great people make

great things happen!

Finally, thanks to all who attended the seminar.

I appreciated your energy, your keen attention

and your willingness to participate and be

involved in the learning experience. Your

contribution to the participatory educational

process made all the difference. I learned a lot,

too.

I wish to commend the Education Committee

for choosing such a powerful, relevant and

insightful theme, “Charting Career

Advancement from the Inside Out.” It

underscores the need for constant growth as a

means of mastering the ever changing social,

economic and professional environment in

which we live and work.

This theme also highlights a crucial, but often

overlooked or misunderstood truth about

personal and professional growth and

development. It is that positive changes take

place from the inside out.

Too often people want to change their

incomes, they want to change their level of

productivity and effectiveness, they want to

change their happiness, their weight—you

name it—but very few want to change

themselves. But it doesn’t work that way.

Personal change is always an inside-out

process. Until you consciously change your

beliefs, values, self-concept, and awaken your

inner drive, your external circumstances will

stay the same, or get worse.

To ‘chart’ your career advancement also

suggests that this is something you have to do

consciously, by design. Career advancement

doesn’t just happen. You don’t get promotions

by accident. You company will not just look at

you one day and pay you more because they

happen to have the money. No. You must

consciously decide where you want to be in

your career in the next one, five, or ten years,

and then design a plan to get there.


Will you need to go back to school? Will you

need to take some special course? Will you

need to improve your conflict resolution skills?

You have to know where you want to advance

to, before you can chart your way there.

It’s an exciting theme! And I was thrilled to help

you bring it alive in your lives and career. My

presentation, titled “Developing Personal

Power” is something I feel particularly strongly

about. I’ve spent years studying and developing

my own personal power, and teaching others to

do the same. Personal power is THE ultimate

resource for driving us to take the actions that

will take us from where we are to where we

desire to be in our personal lives and careers. I

am thrilled by how many persons have said that

they were educated, inspired and enlightened

in how to develop more of their innate reserves

of power.

This summary is not an attempt to replicate the

experience of the seminar. Rather, it will serve

as a reminder of some of the major ideas we

discussed. In this summary, I will concisely

review the 5 elements of the PASSWORD TO

PERSONAL POWER. These are the five power

factors that will enable you to become a person

of power. Applying them in your life and career

will enable you to masterfully take your career

to the next level.

Putting these five principles to work will help

you to increase your income if that’s your goal.

They will empower you to earn significant

promotions, and greater respect and

admiration from your colleagues.

Now, please…go chart your career

advancement, from the inside out. Here’s a

little help, in the following pages, in developing

your ultimate resource for career and life

success—personal power.

Let’s go!

Glenford Smith

-------------------------------

GIVE YOURSELF THE GIFT OF POWER!

Master Your Problems and Setbacks

and Achieve Your Career and Life Goals!

Order Your Copy Now!

Email: [email protected] Tel: 1-876-508-7460 (Voice or SMS Text Msg)

mailto:[email protected]


SEMINAR OBJECTIVES

The General Objectives of the Seminar are these:

Participants will:

Clarify their career advancement goals (12 mths)

Identify specific ways in which personal power will enable them to achieve goals

Learn the 5 keys to personal power, and how to masterfully apply them to achieve stated goals

More specifically, the seminar will help participants to:

Appreciate the urgent need for strategic career advancement and be enabled to avoid the

dangers of career stagnation

Learn the difference between change and growth, and identify specific ways in which they

are committed to grow

Update their prevailing career and life paradigm from outside-in, to inside-out

Understand what personal power is, and identify specific ways in which this is significant for

them

Learn a step-by-step process for developing unstoppable personal power

Learn how to advance their careers by increasing mastery in the areas of:

Personal effectiveness and productivity: Time management, superior work

habits, self-management

Interpersonal communication: adapting to different personalities, listening,

conflict resolution

Leadership effectiveness: how to influence and motivation others, making

decisions,

Personal, career and organization change management: How to embrace

change through preparation, flexibility, and personal mastery


DEVELOPING PERSONAL POWER

How to Unleash Your Ultimate Resource for Charting Career Advancement from the Inside Out!

PART I: THE FUNDAMENTALS OF CHARTING CAREER ADVANCEMENT FROM THE INSIDE OUT

What’s All This Career Advancement

Stuff All About, and Why Should You

Care, Anyway?

What is this idea of charting career

advancement from the inside out, all about?

Why is this important to you? In other words,

how can this concept help you practically in

your career? And, critically also, how do you

consciously chart a path of career

advancement, from the inside out?

Let’s start with the idea of Career

Advancement. You already get this, but for the

sake of completeness: Career advancement is

about how you progress in your career. It’s

about how you get better and move ahead in

achieving the goals you’ve set for yourself.

