For the longest time, I always thought that success in life meant financial success. I mean, most of us would love to live in a huge home located on a sunny beach and not have to worry about finding enough money to just to pay the bills each month. I soon realized though that fame and fortune does not dissolve away the problems associated with a troubled life. With suicides and drug problems associated with some high-profile people, I had to rethink my former notion of what success exactly is. This fact was further brought to light by a client of mine who was a self-made millionaire at a very young age and had a tremendous amount of success in business, but as I soon found out, his personal life was littered with drugs, adultery, and alcohol.

So I began to think, “Well, maybe money has nothing to do with success.” This idea lead me to an old gentleman named Carlos, who in his 60s, was a happy and friendly person, but also very poor by most standards. Carlos had a large family and was the proud grandfather of six beautiful grandchildren. Carlos unfortunately passed away a year after I had met him and although he lead a happy life, I could not help but feel a sense of loss for his family who now struggled to make ends meet. Although Carlos led a happy life, the absence of money in his life brought a level of stress and pain to his final legacy and for his family. I determined that the feeling of happiness alone, just like money, was not enough to qualify as being successful in life.

So what is success then if it is neither feeling happy, nor wealth alone? I had to discover for myself that success involves not only completing the things that you plan on doing in life, but also planning on completing the things in life that are important to your values as a person. These values are made up of:

• Physical health

• Professional growth and development

• Spiritual growth

• Financial security

• Happiness

• Personal development

• Relationship maintainance

• Love and romance

I have found that success does not require vast wealth, nor does it require you to have a fitness model body. Success in life, means that you have achieved your own optimal balance between all of the above-stated components. In this model of success, one cannot focus on just making money because it would cause the other components to significantly drop. This model of success means that the person does not focus solely on money, but instead shares a more bountiful marriage, or establishes better relationships and leaves this world a happy person.

So as a Personal Development Coach, I recommend that you should assess where you are at currently with respect to the above-stated components of your legacy. It’s natural that some might be higher or lower than others. It becomes your task to identify which ones are significantly higher and lower than others and focus on bringing those values which are low up to a higher level. That is the path towards success in life.

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Home based business ideas require that you choose the right one among thousands that you may have in order for you to achieve internet success. Apart from choosing the right idea, your personal improvement will also contribute heavily towards your success with any of your home based business ideas.

Most of the emerging entrepreneurs do not understand the significance of personal improvement which forms the basic essence of any successful businessperson.

Some of the smart entrepreneurs learn very quickly the importance of their personal development for the success of their business. However, many do not which lessens their chance of survival in the business. This is the basic reason for such high failure rates of home based businesses.

It is always a wise plan to improve you first before taking on any particular task. You might need to emotionally strengthen yourself along with updating your knowledge, skills and physical health in order to achieve any level of success in your business.

Here, is a basic view of the relationship between home based business ideas and personal development.

Sources of personal development:

You will find numerous resources on Google and Yahoo that will help you to obtain nearly any personal development requirements that you may have. There are also many text books and magazine articles that you can get from your local library or book store to help you in this endeavor as well. You will be wise to study those resources which are authored by people with real life experiences in the subject matter rather than a ghost writer who has no real life experience with the subject matter.

DVD’s and CD’s are other excellent resources which can help you with your personal development. The Internet is also a giant resource. Internet online courses and live webinars are very helpful for home based businesses and generally the training is free.

Physical and spiritual personal development:

• It is also important to keep yourself physically fit, healthy with good personal hygiene. You should have an exercise at least three times per week depending upon your age and health condition. A good dietary program is also important.
• You should also consult your Doctor and/or your Health Consultant to find out if there is any medication that you should be taking to manage any potential stress that you may be experiencing now or that you perceive could affect you in managing your business in the future.

Personal development also includes attending seminars and other training events to give you more exposure to new knowledge, techniques, and technical skills needed to manage your business. This type of training not only helps to expand your personal qualities but it also gives you exposure to other people who may later become your mentors.

Ratio of personal development training:

Ideally people should allot or dedicate at least 20% of their time from their daily routine towards personality development. For instance, if people spend five hours for their home business they should allot at least one hour for personal development. That ideal rate should be 5:1. Basically opening up your mind for new learning towards improving your personality will reflect on your business results.

General points to consider for personal development training:

• Focus on your most important needs first. Don’t shotgun a wide variety of subjects at the same time. Lock in on your most important needs first and follow up with others later.
• Start slow and expand gradually according to your needs and necessities.
• Focus on the specific needs of your home based business. Not all businesses need the same knowledge and skill sets. Find out what your needs are and stick to that subject matter.
• Don’t try to learn it all right now. Too much of information will bring chaos, frustration, lack of self confidence and most likely depression causing both your health and your business to suffer accordingly.
• Some home businesses even offer their distributors free personal development training. If so, then this is an excellent way for you to obtain some of the training that you may not already possess.

