Four basic drives are common to all human beings, but which ones affect your daily life and behavior? How do they influence the choices you make?

At the start of the 20th century, psychoanalysis pioneer Sigmund Freud proposed that people are driven by sex and power—but there’s much more to it than that. By the 1950s, psychologist Abraham Maslow identified our “hierarchy” of basic needs, which include shelter, food, clothing, ego and belonging. After these needs were met, he said, we’re driven toward self-actualization—a state very few achieve.

In the 1960s, MIT management professor Douglas McGregor applied Maslow’s ideas to the business world. He asserted that once basic salary needs were met, workers had higher drives that weren’t contingent on rewards or punishments. If managers could tap into people’s inner motivations by granting more autonomy and respect, they would spur greater performance.

Harvard psychology professor David McClelland later identified three motivators in leaders: drives to achieve, attain power and affiliate with others.

Despite all of these studies, businesses continue to use monetary incentives instead of tapping into employees’ intrinsic motivations. Perhaps one can chalk this up to fuzzy, anachronistic notions about what motivates people.

A new theory suggests each of us has four basic drives that have existed since our cavemen days. These drives, which have allowed us to survive, are embedded in our DNA and actively chart the course for our daily behaviors.

Acquiring, Bonding, Learning and Defending

In Driven: How Human Nature Shapes Our Choices (Jossey Bass, 2001), Harvard Business School professors Paul R. Lawrence and Nitin Nohria draw evidence for their four-drive theory from evolutionary psychology and Charles Darwin’s teachings, as well as the social sciences and organizational life.

Human beings seek ways to fulfill the following drives because our evolutionary heritage compels us to meet basic survival needs:

1. The drive to acquire objects and experiences that improve our status relative to others. We’re driven to seek, take, control, and retain objects and personal experiences. In the course of evolution, humans have been naturally selected to compete for food, water, shelter and sexual fulfillment.

We’re driven to acquire both material and positional goods, as well as social status. But the drive to acquire is rarely satisfied; we always seem to want more and seek even greater status.

1. The drive to bond with others in long-term relationships of mutual care and commitment. Human beings have an innate drive to form social relationships and develop commitments with others—drives that are fulfilled only when the attachment is mutual.

   Groups of individuals who bond to one another have always had a better chance of surviving environmental threats. This drive induces us to cooperate with others.

1. The drive to learn and make sense of the world and of ourselves. Humans have an innate drive to satisfy their curiosity—to know, comprehend, believe, appreciate, and develop understandings or representations of their environment and themselves through a reflective process.

   This drive, without doubt, has enabled mankind to survive the elements and has given us distinct advantages over other creatures.

1. The drive to defend ourselves, our loved ones, our beliefs and our resources. Humans have an innate drive to defend themselves and their valued accomplishments whenever they perceive them to be endangered. The fundamental emotion manifested by this subconscious drive is alarm, which in turn triggers fear and/or anger. This drive has obvious survival value and quite possibly may have been the first drive to have evolved in our earliest ancestors.

In modern life, the drive to defend manifests in many ways. Much of human activity is generated by this drive. It is activated by perceived threats to one’s body, possessions and bonded relationships, as well as by threats to one’s own cognitive representations of our environment and self-identity.

The Balancing Act

The four drives are intrinsic and universal, found in some physical form in our brains. While independent, the drives are highly interactive with each other.

Each drive also has a “dark side,” as when the drive to acquire becomes excessively competitive and diminishes respect for others, or when the drive to defend one’s current thinking diminishes the drive to learn new perspectives.

These four drives exist in each of us; no one is immune. They determine the choices we make.

In some people, one drive will be more developed than others, creating an imbalance. And in some jobs, specific drives will be emphasized over others.

Using Drive to Your Advantage

Understanding how each of these drives manifests in your life can help you understand how and why you make particular choices. Working with a professional coach can help you identify your strongest drives so you can understand yourself better.

You may be relying too much on your drive to acquire or be placing too much emphasis on the drive to bond, while neglecting your drive to learn. Often, the drive to defend can overwhelm other important drives that must be satisfied to achieve and enjoy a well-balanced and successful life.