These could include earning a certain position

by a certain time. It could also mean increasing

your income by a certain amount within a

specified time.

Career advancement also has to do with

acquiring special skills that will help you to

attain the goals you’ve set for yourself in your

career.

So in summary, career advancement is about

how you move from where you currently are in

your career to where you want to be some time

in the future.

The idea of ‘charting’ your career advancement

is crucial to understand. To chart a path means

to plan it, to design it consciously and

deliberately. It means you sit down and decide

where you want to be in your career (position,

income, functions, skills) one, five, ten years

from now. This involves the area of setting

goals. That’s the first step in charting your

career advancement, to decide WHERE YOU

WANT TO ADVANCE TO.

You then decide on a PLAN OR STRATEGY which

you can follow to get from where you are to

where you want to be. This involves using your

imagination and knowledge to create a step by

step roadmap for reaching the goals you’ve set.

That’s the second step.

So, why should you care? Many reasons. But

let’s keep it concise: If you don’t consciously


chart your career advancement, you might not

advance at all. You will be at the mercy of

circumstances. The people who ensure that

they keep their jobs in any redundancy are

those who had a plan for staying on. They don’t

trust their careers to chance.

It is only by looking ahead and consciously

charting your career path, that you can take

control of what happens to you. People who

don’t take charge of their lives and careers are

like drifting debris on the waves of life. Their

incomes are uncertain. Their positions are

uncertain. Their happiness is uncertain. Their

relationships at work are uncertain and

unstable. They are the ones who constantly

wonder how everybody is getting ahead and

they are not.

If you don’t start to take career advancement

seriously, don’t complain when you’re let go,

fired or just end up going nowhere in your

company. It’s because you failed to chart your

own career path. Let me remind you of

something really important: Your career

success or failure is totally up to you. It is your

responsibility, not your company’s, or your

boss’s.

One final thing: advancement and change is not

necessarily the same thing. People change all

the time, but they don’t always advance.

Advancement is about progress. It’s about

growing, improving, getting better, delivering

greater value, going forward. But change can be

negative.

Getting worse, that’s change, but it’s negative

change. A deteriorating work attitude, that’s

change, but it’s negative change. What’s the big

deal about this, you’re asking?

Well, advancement or growth only happens

when YOU consciously choose to grow or

advance. Change is what happens constantly,

whether you do something or not. But growth,

progress and advancement happens only by

conscious choice, and by disciplined work.

The difference between ‘change’ and ‘growth’

is the difference between cultivating a beautiful

garden and having the same patch of land

overgrown with weeds. One requires conscious

attention, while the other just happens as a

matter of course. If you don’t chart your career

advancement, you will change for sure, but you

might not like how your career has changed.

Don’t leave your career to chance. Chart your

own personal and professional path.

The Real Reason You Must Take Charge

of Charting Your Career Advancement

Here’s something I’m sure you are aware of:

We live and work in a dynamic, constantly

changing world. Those who are unable or

unwilling to grow and change positively, will be

left behind.

Remember what Eric Hoffer said in his book

The True Believers:

“In times of change the learners will inherit the

earth while the learned find themselves

wonderfully equipped to live in a world which

no longer exists.”


I always love to share this thought with

audiences because it captures the urgent

imperative for conscious change. Without a

commitment to consciously grow and advance,

you will find yourself rapidly becoming

redundant. Your current skills will become

irrelevant. Your knowledge will be old and

outdated. This is why it is so great for you to

attend a seminar such as this one, actually.

You get to learn new ideas. You meet new

people. Your perspective is expanded. You get

to formulate new visions and possibilities for

yourself, your organization and the people you

work with.

Always be a learner, never be among the

learned, those who believe they know it all

already. The way to keep up with the rapid

changes in technology and the increasing

demands of the workplace is to keep on

learning. Keep on reading and studying. Keep

on coming to seminars and forums put on by

your association. Keep current in your

particular field or industry.

Inside Out, Outside In—What’s the Big

Deal?

Life obeys the universal law called the Law of

Correspondence which states that, “As within

so without.” In other words, your inner world

creates your outer reality. If you want to

change your career results, you have to start by

changing your self from the inside.

Most people get this wrong. They want a better

job; they want to earn more money; they want

more perks; they want greater respect and

admiration from colleagues, but guess what?

They don’t realize that they first have to change

from within.

In his brilliant book Secrets of the Millionaire

Mind, T. Harv Eker states this truth as follows:

“We live in a world of cause and effect. Money

is a result, wealth is a result, health is a result,

illness is a result, your weight is a result.

Whatever results you’re getting, be they rich or

poor, good or bad, positive or negative, always

remember that your outer world is simply a

reflection of your inner world. If things aren’t

going well in your outer life, it’s because things

aren’t going well in your inner life. It’s that

simple.”

