the-success-principles-jack-canfield-1

“I already know what I know,” he said. “If I’m talking to impress someone else, I don’t learn anything
new. I want to learn what they know.” And he always did.

Be Prepared When Opportunity Knocks

In his book Live Your Dreams , Les Brown tells the story of how he dreamed of becoming a popular
Miami disc jockey. “When I set out,” he says, “I had no idea how I would do it, but I knew life would
present the opportunities if I was prepared and in a position to take advantage of them.”

Les shadowed his high school drama teacher, learning as much as he could about linguistics.
Together, they worked on Les’s speaking voice. Soon, Les began developing his own on-air style of
patter, pretending at school that he was performing on the radio. He sought out mentors who could
prepare him for the opportunity of being on the air. And after high school, though Les earned his wage
as a city sanitation worker, his persistence landed him a job as a late-night gofer at a prominent
Miami radio station.

Les immediately took advantage of the opportunity to learn even more. He absorbed all he could—
hanging around the disc jockeys and engineers and practicing what he learned in a makeshift
cardboard studio he created in his bedroom. His microphone was a hairbrush. Finally, one night, a
deejay couldn’t finish his show and Les had his chance to get on the air.

When the chance came, not only was Les prepared to be on the radio but he was also prepared to
be great on the radio. The style, patter, dialogue, and broadcasting skills he had worked so hard to
develop paid off instantly—Les was an immediate hit, and he was later promoted to fill-in deejay…
then finally became a full-time disc jockey with his own radio show.

What Do You Need to Do to Get Ready?

If you’re an industry expert and believe your consulting business would skyrocket after presenting a
workshop at the national convention, why not get prepared now…by writing your speaker’s kit,
joining Toastmasters, outlining and practicing your speech, and getting ready to be on the platform?

If you want a promotion at work, why not ask your boss what it takes to become promotable?
Perhaps you need to go back to school and get your MBA. Or maybe you need 1 year of accounting
experience. Or perhaps you need to learn the latest software programs. Do that, and when the next
promotion comes around, you can say, “I’m ready!”

Do you need to learn a new foreign language? Could you develop advanced skills, more resources,
or new contacts? Do you need to get your body into better physical shape? Should you expand your
business skills, sales skills, or negotiating skills? Are you learning new skills on the computer—such
as using PowerPoint, PageMaker, Photoshop, or Excel? Do you need to learn golf so that you can
make business deals on the golf course? Would it improve your home life and marriage by taking
dancing classes with your spouse? Are you learning to sail or play tennis? Do you need to learn to
play a musical instrument, take acting classes, or learn how to write better to get where you want to
go?

Whatever you need to do to get ready, start now by making a list of the top 10 things you could be
doing to be ready when opportunity finds you. Take classes on your own time. Read books. Get new
skills. Go to your industry’s trade show. Dress the part. Look like a player before you’re there.

As Les Brown’s story teaches us, all it takes is passion, persistence, and the belief that someday
the opportunity will come. Start getting ready now.

Attend Human-Potential Trainings

Nothing changes until you do.

SOURCE UNKNOWN

Imagine that you suddenly discovered you were driving with the emergency brake on. Would you push
harder on the gas? No! You would simply release the brake and instantly go faster—without any
additional expenditure of energy.

Most of us are going through life with the emergency brake on. It’s time to release the limiting
beliefs, emotional blocks, and self-destructive behaviors that are holding you back.

In addition to the techniques we’ve already covered in Principles 10 (“Release the Brakes”), 32
(“Transform Your Inner Critic into an Inner Coach”), and 33 (“Transcend Your Limiting Beliefs”),
the two most powerful methods for releasing the brake are personal development training and
individual therapy. If I were to attribute my success to any one thing, it would be the hundreds of
personal development seminars I have attended over the past 40 years. All of us—including me—
need outside influences to help us break through our habitual patterns and assist us in creating new
ways of thinking and behaving.

Below is a short list of the organizations I’ve personally found most powerful in my life and the
lives of my family, staff, and students. Visit their Web sites, call and talk to them, attend their guest
events, and then make a decision to attend a couple a year that feel right for you. See “Suggested
Reading and Additional Resources for Success” on pages 441–451 for more information on these and
other training organizations.