Which drives are guiding your choices—and which drive do you neglect?

The answers to these questions lie in acknowledging that all four drives are basic to human nature—and that a balanced life must include some satisfaction in all four areas.

As Lawrence and Nohria write: “The challenge is to find a course forward that fulfils all of our basic drives in some creative, balanced way…The way forward must be to use the best side of each drive to check the dark, excessive potential of human nature.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

√ Would you create the life you always wanted?

√ Would you like to be significant,

successful & satisfied?

√ Are you contributing to others?

√ When will you start growing in your personal development?

Get my book on kindle —> Never Ending You!

When you discover your mission, you will feel its demand. It will fill you with enthusiasm and a burning desire to get to work on it. ~ W. Clement Stone

Does your life have a clear sense of purpose?

Most people have a fundamental need to seek and find their calling in life, be it through work, hobbies or volunteer activities. While philosophers have long weighed in on the subject, it has recently come under scrutiny by researchers who seek to understand the science behind human happiness and success.

Psychologist Michael Steger and his colleagues at Colorado State University created the Meaning in Life Questionnaire (MLQ) to measure the presence of meaning in our lives, as well as how much we seek to further our understanding of life’s purpose.

This five-minute test will prompt you to think about these important topics, and it can serve as the foundation for discussions with your significant relationships, mentor or coach.

The Meaning in Life Questionnaire (MLQ)

Take a moment to think about what makes your life and existence feel important.

Using the following scale, respond to the 10 statements on the questionnaire as truthfully and accurately as possible. Keep in mind that each statement is subjective, so there are no right or wrong ratings.

Untrue True
1. Absolutely untrue 4. Can’t say if true or false 5. Somewhat true
2. Mostly untrue 6. Mostly true
3. Somewhat untrue 7. Absolutely true

Statements

1. _____I understand my life’s meaning.
2. _____I am looking for something that makes my life feel meaningful.
3. _____I am always looking to find my life’s purpose.
4. _____My life has a clear sense of purpose.
5. _____I have a good sense of what makes my life meaningful.
6. _____I have discovered a satisfying life purpose.
7. _____I am always searching for something that makes my life feel significant.
8. _____I am seeing a purpose or mission for my life.
9. _____My life has no clear purpose.
10. _____I am searching for meaning in my life.

Scoring

You can create two subscales from this measure: one for the “Presence” of meaning and the other for the “Search” for meaning.

Presence: Statements 1, 4, 5, 6 and 9 (reverse-coded)
Search: 2, 3, 7, 8 and 10

Note: There is no manual for interpreting this questionnaire. To understand it better, please contact Dr. Steger through his website: http://michaelfsteger.com/MLQ.aspx. The quiz is reproduced here solely to stimulate your thinking and facilitate a conversation with your coach or mentor.

There are no definitive methods for discovering what really matters to you, but passion and purpose go hand in hand. When you discover your purpose, you will normally find that it’s something about which you are tremendously passionate. You will be energetic and experience positive emotions.

In reviewing your life, you’ll find that you have already invested considerable time and effort in pursuit of what really matters to you. Responsibilities to others, however, often sidetrack and distract us from focusing on our core purpose, which may evolve over time. Look for recurrent themes and core interests.

The Daily Search… or the Daily Grind

Many people organize their lives to such an extent that they begin to feel like robots after a while. While routines help us conserve energy, they also lead to boredom and disengagement.

As you complete your daily activities, ask yourself these important questions:

1. What is this task’s purpose?
2. How can I bring more meaning to this activity?
3. How will this task bring me closer to my passion(s)?
4. How can I find a way to express my true values?

Finding Meaning at Work

As humans, we require a sense of belonging in the world—a place to make a contribution. For most, this comes through work, which is as much about spirit and passion as it is about salary.

Renowned psychologist Abraham Maslow defined the human “hierarchy of needs” on four main levels:

1. Security
2. Relationships
3. Self-esteem
4. Self-actualization

As our basic security needs for food, clothing and shelter are met, we are free to focus on fulfilling other needs. Depending on your personality and drive, you have opportunities to discover what motivates you and create your own sense of purpose on the job.

