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In This Issue.......

1. Charting Your Course to Success Article
2. Made for Success Quote and Commentary
3. The Last Word...
4. 'The Damascus Road Experience' -- Join me in Atlanta!
5. 12 Pillars of Success, 52 Weeks of "Life-Changing" Lessons, One New You!
6. Customer Feedback
7. More Information

1. Charting Your Course to Success Article

Attitudes of Successful Learners by Chris Widener (excerpted from Week 44 of the Jim Rohn One-Year Success Plan)

Hi there, Chris Widener here. This week I want to talk with you about the attitudes of successful learners.

We can choose our attitudes about anything, including learning and education. That's right. We get to choose what our attitudes are. Here is the definition of attitude: "The feeling or opinion about something or someone, or a way of behaving that follows from this." We choose our opinion about people and situations. We choose the way we will behave in relation to other people and circumstances. We choose what we believe about learning. We choose it. Learning doesn't have to be bad. It doesn't have to be anything but what we want it to be. We have the option. We can have tremendously optimistic attitudes about learning - attitudes that will help us grow in ways we have never achieved before!

The choice of a right attitude will significantly determine new circumstances. Choosing to have the right attitude will change the world around you. This isn't any sort of magic; it is just how the world works. Now, don't get me wrong. It won't cure everything and turn your world into a virtual Shangri-La, but it will significantly improve the world you live in. For example, let's say that every day you go into work and you gripe about life and work from the moment you get there until the moment you leave. Will others want to be around you? Will others ask your opinion? Will others like you? Will others ask you to join them for lunch? Probably not! But what if you come to work every day and you are the positive optimist of the crowd? Will everybody love you? No, but significantly more people will than if you are the office pessimist! Your choice of attitude will determine what kind of circumstances you get!

The same is true with learning. What we feel about learning, and what we believe about it will determine the outcomes of our learning. And the outcomes of our learning will determine the outcome of our lives.

Ultimately, our attitude is a choice. Nobody else can force you to have a bad attitude. Nobody else can force you to have a good attitude. It is simply a choice we each make.

Where are you with your attitude about learning? Is it positive? Take some time to give it some serious thought. Then, no matter where you find yourself, decide to take your attitude to the next level! If you have a really bad attitude, decide to take it up a couple of levels!

So, if our attitudes determine to a great degree what kind of life we have, shouldn't we focus on the best attitudes to have and then make them ours? Absolutely! If we want to soar with the eagles in this life, and if there are attitudes that will make us soar, shouldn't we pursue them with all our hearts? By all means! So here we go!

Attitudes of Successful Learners

1. "I can."

This is the most basic of all attitudes. We simply must choose to believe that we can learn. In our house we are not allowed to say, "I can't." We can say, "I'll try," or "I tried and failed," but not "I can't." Telling yourself that you can't will in effect make it so. But telling yourself that you can, will in effect enable you to learn much more. Even if you actually only achieve 50% of what you tell yourself, you will achieve at least that much more than if you told yourself you couldn't. So many people were told at a young age that they couldn't learn. Many others were allowed to engage in that kind of negative self talk (tell themselves, "I can't learn", "I don't understand", I'll never get this", etc.) and their parents and teachers didn't intervene. This enabled them to develop the "I can't" attitudes that become self-fulfilling prophecies.

I actually have a standard way of going about getting myself off of the starting block. I simply say if somebody else has achieved great learning heights, then I can too. I have to be smarter than at least one of those who has already done it. I have to be able to work harder than at least one other. There has to be at least one other person who has come from more difficult circumstances than me. And if they can do it then certainly, "I can!"

2. "This is a long-term approach."

Learning isn't something that happens overnight. Yes, you can learn individual facts, but the real growth comes when you see your learning build on itself and compound for years, when your knowledge meets up with your experience. When we take the attitude that it all has to happen immediately, we hurt ourselves in the long run because the fact is that it takes time to learn (even though we can accelerate it). If we expect it to happen immediately and it doesn't, then we can get frustrated and stop learning altogether.

Instead, we need to take a long-term view just as we do in financial matters, weight management, leadership, etc. Long-term thinking, including our learning is always the best way to go for success.

3. "Learning is valuable."

Some people have a "learning schmearning - who needs learning" attitude. They think that learning is overrated. I hate to tell you this, but not only was that wrong 5000, 500 and 50 years ago, it is especially wrong today. We live in the information age. We must gain knowledge and the ability to apply that knowledge if we are going to be successful. We must tell ourselves and cultivate the attitude that learning is valuable and that it will affect our lives.

4. "I will make a difference in the lives of those around me."

People who soar are generally people who have the attitude of helping other people. Yes, they may do it for monetary gain, but they are others-focused. They want to change the way people live and experience life for the better. They are difference makers all around. This is the same in what we learn. We learn first for ourselves, but then with the goal of taking what we have learned, and what we make of ourselves, and we then help others to do the same.

I live in a town that is very affluent. Most of the people I know, work with and have as friends are very successful in this world. They have learned a lot about life and how it works. They have learned how to make money and be successful in business. One thing I can say, as almost a universal truth, is that as people, they are not self-consumed but genuinely care about others and will do what they can to help others. This is what I know to be true about the attitudes of the genuinely successful.

These are the attitudes of people who are not just successful at getting information into their minds, but in becoming good people because of that information. Learn all that you can, and be sure to keep the attitudes that will make you a successful learner and a successful person!

Have a great week!

Chris


To hear (or see) what Chris Widener has to say about the Jim Rohn One-Year Success Plan or to join Chris and Jim Rohn as part of the Jim Rohn One-Year Success Plan go to http://jr1.jimrohn.com or call 800-929-0434.
 

