Archive for the ‘Ideas and Inspiration’ Category

The 10 Best Personal Development Books?

Saturday, May 11th, 2013

By Robin Sharma
Author of the #1 International Bestseller “The Leader Who Had No Title”

Greetings from New York City.

Just did a light run through Soho (exercising FIRST thing in the morning has been such a game-changer). You owe it to yourself to try it for 7 days.

Now I’m settled into creative mode. Great Colombian coffee. Book-filled room. Fresh flowers. (Another tip: your environment dramatically influences your creativity).

So, I wanted to share some more good information with you in my ongoing OBSESSION to help you Lead Without a Title + build out a life THAT MAKES HISTORY.

I’m often asked which books are most transformational for people like us who want to do fantastic work and lead our best lives.

So here are 10 of the best. Read them. Share them. Study them. LIVE them…

  1. Jonathan Livingston Seagull. By Richard Bach.

    With lines like: “Don’t believe what your eyes are telling you. All they show is limitation,” this book will move you deeply. I re-read it in Thailand. Still amazingly good.

  2. Think and Grow Rich. By Napoleon Hill.

    Fantastic book. Not so much about financial wealth as it is about the making of a rich life. You’ll learn how important it is to have a burning desire (this galvanizes your focus and causes the release of your creativity) + the imperative of setting clear goals + the value of “a mastermind alliance”. This book truly changed my life when I was starting out as a self-published author with nothing but a dream in my hands. Times were tough. This book got me through.

  3. The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius. By–well, Marcus Aurelius.

    Marcus Aurelius was a warrior—who then became a Roman emperor. He wrote his lessons on greatness and a life well lived during a multi-year military campaign. Someone got his notes. And put it into this book. I go back to this book often. It strengthens my character. And resolve to help more people.

  4. Steve Jobs. By Walter Isaacson.

    One of the best books I’ve ever read. Period.

  5. Long Walk To Freedom. By Nelson Mandela.

    Nelson Mandela’s one of my heroes. Noble. Courageous. Focused. A visionary. If I could be 1/100 of who he is, I’d be overjoyed. This is his autobiography. You’ll walk with him through his days as a lawyer, his time as a disruptor, his prison years and his period as the positional leader of South Africa.

  6. Stop Acting Rich. By Thomas Stanley.

    Thomas Stanley became famous for “The Millionaire Next Door”. But this book–not so well known–is exceptional. He explains the concept of “The Glittering Rich”, shares how too many of us live beyond our means and how to create true financial freedom. Like most of the books I read, I listened to it.

  7. As You Think. By James Allen.

    Maybe 10 times. That’s at least how many times I’ve read this book. And like all great books, it seems better+wiser and deeper every time I read it. Of course, the book hasn’t changed. Just my ability to grasp the information. And understand the concepts. This book is all about the power of your daily thinking. And how it drives your life’s behavior. As you know so well: your behavior shows us your beliefs. And this awesome book will inspire you to build new ones.

  8. The Magic of Thinking Big. By David Schwartz.

    Uber-practical. Tons of value. Great concepts, like “Go Through Life First-Class.” Every student, teammate and human being should read this book (along with “How To Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie–that work should also be on my list. True.).

  9. Talent is Overrated. By Geoff Colvin.

    Read this one a few years ago. Changed the way I viewed Genius. Confirms a lot of the work of exceptional performance researchers like the famed Anders Ericsson that talent is less about natural gifts and far more about devotion to a skill, relentless practice and patience. Another superb audiobook.

  10. Spark. By John Ratey.

    One of the best books I’ve read in years. I’m on my 3rd reading. Shares the latest (and so fascinating) research on how exercise transforms the brain, our performance, our productivity and even builds a new type of brain that is excellent at resisting stress. Please do your life a giant favor. And read this book. Today!

Ok. So there you go. Some of my favorite books. Go study them. And use them.

Please remember, ideas–flawlessly translated into reality are the keys to breathtaking success. And you becoming more of who you truly are.