Meaning, purpose and passion are often hidden in the little tasks and events that make up each day. It’s up to us to pay attention, find our focus and spend our time on what matters most.

Here Is What I Have For You:
Personal Coaching and Mentoring with the Warrior of Success Group.

Discover how you can become a part of this powerful community of success-minded individuals and future superstars as you start creating your own success!

“Join us and begin achieving your desires, overcoming your fears,
and creating positive, meaningful changes in your life,
faster, and with less effort than you dreamed possible!”

“Our Mission is to encourage, inspire and educate people to live a life of Success, Achievement and Joy through Purpose, Power and Passion.”

—–> http://warriorofsuccess.com/innercircle <—–  We’ll start a new group soon!

Send me an email if you want to work one on one! lynn@warriorofsuccess.com

One of the top 10 goals people set for 2012 is to learn something new and to get a better job.

A better job? I remember years ago a man told me that J.O.B. stands for Just Over Broke. When you work for the other person your boss has the control. The control over your time, money, your raises, your vacation and your livelihood is all controlled by your boss!

The economy is really in a bad way and unemployment isn’t any better. If history tells us much at all it is telling us to prepare for tough days ahead. I believe in having a backup plan that will help you in those tough times and help you be your own boss one day!

One of the best ways I know to get prepared and to get the control over your livelihood is to start a small business. Some people think that starting a small business is such a monumental task that they talk themselves right out of making the effort.

I have been in my own business in some form since I was about 5 years old. I remember my first lesson as an entrepreneur at age 5 likes it was yesterday. My Mom and I were on our way home from my Grandmother’s house when we stopped at a roadside vegetable stand. I noticed all the people that were there to give the guy running this stand all their money in exchange for a few tomatoes and some melons.

I had an Idea!

When we got home I went to our garage and started looking around for a table to set next to the road just in front of our house. I got the table and moved it to the road and ran back in the house and got most of the veggies my Mom just purchased from the veggie stand we stopped at earlier. That is called …low overhead!

I was in the middle of my first sale when…….my Mom shows up and shuts me down. She was not very happy to see that I was selling the veggies and she was really upset when she heard the price I was selling them for. Seems I was selling for less than she had purchased them for.

Lessons.

1. Never overlook you COGS…cost of goods and services!
2. Have good margins so you don’t lose money!
3. Cut your Mom in on the deal if she backs you!

That was a true story. Seriously…..your own business has many benefits that can serve you over time.

You can get started today in the next 30 minutes with a small internet business that you can run from your easy chair. It…is…not…that hard!

As I mentioned at the beginning of this article one other top 10 goal of 2012 is to get educated or to learn something new. That is a great goal too. I push myself to learn one new thing daily. When you start your own business you will start to learn new things and even get excited about the process and progress you make.

Here is the great thing!

You don’t need to quit your job to start your business. Start small and let it grow as you grow in your knowledge of making it happen. As I write this I have many irons in the fire.

I can show you how to build your own small internet business that will help you generate some income on the side while it grows. Will it make 6 figures in the next year? I doubt it…but the possibility is there.

Your Journey.

We are all on a journey. You may work at the same job..live in the same home for 20 years without change. But…change will come if you create it or not. Why not begin today to prepare and create change in your life? Enjoy the journey.

Think about the things you are good at and love to just get lost in… then begin to look at ways you can make money with that activity.

Make this a great year to discover who you are and where you want to go! Enjoy your journey!

If you have an idea or would like to have some input on starting your new business venture contact me. No strings attached.

R. Lynn Lane

Carl Jung

As we take our journey through life we will at times encounter many obstacles and opportunities.         

 We will learn to stretch our minds and our emotions to overcome and to push forward.

We will learn to incorporate our strength, discipline, and humility.

The journey is a short one, it seems as if it is only a flicker in time.