As a closing note, remember that your personal development is critical to your success in developing your home based business ideas.

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I am not sure how I first came to hear about this book, but I quickly discovered that it is well recognized as one of the all time greats for examining the psychology of people in terms of obtaining riches in the material, educational, and emotional sense of the word.  After just one time reading the book it was clear why this book has lasted the test of time since being released during the Great Depression in 1937.  Mr. Napoleon Hill wrote this book based on his life followings as an associate and biographer of Andrew Carnegie.  The book contains timeless advice and insight to understanding human emotion and thought, straight from one of America’s most successful entrepreneurs.  I strongly suggest anyone interested in the philosophy of what drives human actions read this book and take note of its primary message.

To open the book, Napoleon Hill outlines that there are 12 areas of real riches, nearly all of which cannot be quantified in a material sense:

1)      A Positive Mental Attitude – (NOTE- Positive attitude comes first)

2)      Sound Physical Health

3)      Harmony in Human Relations

4)      Freedom from Fear

5)      Hope of Future Achievement

6)      Capacity for Applied Faith

7)      Willingness to Share Ones Blessings with Others

8)      To Be Engaged in Labor of Love

9)      Open Mind to All Subjects and All People

10)   Complete Self Discipline

11)   Wisdom to Understand People

12) Financial Security –  (NOTE – Money comes last)

Immediately following this introduction of key areas, Napoleon Hill challenges his readers that throughout the book there is one central theme throughout each chapter that has helped to create many successful and rich men and women.  Hill explains that this theme is crucial to fully understanding how to grow rich in life and that it is made mention to quite often.   He teases that he will not explain exactly what that idea is, as it becomes much more powerful when you read between the lines and discover it for yourself.  I will highlight this theme later in the review, but first I think it is important to look at the main area Napoleon Hill feels we must grow rich:

Positive Mental Attitude

A positive Mental Attitude heads the list of items needed for a person to grow rich.  The reason being is that every single other item included in the twelve is virtually impossible to attain without the positive mental attitude to start.  There is no way to be free from fear in life, when you let negativity and self doubts overcome you thoughts.  There is no way to be fully engaged in love when have no self confidence or lack the ability to make another feel good.  There is no way to be open to a new person or idea if unwilling to accept the potential benefits to be gained.  There is no way to advance your financial situation if you subscribe to notion that you are victim and a change cannot be made.  It all of these situations you must possess the positive self image, hope, and foresight for the future that is needed to grow rich in any situation.

A positive mental attitude and the understanding that can you achieve, instills the new perspective and level of confidence needed to take on mastery of all riches.  A positive mental attitude in turn creates hope for the future.  When you have hope for the future, anything is possible.  So focus your mental attitude, build your hope, and then work on mastery of the remaining riches.  I have worked constantly on my mastery of a positive mental attitude and can proudly say that is the fuel behind much of my fire.  When you start to cut out the negativity and start to be solution oriented, the world has amazing possibilities.

What It Takes To Grow Rich (According to Napoleon Hill)

As mentioned, I have pinpointed the principles and theme presented in the book that Mr. Hill refers, but will not implicitly say.  I call them the 4 D’s. Essentially, these D’s provide what it is needed to be successful and grow rich:

1) DEFINITE OF PURPOSE – Once you identify your purpose, everything takes a new level of significance.  Wandering in the dark will only get you so far and will leave you with some bumps and bruises.  Set your goals and purpose and once the target is marked, proceed forward with a lighted path.

2) DESIRE – Once you have defined your purpose, there is still no guarantee you will act on it.  Hill infers that deep desire for what you want and passion in the pursuit of it is a must.  As Tony Robbins would say, make it feel like achieving your purpose will create ultimate pleasure.

3) DEDICATION- Hill speaks to levels of maturity and understanding that commitment, dedication, and sacrifices are needed to obtain riches.  In Hill’s personal example, Andrew Carnegie asked Hill to work for him for years without pay, with the agreement that Hill would someday be able to chronicle his experiences.  This required years of sacrifice, but ultimately this dedication was the determining factor in the success of Hill.

4) DETERMINATION – I understand this to be the overcoming of obstacles.  Things will inevitable stand in your way in quest of your purpose.  You must use your desire and dedications to stay determined and let persistence carry you through challenges.  Often times financial struggles will act as a seemingly insurmountable obstacle, use your resources to work past this.

Hill refers to all of these throughout his book and tells countless stories when all of the four are applied.  Overall he suggests that to think and grow rich we must apply ourselves passionately and use these four D’s.   Hill also goes in much more depth about attaining riches in each of the highlighted 12 areas that are most important.

As I stated, I believe his in depth analysis on the psychology of people is dead on.  As an entrepreneur I have found countless ways to apply his methods and have proceeded to re-read his book twice over.

This article is available at: http://www.mattlehr.com

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