Sharpen your ax

Do you occasionally feel overwhelmed?
Sure. Most of us feel that way sometimes, too.
Let me share a great story and solution with you.
Years ago, a logger challenged an older logger.
The challenge:

Who could cut down a tree the fastest.
Those were the days before power equipment.

The two selected nearly identical trees.
They went to work, chopping and chopping.
The young logger was heartened by what he saw.
The older logger appeared to be taking breaks.
The younger logger took no breaks.
He was going to beat his older companion.
But the older logger’s tree fell first.

“How did you do that?” the young logger asked.
“I saw you taking lots of breaks.”
The older logger had a secret, he said.
Each time he stopped, he sharpened his ax.

Each of us needs time to sharpen our ax.
One way to do that is to divide your waking hours.
You might use the 30-10-20 principle.
Devote 30 minutes to a top priority project.
Turn off your cell phone. Close your office door.
Hit it hard and without interruption for 30 minutes.
Then take a 10 minute break. Coffee, A walk.
Anything that will give you a break.
That’s ax sharpening time. Make the most of it.

Then take 20 minutes to answer email and calls.
Or to meet with a colleague to discuss business.
Or to attend a very important meeting.
Just make sure it’s a 20-minute meeting.
I once took all the chairs out of our conference room.
Hour-long meetings were accomplished in 20 minutes.
There’s nothing quite like standing to get the job done.

Now repeat the cycle - 30, 10 and 20 minutes.
You’ll cut deeper and faster with a sharper ax.
Next week we’ll talk about the Power of Less.

Want a copy of my book “Your life’s Great Purpose”?
Email me at this address for a copy.

What purpose does your business serve?

Believe it or not, business is about more than making money.
Businesses must be profitable to survive.
And they must deliver high value to their clients.
The value you provide is half of your great purpose.
What you do with your profits is the other half.
Is your business aligned with a great purpose?
It should be. What’s your businesses great purpose?
What’s your personal one? If you don’t know, I can help.
We’re all here for a great purpose.
But we come with no instruction manual.
God leaves it up to us to figure it out.
He will help if we listen.
The great men and women of history listened.
This helped them figure theirs out.
Now you can, too — in my course at Midlands Tech this fall.
In it, you’ll discover your purpose and passion in life’s 8 key areas.
The course includes a personally autographed copy of my book.
"Your Life’s Great Purpose" is the course textbook.
I promise to challenge you and make you reach deep inside.
But it will prove to be one of your great learning experiences.
The course runs 6-8 p.m. Sept. 9 to Oct. 21.
To register, click here.
Want a free trial Marketing Letter subscription?
Email me at JerryBellune@yahoo.com
Write "Free trial" in the subject line.
To post a comment, click on "comment" below.
For greater success in business, click here.

Fulfilling your purpose

Do you feel that you have found your great purpose in life?
I asked Lexington High School students that question yesterday.
I told them that unfortunately many people never find theirs.
Some don’t even know they need to look for it.
We are born with a great purpose. There’s just one catch.
We come without an instruction manual.
We have to find our great purpose for ourselves.
It took me a long time to find mine.
This made me want to help others find theirs.
That’s why I wrote "Your Life’s Great Purpose".
In September, I will be teaching a course to help you find yours.
It will be at Midlands Technical College in South Carolina.
"Your Life’s Great Purpose" comes with an autographed copy.
We will explore the eight key areas of life and set goals in each.
These include your faith, family, fun and community.
Your career, financial goals, mental growth and physical fitness.
You can download course information at www.mtctraining.com
The class meets 6-8 p.m. Wednesdays at the Harbison campus.
The course is for seven weeks, Sept. 9 to Oct. 21.
You may register online or call 732-0432.
To watch a video interview about the book, just click here.
To comment, please click on "comments" below.

What good — and bad — habits bring

Yesterday we talked about the vital role that planning plays in life.
Today we’ll talk about the importance of self-discipline.
Who is the hardest person to discipline? You’re right.
It’s yourself. That seems more difficult for some of us.
It’s easy to develop bad habits. But they’re hard to live with.
It’s harder to develop good habits. But they’re easier to live with.
When I was young, I developed many bad habits.
That got me into a lot of trouble. I paid for those mistakes.
I started writing "Your Life’s Great Purpose" with one single purpose.
To help young people avoid many of the mistakes I had made.
I wanted them to find their direction and purpose in life.
David Stanton will be talking with me about this at noon today.
David is interviewing me on WIS-TV (Channel 10) at noon.
If you’re in South Carolina, tune in and hear what we have to say.
David is a good interviewer. No telling what he’ll get me to say.
And think about self-discipline and what good habits can do for you.
You’ll make enough mistakes in life without repeating all of mine.
Learn from your mistakes. And learn from those of others.
For a copy of my goal planning guide, send me an email.
My address is jerry@jerrybellune.com
Tomorrow we’ll talk more about developing good habits.
For more on good habits, please click here.