Canfield Training Group, P.O. Box 30880, Santa Barbara, CA 93130. Phone: 805-563-2935. Fax:
805-563-2945. www.jackcanfield.com

Global Relationship Centers, 25555 Pedernales Point Drive, Spicewood, TX 78669. Phone: 512-
264-3333. Fax: 512-264-2913. www.grc333.com

Hoffman Institute, 223 San Anselmo Avenue, suite 4, San Anselmo, CA 94960. Phone: 415-485-
5220. Toll free: 800-506-5253. www.hoffmaninstitute.org

Insight Seminars, 2101 Wilshire Boulevard, suite 101, Santa Monica, CA 90403. Phone: 310-315-
9733. www.insightseminars.org

Landmark Education—The Forum, 353 Sacramento Street, suite 200, San Francisco, CA 94111.
Phone: 415-981-8850. www.landmarkeducation.com

Peak Potentials Training, 1651 Welch Street, North Vancouver, BC, Canada, V7P 3G9. Phone: 604-
983-3344. www.peakpotentials.com

Sedona Training Associates, 60 Tortilla Drive, Sedona, AZ 86336. Phone: 928-282-3522. Fax:
928-203-0602. www.sedona.com

Therapy and Counseling

Although the training I’ve recommended above will expand your mind and help increase your
possibilities in life, some of us simply need more in-depth work to remove the emotional blocks and
childhood programming that are holding us back. For some, therapy and counseling are the answer.

In my experience, however, only about 20% of the therapists and counselors you will encounter are
highly competent and effective. Ask around and get referrals.

Most therapists specialize in one approach or type of therapy. There are three approaches I
especially recommend—Gestalt therapy, psychosynthesis, and neurolinguistic programming (more
popularly known as NLP). To find a good therapist or counselor in these approaches, see “Suggested
Reading and Additional Resources for Success” on pages 441 through 451.

Commit to Lifelong Learning

Realize that the amount of knowledge and information available in the world is growing at a mind-
numbing pace. In fact, it has been said that all human knowledge has doubled in the last 10 years.
Don’t expect this trend to slow down.

More alarming, the information that allows you to be successful—to be on the cutting edge of your
career and profession—is evolving at the same pace. That’s why you must commit to lifelong self-
improvement and learning—improving your mind, increasing your skills, and boosting your ability to
assimilate and apply what you learn.

Principle

37

Stay Motivated with
the Masters

A successful person realizes his personal responsibility for self-motivation. He starts with himself
because he possesses the key to his own ignition switch.

KEMMONS WILSON

Founder of Holiday Inn Hotels

So many of us today are trained—by the media, by our parents, by our schools, by our culture—to
have limiting, “it’s not possible, I don’t deserve it” beliefs. This early conditioning is often so
ingrained that it takes continual external motivation to overcome the decades of negative effects and
move toward more success-oriented thoughts and attitudes.

Attending a weekend workshop isn’t enough. Neither is reading a book or watching a training
video. What truly successful people do is listen daily to audio programs from the world’s most
renowned motivational masters—in the car, at home, and at the office—even if it’s just for 15 minutes
each day.

Learn Virtually Anything You Want
or Need to Know

The average person commutes 30 minutes each way to and from work. In 5 years, that’s 1,250 hours
in the car—enough time to give yourself the equivalent of a college education! Whether you’re
commuting by car or train, riding your bike, or going for a run, listening to audio CDs can give you the
edge you need to excel in virtually any area of your life. You can keep yourself motivated, learn a
language, learn management skills, learn sales and marketing strategies, learn better communication,
learn about holistic health, and more. You can even discover the success secrets of the world’s most
powerful industrialists, business titans, real estate moguls, and entrepreneurs.

“I listened to some motivational tapes while you were at work and I’ve decided to become a
Great Dane!”

Sleepless in Virginia at 4:00 AM

Just how motivating can the masters be in your life?
To the outside world, Jeff Arch’s life looked pretty good in 1989. He was running a successful

karate school and had a happy marriage and a 4-year-old daughter and a 1-month-old son. But inside,
something was missing. He had always dreamed of being a successful playwright and screenwriter,
but his early efforts had not paid off, and so he had turned his attention to feeding his young family.

Still awake at 4:00 AM one night, he found himself watching an infomercial for Tony Robbins’s
Personal Power program. Sitting alone in his living room, Jeff thought, I have to face it—I’m doing a
good job, but this is not where I want to be. I have to admit there have been big disappointments
and that they have hurt. As a writer, I have to admit that I have failed in every possible way there
is to fail—and there is nothing more to learn from failure—so maybe now it’s time to succeed, and
see what lessons are there. But this time I have to go at it like a black belt, and this time I have to
put all my attitudes aside and try these other ones—I can always go back to the ones I had. But if
they were such good attitudes, I wouldn’t be sitting here at four in the morning wondering what to
do with my life, and what to tell my kids when they get a little older and start asking questions. “I
heard you were going to be a writer, Dad—what happened?” I can’t face that. I don’t want to be
one of those guys who give their kids all this life advice but have nothing to back it up. What
authority would I have to tell them anything? How can I tell them to go after their dreams if I
don’t go after mine?

Jeff instantly made two decisions that would dramatically change his life. He picked up the phone
and ordered the program. Then he promised himself that when the program arrived, unless it was total
garbage, he would complete it, no matter what. And he would use it as his ticket back into writing.

When the program arrived, Jeff did each day’s lesson just as he had promised himself. He didn’t
tell anyone about it because he was too self-conscious. He wanted to get results first. Fortunately, the