Dear High Achiever:

“WHAT’S SPECIAL ABOUT TODAY?” YOU ASK? Well, before we attempt to Inspire you this morning, I want to acknowledge some changes in the format of today’s FYI / TGIM that you may have already noticed:

Starting today, we’re hoping to give you a more informative, inspirational and engaging experience throughout the summer and the remainder of 2009.

• Thank Goodness It’s Monday will be the featured stand-alone article. Geoff Steck, my friend, editor and collaborator on the Best Year Ever! System has successfully delivered intelligent, motivational and educational TGIMs for the last 205 weeks, each Monday. (Duh. When else?) Geoff has a great business mind and is a life-long student of achievement and personal development. He is also a very talented writer.

• My commitment is to inspire and energize you every Wednesday “live” via video with my Instant Inspiration FYI – For Your Information and Inspiration.

Here’s why we’re changing the format:

Some of you know that my friend and father-in-law Poppa Ray recently died. His life and his death has motivated and inspired me more than any other major life event, other than the birth of my five children.

So, this summer I committing to myself and Poppa Ray to finish a book project I’ve been working on for the past 3 years. It’s about my experience producing the seminar Empower New Jersey on September 29th 2004. Christopher Reeve was the keynote speaker on that memorable night. He died ten days after the event and his words of inspiration changed my life forever.

To honor Chris, Poppa Ray and my commitment, I’m dedicating my writing time to finishing the book.

So, with that as groundwork, below is Geoff’s TGIM. And I will see you “live” this Wednesday with my latest Instant Inspiration video.

Eric Taylor is the Chief Inspiration Officer of SelfGrowth.com and founder of New Jersey based Empowerment Group International. He delivers more than 100 energized and interactive keynotes, workshops and seminars each year to corporations, associations and tradeshows. He is the author of the Energy Passport, Co-creator of the Best Year Ever! Success System and Co-author of The Complete Sales Training Encyclopedia. To get complete details about Eric’s background, his products and services, visit Eric Taylor’s Blog and review Eric Taylor’s Profile.

Thank Goodness It’s Monday # 206

UNIVERSAL RULES TO LIVE BY

DO YOU HAVE RULES YOU LIVE BY? Of course you do. We all do. Some are so basic and ingrained that we don’t even notice them.

Examples: The absorbed-in-childhood rule for crossing the street: “Look both ways!” Or the underlying imperative present in virtually every mainstream religious teaching, the so-called Golden Rule: “Do unto others …”

As good as those rules are, our successes are built around other Universal Rules we incorporate into our lives and our philosophies and aspire to live by.

Example: The fundamental Rules of Self-Improvement –

#1: It will be difficult.
#2: It will be worth it.

Got it? Great! So a good rule for getting even more from this TGIM is to click through here for more Universal Rules To Live By:

The Universal Rule of …

• Time management: Make the time because you’ll never find the time.
• Happiness: Don’t seek happiness. Create it.
• Laughter: Be able to laugh at yourself.
• Winning: The will to win is not nearly as important as the will to prepare to win.
• Preparation: Dig the well before you’re thirsty.
• Sales: Stop selling and start helping.
• Overcoming adversity: The best way to forget your own problems is to help someone else with theirs.
• Getting what you want: Ask for it.
• Dealing with others: Patience.
• Goal setting: Shoot for the moon; even if you miss, you’ll end up among the stars.
• Risk taking: If you don’t take a chance, you’ll never stand a chance.
• A successful product or service: Be first, best, or different.
• Fitness (or healthful living, or weight loss): Eat less and exercise more.
• Overcoming procrastination (aka The Nike Rule): Just do it.
• Starting the day off right: Say “Good morning!” even if it isn’t.
• Being a great student: Ask good questions.
• Being a great teacher/leader: Keep being a student.

Were these useful rules for you? Did they make you smile … or say, “That’s true” … or at least bring some long “forgotten” rule you’re guided by back to top-of-mind awareness?

TGIM ACTION IDEA: Share please. Post a blog response. Or reach out to me directly at tgimguy@gmail.com. It would be cool if your Universal Rule can be stated concisely like these. But it’s not necessary. We’d love to read your rules and maybe even include them in future TGIMs or FYIs. Just tell your story to the best of your ability. And if you have a source or attribution, please share that. Thanks.

TGIM IDEA IN ACTION: Here are just a two more Universal Rules about Rules that should guide our thinking:

• The First Rule of Rules: There’s usually an exception to every rule – including this one.

• The Last Rule of Rules: Reading these or any other rules is not enough. If they are to work for you, you have to use them.

Geoff’s personal rule: Everything happens for the best – for those who make it happen. (EHFTB-FTWMIH.)

Make it happen.

Geoff Steck
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing
8 Depot Square
Englewood, NJ 07631
201-569-5373
tgimguy@gmail.com
P.S. “Rules are made up for people who aren’t willing to make up their own.” Famed test pilot Check Yeager said that.

GEOFF STECK leads Alexander Publishing & Marketing, a company he formed in 1986. The core AP&M mission: To create and publish leadership, sales mastery, self-improvement and workplace skill-building resources and tools. The focus: Areas such as business communication, staff support, customer care and frontline management. Geoff also puts his corporate and entrepreneurial experience, independent perspective, and skills as a catalyst to work for other firms (ranging from multinational corporations to more modest operations), not-for-profits, and individuals who have conceived or developed programs or initiatives but are frustrated in getting them implemented.

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