Willingness to change

People will approach you and ask whether you are successful. You may ask yourself what this really means.  Are you being judged based on someone else's view of success or, will you define what it means and evolve into this image yourself? If the latter is true, what does the image look like?

I wait for you to tell me your views on success.  Consider the words you choose, the thoughts that go through your mind, the actions you take and feel willing to take to evolve.  What will you decide?  You determine how you will turn out and whether you aim to feel more successful.  As you imagine what success would be like, evoke all your senses.  Make it real.  Be brave.  Explain what forms success will take.

No self-help book or other inspirational tool can predict your future unless you happen to be the author, and you choose to learn from your experiences.  No person you meet exists to predict your future, or the outcomes of your current conditions.  If you were asking me to foresee how your life will evolve, I wouldn't be so bold as to suggest concrete paths or experiences.  Yet, I would invite you to go inside yourself.  Probe your thoughts and feelings. What do you tell yourself?  Did you ever realize that every choice you make is a clue to predicting your own future?

It's up to you to learn to listen and be honest with yourself.  As your intution and conscience speak to you, it makes sense to digest and apply what you hear.  If your inner voice encourages you to follow a certain line of study or work, regardless of what people around you advise, you need to pursue what feels right.  If you feel drawn to write to certain companies or politicians to express a grievance or another view, then taking action would be part of your vision of fulfillment. 

You define and refine your views of success.  Are you willing to adapt to whatever life throws you?   As you send out positive energy, this will bounce back in  your direction in various forms.  If you send out negative vibes, you may feel parallel consequences.  Why not expect the best? Learn to plan and recognize it. Will you choose to connect with your potential, your abilities, how you empower and teach others, and also learn yourself? Imagine anything is possible.  Create a new reality.

You are exactly where you are supposed to be.  You are experiencing exactly what you need to.  Continue to learn useful things about yourself and the world. Life and success will be what you determine. Reflecting on this will enable you to get your mind wrapped around your attitude. 

Self-indulgence or something else?

Many people dream of success that takes form as the result of self-indulgence. Are you the kind of person who measures success by the way you give into your own desires, passions, and whims, with little or no restraint? Or, would success for you be more about filtering out what is appealing, about resisting temptation and exerting tighter control on your choices? Perhaps success means other things to you?

Consider to reach a level of satisfaction in everything you do, you could take the attitude that you will aspire to possess nothing, to desire to become nothing, and to learn nothing. You could also take other stands. To evolve into what you're not, you must make choices that direct you to roles and traits you don't desire to adopt. If you wish to succeed one way or the other, its up to you to define what it means.

Choosing the path of self-denial won't likely get you what you want. More often than not, people model habits and choices of those people around them. How do you know your version of success is truly your own? Its up to you to define how it connects to the uniqueness of your own soul. Explore the significance of remaining silent.

Proactive speaking strategies

People approach me and ask about how to get into public speaking.  I often begin by referring to my own experience and how I began by taking initiatives to make conference presentations in 25 countries as part of my Ph.D. research.  Yet, my presentations branched out form the purely academic to cover varied areas based on my places of employment, community involvement and affiliations.  I didn't feel that I could simply offer a repeatable recipe for people to model.  So, I wrote this article to offer some more general guidelines.  I always suggestion self-examination.

Most professional speakers I've met or heard about tend to have developed their knowledge and skills in a particular field and then, branched out either consciously or unexpectedly.  Sure, other opportunities will present themselves, but you have to know where to look, how to keep your senses open, and you also benefit from learning how to nurture your skills.  Its a proactive thing.  Are you taking action to move forward in an area of interest? 

1) Do you know how to market yourself effectively?  Getting involved in local public speaking groups can boost your skills and confidence, but you also need to reach out and actually go into communities and offer to speak.  Practice is as important and getting your name "out there."  Who would you like to know about your availability? What can you do to tell them who you are? Why not take steps to present a speech at a public function like a wedding, retirement or awards dinner? All practice matters, even if you don't yet have an idea of your target audience.

2) How would you step outside-the-box? : Back in school, if you ever had a "career day," or took part in job shadowing, 'public speaker' may not of been one of your many options.  I recall such a high school career day.  Many people took part; local farmer, musicians, a fireman, policeman, electrician, plumber, government job representatives, local athletes, doctor, nurse, dentist and small business people promoted their fields.  Personally, I spent most of my time at speaking with a chef.  I learned how to fold a variety of napkin formations to decorate gourmet tables.  I didn't aspire to become a professional chef, but I chose to gain insight into a person's motivation and to recognize the value of developing transferable skills.

3) How do you tap into networking? : If you think about why you desire to something, this will often lead you to figure out who would benefit from it.  If you work on improving your talents and skills, and take time to reach out and offer what you know to others, you will find that people will point you in meaningful directions.  One thing often leads to another.  One speaking engagement can lead to other people finding out who you are, and contacting you to speak for their organisation.  Its part of a larger process.  You need to talk about your hopes and desires.

