United States and It's Fabulous 50

If you have just signed up to learn from the Cash Cow method, you are probably looking to earn more money than you are earning now from your day job. Congratulations because you have just made a wise decision. The Cash Cow system is your sure-fire way to earn money online that is more than twice the amount that you can earn for working in an office.

One of the many things that you can learn from the Cash Cow method is how to set up a site or blog that can earn money for you even if you are out of the country. This can be done by setting up ads that will bring in money even if you're not actively promoting them. So even if you are far away in a beach somewhere, you can earn money when your visitors click on the ads on your site. Of course, there are steps that you have to do in order to gain this level of success and confidence. The first few steps will require you to invest a lot of your time. You can't leave for that vacation just yet. Acquiring the things needed to learn the Cash Cow method is not the only thing that you have to do. You actually have to study and work hard to get your income-generating Internet ventures working.

Of course, after you work hard until your fingers start feeling numb, you can begin to plan that vacation. Contact your travel agent and say that first country that comes to mine. Budget will no longer be an issue because you will have enough from your online ventures to travel anywhere you want. And when you get to your destination, these ventures will continue bringing in money for you. Now THAT'S a charmed life.

by Denis Waitley

By re-energizing and renewing yourself frequently, you will avoid burnout and become much more motivated and productive. Don’t keep your nose to the grindstone for years and wait for retirement to travel. Balance and consistency are the keys. Enjoy the process, not just the result. Don’t fight the passing of time. Don’t fear it, squander it, or try to hide from it under a superficial cosmetic veil of fads and indulgences. Life and time go together. Do enjoy each phase of life. Do make the most of each day, and draw maximum joy from each moment.

Many people today are concerned with quality time – time generally defined in part as that spent on recreation, personal pursuits, time with children, spouses and friends. While I certainly believe quality time is important, I believe two other aspects of time are equally important.

First, one must also spend quantity time. The average father spends less than 30 minutes each week in direct one-on-one communication with each of his children. How can we possibly expect good family relationships with so little communication?

Second, one must spend regular time. Many supervisors and company presidents go for weeks, even months, without seeing many of their employees. There’s no substitute for regular meetings and open forums in which managers and team members can share ideas.

Time has a dual structure. On one hand, we live our daily routines meeting present contingencies as they arise. On the other hand, our most ambitious goals and desires need time so that they can be assembled and cemented. A long-term goal connects pieces of time into one block. These blocks can be imagined and projected into the future as we do when we set goals for ourselves. Or, these blocks of time can be created in retrospect as we do when we look back at what we’ve accomplished.

It’s not in the image of our big dreams that we run the risk of losing our focus and motivation. It’s the drudgery and routine of our daily lives that present the greatest danger to our hopes for achievement. Good time management means that you maximize the daily return on the energy and mental effort you expend.

Ways to maximize your time productivity:

• Write down in one place all the important contacts you have and all of your goals and priorities. Make a back up copy, preferably on CD, DVD or Zip disc. Write down every commitment you make at the time you make it.

• Stop wasting the first hour of your workday. Having the chat and first cup of coffee, reading the paper, and socializing are the three costliest opening exercises that lower productivity.

• Do one thing well at a time. It takes time to start and stop work on each activity. Stay with a task until it is completed.

• Don’t open unimportant mail. More than a fourth of the mail you receive can be tossed before you open or read it, and that includes e-mail.

• Handle each piece of paper only once and never more than twice. Don’t set aside anything without taking action. Carry work, reading material, audiotapes and your laptop computer with you everywhere you go. Convert down time into uplink time.

• Spend twenty minutes at the beginning of each week and ten minutes at the beginning of each day planning your to do list.

• Set aside personal relaxation time during the day. Don’t work during lunch. It’s neither noble nor nutritional to skip important energy input and stress-relieving time. Throughout the day, ask yourself, “What’s the best use of my time right now?” As the day grows short, focus on projects you can least afford to leave undone.

• And as we said at the beginning of this message, take vacations often, mini-vacations of two or three days, and leave your work at home. The harder you work, the more you need to balance your exercise and leisure time.

Action Idea: Plan a relaxing 3-day vacation within the next three months without taking any business work with you. Reserve it on your calendar this week.

-- Denis Waitley

by Dr. John C. Maxwell

When I was a kid, every once in a while my parents would back my brother, Larry, and I up to a doorframe, lay a ruler across our heads, and mark a line with a pencil to chart our growth. They would then write the date next to it. It was always exciting to see how much I'd grown since my last measurement.

If only measuring our effectiveness as a leader was so easy. Why is it so hard to get a clear picture of our own strengths and weaknesses?