Oh–and definitely make some time each day to read. Small little advances in your knowledge base lead to quantum improvements in your performance over time.

Thanks for making the time to read my posts. I work hard to make them valuable for you. So we get you to your best. Sooner versus later.

Be great. And dream even bigger. The world needs you to shine.

Speak soon,

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And I promise to work even harder to make your life better.

See you in Toronto in a few weeks! Let’s do this! :)

Snap up your seat now.

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JK Rowling’s Secret Success Weapon

Friday, May 3rd, 2013

By Robin Sharma
Author of the #1 International Bestseller “The Leader Who Had No Title”

I know you’re all about Mastery. And Excellence. And crafting an iconic life. Along with doing things most people call impossible. For this, I applaud you.

So I wanted to share a great story with you…

All she ever wanted to do was write. But few believed in her.

She ended up as a single mom. Collecting social benefits checks–just to get food onto the table. For her and her child.

On a trip from Manchester to London in 1990, her train was delayed. And an idea burst into her imagination. About a boy who didn’t know what he was.

She called this kid Harry Potter. And she wrote about his adventures.”

12 publishers rejected the book. A small house called Bloomsbury Press eventually agreed to publish it. But even then, the author was told “you’ll never make any money on children’s books.”

Yet, the book caught fire. Touched the hearts of millions. Inspired a new generation to read.

Of course, the woman is JK Rowling.

And she’s sold 400,000,000 books. And built a fortune of $800,000,000.

From an idea. About a young wizard. With a brave heart.

Her secret “weapon”?…

… JK Rowling DIDN’T LISTEN TO THE DOUBTS OF HER CRITICS.

“For some to love you, some must loathe you,” she brilliantly observed.

And she’s right. All visionaries are initially ridiculed before they are revered.

All enormously successful people first meet with rejection, resistance and yes, sometimes outright hatred. Criticism truly is the price of greatness. And you really need to be so invested in your dream + abilities + passion that ABSOLUTELY NOTHING will knock you off your game.

So be strong. Go for world-class. And when you get knocked down, dust yourself off, and stay true to your loftiest visions. In the end, you’ll be grateful you did.

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: The 48 Hour Transformation

If you are ready to build self-confidence + perseverance at a “JK Rowling Level”, I invite you to join me at The 48 Hour Transformation in Toronto this June. It’ll change your life forever.

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Sending you all green lights! So you get your boldest (and most audacious) dreams done. You know this: Life’s just too short to play small.

My very best, as always,

P.S. The AWESOME early bird discount to my all-new weekend event–The 48 HOUR TRANSFORMATION–June 8+9 in beautiful Toronto, Canada will end soon!….

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This Inspired Me

Wednesday, May 1st, 2013

By Robin Sharma
Author of the #1 International Bestseller “The Leader Who Had No Title”

I’m sitting in an airport lounge as I write this. In Florida. Just delivered a Lead Without a Title keynote for 700 top CEOs at an event sponsored by the FORTUNE 100 company Ingram Micro. Fantastic audience! Grateful.

This morning–in deep prep mode for the presentation in my hotel room–I came across an interview with the famed French designer Philippe Starck (a genius who can design a chair in 2 minutes and a chic hotel in 1.5 days. He says he prefers to work in solitude–”naked in my bedroom” for maximum productivity).

Anyway, the piece (which I read on The Harvard Business Review’s website), really validated a lot of my personal productivity practices (except the bedroom thing). And left me with a ton of creative inspiration.

And so I wanted to share it with you. So you work at peak. And succeed massively.

Here’s an excerpt that’s really worth thinking quietly about in this world of “dramatic distraction” and “really busy being busy”:

HBR Interviewer: “What’s the secret to working so quickly and productively?”

Starck: “I am sort of a modern monk. We don’t go to dinners. We don’t go to cocktails. We don’t go to movies. We don’t watch TV. I don’t use my energy on other people. I just work and read. I live with myself in front of my white page (My Note: yes, he works with a simple pencil and piece of paper).

