More LOP

So, why all this purpose of life stuff right now? Well, so we can make improvements in 2010. This is a great time to reflect...and set some goals.

Maxwell Maltz was a successful plastic surgeon who was puzzled by some of his patients. They would come to him for a nose job and he would give them exactly what they asked for. Six months later the patient would come back depressed and looking for more body work.

He learned that the plastic surgery wasn't what they needed at all; they needed help on the inside. Their self-image was of failure. They were looking for a quick fix. What they really needed was to know that they could improve their lives by recognizing their potential and using it to their advantage.

Dr. Maltz wrote a great book about it all decades ago. It's called Psycho-Cybernetics.

One of the principles in his book is that man is goal-oriented. He compares us to a guided missile. It is programmed for a specific target. Without the guidance it would be guided by the wind and gravity, landing who-knows-where.

We need goals and direction as well. We need vision and purpose. And re-thinking 2010 is a great exercise right now.

Some classic Maltz
Remember you will not always win. Some days, the most resourceful individual will taste defeat. But there is, in this case, always tomorrow - after you have done your best to achieve success today.

Self-image sets the boundaries of individual accomplishment.

Self-improvement is the name of the game, and your primary objective is to strengthen yourself, not to destroy an opponent.

Take the trouble to stop and think of the other person's feelings, his viewpoints, his desires and needs. Think more of what the other fellow wants, and how he must feel.

The "self-image" is the key to human personality and human behavior. Change the self image and you change the personality and the behavior.

To change a habit, make a conscious decision, then act out the new behavior.

To think, when one is no longer young, when one is not yet old, that one is no longer young, that one is not yet old, that is perhaps something.

We are built to conquer environment, solve problems, achieve goals, and we find no real satisfaction or happiness in life without obstacles to conquer and goals to achieve.

We must have courage to bet on our ideas, to take the calculated risk, and to act. Everyday living requires courage if life is to be effective and bring happiness.

You can always find the sun within yourself if you will only search.

You make mistakes. Mistakes don't make you.

Accept yourself as you are. Otherwise you will never see opportunity. You will not feel free to move toward it; you will feel you are not deserving.

Close scrutiny will show that most "crisis situations" are opportunities to either advance, or stay where you are.

For imagination sets the goal picture which our automatic mechanism works on. We act, or fail to act, not because of will, as is so commonly believed, but because of imagination.

If you make friends with yourself you will never be alone.

Low self-esteem is like driving through life with your hand-break on.

Man maintains his balance, poise, and sense of security only as he is moving forward.

Often the difference between a successful man and a failure is not one's better abilities or ideas, but the courage that one has to bet on his ideas, to take a calculated risk, and to act.

Our self image, strongly held, essentially determines what we become.

Your most important sale in life is to sell yourself to yourself.