3 Keys to Influence

The Door of Influence

There once was an ambitious and precocious young boy that loved cookies. He knew from observation that mother kept the cookies locked in the pantry. Every day after school, he had a 45 minute window before his little sister came home from school. Each day for a week, he consistently tried to pick the lock to the pantry, like a raccoon trying to get in a garbage can. Every day he worked on his goal, for 35 minutes; he tried credit cards, letter openers, lifting, jiggling, pulling, pushing. Discouraged, he plopped down on the ground in abject frustration. THINK! he thought to himself. There must be a way. After thinking for 24 hours, on the seventh day, he noticed a small hole in the center of the handle. He bent a paper clip, pushed in through the hole, and viola! Open pantry. He poured himself an ice cold glass of milk and ate half-a-dozen cookies.

Some doors are locked to us and may never be opened without the right key. The key of persistence. The key of innovation. The key of willingness to change the way we think. Here are three keys that will change your life and business:

Key #1 - My Limitations are Self-Imposed
If I am a failure, and I resent the success of someone else, I am keeping my own success at arms length. The lock of resentment keeps me out of the pantry. I must be happy for others success and share in their joy. I need to habitually say “Good for you!” and “Way to go, you deserve it!” I need to SMILE more. I need to stop complaining and whining about the economy or the industry. I must change my attitude. A successful man or woman never gives up. I must change the way I THINK. We attract the things we dwell upon. It’s a law like Gravity. What am I attracting?

Key #2 - What Am I Sending Out?
Another lock is Fear and Doubt. Shakespeare said: “Our doubts are traitors that make us lose the good we oft might win by fearing the attempt.” Doubts and fears are a double lock on the door to your pantry. I must expect success. I must look forward to positive outcomes. I must believe in myself by reminding myself of past successes or WINS. “If I did it once I can do it again!” and “What one man (or woman) can do, another can!” What am I sending out?

Key #3 - What Is My Self-Talk?

100 years ago in the Pacific Northwest, Logging camps in the spring where an exciting and dangerous place to be. After the great evergreen trees were cut down, stripped of their branches they were sent down the river to the mill in great numbers. Sometimes the logs became crossed and caused a jam. The foreman would look for the log causing the jam. It was called the King-Pin. Once that log was moved, all the logs would rush down the river to the mill. What is my King-Pin? It could be Self-Pity. It could be Doubt. It could be Resentment. The more I resent, the more I have to resent. If I grow a resentment track in my brain, it becomes an all consuming negative habit. I must find my King-Pin and move it out of the way. I have found examining my self-talk is vital to my long term success. I often have more than one King-Pin. Old beliefs, limiting beliefs handed down from less informed people from my childhood hold me back. Locked doors. King-Pins. I must free myself from the tyrants of negative thinking. When I do that the logs in my life go rushing down the river of abundance.

Those cookies of my life taste great. The milk is ice cold. All I have to do to unlock the pantries of my life is THINK. (Oh, and the hero in our little story better confess his crime, share the cookies with his little sister and keep growing in the right direction). Food for thought.

INVICTUS

Have you seen the new Clint Eastwood movie about Nelson Mandella starring Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon? Some say it's a sports movie about Rugby. Some say it's a political film about Apartheid. I think its about thinking, living and focusing on principles, staying focused on the long term and INFLUENCE! After you read the poem below and watch the film, you tell me...

“Invictus”

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be,
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance,
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance,
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath & tears,
Looms but the horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years,
Finds, and shall find me, unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate;
I am the captain of my soul.

William E. Henley

I read this poem every day. It's profound. What if you found a poem that reflects your attitudes and values and made it your own? John Wooden, the greatest men's college basketball coach did...you can too. Or just go watch a Clint Eastwood movie...