1.   Accept yesterday

2.   Embrace today

3.   Enjoy the journey

Twelve Steps on the Pathway to Greatness

                     © 1996-2008 All Right Reserved

  Table Of Contents                   

1. Give Thanks For Every New Day. It’s Yours To Live

2. Forgive Yourself And Others

3. Live Moment By Moment

4. Know What You Want And Take Action

5. Have Faith And Belief In Yourself And Your Dreams

6. Stay Away From Negative People. Learn From Your Heroes

7. Be A Go Giver Not Just A Go Getter

8. Learn From Your Mistakes And Change Your Approach

9. Build Relationships – Human And Spiritual

10. Remain Humble With Inner Pride

11. Be Hungry To Learn Every Day!

12. Light The Pathway For Others To Follow

Hello and welcome. I was motivated to write this article and hope it will help you see where we are today and what the future is heading towards in our current economical situation. First let me say, I am not an economics expert and any information I share is my opinion and you should do your own research for yourself!

Americans and the World are being mislead and are kept in the dark about critical information that our leaders should be sharing. One huge lie or misconception is that we are free from the recession. Some of our leaders and the biased media have been trying to sell us on this for months now. For example, according to some the recession was over in June 2009. But just look around, thousands of families are still looking for work and many are without homes.

The government and our leaders are showing us one hand while keeping the other hidden behind their backs. They don’t want us to see the real deal. One other sad thought is that we have some people that don’t care and some who invite this type of a meltdown of the American economic landscape. The Fed will continue to print money and the value of the dollar will continue to go down if we stay on this path.

What does that mean to you and me? When the dollar is devalued it will take more dollars to buy gas, groceries, clothes and all the things we need and use daily. The dollar is going down and the Fed continues to drive it lower as they print more and more money.

One day the crap will hit the fan and you and I will have to pay the price if things don’t change.

So…what can we do?

1. Invest in Gold or Silver.

Don’t go into debt to buy gold or silver, invest with a small amount of cash that you can invest and let it grow. Could it go down? It could but it doesn’t look like it for a long while. I remember when gold was a few hundred dollars an oz. now it’s heading into the thousands and climbing. I purchased silver a year ago at $19.00 an oz. and purchased some more yesterday and paid $30.78 pretty good growth in one year. Plus when the dollar is worthless you’ll have some currency that you can use. Just an idea.

2. Start your own business.

Find a business that you will enjoy and start doing it today. It will be tough at times but if you do what you enjoy you will tend to stay with it. I have been working for myself since I was about 5 years old. Even though the value of the dollar is way down there is still plenty of them to go around. You could work for gold or silver. It will be the small business that saves this economy not the government.

3. Learn about money and how the government works.

Here is one of the most misleading lies that government has spread to many in the American culture. The American Government Will Take Care Of You! That is a load of crap. The government cannot create jobs without creating more taxes. When a business is taxed more the cost of goods and services go up to cover the extra taxes and with a weakened dollar the price is even more substantial.  

4. Take control.

Now is the time to take control of your life and your future. Take a moment to think about the future of America and your kids and grandchildren. Do I think we will have a complete meltdown? We are headed that way, but I’m sure that after the awakening of the 2010 midterm elections we may slowly start to pull our way out. America may never be as it was only a few years ago. With time and great leadership we could become better!

Stay vigilant and stay prepared!

R. Lynn Lane

Lane Resources Inc.    (c) 2010 www.warriorofsuccess.com                                         

Offer for Today!   Brian Tracy’s —> Flight Plan!  Let me know what you think!

As I pulled into the gym parking lot this morning I noticed a young dude running in place and stretching. He continued to do this while I was gathering my gear to go inside. We both went into the gym and I stowed my gear and jumped on the treadmill to get a 25 -30 minute warm-up and some cardio.

As I started to walk I looked up at the big windows in front of me and noticed the reflection of a guy behind me…..it was the same dude I noticed in the parking lot earlier.  He was still warming up! He paced back and forth waving his arms, rolling his neck back and forth. Then he went over and got a smoothie and started to drink that while he continued his warm ups.