It is this principle which explains why someone

with a MBA earns more than someone with a

first degree, and why the degree person earns

more than someone with just CSEC

qualifications, generally speaking. It’s not how

you look, but rather your inner storehouse of

knowledge, attitudes and skills. That’s why

people say you shouldn’t judge a book by its

cover. Until you know what a person is on the

inside, you don’t really know them. And it is

what a person is on the inside that determines

the quality of results the produce in their

careers and in their lives.

To change your company, you have to change

yourself. To improve your marriage, you have

to improve yourself first. To grow your income

you have to grow yourself—your knowledge,

self discipline, work ethic, and attitudes.


So, to advance in your career, you must not just

look at what you want to achieve on the

outside (how much money you want to earn,

the position you are aiming for, etc.). You have

to also determine how you will have to grow,

the new skills and attitudes you will need to

develop in order to make your career goals

come true.

To achieve more than you have achieved in

your career up to now, you have to become

more than you have been up to now. The

process to create anything in your career in life

goes like this: BE DO HAVE.

This means you have to be before you can do,

and you have to do before you can have. So any

advancement in your career requires that you

start by changing yourself. Be different. Do

different. Have different. That’s what it means

by advancing ‘from the inside out.’ It makes all

the difference in the world whether you

attempt change from the inside out or outside

in.

[Please refer to Chapter 4: The Results-Creation

Model, in my book From Problems to Power, to

increase your understanding and mastery of

this powerful idea.]

Chart Your Career Advancement

Now, it’s time for you to start the work of

charting your career advancement. Please

complete the following exercise:

EXERCISE 1: Write THREE goals you intend to

attain in the next 12 months which represents

where you are committed to advance to in each

of the following Career Dimensions

› Professional—where you plan to be

(education, income, position, location)

› Productivity—improve time

management

› Relationships—resolve conflict, Improve

teamwork

› Process Mastery—best way to do things

› Problem Mastery—resolve a long-

standing problem at work

GIVE YOURSELF THE GIFT OF POWER! Master

Your Problems and Setbacks and Achieve Your

Career and Life Goals!





PART II: PERSONAL POWER—AN INTRODUCTION

Personal Power: What is it? And How

Does it Help You to Chart Your Career

Advancement?

Before we delve into the process of developing

personal power, it will be helpful to define

what we mean by the term, don’t you agree?

Personal power is not some hocus pocus, pie-

in-the-sky concept. It’s not some esoteric

principle that is far removed from practical,

everyday life. When you understand what it is,

you’ll realize how important it is for you to

awaken your storehouse of personal power. If

you don’t, you will only be able to dream,

desire and wish for career advancement, but

you won’t achieve it.

The very best definition of personal power I’ve

ever come across is by world renowned

American success guru Anthony Robbins, in his

book Unlimited Power. Here is Tony’s

definition of personal power:

“Personal power is the ultimate power we all

possess; it is the ability to produce the results

we desire…to change your life, to shape your

perceptions, to direct your own personal

kingdom—your own thought processes and

behaviour—so you produce the precise results

you desire.”

That’s it! Please read it again! Now you realize

the crucial role of personal power. It is your

ABILITY TO DO WHATEVER IT TAKES to produce

the results you are committed to in your career

and your life. In other words, personal power is

the ability to do the things necessary to achieve

the career goals you’ve set for yourself.

People without this ability can and do set lofty

goals. They desire great things in life and in

their careers. They have big dreams. Many even

have a plan to achieve their dreams. But either

they don’t ever start taking actions, or they

begin and quit before they succeed. Personal

power is that unstoppable combination of inner

strength, motivation, self-discipline,

perseverance, creativity, resourcefulness, and

courage that enables winners to achieve what

they set out to achieve.

Developing this ability is a master skill for

career and life success. Actions are what create

success, but personal power is what enables

you to take actions rather than procrastinating

or starting and quitting.

Career advancement requires your full reserve

of personal power. To move from where you

are in your career to where you desire to be,

you must take some new actions. You must

form some new habits, develop new routines,

formulate new relationships, learn new ideas,

master new skills. Personal power is your ability

to do these things in order to achieve the

career goals you aspire to.

Personal power is the ability to overcome fear,

self-doubt and laziness such that you do what

you need to do to achieve what you want to

achieve. It is the ability to make yourself go the

extra mile to excel when you are tempted to be

average and do just enough to get by and

collect your salary.


Personal power is your ability to overcome

inertia and create momentum in a new

direction in your career and your life. It is the

ability to envision a new reality for yourself and

to take the actions necessary to create it. In a

nutshell, personal power is what separates

winners from losers in life.