Can you be happy and wealthy, too?

Welcome to the Labor Day edition of our daily conversation.
If you’re reading this on Tuesday, that’s OK, too. Read on.
Last week we shared with you a labor-saving strategy.
This week we’ll talk about achieving your financial goals.
Novelist Oscar Wilde was well known for a cynical view of life.
Yet he wrote: "Ordinary riches can be stolen. Real riches cannot.
In your soul are infinitely precious things that cannot be taken."
In my book, "Your Life’s Great Purpose", you will read:
Have you heard "It’s not the money, it’s the principle of the thing"?
Have you heard that "happiness is more important than wealth"?
Have you wondered if you can be happy and wealthy, too?
This week we’re going to talk about the pursuit of wealth.
We’ll discuss why wealth is a worthwhile goal in life.
We’re going to talk about balancing wealth and happiness.
More than 100 years ago, philosopher Henry David Thoreau wrote:
"Wealth is the ability to fully experience life."
To live a successful life, we must appreciate the role money plays.
Building wealth is not a curse. It should be a blessing.
We should build wealth for the right reasons.
Ask yourself: "Why do I want to become wealthy?
"When I become wealthy, what will I do with my wealth?"
Philosopher Jim Rohn believes that becoming wealthy is a blessing.
It’s not the wealth but what becomes of you in acquiring it.
Your answers will help determine what you become.
Tomorrow we’ll talk about what wealth did for a friend of ours.
For a head start on achieving your wealth goals click here.

How your goals create your vision

Yesterday we talked about setting your life’s goals.
I trust you’ve already listed your top 20 life goals.
If not, do that right after you finish reading today’s blog.
Keep them in a notebook and add to them as they come to you.
Believe me, they will come to you. It is providential.
Today we’ll talk about your goals creating your life’s vision.
Permit me to share a personal story about mine.
I wrote "Your Life’s Great Purpose" to help you find your purpose.
I wanted you to find it in eight key areas of your life.
The three most important are faith, family and community.
The others are career, financial, body, mind and just for fun.
I thought that was the book’s true great purpose. I was wrong.
God gave me a challenge: Sell books to wipe out illiteracy.
42 million Americans can’t read. We need to correct that.
Millions can’t enjoy reading the way you and I enjoy it.
My goal was to sell 2 million books, to raise $20 million for literacy.
I heard Jack Canfield talk about selling 1 million books in a day.
God was telling me through Jack that my goal was too small.
I raised it to 20 million books to raise $200 million for literacy.
Think about it. What’s your big goal, your great purpose in life?
Write it down. Commit to achieving it. Believe you can do it.
Share it with those you love. Enlist their support.
Let them share your purpose and your belief to make it work.
That’s one of the biggest challenges of your life. You can do it.
Email me your purpose. I’ll do whatever I can to help you.
A reminder: Ruth King will interview me Friday at 10 a.m.
We’ll talk about my new "Terminate Your Profit Killers" book.
To watch, go to www.JerryBellune.com. It shows you what to do.
For more about goals, vision and purpose, click here.

Examining your life is essential

"The unexamined life isn’t worth living," Socrates told his students.
The Greek philosopher figured that out more than 2,400 years ago.
By that, I think he meant: Learn from life. Learn from your mistakes.
So lets turn it around: Lets examine our lives and our mistakes.
Lets become students of ours and other people’s experiences.
Lets keep a journal in which we record these lessons.
That accomplishes two things: We examine our own lives and learn.
We leave a legacy for our grandchildren of the lives we lived.
God is watching what we do with the lives and gifts given us.
Here are four questions to ask yourself and answer in your journal.
1. What great purpose will give my life great meaning?
2. What is my agenda today to help me fulfill that purpose?
3. What changes must I make to help me fulfill my purpose?
4. What do I feel strongly motivated to accomplish today?
These are but four of many questions I ask you in my new book.
These questions are my challenges to you.
"Your Life’s Great Purpose" will help you answer them.
Tomorrow we’ll talk about the dreams you have for your life.
For more on your own life’s great purpose, click here.