Ask Yourself

Every once in a while, you need to do a self-analysis. You need to make sure you are staying on track, making the things happen that will fulfill your dreams. On a daily basis, we can do a mini self-analysis to keep us on course.

Here are a few questions to ask yourself to get started. Be honest and go beyond these questions as you analyze how you are doing things.

Do I go the extra mile and do more than I am asked? How am I going the extra mile? What have I done today that was more than I was asked to do or paid to do?

What am I doing to be a leader rather than a follower? What can I do to become more of a leader?

Am I using my capabilities to the fullest to make things happen? How am I using my capabilities?

What do I want to make happen? What am I doing to make it happen? What will I do to make it happen?

Get To The Point

"When I have a meeting, I don't waste time. It's quick, short, to the point, and we don't play games. There's only so many hours in the day. The quicker you are, the more you can get done." - Donald Trump from The Apprentice, season four, episode seven "Back To School."

For more Lessons From The Apprentice, check out my main website: www.burrese.com

Mediation

One of the reasons I enjoy mediating is that it is an area where I can help other people make things happen. Conflict is a part of life, and sometimes having a mediator or neutral to assist you in a collaborative method of conflict resolution is the most efficient and beneficial way to resolve the matter at hand.

As a mediator, I enjoy seeing parties resolve conflict on their own. (albeit with some guidance and assistance from me) It is much more rewarding to see people resolve their own disputes and determine how the matter should be resolved than having a judge or jury do all the deciding.

I was just accepted as a Full Member in the Montana Mediation Association. The Montana Mediation Association is a group of mediators, other neutrals and individuals dedicated to appropriate processes in which consensual and informed resolutions are made by the parties. I'm looking forward to belonging to this association and helping other mediators and neutrals help others resolve conflict.

Conflict is a fact of life, and skills in resolving conflict can help you make things happen. The communication, negotiation and other skills I teach through my Make Things Happen speeches, workshops, and writings also assist with conflice resolution and therefore they are important to live your life to the fullest and get what you want.

You don't have to become a mediator, but you should learn some mediation skills. They will help you more than you realize.

Negotiate

Many people think negotiation is something only done when making purchases or during large business deals. The fact is, there are opportunities to negotiate everywhere. Any time you want something, or anytime you want someone to do something for you, there is an opportunity for negotiation.

Negotiation is an important skill in making things happen. This blog, my website, and future books will be resources for you to learn negotiation skills. To become better at negotiating, you must look for the opportunities to negotiate around you. There are many more than you may think. You must also think of yourself as a negotiator and believe you can negotiate the best deals for yourself and others involved. You also need to practice your negotiation skills every chance you get. You will get better with practice!

Remember these keys as you study new negotiation skills and theories and you will be on your way to becoming a negotiator who makes things happen.

Leaders are Readers

Leaders are readers, and if you want to Make Things Happen, reading will help you do it. Information is available to help you do anything. I just posted three new Jim Rohn articles on my website, and one of them is titled Where Do You Go for Your Intellectual Feast? To accompany the article, I wanted to post some quotes related to reading here. I hope you enjoy them and that they motivate you to seek out a good book and do some reading each and every day. Like Jim Rohn says, skip a meal, but don't skip your daily reading.

"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Of course inside of a dog, it's too dark to read." -- Groucho Marx

"Most homes valued at over $250,000 have a library. That should tell us something." -- Jim Rohn

"Read something positive every night and listen to something helpful every morning." -- Tom Hopkins

"Let us welcome controversial books and controversial authors." -- John F. Kennedy

"Read an hour every day in your chosen field. This works out to about one book per week, 50 books per year, and will guarantee your success." -- Brian Tracy

"A library, to modify the famous metaphor of Socrates, should be the delivery room for the birth of ideas-a place where history comes to life." -- Norman Cousins

"The things I want to know are in books; my best friend is the man who'll get me a book I ain't read." -- Abraham Lincoln

"There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate's loot on Treasure Island... and best of all, you can enjoy these riches every day of your life." -- Walt Disney

"If past history was all there was to the game, the richest people would be librarians." -- Warren Buffett

"These are not books, lumps of lifeless paper, but minds alive on the shelves." -- Gilbert Highet

"Books were my pass to personal freedom. I learned to read at age three, and soon discovered there was a whole world to conquer that went beyond our farm in Mississippi." -- Oprah Winfrey

Getting To Yes

My negotiation column from The Montana Lawyer Jan 2006 issue is now in the Success and Achievement article section of my website. Each month I will post the previous month's column on my site, so if you are interested in bettering your negotiation skills, check them out.