Personal Power and Career

Advancement: Making the Connection

EXERCISE 2: For each category of goals which you

clarified, please do the following:

› State how personal power relates to

your ability to achieve your goals

› Select one example to demonstrate the

effect on your ability to achieve your

goal without personal power

› Using the example selected above,

demonstrate in specific ways how

applying personal power would affect

your ability to achieve your selected

goal








PART III: PASSWORD TO PERSONAL POWER—

THE ULTIMATE 5 STEP PLAN FOR

DEVELOPING UNSTOPPABLE PERSONAL

POWER

Think of the most successful person in your

field that you know about. What makes this

person extraordinary? Isn’t it his or her

achievements? They have achieved some

outstanding results in their lives and careers,

right?

Recall in the seminar we studied the lives of the

Most Honourable Portia Simpson-Miller,

Jamaican Prime Minister and American

Billionaire Media mogul Oprah Winfrey.

We highlighted that it wasn’t the external

circumstances of these women’s lives which

accounted for their respective career

achievements, it was their determination,

resilience, self-belief and personal courage.

Winners such as these women, all share a

common secret.

Here’s their secret: they have awakened their

inner giant. They have tapped into their

personal power. Personal power is the

difference that makes the difference in

people’s levels of success in their careers and

personal lives. How do I know this? That’s easy.

They have DONE what they needed to do to

achieve the things that you admire them for.

Power is the ability to take actions that produce

the results you desire, remember?

Here’s a wonderful revelation, though: You can

do it too. Whatever you can dream, you can

manifest. Whatever you envision for yourself,

you can achieve in your career and life. The

great author Napoleon Hill, stated this truth like

this:

“Whatever the human mind can conceive and

believe, it can and will achieve.”

That’s a law. To turn on your personal power to

achieve your visions however, you need to

activate the 5 power factors. These power

factors can be thought of as five elements of a

password required to unlock your inner

reservoir of personal power.

I call these 5 power factors THE PASSWORD TO

PERSONAL POWER. This is an apt metaphor.

Imagine having $1 million in your account at

the bank. This money represents FINANCIAL

POWER because it gives you the ability to buy

whatever you desire. So lets say you need to

acquire a new computer, which cost $100,000.


You decide to get this money at the ATM. But in

order to get the money—remember, it

represents financial power—you must input a

5-digit password to gain access. It’s your PIN—

personal Identification Number. As soon as you

correctly input your unique password, the

machine dispenses your money, and you’re

able to acquire what you desire.

Think of your personal power in a similar way.

But imagine that your power is not outside of

you. It is within your mind, body and heart. It is

only as you activate these five power factors in

a way unique to you that you will be able to

unlock and gain instant access to unstoppable

ability to achieve whatever goals you set for

yourself in your career and your life.

The five elements of the Password to Personal

Power are:

1. Paradigms

2. Ownership

3. Willpower

4. Education

5. Results Mastery








POWER FACTOR 1: PARADIGM

To be a person of unstoppable power, you must

understand and consciously control the

paradigms that are controlling your

perceptions, beliefs, and behaviours.

Let’s back up and define the term ‘paradigm’,

quickly. As you might recall:

A paradigm (Gk paradigma) is a mental pattern

or map for understanding and explaining

certain aspects of reality.

In other words, a paradigm is a mindset that

controls how you view any aspect of life. It is

your model of the world, how you see things,

how you believe things are. A paradigm is a set

of beliefs that filter your percepts and directs

your mind how to interpret or give meanings to

your experiences and the things that happen to

you and other people in life.

For instance, the prevailing paradigm of the

world used to be that mankind could never fly.

That’s a belief, a mindset, a way of looking at

life. In fact, people used to say that if God

wanted men to fly he would have given them

wings. But that was just a belief.

Orville and Wilbur Wright had a different

paradigm: Anything is possible. We can design a

machine that flies. Even though the world had

the opposite paradigm, yet they choose to view

the world differently.

Another paradigm used to be that a woman

couldn’t lead Jamaica, or even be a good boss

in the workplace. That was a prevailing

mindset, that most men and women used to

have—they used to believe this was true.

Another global paradigm used to be that the

earth was the center of the universe, and that

the sun revolved around the earth. But Nicolaus

Copernicus saw the world differently. He had a

different model of the world. And it was later

proved to be the correct one.

So you get the idea. Paradigms control how you

think, and how you see life. To advance in your

career, you must become aware of your

personal paradigms. What are the beliefs you

have that are holding you back? What are the

new beliefs you need to adopt?

Are you currently controlled by any of these

paradigms or mindsets?

I’m too old to go back to school, or do what I really want to do.

