6. People love stories

I experienced the power of stories when I launched this blog. I saw patterns in what people were responding to. The more stories I shared, the more readers would respond. One friend told me that my stories helped to better articulate the problems we all face.

The greatest book of all time (the bible), is a collection of stories. People love stories. We connect and learn better through stories.

Learning the power of stories had a powerful impact on my life and this site’s future direction. I will transform this website to a community of people sharing stories. Each of us has a story.

The new site will also feature stories about people who have made it in life. We shall zoom in on the lives of famous people such us Nelson Mandela, Jim Rohn, Richard Branson etc.

7. Two heads are better than one

I collaborate with a few friends on aspects of running the site. Some times it having someone share with me a new perspective, or a good topic. I also have people encouraging me to keep the fire burning. All in all, I could not have done it without the support of this group of incredible people.

Many people think that they can make it alone. I am here to say that yes you can make progress alone (to some extent). But to really get ahead in life, you need others.

One of the books I partially serialized in 2009 was “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill. He had this to say about collaborating with others…

“Economic advantages may be created by any person who surrounds himself with the advice, counsel, and personal cooperation of a group of men who are willing to lend him wholehearted aid, in a spirit of PERFECT HARMONY. This form of cooperative alliance has been the basis of nearly every great fortune. Your understanding of this great truth may definitely determine your financial status.”

Everyone is gifted or experienced in their own area. Knowing how to tap into the unique talents and experiences of people can transform your success from zero to a million and beyond.

There is a limit of how far a website can grow when it is based on the thoughts and ideas of one man. Transforming this site into a community will hopefully, increase its reach and impact.

8. I don’t know it all

2009 exposed me to the $US14 Billion Personal Development industry. I thought I knew it all but the more I researched, the more I realized just how little I knew.

It is like when someone goes to university for the first time, they feel “clever” at first, but as they dig deeper, and specialize, they realize just how huge the human body of really knowledge is.

For this reason, I am going to dedicate 2010 to learning and bringing to your attention, resources and ideas from others better than me. Together we shall study successful people, apply their tried and tested success principles and ideas; instead of re-inventing the wheel.

We shall study the work of people like Robert Kiyosaki (Rich Dad, Poor Dad), Stephen Covey (7 Habits of Highly Effective Habits) and many more.

9. I know enough to make a difference

I was humbled by my discovery that a lot of people are better than me. Many are better than I can ever hope to become. However, my unique experiences, lessons, ideas and actions can still make a difference.

My writing style, experiences, skills and passion touches a particular audience. Your experiences, skills and passion will touch a different group of people. If we can all come together to a personal development melting pot, we can learn from each other, help each other grow and avoid repeating mistakes that each of us has already made.

I will use my contacts, marketing and programming skills to bring together many of us on one website. That I can do. That I will do.

I may not be the world expert on personal development, but my unique talents, passion, and experiences will form the backbone of a community of friends inspiring friends.

10. Networking is Magical

It is good to have one or two contacts. But the more contacts you have the more likely you are to find a contact to meet your needs.

Your needs may vary from getting a new job, having someone to meet you in a new city, or someone to make you laugh.

The people you surround yourself with determine your destiny. How much you earn is likely to be the average of your closest 5 friends. Your hobbies, activities and thoughts are all influenced by people around you. The bible says “show me your friends, and I will tell you what kind of person you are”.

2009 allowed me to network, to make new friends from around the world. I saw the power of surrounding myself with positive people even when they are miles away from me.

2010 is going to be an even bigger year for me as far as networking goes. The more positive friends you have on speed dial, the more likely you are to be positive.

As you can see, my 2009 lessons all seem to point to the need of reaching out to people, developing better relationships, and collectively getting ahead. I am really looking forward to launching this community.

When is this community going live? We are not too far off, but I will not give an ETA (Estimated Time of Arrival) as yet. When the time comes, I hope you will be part of the group of positive friends who will join the site, get to know each other and share experiences.

Thank you.

P/s – I would love to hear your comments, and ideas that you would like incorporated in the new community site.

Many of my dear readers have asked me why I stopped writing on a daily basis like I used to. I have no valid reason but a million excuses. It was partially because of laziness, loss of focus,  and an identity crisis. Wow! Now that is off my chest, let us get on with the lessons I learned in 2009.

1)   Give and it will come back to you

I grew up hearing my parents tell me about giving. I heard about the need for giving at our church, as the offering basket did the rounds. But I also heard from friends that we live in a society with “each for himself and God for us all”.

Through sharing my ideas on this blog; inspiring my friends and strangers alike, I was able to attract good things in my life. I was able to meet great friends, make more money and live a richer life. The more I shared, the more I got back in return.

I also noticed  that people and businesses that gave more value succeed more. The bible says “Give and it will come back to you”. We all have spiritual accounts that we deposit into through our acts of giving. The more you deposit the more you can withdraw.

You may think that keeping your money to yourself in times of hardship is the wisest thing. On the contrary, giving opens the floodgates of heaven.

I am just a regular guy not a trained Dr Phil. But I shared the little I knew and it opened the floodgates of blessings that I have attracted to my life.

Be a generous soul in 2010. Giving creates an prosperous mindset. What do you think would happen to your life if you felt rich, abundant, blessed, gifted and prosperous?

2)   Thoughts are Physical

I serialized a couple of books on this blog last year. One of the books was a timeless classic by James Allen. It features the following quote;

“Man is made or unmade by himself; in the armoury of thought he forges the weapons by which he destroys himself; he also fashions the tools with which he builds for himself heavenly mansions of joy and strength and peace. By the right choice and true application of thought, man ascends to the Divine Perfection; by the abuse and wrong application of thought, he descends below the level of the beast. Between these two extremes are all the grades of character, and man is their maker and master.”