…Of course, for much of the year I have to travel and speak to journalists, engineers and things like that. It’s the worst. But from the 15th of June until the 15th of September, I live completely secluded–locked in one of my houses–working from 8 am until 8 at night–or making my own biorhythm; work 3 hours, sleep 45 minutes, work 3 hours, sleep 45 minutes for 24 hours, without eating.”

“It’s a little sick. But I’m like Dr. Faust. I signed a contract with the devil to sell my life for Creativity.”

Beautiful..

I absolutely LOVE this! Yes, Philippe Starck isn’t the most life balanced person. But no true master ever is. They all were obsessed with their craft. DEVOTED to pouring their genius into the marketplace. And inspiring the world via their exceptional gifts and talents.

Look. You owe it to yourself to make time to be alone. To create space for your biggest ideas to flow. To access your most raw and natural potential. And to pour all you come up with out into the world.

So your life gets to it’s best level. And so you inspire everyone around you. By your obvious brilliance.

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…Snap up one of the remaining seats to this life-changing 2 day program on unleashing your highest potential + enjoying a life you adore right now. If you wait, you’ll be too late.

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Until next time, please remember to make time to create and think in solitude. Your greatest creativity needs space before it will flow. And few things will make you feel happier than presenting your best to the world.

Your fan always,

P.S. I’m only offering 250 seats to The 48 Hour Transformation. These 2 days will give you the inspiration and tools/tactics to DRAMATICALLY accelerate your success and happiness….

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..I’ll see you in Toronto in June! THX. And stay great.

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51 Ways Ordinary People Reached World-Class

Wednesday, April 10th, 2013

By Robin Sharma
Author of the #1 International Bestseller “The Leader Who Had No Title”

  1. Know what you want. Clarity is power. And vague goals promote vague results.

  2. Remember that every problem has a solution. Maybe you just can’t see it. Yet.

  3. In this Age of Dramatic Distraction, the performer who focuses the best wins the most.

  4. Before someone will help you, you need to help them.

  5. Become the most passionate person you know. It’ll be contagious.

  6. Know more about your craft/the work you do than anyone who has ever done the work you do…in the history of the world.

  7. Join The 5 am Club. Your most valuable hours are 5am-8am. They have the least interruptions.

  8. Devote yourself to learning something new about your field of mastery every day. Success belongs to the relentless learners. Because as you know more, you can achieve more.

  9. Remember that when you transform your fitness, you’ll transform your business.

  10. Don’t check your mobile when you’re meeting with another person. It’s rude. And rude people don’t reach world-class.

  11. Every time you do what scares you, you take back the power that you gave to the thing that scared you. And so you become more powerful.

  12. A problem is only a problem if you make the choice to see it as a problem.

  13. Stop being a victim. Your business and personal life was made by you. No one else is responsible. To make it better, make better choices. And new decisions.

  14. You can lead without a title. Don’t wait to get a position to stand for excellence, peak quality and overdelivery on every expectation.

  15. Find your own style. Be an original. Every superstar differentiated themselves from The Herd. And marched to their own drumbeat.

  16. Understand that when you play small with your success, you betray your potential. And the birthright you were born under.

  17. Eat less food and you’ll get more done.

  18. As you become more successful, stay really really hungry. Nothing fails like success. Because when you’re successful, it’s easy to stop outlearning+outOverDelivering+outthinking and outexecuting everyone around you. (Success is Beautiful. And dangerous).

  19. If you’re not overprepared, you’re underprepared.

  20. The only level of great manners to play at is “Exceedingly Polite”. In our world, this alone will make you a standout. And differentiate you in your marketplace.

  21. Remember that the moment you think you’re a Master, you lose your Mastery. And the minute you think you know everything, you know nothing.

  22. To double your results, double your level of execution.

  23. Invest in your personal and pro development. All superstars do.

  24. Get this year’s best Targets of Opportunity down onto a 1 Page Plan. Then review it every morning while the rest of the world sleeps.