Self evaluation means:

* Being willing to critique myself.

* Asking for and accepting honest feedback from those who can most accurately assess our leadership-those who follow us.

* Exercising self-discipline.

This last point is perhaps the hardest. I define self-control, in the beginning of life, as the choice of achieving what I really want by doing things I really don't want to do. Once this becomes a habit, discipline becomes the choice of achieving what I really want by doing the very things I now want to do! I really believe that a disciplined life becomes a joy – but only after we have worked hard to practice it.

All great leaders have understood that their number one responsibility is cultivating their own discipline and personal growth. Those who cannot lead themselves cannot lead others.

Here's what I call the START plan for becoming a disciplined leader.

* START ON YOURSELF - We'd all rather focus on changing everyone else to conform to us. The only problem with that is we end up with an organization full of people who reflect our weaknesses!

* START EARLY - I'm grateful for parents who taught me the value of a disciplined lifestyle early on.

* START SMALL - A simple plan will more likely bear fruit than anything elaborate will. Remember the value of small things, consistently practiced over time, in transforming a life.

* START NOW - The will to prepare is more important than the will to succeed. The dream to succeed, apart from the will to prepare, is simply wishful thinking.

* START ORGANIZED - Those who take time to organize have a special power. Organizational skills allow for the possibility of gaining stamina and momentum as your successes build. You gain a reputation as the person who always follows through.

Now that you've started down the road of self-evaluation, receiving constructive criticism, and self-discipline, you're ready to determine where you are as an effective leader.

-- Dr. John C. Maxwell

"A man who wants to lead the orchestra must turn his back on the crowd." ~ James Crook

Great Commentary:
I love quotes that are counter-intuitive because many times "counter-intuitive" is what works best in this world. This is especially true in leadership. If you think about it, there are only two options in life: Go with the crowd or against it. Those who will lead in this life must often start against the crowd and lead forcefully until the crowd sees the results and changes their direction. If you just go with the crowd, you are just part of the crowd. Even if you are going with the crowd but out in front of the crowd, that doesn't mean you are leading. It just means you are faster than the rest of the crowd! That means you're just better at being average - and that isn't what you want your life to be!

Action Point:
Think about your life. Are you going with the crowd or against it? Are you willing to lead by turning your back on the crowd? Take a step today to differentiate yourself from the crowd - and begin your journey toward success and leadership!

All mankind is divided into three classes:

• those that are immoveable
• those that are moveable
• and those that move

~Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)

Which one are you?

Just remember all people are different, and so are their style of decision making. One style is not superior over another, it is all about how analysis your decision.

If you want to be a leader, you need to be able to lead effectively, and you need to be able to make good decisions.

When making a decision you are simply choosing from among alternatives based on your values and preferences, you are not making a choice between right and wrong.

Being more productive and performing at a higher level requires mastering several skills. One of the most important is effective decision making – emphasis on effective. Her are a few pointers you might find helpful:

Make sure you have the facts

You wouldn’t dive into a pool of water without first knowing the depth, so it’s wise not to jump into a quick decision before gathering a little background data. Who? What? Where? When? How? Asking a few of these types of questions can help in gathering the information you need to make a good decision. Poor decisions are usually the result of making an emotional decision before you have the facts. Parents – heads up!

Think outcome – from the outset

A good place to give some thought to the desired outcome of a situation is before a final decision is made. When faced with a problem, think about the best case scenario for the outcome and try to work toward that end as you process through the issue(s).

Avoid making snap decisions. It is ok to move fast on the reversible ones, but move slowly on the non-reversible.

Choose advisers wisely

Be careful not to allow yourself to be overly influenced by another’s perspective on the issue. While it’s important to get feedback from others, be discerning with regard to personal agendas that may be involved.

Consult those who will be affected by and who will have to implement your decision. Input from these people not only helps supply you with information and help in making the decision. It will begin to produce the acceptance necessary in the implementers because they feel that they are part of the decision making process.

Develop a decision making model

Create a model by which you make all key decisions and stick by it as various challenges avail themselves. Making key decision the same way every time will improve the quality of the decision immensely.

It is always wise to write your ideals on a piece of paper – when written down you can always see it clearer!

Track the results

One all key decisions, carefully monitor the results to make sure the decision was sound. Closely monitoring a decision allows you to make timely adjustments. It will also afford you the opportunity to study the effectiveness of your decision of your decision making process.

Never make decisions that are NOT yours to make!

"Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things." ~Robert Brault

"Very few of us are authorities on the truth. About the closest that any of us can get is what we hope is the truth or what we think is the truth. That's why the best approach to truth is probably to say, "It seems to me...." ~Jim Rohn