4) Who are your mentors? You are already your own person, but to think about who inspires your professional aspirations can be very helpful.  Do you know their life stories? To consider public speakers, you will recognize many different types of people.  You may think of comedians, artists, writers, professionals who discuss their expertise at conferences and seminars, psychic intuitives, motivational and self-help gurus, religious or spiritual leaders and others.  All of these people have a following because of something they have done that interests other people.

5) What is your measurable plan?  You can always be doing things to improve on what you know and to be working toward reaching certain goals.  However, you will be far more productive if you identify a schedule or timeline by which you plan to accomplish these goals.  You may not be able to know how many paid speaking engagements you'll have this week, but you can make a point of volunteering your time to speak somewhere and to meet people there.  You can begin by counting initiatives and the number of letters you write to specific people and organisations.

Are humans simply underchallenged?

As a follow-up to the popularity of the posting, "Past the breaking point," let's reconsider success.

Some human beings are motivated to work to break human records for endurance, speed, stamina, resilience and other qualities.  Success in this sense may relate to shattering what has already been done in a specific race or sport, being a pioneer in your field or, at least bettering yourself by personal efforts.  After all, everything you do can bring you a sense of success.  Even the intent to act is a positive move. 

You may not realize that what human beings consider to be the "toughest races" in the world, are often annual competitions for professionals or elite go-getters who do the races for fun. For those people who finish these races, results may seem impressive.  And they are.  However, its wise not to rest on any laurels.  No matter what goals you set out for yourself and realize, different challenges always await you somewhere.  If you start to feel smug, you might compare your  accomplishments to these startling efforts made by animal, fish and insect species simply to survive:

1)  A group of humpback whales seeking balmier waters have traveled a record-breaking 5,100 miles, the longest-ever documented migration undertaken by a mammal. http://www.livescience.com/animals/070410_whale_migration.html

2) Sooty shearwater birds migrate nearly 40,000 miles (64,000 kilometers) a year, flying from New Zealand to the North Pacific Ocean every summer in search of food, according to a new study. (The extensive summer trek is the longest animal migration ever recorded electronically).  http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/08/060808-bird-migration.html

3) Nicole, as the shark is being called, traveled from Africa to Australia and back—a total of 12,400 miles (more than 20,000 kilometers)—in nine months. The feat also set a second record: fastest return migration of any known marine animal. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/10/1006_051006_shark_fastest.html

4) The arctic tern has the longest migratory flight. "It breeds mainly around the shores of the Arctic Ocean and then flies to the other side of the world to spend the remainder of the year in the Antarctic - a total distance, if it were to travel in a straight line, of at least 16,000 kilometres. In a lifetime, this is equivalent to flying to the Moon and back". (Guinness Book of Animal Records, p. 127)  http://www.learnenglish.org.uk/magazine/animal_migration.html

5)  Every year millions of the orange and black morach butterflies fly 4828 km (3,000 miles) from Canada to Mexico for the winter.  When the butterflies fly north, they lay eggs and then die near the borders of Mexico and the US, and the US and Canada. The next generation of insects then continues the journey.  http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_4740000/newsid_4745300/4745315.stm

Past the breaking point

The whole idea of success is reshaped by athletes of extreme sports who dare to push the limits.  Their idea of success involves teaching their bodies not to listen to their minds when their brain tells them they are in pain and should stop. On the contrary, this is when they learn to forge on.

Consider Tammy Van Wisse, from Victoria, Australia.  She apparently started swimming about the age of 11. At the time, she was taunted for being overweight. By 2004, she had swam the equivalent of 1+ 1/2 times around the world and holds many records. She specializes in cold water, distance swimming.  In June of 2004. Tammy swam the Gippsland lakes in fridgid waters 24 miles in less than 10 hrs. She attributes her swimming success to eating junk food and teaching her body to metabolise and work efficiently, based on her fat stores.

Consider David Harper who managed to complete Kiehl's Badwater Ultramarathon in sandals. I'm surprised the rubber soles didn't melt onto the asphalt which heated up to 150 degrees.  The air temperature rose to 124 degrees.  If that weren't enough of a challenge, this is a California trek that begins in Death Valley, the lowest elevation in the Western Hemisphere at 282 feet below sea level. The race finishes at 8,360 feet, covering 3 mountain ranges for a total of 13,000 feet of vertical ascent and 4,700 feet of descent. The race ends at the trail head to the Mount Whitney summit, the highest point in the U.S.A.  Not a bad race course, if you live 'on the edge'.

Runners must finish this 'the world's toughest footrace,' in under 60 hours to get a special T-shirt. To get a belt buckle, they must finish within 48 hours.  Sound doable? At 40 miles into the 2006 race, Harper had developed terrible blisters. At 80 miles into the race, and after many shoe and sock changes, and repeatedly taping his feat to dull excruciating pain, he opted to wear open-toe Keen sandals. This tactic slowed his pace to a crawl, but he ended up finishing 57th out of 85 runners.

It's worth noting that more people have climbed Mount Everest than have completed this Badwater ultramarathon. Do you really wonder why? Consider the Age's Top Ten world-class races for Athlete Adventurers.  Would any be your 'cup of tea?' http://www.adventurecorps.com/news/bw/2006theage.html