Decision

I was listening to THINK AND GROW RICH by Napoleon Hill this morning. It is the two tape set that I like to review periodically to remind me of the excellent points and principles taught in the Think and Grow Rich programs. If you have never read the book, or listened to the programs on cassette or CD, I encourage you to do so. The timeless wisdom has helped millions Make Things Happen, and it can help you too.

Each time I listen to a program again, or re-read a certain book, different principles or messages seem to stand out. Depending on where you are in your life and what goals you are working toward, different messages and lessons will affect you differently. This morning, I was most impacted by Napoleon's message on decision.

Indecision is a major cause of failure. In fact, one of the keys to Making Things Happen is to decide to do something and then do it. Making up your mind, deciding something, can give you extra power to accomplish your goals. You must decide! While it sounds easy enough, many people get stuck procrastinating and procrastination is based on indecision. Decide and act! That is the cure for procrastination.

This won't be the last time I write about this topic. It is important, and I realize it can be more difficult that just deciding and acting. In the future I'll share various tips and strategies to assist you in making decisions and acting upon them.

Until then, Decide to Make Things Happen!

Time is Money - Invest It

You can not manage time. It is a constant. It passes by, second by second, and nothing you can do will prevent this. Time is the great equalizer. No matter who you are, what your position, or how wealthy you become, you will still have the same amount of time each day, and that is the exact same amount of time everyone else has. It does not matter if you count it as twenty-four hours; one thousand, four hundred, and sixty minutes; or eighty-six thousand, four hundred seconds, it is always going to be the same.

You can manage yourself, and that is what time management is really about. Managing yourself and the events that fill the hours you have is the basis for all of the time management books, tapes and courses out there. There are many strategies, techniques and tools to assist a person with this, but it still comes down to self-management. In Time Is Money: Save It, Lothar J. Seiwert describes self-management, "To self-manage means to effectively and consistently apply appropriate working techniques on a daily basis, in order to organize ("manage") your life by using your time in the best possible way." The principle of self-management is to consciously control your life and the events of your life rather than be controlled by your environment. An old sailors' maxim states that, "it does not matter in what direction the wind blows, it matters how I set the sails."

Time management is one of the skills I taught when directing the Center for Leadership Development, and I have taught these skills to various college groups, conference participants, and business staffs. Managing how you use your time is a critical aspect of making things happen and I'll be putting time tactics to help you manage how you use your time better here, as well as future book projects that will deal with time management. You can also check out the chapter "Time is Money - Invest It" from Lessons From The Apprentice on my website: www.burrese.com

You only have so much time, so invest it and Make Things Happen!

Network to Make Things Happen

Networking is very simple. It is simply gathering, collecting, and distributing information to others. By being a resource for others, and learning how to call on the resources in your network, everyone wins. Networking can provide a form of community, family, and camaraderie.

Networking is not using others, but sharing with others for everyone's mutual gain. If you help enough people, you will get back much more in return. Networking is an important ingredient to making things happen. We cannot do everything alone. So get out there and meet people, help people, and make things happen.

Napoleon Hill Quote

Desire is the starting point of all achievement, not a hope, not a wish, but a keen pulsating desire which transcends everything. - Napoleon Hill

Desire is certainly a key to Making Things Happen!

A Rule from Og Mandino

Og Mandino, author of The Greatest Salesman In The World, also wrote a book called A Better Way to Live. This book features "17 Rules to Live By." Rule 8 should be followed by everyone wanting to Make Things Happen. It is an important rule regarding time management, or more accurately, personal event management.

"Never again clutter your days or nights with so many menial and unimportant things that you have no time to accept a real challenge when it comes along. This applies to play as well as work. A day merely survived is no cause for celebration. You are not here to fritter away your precious hours when you have the ability to accomplish so much by making a slight change in your routine. No more busywork. No more hiding from success. Leave time, leave space, to grow. Now. Now! Not tomorrow!"

Take Og Mandino's advice and incorporate his rule 8 into your life. Get out there and Make Things Happen!

Brian Tracy Quote

There lies within each person a huge reservoir of untapped potential for achievement, success, happiness, health and greater prosperity. It's like a huge ocean unsailed, a new continent unexplored, a world of possibilities waiting to be released and channeled toward some great good. Remember, the Future Belongs to You! - Brian Tracy

Welcome

Welcome to the Make Things Happen blog. This blog will keep you updated on my products, seminars, and speeches regarding topics to assist you make things happen. There are three types of people in the world. Those that make things happen, those that let things happen, and those that wonder "What happened?" My goal is to provide information, motivational quotes and stories, and advice on how to live to the fullest and Make Things Happen!