I am a loser

I don’t have what it takes to be a…

I hate public speaking; I am shy

I am not really all that intelligent

I could never do what he/she does

I am always broke

This is a terrible place to work

There are no opportunities to excel in this company, I hate it

These are all just mindsets you can replace. In

fact, please do something right now.

Look at each of the mindsets and consider how

holding such a belief or worldview will

influence how someone behaves. What you

believe is the driving force behind your

behaviour. So many people stop themselves

from advancing in their careers and in their


lives, not because they lack ability, but because

they tell themselves things that keep them

stuck.

Their paradigms tell them they are not

worthwhile, that better is not possible for

them. As a result they never make the effort to

reach for something better. It’s as simple as

that.

Again, recall what we discussed at the seminar:

To change your outer world, you must first

change your inner world of paradigms—beliefs,

values, self-concept.

This is crucial to grasp. Your current paradigms

correspond to where you are in your career; to

advance, you must “shift your paradigms”. That

is, you must consciously change how you look

at yourself, your job, your opportunities and

possibilities. Start to notice how your self-talk.

Is it positive or negative? Do you exude hope

and enthusiasm or do you always complain and

gossip?

Your self-talk and your habitual way of talking

with others reveal what you believe. How you

interact with others and the world is an

outward manifestation of your inner

paradigms. Where you are in your career and

life today corresponds directly with your

paradigms. It is your beliefs about yourself,

your values and your possibilities that will

determine how much of your personal power

you unleash.

EXERCISE 3: Using the goal you selected earlier,

identify one disabling paradigm and one

empowering paradigm for each of the following:

› Self-Concept:

I am…

I can …

I can’t…

› Values:

I would never...

No matter what it takes, I always...

› Beliefs

I believe that..

My conviction is...


POWER FACTOR 2: OWNERSHIP

“Personal responsibility is the foundation for

unleashing your personal power.”

Before you can unlock your inner power, you

must become radically accountable. In other

words you must begin to take 100 per cent

responsibility for all that has happened to you

up to now, and all that you will allow to happen

to you in the future.

“You can either take responsibility for charting

your career advancement or you can find

excuses, and other people and circumstances to

blame.”

Ownership means to take ownership of the life

you have created. It means taking full

responsibility. It is to adopt the motto: If it is to

be it is up to me.

People who lack self-responsibility blame other

people and circumstances for what happens to

them in life. They believe it is the government,

the economy, their boss, their industry that

makes them broke, unhappy and unproductive.

The truth however is, it is always you who are

responsible. It is always you who choose how

you respond to what happens. That’s what

response-ability is by the way: your ability to

respond to what happens to you in life.

You see, you can’t always control what happens

to you in life. You may have grown up poor, in

circumstances of limitation and lack. You may

have been raped or otherwise abused as a

child. You might not have had the opportunity

to attend college. You might not be as beautiful

or sexy, or healthy, or tall, or financially well of

as someone else, but guess what? None of that

matters. What matters is what you do, with

what you have. That’s what counts.

Stop blaming other people. Stop finding

excuses why you can’t advance in your career.

Find a way to get ahead instead. If you need to

go back to school, make a decision to do so,

and work out a plan. If you need to learn some

new skills to get ahead in your career, take the

initiative and find a way to get the training

rather than wishing and complaining.

Also, if people seem not to like you, or if your

boss or others seem to lack confidence in you,

don’t just blame them and think how awful

they are. Take responsibility instead. Get the

book I recommended and study how to get

along with people so they can like you and

believe in you and want to help you advance.

Here is the title, again:

How to Win Friends and Influence People, by

Dale Carnegie.

It’s a great book. Get it, study it, and practice

the strategies in it. They will change your life

and relationships.

EXERCISE 4: List 5 five things you want to

achieve right now in your career and life that

you have not been able to achieve so far.

For each of these goals, state the reason why

you have not achieved it so far. Lack of money?

Lack of education?

Now ask yourself, Am I blaming someone

outside myself for my failure, or finding

excuses?


Now ask yourself, What would I do to achieve

each of these goals if I took complete

responsibility? What if I truly believed it was up

to me, and that I do have the ability to

succeed? What would I do?

Write down your answers. And start taking

action on the first thing you’ve written down.








POWER FACTOR 3: WILLPOWER

Also, what is personal power? And why is it

important in career advancement? More

importantly, how is developed?

Personal power—the ability to produce the

results you desire—is dependent upon how

self-disciplined you are. You cannot produce

excellent results if you don’t do things

excellently. But most people don’t perform at

their best, or achieve their best because they

often feel lazy, they feel discouraged, they

simply don’t feel like doing what they should

do. Self-discipline is that inner ability that

makes you do what you should whether you’re

feeling motivated or not, whether it feels

comfortable or not. But the basis for self-

discipline is willpower.

