Almost everyday I meet people who say – “my career is going nowhere” or “I am not where I want to be in my job” and many look to me for answers. The only answer to these questions is;
1. Where do you want to be?
2. What is stopping you getting there?
3. Will that make you happy if you get there?
Check out this video to see more…
Is your career a stagnant pond or a flowing river? from Brendan Foley on Vimeo.
Today I was asked by three different clients “what should I read, to help my self development/business?”.
So in response I have created what I’m calling my top 10 ‘must haves’ as part of any self development collection. All these books are available on Amazon or in most book stores.
In no particular order;
1. Synchrodestiny by Deepak Chopra
2. The Tipping Point and Blink by Malcolm Gladwell (two separate books)
3. You Can Heal Your Life by Louise L Hay
4. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey
5. Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway by Susan Jeffers
6. My Stroke of Insight by Dr Gill Bolte Taylor (also check her out on TED tv)
7. SPIN Selling by Neil Rackham
8. Awaken the Giant Within by Tony Robbins
9. The Monk who Sold his Ferrari by Robin Scharma
10. Born To Win by John Bertrand
I won’t be as vain as to include The Yin Yang Complex and The 5 States of Success by Brendan Foley but you might consider them for your library!! 
Have you got a book that you feel should be on the top 10 ‘Must Haves’ for success and personal development? If so please leave a comment on this post so that others can benefit from your knowledge.
As always please share this post – it’s passing positive karma forward !!! Have great day, Brendan.
What is meaningful success and how do you create it in you life, career and business. Here are the answers.
What is meaningful success? from Brendan Foley on Vimeo.
PLEASE SHARE! THIS CLIP CAN REALLY HELP YOU BUT MAY HELP SOMEONE YOU KNOW EVEN MORE. IT’S JUST 1 CLICK! Thanks I really appreciate and am grateful for your support.
If life was an experiment there would be no success and no failure, just learnings. When an experiment is conducted, is there a right or wrong outcome? Of course not. There simply is the outcome. And from this outcome we learn. Do you beat yourself up over the things you perceive you fail at? Do you go on ego trips when you create what you see as success? If so you are like most people and that’s not a bad thing because it is what it is. But what might happen if you could let go of the concept of success and failure and instead learn from each experience in life?
What it would mean is that rather than continually judging ourselves we could move beyond success and failure and the roller coaster of highs and lows. Instead we could embrace each experience without fear, knowing that whatever happens that we will learn and grow from the outcome. This will free us to be innovative, loving, instinctive, vibrant and to live a life of continuous growth and fulfillment.
Thomas Edison the inventor of the life bulb was supposed to have ‘failed’ over 3,000 times before he got the formula right to create the light bulb. If he deemed each experiment as a failure he would surely have given up. Instead he saw each experiment as a step that took him closer to understanding what would make it work.
So the next time you find yourself thinking in terms of success or failure; reframe it. Think learning and growth and you will reap great rewards. This is the type of thinking that ultimately creates ‘meaningful’ success (success that is defined by growth and richness of experience). Try it today!
Please share it if you like it!!! Thanks Brendan.
Yesterday was a very strange day. It was a day of unusual experiences that for me showed the disconnect between small Irish businesses and the principles of success. Two main experiences summed it up for me;
1. A credit note at a hardware store
2. A protest by subcontractors
The hardware experience.
I had to return an ash can, bought the day before, that was unsuitable for our requirements to a local family run hardware store. They did not have the size that I required and the owners first reaction on presenting the item back to him was – “You know I can only give you a credit note on that!”. I was a little taken aback at his abruptness and asked “why is that?”. Amazingly (as the store owner) he said “company policy”. As if the ‘the company’ was some faceless bureaucratic management structure far removed from the store! I said that I was a good customer and was prepared to take my business to the big national hardware stores where I could get a refund on an unused item bought the day before. His reaction was “well make sure you spend your credit note before you do!”. I left feeling like I had been swindled. It was only €50.00 but the principles of the man left me sick. Was my €50.00 worth more than the previous hundreds and possibly thousands that I could leave his store in the future? Obviously not. This is a classic case of small business myopia (short sightedness) that is rampant in Ireland.
Subcontractor Protest
The second moment of truth for me was watching a Prime Time TV report on small building sub-contractors protesting outside the gates of building firms that have gone bust. Their fear and myopia was pouring all their energy into protesting and pleading for money they were owed. What good can that possibly do their business? They have little or no chance of getting their money. All they are really doing is venting their anger. While I can sympathise with how they are feeling surely pouring their energy into new business ideas and development would better serve their cause? This would ensure their future to be positive and uplifting, rather than living in the past, which will acheive nothing for their cause.