He looked as if he dreaded the real work out so much he was happy to just spend time preparing to work out. He prepared for his work out during the full 25 minutes I was on the treadmill and was still working on that smoothie as I left for work.

Preparing For Life!

Isn’t this a great metaphor for life? Look around at the people that wait for the right time to make a move in life. They say…when the kids are out of school I’m going to, when the economy is better I will, when I get the right information I plan to…….and the list goes on.

Most people are just afraid of the risk they may have to take. It’s the risk of looking bad or the risk of failing in the process.

“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. To keep our faces toward change and behave like free spirits in the presence of fate is strength undefeatable.” ~ Helen Keller

 Life is about living and living is about risk. Remember how the world looked to us as kids? We had that feeling of wonder and amazement, ready to learn and be fascinated at every turn of the imagination. What happened? We got older and the world got more and more boring to most of us as we go through the same steps day after day.

I have one thing I’ve learned that I think is the most important for your success in life. This one thing will help you if you’re in the office or on the street. You can use this in any area of your everyday life. What is it? It’s the ability to take action! In the martial arts you can have the best skills and be in the best physical shape, but if you don’t take action it means nothing. If you’re in the ring to fight or on the street to defend yourself you must take action or be hit. 

Ed Parker, the Father of American Kenpo Karate once said, “He who hesitates, meditates in a horizontal position.” You must move!

The same is true in your personal life too. Most people talk a good game about all the dreams and plans they intend but never go into action. These are the very people that will point out your failures and mistakes. They never worry about failure because they never attempt to do much in life. 

 ”A life without action is a life without purpose.”  You don’t need all the answers to get started!

 Don’t let life pass you by while you’re preparing to live! Start today….start now!

R. Lynn Lane

Everyone’s talking about ways to find opportunity amid economic chaos. Yet there’s something right under our noses that’s being overlooked: Times of crisis present unprecedented opportunities to stretch and develop real leadership capabilities.

What’s needed, specifically?

Hire more executive coaches, step up sessions, and implement more training and development programs.

In tough times, you cannot rely on talent and luck. Even when you have a talented team at the top, people need help in stretching their capabilities to meet the economy’s overwhelming demands. Your leaders can’t go it alone. You can’t, either.

Scientific research on great performance has persuasively shown that key abilities are developed. They don’t occur naturally. In fact, there may be no such thing as natural talent. It’s certainly not something you want to rely upon to help solve current problems.

Great leaders aren’t born; they’re made—and the research to support this is overwhelming. What we previously thought of as innate can often be taught. Leadership capabilities are acquired through constructive practice and developmental opportunities, and today’s business volatility calls for both.

“The key to this development is pushing people—or people pushing themselves—just beyond their current abilities, forcing them to do things that they can’t quite do,” according to Fortune Senior  Editor Geoff Colvin, author of Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers From Everybody Else (Portfolio, 2008).

Crisis or Opportunity?

The upside of a financial crisis and recession is that they offer all of us the opportunity to stretch our skills in our current jobs—and I mean everyone. That means you. But you already know you’re being stretched, don’t you? You feel it. The question is, how are you going to welcome your own particular crises and use them to benefit your personal and professional development?

According to Colvin, managers often redirect people’s careers based on slender evidence that they have talent (or lack thereof). Unfortunately, we don’t give ourselves the same opportunity. We’ll try something new, and if it doesn’t come naturally or we don’t immediately excel, we conclude we have no talent for it.

We abandon pursuit. We never give ourselves the chance to practice and make progress. We don’t like the feeling of discomfort that comes from doing something poorly, so we don’t hang in there. Scientific evidence, however, is beginning to show that our definition of talent is wrong. In fact, “talent” may not mean anything at all.

In studies of accomplished individuals, researchers have found few signs of precocious achievement before their subjects began intensive training. Similar findings have turned up in studies of musicians, tennis players, artists, swimmers, mathematicians and chess players.

Is Talent Irrelevant?

Such findings do not prove that talent doesn’t exist, but they do suggest it may be irrelevant.