Without willpower, you will only work hard

when you feel excited. Without willpower you

can never follow through on your plans when

things are going wrong. Willpower is crucial to

develop. It’s not true that you don’t have

willpower; everybody does. It’s just that most

people have not trained their willpower. They

haven’t trained themselves to override their

moods and momentary feelings in order to do

what they need to do to achieve what is

important to them.

There are three willpower habits you must

develop in order to unleash your personal

power. Here they are:

1. I will decide. This is about making the

commitment to advance, to grow, to improve,

to achieve specific goals. Most people just go

along with whatever happens, they hate to

make commitments and promises to

themselves and others because they don’t want

to be held accountable.

People of power however, form the habit of

deciding what their next major goal is going to

be. They make the commitment, even when

they haven’t figured out the way to achieve

their goals. They say, “I’m going to do this; I

don’t know precisely how as yet, but I’ll find a

way to make it happen.”

For instance, if you simply read through this

document so far without doing the exercises

like setting your career goals, it means you

need to develop the I Will Decide Habit. Make

the commitment.

2. I will design. After you’ve made the

commitment, you need to design a strategic

plan to take you from where you are to where

you’ve decided you want to be. This is just like

someone deciding to build a beautiful hotel or

home. He or she must now create a building

plan, of what the building will look like and the

step by step programme for building it.

It’s the same with your career. To advance

strategically, you must chart your path

diligently. Develop a plan of action that you can

follow in order to assess your progress.

3. I will be disciplined. This is the habit of

following through with diligence, until you


succeed. In their book Execution: The

Discipline of Getting Things Done, Larry

Bossidy and Ram Charan demonstrate that the

major cause of business failure and executive

ineffectiveness is the failure to execute their

brilliant strategies and plans.

It really doesn’t matter how motivated you feel,

how much self-belief you have or how big your

dream is. Until you take disciplined action on

your goals, nothing happens. It is the discipline

to consistently DO WHATEVER IT TAKES that

separates winners and losers in life. Willpower

is what enables you to do whatever you need

to do in the moment, to achieve your future

goals.








POWER FACTOR 4: EDUCATION

You’ve heard the saying, “Knowledge is power”,

right? Well, there’s a lot of truth in it. But many

people don’t fully realize the implications of

this idea, even if they say it.

For instance, take note of what author and

speaker, Charlie “Tremendous” Jones once

said:

“Five years from now you will be the same

person you are today except for two things: the

people you meet and the books you read.”

But how many persons do you know who

consistently read books to educate themselves

once they are outside the classroom setting?

Very few.

Perhaps even you often say that you don’t like

reading, or something like that. But how else

will you expand your capabilities? Intelligence is

a function of knowledge, but acquiring

knowledge takes time and effort. Going to

university is one way to acquire knowledge. But

it’s not the only way.

The word ‘educate’ derives from the Latin

‘educo’, which means to ‘draw out.’ Yet many

people believe education is the process of

someone else ‘pouring in’ knowledge and

information into other people’s minds. No.

Education is an inside out process. That is why

my approach to training focuses on getting you

involved rather than just telling you stuff. As

facilitator, my job is not about me, how much I

know; it is about you and how much of your

potential you can bring forth. My job is to

facilitate your process of self development,

which is what education really is.

It is only as you participate that you begin to

develop from within. It is only by listening and

taking good notes, reading over those notes

and assimilating them until they make sense to

you, and applying them in your life that you

become truly educated.

So, what are the ways in which you can

empower yourself through education?

Formal Study: This is an important foundation.

You get formal education by going to school—

high school, university, college. This is crucial

because it helps to develop the discipline of

study. It teaches the importance of process and

structure, and helps you to develop the ability

to think logically and critically. Formal study

also provides the important element of

supervision. In college, you are able to get

feedback from your instructors to point out

what you’re doing correctly and how you can

improve.

Self-Directed Learning: This is where you buy,

borrow books and other educational material

and study on your own. The most successful

leaders and achievers in every field are avid

self-directed learners. They read and study

voraciously. This is the one of the best ways to

become a master at what you do, and advance

in your career.

Even if you don’t have the money right now to

invest in lots of books, there are countless

resources on the internet you can find. All you

need is the desire and the discipline to search

them out and study them.


Make the decision to be among the most

knowledgeable person in your field, in your

office, in your circle of influence. Begin to

consciously educate yourself in these areas:

Money creation and management; relationship

success; sales and marketing; religion;

philosophy; history; psychology;

communication, vocabulary, leadership and

management. This might seem daunting, but

just get started and exercise the discipline

yourself to progress a little every day, week,

and month.

Learn from Your Experiences: This is one area

that many people overlook when considering

education. Your personal experiences are a rich

goldmine of wisdom. Reflect on your life

experiences. Ask yourself, What lessons can I

learn from this experience? What did I do

wrong in this instance? What can I do in the

future to avoid making that same mistake?