What these two stories illustrate is how short sightedness and fear based attitudes can prevent us from creating meaningful success. You can overcome fear or myopia for you or your business by asking;
What do you need to let go of today that will allow you to move forward?
What can you put your energy into that will yield a great return?
What do you need to stand back from to see the big picture?
Related posts;
The Gallery Owner and the Shelf Packer
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Around this time of year it is very common for people to set objectives, goals and targets that they would like to achieve. Businesses are doing the same as well. By the time we reach next December most of those goals will remain unachieved or achieved in varying degrees of limited success. So what separates the few that will attain their goals? Luck, preparation, perspiration or inspiration? While all these factors help they won’t alone let you achieve your goal.
What is needed is 100% focus and concentration on what you want and that starts now. Most people go 80% of the way in identifying what they want. That puts you on the road but does not get you to your destination. Imagine if you will that you are coming to visit me in my office in Blackrock in Dublin, Ireland. Perhaps you leave from Cork and travel to Blackrock, which will see you complete 80% of your goal to meet me. What happens though if you don’t know where I am located in Blackrock? You will fail to meet me and our meeting will not happen. You will have fallen at the last hurdle, the last 20%. This is where most people fail because they do not identify in minute detail what it is they want to achieve. Being on the road and not knowing your final destination is called wandering!
When an athlete visualizes winning a race they do so in minute detail bringing sounds, colours and feelings to life in a vivid description of themselves winning the race. Do you do this when loosing weight, setting a sales target or identifying a goal? If not, you should and in doing so you go from being an 80%er to a 100%er and then you have a massive chance of achieving your goal and creating meaningful success. Happy goal setting!
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An industry colleague asked me this question the other day when researching for an MBA he is doing; “How do you generate business as a trainer/coach/consultant?”.
Having a degree in Marketing and Post Grad in Advertising and 7 years working in those industries I was about to respond and rattle off the usual marketing and communications mix of how to get business. But instead I actually asked ‘what do I actually do to get business?’. The following are my top 10 of how to generate business and at least a few of these will apply to what you do…
Do you have some great ideas on generating business? Why not post them as comments so others can learn. Have a great day! Brendan.
A guaranteed way to access our own positivity is to look for the positivity in others and help them to bring that outward. The more we as a group, team or community focus on our own and others positivity the more we create the climate for positive change and action. In this climate of uncertainty it is fear that is driving the actions of most people, politicians and businesses. Fear is debilitating and creates reactionary change rather than positive and forward thinking change. Be part of the change today by helping to spread positivity. Think of it like creating the right environment for people and teams to blossom in. Enjoy this the last in our series of 10 video clips. Have a really positive day! Brendan.
How to feel Positive! No.10 ‘serve a greater purpose’ from Brendan Foley on Vimeo.
90% of our time spent is worrying and fretting about things and events that will never happen and more importantly on things that are out of your control. The net effect of worrying about things outside your control such as the economy, crime, exchange rates, the council, the banks, share prices, the price of milk… is that you are only leaving 10% of your time to focus on what you want and can control in your life. This video will help you to identify the things that are out of your control and the things that are in your control and in this way you will become more efficient and effective at creating happiness and success. Enjoy and please share we all can be happier using some of these tools and techniques! Have a great Day. Brendan
Gratitude is an amazing quality. When we are grateful 3 quite amazing things happen;
1. When we are grateful our awareness is brought to what is really good in our lives.
2. You realise that you could not have achieved or have many of the things that you do without others.
3. The awareness and knowledge of points 1. and 2. inspire you to help others and this is a great thing.
Have a look at the gratitude video to understand why it is an essential step in feeling positive. As always please share!
Optimism is the brother of positivity. Whether your needs be in the area of business, relationships, health or any aspect of your life, optimism will fuel you to create solutions and move forward in a positive manner. No matter how bleak or dire a situation is optimism, positivity and hope will always make it better. Sometimes it might seem that there is no hope or optimism and it is at these very times that you have to stand back from it all and reflect that no matter what has happened in your life or business, you survived and more you probably grew for the better based on what you had experienced. You will always come through, you will always succeed, maybe not in the manner you envisaged, but succeed you will. The key to all is an attitude of optimism. Enjoy the short video! Please share…
‘What do you want?’ It seems like a simple and easy question to answer, but when it comes to our lives we are very slow to articulate the answer. When we look at our thinking we find that most of us will spend most of our time thinking about what we don’t want. I don’t want to; get fired, get sick, be lonely, be poor, be fat, be unhappy… When we do this we are using our mental capacities to attract those very things into our lives! What would happen in your life if you put all the energy that you spend worrying into getting what you want? Learn more and please share this if you feel it worthwhile…
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