  25. You don’t get lucky. You create lucky.

  26. When you push through a difficult project, you don’t get to the other side. You reach The Next Level.

  27. Smile. And remember to inform your face.

  28. Spend time in solitude every day. Your best ideas live there.

  29. Debrief on how you lived out your day every night in a journal. This will not only record your personal history, it will make you uber-clear on what you’re doing right and what needs to be improved.

  30. If your not being criticized a lot, you’re not doing very much. Ridicule is the price of ambition.

  31. Develop a monomaniacal focus on just a few things. The secret to productivity is simplicity.

  32. To get the results very few people have, be strong enough to do what very few people are willing to do.

  33. Rest. Recover. It’ll make you stronger.

  34. Buy a smaller TV and build a larger library.

  35. Remember that the bigger the goal, the stronger a person you must become to achieve that goal. So goal-achieving is a superb practice for character-building.

  36. SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: The 48 Hour Transformation

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    It’ll be held on Saturday June 8 + Sunday June 9 in Toronto, Canada (one of the world’s best cities)–with the option of an additional private VIP Mastermind on Monday June 10.

    To keep this exclusive, I’m only offering 250 seats.

    If you’re ready to transform the way you think + feel + perform + live, I’d love for you to join me at this life-changing event.

    Here are the details

  37. Food fuels your body. Learning feeds your mind.

  38. Don’t ask for respect. Earn it.

  39. Finish what you start. And always end strong.

  40. Breathe.

  41. In business, don’t play to survive. Play to win.

  42. Protect your good name. It’s your best asset.

  43. Remember that words have power. Use the language of leadership versus the vocabulary of a victim.

  44. Give more than you take. The marketplace rewards generosity.

  45. Know that if it’s not messy, you’re not making progress.

  46. Be a hero to a kid.

  47. In business, aim for iconic. Go for legendary. Make history by how awesome you are at what you do.

  48. Please don’t confuse activity with productivity. Many many people are simply busy being busy.

  49. Your doubts are liars. Your fears are traitors. Stop buying the goods they are attempting to sell you.

  50. The best anti-aging remedy in the world is working really hard.

  51. World-Class performers have no plan B. Failure just isn’t an option.

  52. You have the power to change the world—one brave act and one person at a time. Please use it.

My best to you!

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10 Quotes That Changed My Life

Saturday, March 30th, 2013

By Robin Sharma
Author of the #1 Bestseller “The Leader Who Had No Title”

Hi Leader Without a Title/Game-Changer/World-Builder:

Hope you’re superb today. Hope you’re playing full out + expressing your genius + making the world better.

I was in a reflective mood this morning and thought about 10 of the quotes that profoundly influenced the way I think, create and live.

[As you know, all it takes is a single idea in small paragraph to revolutionize the way you play out the rest of your life].

So—to inspire you (and move you to action on your boldest opportunities), I wanted to share them.

Here you go and I’ll be reading your comments at the end:

“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back– Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth that ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.”
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.”
—Henry David Thoreau, Walden: Or, Life in the Woods

“Why do they always teach us that it’s easy and evil to do what we want and that we need discipline to restrain ourselves? It’s the hardest thing in the world–to do what we want. And it takes the greatest kind of courage. I mean, what we really want.”
—Ayn Rand

“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.”
—Oscar Wilde

“The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars.”
—Jack Kerouac, On the Road

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
—Theodore Roosevelt

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?’ Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
—Marianne Williamson

“To laugh often and love much; to win the respect of intelligent persons and the affection of children; to earn the approbation of honest citizens and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to give of one’s self; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to have played and laughed with enthusiasm and sung with exultation; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived—this is to have succeeded.”
—Bessie Anderson Stanley (frequently misattributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson)

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
—Margaret Mead

“Be the change that you wish to see in the world.”
—Mahatma Gandhi

Sending you all green lights!

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