How can I consistently recreate this experience

of success again and again?

Sometimes the most important lessons we are

seeking to learn are right there in the raw

material of our personal experiences. Look for

them and extract them.

Learn from Other People’s Experiences: There

are two kinds of lessons you can learn from

other people’s experiences: how to succeed

and how to fail. Always be on the lookout for

how you can benefit from whatever happens to

other people. Copy their success habits, and

avoid the habits of people who fail and create

disasters in their lives.

For instance, rather than trying cocaine or

alcohol as a means of dealing with stress, look

at the life of someone like Whitney Houston.

Learn from her mistake rather than paying the

price to learn the same lesson through your

own experience. That’s wisdom.

Everyone around you has important lessons

you can learn. That’s why mentors and teachers

are so important, also. They give you the

benefit of their knowledge and experience. You

get to know what they know without having to

go through their experiences.

Listen to Your Intuition. One source of

knowledge that most people are unaware of is

their intuition. Sometimes you may need

answers to issues, concerns and questions that

you can’t find in any book, or from any one

else. In these instances, go within. Listen for the

voice of inspiration. Be silent within rather than

paying attention to the internal chatter of your

anxious mind.

The greatest geniuses have learned to tap into

their inner reservoir of wisdom and inspiration.

EXERCISE 5:

1. As soon as possible, acquire the following

books and begin to study them:

From Problems to Power: How to Win

Over Worry and Turn Your Obstacles

into Opportunities by Glenford Smith

Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill

How to Win Friends and Influence

People by Dale Carnegie

How to Stop Worrying and Start Living

by Dale Carnegie


2. Reflect on your career and life up to now.

Write down five mistakes you’ve made in life

and the lessons you’ve learned from them and

five major successes you’ve had and the lessons

you’ve also learned from them.

3.a. Think of 5 people you think have made

serious mistakes in their lives. They can be

people you know personally, people you’ve

seen on the television or even people you’ve

read about in books or in the bible. What

lessons can you learn from these people’s

mistakes? Write down your answers.

b. Now, think of 5 successful people you

admire. They can be people you know

personally, people you’ve seen on the

television (Profile, perhaps?) or even people

you’ve read about in books or in the bible.

What lessons can you learn from these people

about how you can become successful in your

own career?

4. Think of someone in your field whom you

really admire who has achieved what you are

aspiring to. Go and talk with him or her and ask

them what their secret to success is. Listen and

take notes. Reflect on what they tell you and

find ways of applying what they tell you in your

own life and career.

5. Make a commitment to read at least one

non-fiction book per month about career or

personal success.

6. Take five minutes two times per day in which

you sit still and do nothing. Practice focusing on

your breathing, as you learn to watch the

stream of thoughts running through your mind.

Notice any images that arise in your mind. Start

taking note of the first image, idea, or feeling

that you experience when you get up in the

morning.

Often times, these first impressions contain

important messages about what you should do

next, or the answers to questions you’re

puzzled about.


POWER FACTOR 5: RESULTS MASTERY

By definition, powerful people are masters at

producing desired results in their lives and

careers. They know what it takes to transform

desires into reality. For them, success is not

‘buck up’ or chance, it is a science.

In other words, there is a predictable process

that they follow over and over again to succeed

at whatever they set out to achieve. This is

what gives them the confidence to move ahead

in their careers, their businesses, and their

personal lives.

An understanding of this scientific approach to

career and life success will give you a sense of

incredible, unstoppable power and confidence.

I have done all the work of distilling the

important strategies for thinking and acting

that all outstanding people practice. You will

find the process easy to understand, exciting to

explore and powerful to apply in advancing in

your career and in changing your life.

This process is what I call The Results-Creation

Model (RCM). It is dealt with extensively in

Chapter 4 of my book From Problems to

Power. The RCM is a framework for

understanding how people produce every

result in their lives. It pictures how people

create the lives they currently have and the

scientific process they can apply to change their

lives in whatever way they desire.

Here is the Results-Creation Model depicted

below:

It says that Results are created in people’s lives

by the Actions they take. That’s important:

Actions create results in life, okay. Note that.

But actions are the result of the moods you’re

in at any given moment. Moods determine

actions. So if you’re feeling worried, that is

going to determine what you do, and how you

do it, as against if you are feeling confident and

excited. It is your thoughts and feelings in the

moment that influence how what you do. If

you’re feeling happy and you have money,

you’re more likely to spend on impulse, than if

you’re thinking about paying off a bill.

If you’re feeling calm and content and your

child makes a mistake, you’re more likely to

correct him or her gently than if you’re feeling

stressed and thinking about how unreasonable

your boss or spouse is.

