P T Barnum on Success

P T Barnum was a Victorian businessman who is remembered for his traveling circus – the ‘greatest show on earth’ – and the weird and wonderful ‘exhibits’ it contained. For some, Barnum was an exploiter and an opportunist, a man who took advantage of the weak and the vulnerable and who preyed on the credulity of his audience – the phrase ‘There’s a sucker born every minute’ was coined by Barnum. For others, he is the epitome of success and philanthropy. He established the Biology department at Tufts University, for example, and many of his ‘exhibits’ – the unfortunate individuals who were paraded in front of amazed audiences – became quite wealthy in their own right.

He lived in a different age, but whatever you might think about his circus, Barnum was a remarkable person who enjoyed fame, wealth and success. There is a great deal we can learn and apply from this master of entertainment in our own efforts to become successful. Read the Rest of This Article »

6 Myths That Stand In Your Way

“Unzip The Truth” courtesy of ChubbaArt/DeviantART

I recently went to see the remake of ‘Clash of the Titans’ at the cinema. I loved the 1981 version as a kid and was keen to see the new movie.

Perseus’ quest to defeat the kraken, save Andromeda and fulfill his destiny is the archetype of everyone’s life. We are all on a journey and, like Perseus, we encounter plenty obstacles along the way. Many of them seem strange and frightening, and we can be tempted to give up in the face of what appear to be overwhelming odds.

But many of the terrors we encounter along the way are just phantoms – they disappear as soon as we stand up to them. When we face them down, they dissolve like a dream upon waking. Our real enemy, however, is much more dangerous. It is the dream we create for ourselves – the dream of comfort and security, the myths we feed ourselves on. These myths are dangerous because so many people believe them and they can be hard to spot.

We tell ourselves stories because we life to feel safe. They are comfortable and pleasant, and they keep us asleep. Anthony de Mello, a man who really understood human nature, wrote, ‘The first thing I want you to understand, if you really want to wake up, is that you don’t want to wake up.’ Read the Rest of This Article »

Change Your Beliefs, Change Your Life

“Mosk” courtesy of Maciej Mizer

Our life is what our thoughts make it. Life is neither good or evil, but only a place for good and evil. ~Marcus Aurelius

A belief is something you consider to be true. You cannot decide to believe one thing this week and another, opposing thing, next week. You might think you can, but it really doesn’t work like that. I read recently that baby circus elephants are tied to a strong metal post with a heavy chain because they will try to escape and expend a lot of energy on pulling at their tether. After some time, they accept that they will not be able to escape and so stop pulling. The adult elephants are tethered to a wooden stake with a light rope: they could easily escape, but they believe they are unable to do so, and so the light tethering works as a kind of symbol of their bondage. It is clear that whether your beliefs are true or not is irrelevant. What matters is what you regard to be true. It seems to me that this is a good definition of ‘belief.’ Read the Rest of This Article »

How To Be Utterly Miserable

Life’s hard, isn’t it? There are lots of things in life that you shouldn’t have to do, and work is one of them. So don’t waste another second of your time in feeling good about it? With my top ten tips for feeling utterly miserable at work, you’ll soon be walking around with a permanent frown and a head full of misery!

Focus on problems, especially ones that you can’t control This is the most important skill to master. If you can crack this one then all the rest will be easy. Here we go. You should always look for problems in every situation. When one problem appears to have been solved, which does occasionally happen for some reason, look for others. The great thing here is that there are always problems – they are everywhere, so it’s really easy to focus on them. This means you don’t have to spend a lot of time finding problems because they tend to present themselves naturally, and you can focus all your energy on complaining as loudly and as widely as possible. As well as finding problems, it’s absolutely vital that you spend as much time and energy as possible complaining about them. This basic skill of complaining about problems is the foundation to a truly miserable life, and at work you have ample opportunity to practice this skill. Read the Rest of This Article »