Many people (including me), have the habit of letting random thoughts through our minds. We fail to control our thoughts and consciously inject positive ideas.

I learned in 2009 that whatever thought I let in my mind  comes to pass. I will be more vigilant with my thoughts and my words. Because as surely as the sun rises, they come to pass.

3)   Kaizen Opens Doors

I literally stumbled on the concept of Kaizen a few years ago.

Kaizen is the process of reaching your goals in life by harnessing the amazing power of baby steps. It is a simple concept imported from Japan, that can transform your life if you apply it.

If you improved your life by 10% every month, you will not just have 120% better results at the end of the year. The small gradual improvements will compound to give you amazing results.

Kaizen will open doors that would otherwise have remained closed. Whether you want to improve your career, your business, your relationship or your concentration, you can do it through kaizen.

Do not wait for perfection, have a bias for action. Start with small gradual improvements and you will be amazed at the momentum you will gain over time.

When I started blogging, my name was hardly listed in the search engines. With every incremental blog post, I was able to get my site into the search engine databases and attract readers from around the world.

In addition, every blog post helped me improve as a writer and as a person. Small steady steps paid off for me and they can for your life too.

4)   The Art of Personal Branding

A good personal brand increases your perceived value and makes people pay a premium to be associated with you. They may not necessarily pay you money, but they will give you the attention, trust, remembrance, forgiveness and opportunities.

A strong personal brand enables you to be confident in your own abilities and as a person. It helps you become influential in many spheres of life and opens up a world of opportunities.

I learned how to build a personal brand online almost from scratch. Although I had been making a living on the internet for 7 years by the time I started writing on this site, I had been doing so anonymously. So this was new to me.

Personal branding does not happen overnight. Personal branding is about how others view you, not how you view yourself or want to think that others view you. Having said that, you can influence how people perceive you, through your words, actions and habits.

Creating a blog is a fantastic way of enhancing your personal brand online. I wrote about 20 articles on the topic of personal branding, including one on how to use blogging for your personal branding efforts.

5)   Ideas are not worth much

I can spend the rest of my life writing on this blog. I can spend all day researching and coming up with ideas to inspire you. You can spend all day reading and re-reading my blog posts. But if you do not take action, it is all in vain.

This blog was once an idea, but it is only when I put in the hours, to research and to write, that I was able to connect with you and other readers. I am guilty of coming up with ideas in the past that never saw the light of day. I have purposed it in my heart to do more (actions). It is better to implement half your ideas than generate double the ideas without acting on them.

Do you have ideas for doing this or that but never really done it? Take a step of faith in 2010 and keep the excuses at bay. Have a bias for action in the implementation of your ideas.

Summary

2009 was a great year for me. I am grateful for having you as a visitor to my blog and hope to connect with you more in 2010. Please be on the lookout for part two of this article in the next few days. Part two will tell you what really got into me in 2009 and what is in store for 2010.

Many of us are always looking to climb higher. Unfortunately, the higher you climb the more you realize how far you still to go. Do you spend your life looking for the next promotion, the next relationship, the next success?

I like a quote by Will Smith, he said “Too many people spend money they haven’t earned, to buy things they don’t need, to impress people they don’t like.” Breaking your back to amass a collection of luxuries you don’t need, to impress people you don’t care about sounds silly, but a surprisingly high number of people do that year in year out.

Internal Congruence

To be truly successful, you need to have internal congruence. Your mind and soul needs to be convinced that what you are doing is a worthy pursuit. Wouldn’t it be nice to find the quickest path to happiness instead of perpetually chasing the wind?

If one part of you wants to succeed and the other part says “hey man, is it really worth it?” then you are going to have problems. You are going to sabotage yourself more than Al-Qaeda operatives in Iraq sabotage Americans. You will be your own enemy in your success battles.

Finding Balance

Do you have an insatiable desire for wealth that is detrimental to your values and relationships? Taking business and success too seriously can lead to stress and emotional turmoil that can ruin everything else.

Since launching this blog, I have been writing on a wide array of topics ranging from Personal Branding, to Emotional Mastery to Relationships and Getting Rich. It is all about finding balance instead of chasing success in one aspect of life to the exclusion of all else. How would you like to gain the whole world and lose your soul? How would you feel if you became the richest man in your city and lose you family?

Take a piece of piece of paper and set your goals in all aspects of your life. Re-evaluate your quest for success and decide if you are paying a fair price. Is your job worth your family life? Is your night out worth your school grades? Is your career worth a little grass or more?

And the Bible Says…

Today I will leave you with the  scripture that inspired the title of this post.

Ecclesiastes 1 (New International Version)

1. The words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem:

2        “Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.”

3        What does man gain from all his labor at which he toils under the sun?

4        Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever.

5        The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises.

6        The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes, ever returning on its course.

7        All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they return again.

8        All things are wearisome, more than one can say. The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing.

9        What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.

10    Is there anything of which one can say, “Look! This is something new”? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time.

11    There is no remembrance of men of old, and even those who are yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow.

12    I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem.

13     I devoted myself to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under heaven. What a heavy burden God has laid on men!

14     I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

15     What is twisted cannot be straightened; what is lacking cannot be counted.

16    I thought to myself, “Look, I have grown and increased in wisdom more than anyone who has ruled over Jerusalem before me; I have experienced much of wisdom and knowledge.”

17     Then I applied myself to the understanding of wisdom, and also of madness and folly, but I learned that this, too, is a chasing after the wind.

18    For with much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief.

Parting Shot…

I would love to hear from you regarding your thoughts about chasing the wind of success and finding balance. Your comments are highly appreciated. Kindly share this blog post with your friends on Facebook and other social Media.