So, personal power is your ability to regulate

your feeling so that you maintain positive

feelings that motivate to act in your best


interest. This is an important area of human

behaviour that is getting increasing attention.

The prevailing paradigm for many decades was

that it was people’s intellectual acuity that

determined how they behaved. But scientists

are now learning that our feelings and moods

are far more powerful in shaping our

behaviours and determining our actions than

what we know and how bright we are.

In fact, one seminal book which brought this to

light was Emotional Intelligence: Why it

matters more than IQ by Dr. Daniel Goleman.

This was in 1995. Since then, many more

researchers have confirmed this hypothesis.

Remember, feelings are more powerful than

facts.

Now, what about Mindset? What is that? Well,

we touched upon that already when we dealt

with paradigms, remember? A mindset is a

fixed mental attitude or disposition that

predetermines your responses to, and

interpretations of situations. A mindset is a

fixed state of mind.

That word ‘fixed’ is the major difference

between mindsets and moods. Moods change

very often during the day, but your mindsets

are permanent. Your mindsets are the way you

see things all the time. They predetermine how

you interpret things and therefore how you feel

about them.

To unleash your power, you must become

intimately aware of the mindsets that are

influencing your behaviour and your responses

to life. That’s the first thing. Then you must

consciously adopt mindsets which are in

alignment with the career goals you’ve set for

yourself.

[Take a special interest in studying Chapter 4:

The Results-Creation Model in my book From

Problems to Power. Contact me at

[email protected] or TEXT me at 1-

876-508-7460 to order your copy. It will outline

clearly how you can become a results-creation

master.]



PART IV: WHAT IS YOUR PASSWORD TO

PERSONAL POWER?

As a way to help you remember the principles

for developing Personal Power, each Power

Factor contained a subtle clue, which when

combined together, forms the ultimate

password to POWER. Look back again at each

power factor and see if you can spot the clue.

Did you?

Can you put all the five clues together and say

what your password to personal power is?

I know you can. And that you did.

Congratulations!

Now unlock your vault of power and unleash

your awesome power to advance in your

career, from the inside out.

Remember the words of Orison Swett Marden:

“Deep WITHIN humans lies slumbering powers;

powers they never dream of possessing; forces

that would revolutionize their lives if aroused

and put into action.”

You have the master-key for unlocking YOUR

slumbering powers! Use it.

Unleash your personal power! Take your career

to the next level! You can do it!

-----------------------------








ABOUT THE PRESENTER

GLENFORD SMITH Motivational Speaker,

Author, Gleaner Career Writer Glenford Smith is a researcher, writer, motivational speaker and lecturer on the subjects of resilience and strategic success in the areas of career and business. He is the author of the recently published book From Problems to Power: How to Win Over Worry and Turn Obstacles into Opportunities. He is also the Career Writer for the Jamaica Gleaner newspaper and is a feature writer for Buzzz Caribbean Lifestyle magazine. He has also been a writer for Tech News magazine and Jamaica Business Journal magazine as well as a speech writer. He is featured regularly on various local media where he is interviewed on topics related to career and business success, cultivating a winning mindset and achieving life mastery. These include TVJ’s Smile Jamaica and The Susan Show; RJR’s Jamaican Morning with Alan Magnus and Paula-Ann Porter and Min’ Yuself with Dr. Leachim Semaj; Today on Hot 102 FM with Clyde Williams; Reasoning with Dr Leachim Semaj and Today with Beverly Anderson-Manley, both on Hot 102 FM; Jumpstart on Hot 102FM with Rose

Bennett-Cooper as well as Business Suite on PBC TV and Bes FM. Glenford was also the presenter of “Motivation at Midnight”—a one hour motivational segment during the weekly Saturday night programme Reflections hosted by Junior Smith on LOVE 101 FM. He is a member of the Governor General’s “I Believe” Initiative Committee [www.ibelieveinitiative.org]. The IBI is a value—based Initiative which is developed on the concept that we can ‘use the things that are right with Jamaica to fix the things that wrong with Jamaica.’ He also serves on the board of the Public Broadcasting Corporation of Jamaica. As a speaker and trainer Mr. Smith has addressed and worked with a wide range of audiences including corporations, insurance executives, medical professionals, graduate and undergraduate university students, churches, schools, and members of the national security forces. Mr. Smith is a graduate of the University of Technology and a former Electrical Engineer at the Jamaica Public Service Company where he was employed for over a decade. In this capacity, in 2003, he earned a merit award and special citation for outstanding performance for his work on the Northern Coastal Highway Improvement Project. He is married to Aldith and they live in St. Catherine, Jamaica. He is available for Conducting Seminars and Workshops, delivering Keynote Addresses and selective Personal and Career Coaching.

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