The concept of talent is especially troublesome in business. We label people and then assign expectations, some of which are unrealistic. When people are fast-tracked or deemed executive material, we assume they have special gifts. Worse, we fail to adequately emphasize the importance of  continuous training and coaching. Instead, we rely on their “natural gifts.”

Identifying these gifts has been extremely elusive. In fact, some business giants actually gave little early indication that they would become great.

Jack Welch, named by Fortune as the 20th century’s manager of the century, showed no particular passion for business, even into his mid-20s.

Steve Ballmer and Jeffrey Immelt were average employees at Procter & Gamble in the 1970s, with little evidence they would go on to become CEOs of Microsoft and GE before age 50.

In this age of genomic research, there should no longer be any question as to what is—and isn’t—innate. If a talent is innate, scientists should be able to identify the gene for it, and no progress has been made on this front.

Talent or Hard Work?

We can safely draw the conclusion that there’s plenty of opportunity for everyone. Many high-performing executives will tell you they don’t rely on their innate talents as much as their hard-earned skills. 

CEOs like A.G. Lafley of P&G and GE’s Immelt have said that being forced to manage through crises early in their careers enhanced their abilities in ways that were critical to becoming CEOs. They wouldn’t have achieved their status without surviving the storms that gave them hands-on practice.

Certain practices can make our experiences especially productive:

• Coaching helps.
• Receiving feedback allows us to fine-tune our skills.
• Working in a safe learning environment is essential.

Workplaces encourage practice and development, and mistakes should be viewed as learning opportunities. You also need to clearly define and develop a plan for achieving the abilities you wish to hone, including a measurable time frame. This will turbo-charge your performance and improve your chances of success.

10,000 Hours or 10 Years

Malcolm Gladwell makes the case for 10,000 hours of practice to attain expertise in his book Outliers (Little, Brown & Co., 2008):

“The 10,000-hours rule says that if you look at any kind of cognitively complex field, from playing chess to being a neurosurgeon, we see this incredibly consistent pattern that you cannot be good at that unless you practice for 10,000 hours, which is roughly 10 years, if you think about four hours a day.”

Almost all child prodigies in music, sports, chess and the arts seem to put in 10,000 hours before they attain expertise and produce significant results.

The Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance, edited by Anders Ericsson, Charness and Feltovich, et al, compiles scientific studies to prove the point in a wide variety of fields. The trait we commonly call talent is highly overrated. Or, put another way, expert performers “whether in memory or surgery, ballet or computer programming” are nearly always made, not born.

Many of us have already put in more than a decade of doing what we do. The question is whether we’re practicing the right things, in the right way. Are we designing deliberate practice that actually develops the specific skills we need to make progress toward specific results? Or, to use a golf analogy, are you going to the driving range and hitting a bucket of balls the wrong way, for hours at a time?

What Is Deliberate Practice?

Anders Ericsson and his scientific colleagues emphasize the importance of deliberate practice, which isn’t what most of us think of when applying the term to sports or music education. In fact, our habitual use of the term in these domains may prevent us from applying it correctly to the business realm.

Deliberate practice is characterized by several elements:

• It is an activity designed specifically to improve performance, often with the help of a teacher, coach or expert.
• It can be repeated frequently.
• Feedback on results is continuously available.
• It’s highly demanding mentally.
• It isn’t much fun and entails hard work.

If you think you’ve outgrown the need for a teacher or coach, it’s time to challenge this assumption. A business coach can see things a manager cannot and is trained to deliver feedback in a way that’s inaccessible to most managers.

Without a clear, unbiased view of your performance, you cannot choose the best practice activities.  Most of us lack the knowledge we need to design our own practice programs, and we cannot realistically provide objective observations and feedback to ourselves. As stunt people like to say, “don’t try this at home.” Hire a coach who can properly stretch you beyond your current abilities and help you move out of your comfort zones. Otherwise, human nature dictates that you’re likely to spend your time practicing what you already know how to do.

