“Carry On” by Robert William Service

It’s easy to fight when everything’s right,
And you’re mad with the thrill and the glory;
It’s easy to cheer when victory’s near,
And wallow in fields that are gory.
It’s a different song when everything’s wrong,
When you’re feeling infernally mortal;
When it’s ten against one, and hope there is none,
Buck up, little soldier, and chortle:

Carry on! Carry on!
There isn’t much punch in your blow.
You’re glaring and staring and hitting out blind;
You’re muddy and bloody, but never you mind.
Carry on! Carry on!
You haven’t the ghost of a show.
It’s looking like death, but while you’ve a breath,
Carry on, my son! Carry on!

And so in the strife of the battle of life
It’s easy to fight when you’re winning;
It’s easy to slave, and starve and be brave,
When the dawn of success is beginning.
But the man who can meet despair and defeat
With a cheer, there’s the man of God’s choosing;
The man who can fight to Heaven’s own height
Is the man who can fight when he’s losing.

Carry on! Carry on!
Things never were looming so black.
But show that you haven’t a cowardly streak,
And though you’re unlucky you never are weak.
Carry on! Carry on!
Brace up for another attack.
It’s looking like hell, but — you never can tell:
Carry on, old man! Carry on!

There are some who drift out in the deserts of doubt,
And some who in brutishness wallow;
There are others, I know, who in piety go
Because of a Heaven to follow.
But to labour with zest, and to give of your best,
For the sweetness and joy of the giving;
To help folks along with a hand and a song;
Why, there’s the real sunshine of living.

Carry on! Carry on!
Fight the good fight and true;
Believe in your mission, greet life with a cheer;
There’s big work to do, and that’s why you are here.
Carry on! Carry on!
Let the world be the better for you;
And at last when you die, let this be your cry:
Carry on, my soul! Carry on!

~ Robert William Service

Selling Yourself Short (Part 2)

Yesterday, you discovered the difference between your level of expectations and level of acceptance. Today, let’s explore why people sell themselves short.

There are a thousand and ones colourful reasons why people sell themselves short. You and I have our own unique set of reasons. Here’s what they usually say:

• “But I’m not qualified”
• “I was never taught to do this!”
• “This thing is trivial.”
• “I’ll get to this later.”
• “Maybe next time”
• “Something’s better than nothing”
• “It’s okay, there are other days.”
• “The night is still young.”
• “It’s beyond my control”

But whatever it is, the outcome is the same: when you achieve your level of acceptance, you compromise. You just sold yourself short.

Here are some reasons why people sell themselves short:

The Number One, numero uno, reason is: fear. So deep is our fear that it paralyses us from taking any meaningful action. So deep is our fear that when the something triggers our fear, we freeze in terror.

What sort of fear?

Fear of rejection. Fear of failure. Fear of being wrong. Fear of not being accepted. Fear of the future. Fear of fear. Fear of uncontrollable circumstances. Fear of defeat. Fear of new technology.

From fear, we move on to the next reason: ignorance. Meriam-Webster defines ignorance as the state or fact of being ignorant : lack of knowledge, education, or awareness. When we’re clueless about something, our natural instinct is to reject something. Sometimes we’re even willing to reject it even if there are scientific evidence and research to support a contention! We play the role of the cynic to preserve and protect our internal values and beliefs! In the words of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“Nothing is more frightful than ignorance in action”.

And as Elbert Hubbard puts it:

“The recipe for perpetual ignorance is: Be satisfied with your opinions and content with your knowledge.”

A third factor that leads us to selling ourselves short is our habit to justify or rationalise things. What do I mean by this? We turn what is socially unacceptable and present it in a way that it becomes logically acceptable.

Special Report – Nine Habits Guaranteeing Student Success

You can now read the Special Report on the Nine Habits Guaranteeing Student Success. Aimed to assist students heading to college, this special report identifies the causes of why students never reach their full potential.

Feel free to distribute, share, download and print the 16-page Special Report. Access it here:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/44887619/Special-Report-Nine-Habits-Guaranteeing-Student-Success.

Selling Yourself Short (Part 1)

Level of Expectation is the level of what you would like to have. This is usually your goals – no matter how wild or conservative it may be. It’s basically what we want in an ideal situation. We all have our “nice to have” expectations in all we do. This would be our well-intentioned goals and New Year’s resolutions – wanting to be rich, wanting to earn a certain amount of income, wanting to reduce weight.

Level of Acceptance is what we can accept. It’s the quality or quantity we’re willing to settle for. This is what determines how short we sell ourselves. This is usually the minimum.

The following table illustrates some common levels of expectations and acceptance:

 

	Level of Expectation I want…	Level of Acceptance But I’ll be content with…
Income level	RM10,000 per month	RM1,200 per month
Ideal body weight	60kg	70kg
Savings	RM20,000	RM200
Family	1 loving partner + 4 kids	a partner + some kids, we’ll see
Studies	CGPA 4.00	CGPA 2.10

The bigger the gap you have between your level of expectation and your level of acceptance, the more you’re selling yourself short!

NLP Presupposition: Experience has a Structure

Everything has a structure. From liquid, to diamonds and even paragraphs to ideas. Its structure holds it intact and gives it meaning.

Did you know that your experience also has a structure?

Your thoughts and memories have a pattern to them. When you change the pattern, or structure, your experience will automatically change. Because of that, you can neutralise unpleasant memories and enrich those that serve you.

NLP Presupposition: The Map is not the Territory

If what you see above Malaysia? Or it the map of Malaysia? If you own the map or print out the visual, do you hold in your hands Malaysia? Of merely the map of Malaysia?

With the map above, can you go to Betong? Does it show you where Bekenu is?

Similarly, our mental maps of the world is not the world. Yet, daily we respond to our maps, rather than directly to the world.

How do we create this map?

Through how we experience the world and interpret that experience. The good news is your map can easily be updated, just as easily as you create them.

Plus, wouldn’t it be easier to change your map of the world than to change the world?

NLP Presuppositions: An Introduction

NLP, or neurolinguistic programming, focuses on how your thoughts, actions and feelings work together right now to produce your experience. On the other hand, traditional clinical psychologists set out to describe difficulties, then categorising them and search for historical causes.

If you compare the two, clinical psychology starts with the question of “what’s wrong?” NLP, however, accepts the mind being alright, only the way it’s being used – consciously or otherwise – may be impairing.

By now, it’s probably clear that NLP is based on principles that are distinct from traditional psychology. The foundations of NLP rests in what are known collectively as Presuppositions of NLP.

All the 10 Presuppositions which you will be able to discover as the weeks progress can be summarised into one: people work perfectly.

What we do – our thoughts and actions – combined with what we feel produce specific results. Repeat the pattern all over again, you will get the same results.

Take, for example, you waking up in the morning. You want to wake up an hour earlier from before. However, you did not set the alarm nor did you change your sleeping pattern. Can you predict what the results of that will be?

You’ll wake up at the same time as before. The process works perfectly.

So, if you want to change the results, you need to change your thoughts, actions and feelings.

After you’ve understood specifically how you create and maintain your inner thoughts and feelings, changing them with something more useful becomes easy and effortless!

And the NLP Presuppositions are the foundations to achieve exactly that!