According to Noel Tichy, PhD, a professor of organizational behavior and human resources management at the University of Michigan School of Business, our progress depends on leaving our comfort zone to enter the learning zone, where skills and abilities are just out of reach. We must force ourselves to stay in the latter, even as we make changes.

Why We Avoid Hard Work

Deliberate practice is, above all else, an effort to focus and concentrate. Recognizing unsatisfactory elements of performance is difficult and uncomfortable. When you try your hardest to perform better, you place enormous strain on your mental abilities.

Deliberate practice, in fact, can be viewed as an antonym to fun. Instead of doing something at which we excel, we intentionally work on areas where we have deficits—over and over again. After each repetition, a coach can tell us exactly where to focus so we can repeat these skills yet again.

Obviously, if the activities that require practice were easy and fun, everyone would do them. But in reality, most people won’t practice or persist long enough to improve. This is good news if you’re willing to do what most people won’t. It’s the reason you’re more likely to keep your job and thrive in this recession.

What About Passion?

Talent is not what determines success at developing high-level capacities. Rather, those who care the most will rise to the top. Exceptional performance depends on what we decide to do with our lives and the passion that drives us.

One of the most purchased articles from the Harvard Business Review is a 1968 piece on motivation that explains our three main drives:

1. Achievement
2. Power
3. A sense of community and desire to help others

No matter your driving force, you have to care deeply enough to work hard to become exceptional.

Nothing can make you endure the pain and sacrifice of deliberate practice for decades unless you’re  carried by an intrinsic compulsion to do so.

But allowing people to follow their intrinsic drives and work on projects of their own choosing is not something most organizations tolerate. In their fervent application of solely extrinsic motivations, organizations may actually prevent people from developing their passionate abilities.

Talent Is Never Enough

In Talent Is Never Enough: Discover the Choices That Will Take You Beyond Your Talent, (Thomas Nelson, 2007), leadership expert John C. Maxwell suggests talent is “often overrated and frequently misunderstood.” He  advises readers to build their strengths to become a “talent-plus person,” defined by the following tenets:

• Belief lifts your talent.
• Initiative activates your talent.
• Focus directs your talent.
• Preparation positions your talent.
• Practice sharpens your talent.
• Perseverance sustains your talent.
• Character protects your talent.

Even if you hold onto the notion that you’ll always survive because of your innate talent, you must still prepare, practice and persist. The scientific research is in, and it’s conclusive. Hard work—not talent—contributes to high performance.

Well…here is Brian Tracy, a true mentor of mine. He does a wonderful job on this video about impatience.

Til Next Time.

Linking Action To Success –> Lane Resources Inc.

Two mentors or one? Choosing a mentor or success coach is not like ordering coffee with two sugars. One mentor at a time is the perfect way to get more things done.

As you have heard before…too many cooks spoil the soup. They all have different ways of cooking and different ways of getting things done. Mentors are no different.

How many mentors do you have? I put this question to Kevin Hogan last year and he said, “one mentor at a time” is all people need. Kevin went on to explain that if you played baseball you wouldn’t want 3 of the best coaches trying to coach you. Reason being…they all coach in a different way.

I think of Kevin Hogan as my mentor/coach for the past few years now. I put him right up there with Zig Ziglar and Brian Tracy and people that know me will tell you that is saying so much coming from me.

I can relate to what Kevin Hogan was saying. I teach Kenpo Karate and a blend of other martial arts but, I teach my way. I know Instructors that teach the same style and same techniques, but they teach them differently. I see it all the time.

Kevin Hogan’s E-zine “Coffee With Kevin” was on video last week and he addressed the same question with the same answer. (Kevin is consistent.)

I think you should pick your coach/mentor the same way you should pick your martial arts Instructor. Here we go…..

1. Don’t just go for the hype. I had a karate teacher once that said, “ I can kill you 6 times before you hit the ground.” I didn’t study with him very long…his business went under too.

2. Find the people that have a track record that can deliver.

3. Find the mentor or coach that will make you work. You have to put in the work. I coach a group of people that ask me to push them hard every week…that is what they signed on for.

4. Find a coach that cares about people.

Thanks!

R. Lynn Lane