2. Made for Success Quote and Commentary

"People can cry much easier than they can change." -- James Baldwin

Chris' Commentary:
This is why they do: it is easier to cry, to lament, to wish things were better, than to change. If change were the easiest thing to do, then most people would change. Instead, most people take the easy road and lament along the way, somehow thinking that since they wish things were better, that, in and of itself, must be noble. It isn't! Taking the difficult road of change in the face of easier roads is noble! Average people cry about their situations, while successful people do something about their situations.

Action Point: What is the one thing you have the tendency to cry about or lament? Take a step today to change it! For example, if it is your weight, then go exercise and don't have seconds! Change, day-by-day, and your life will become what you want it to be!



3. The Last Word...

This week's Last Word offering is taken from the Month 11 conference call of the Jim Rohn One-Year Success Plan. This is a call I did with my good friend and memory expert, Ron White. If you do not currently a have a system in place for memorizing names, topics, your grocery list, etc., you will want to listen to this call. Ron gives some excellent (and easy to remember :-)) techniques and strategies to attain instant memorization skills. To listen or download go to:

http://www.yoursuccessstore.com/oneyearplan/month11.html

Enjoy! -- CW



4. 'The Damascus Road Experience' -- Join me in Atlanta!

A special message from Doug Firebaugh...

The Original Networker is doing their first LIVE event in Atlanta, GA called, 'The Damascus Road Experience'.

June 16 and 17th at the Atlanta Airport Hilton, featuring Special Guest SPEAKER, TRAINER and AUTHOR - CHRIS WIDENER!

This Event will feature Chris as you have never seen him before -- and you don't want to miss it!

Join us at the Atlanta Airport Hilton from 7 p.m. - 10 p.m. Friday night, 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. Saturday and 7 p.m. - 9 p.m. Saturday night.

It will transform you and your business radically overnight!

It will be for all Christian Network Marketers and those who desire to take their business to a whole new level through Biblical Success Principles for Network Marketing and the Power of God.

Here is a flash movie about it:

http://www.theoriginalnetworker.com/Event.html

Our Special guest Keynote Speaker will be Chris Widener, who just released a best-selling book with Jim Rohn, and is a regular on The Success Training Network.

He will be speaking on Success in Network Marketing. Chris will blow you away with his passion and power in his message. Chris deeply loves God and speaks often in churches.

Also - guest Brian Klemmer, personal development master, will be there with a training that will blow you away too! Brian has built THE personal development company for the Network marketing industry and loves God as well and speaks in many churches around the world.

Our Very special hosts will be Jay and Dr. Candy Vaughn from Kathleen GA, as well as Mega Trainers and Successful Network Marketers Doug and Jodi Firebaugh, Co-Founders of The Original Networker, plus other SURPRISE guests!

To register, go to www.theoriginalnetworker.com - the cost for early bird registrants is ONLY $49.00 per person! After June 9th, cost goes up!

This event will be sold out, and we encourage you to pass the word along and lets get your team there!

The Power that you will take back with you from this event will so transform you and your business, you will never be the same.

SEE YOU THERE! 2 days to go and counting!

5. 12 Pillars of Success, 52 Weeks of "Life-Changing" Lessons, One New You!

Here are some of the testimonials and comments we received over the past weeks from our Ezine subscribers. We love receiving comments and feedback from our readers - so keep it coming!


Tell Chris he is my favorite. I loved The Angel Inside.
-- Roxie Gribbins

Thank you so much for the wonderful training! We are definitely going to be working on being fishermen, not hunters! What a great analogy and a great story! I have talked to lots of people today who learned so much on the call last night - think they were all too star-struck or something to ask questions. I love the idea of getting the Angel Inside for promotion gifts. I want to get more copies of the Twelve Pillars too. I just finished the 12 Pillars and it is my new favorite! I keep reminding myself I have to decide - pain of discipline or the pain of regret. I do not like regret! I really loved the Twelve Pillars - although I would have been happier if Charlie hadn't died, but I guess the letter at the end was a great way to sum it up and a great way to hit home about the last pillar. I so appreciate your taking the hour out of your schedule to help our team learn and grow! In my opinion, your call moved you one more step closer to leaving a legacy because I know people on our team will be quoting you and using your lessons and teaching them to others for years to come! Thanks so much again for your time, energy, enthusiasm and sharing your knowledge! You are changing lives!
-- Robin Corbin

I recently read the story told by you entitled, "Success Lessons I Learned from my Single Mom" by Chris Widener. I've been, what I hope is successful single mom since 22. Like your mom, I was well off and enjoying my life and yet overnight became a statistic when my relationship didn't work out, now I was parent with child, single mom, along with many other titles I didn't realize I was getting. I just wanted to say, that you must be a special person to have remembered all those things your mother did for you and you actually appreciated them. People keep telling me that my daughter will one day realize all the things I have given up and it will be the proof in the pudding because she will be an amazing person to have seen the gift of sacrifice for the greater good. I didn't really believe that, I know that sounds selfish of me, until I read your story. Thank you from myself and the many moms that may read it and never write to you for acknowledging all the things we do that are rarely given credit for but put down in our society, i.e. taking a lower prestige job to be at your kids soccer games, taking all your sick days at work just to actually cover your child's illnesses, sticking up for them at parent meetings and defending them from bullies on the playground, foregoing a dating life to be at home watching the entire Disney collection. I truly hope that my daughter feels the way you do as she comes to realize the depths of a mother's love. I am truly sorry and my heart goes out to you even if just an email hug, that you traversed most of your life without your father, but I'm sure he has remained with you in spirit, although I'm not religious I just believe that for some reason. Thank you for saying "Thank You" to your mom. It made me feel like someone actually noticed me.
-- Tina Balderrama

A+++ message Chris,
-- Burt

I was privileged to hear Chris on May 6, 2006 in El Campo, TX. Please pass along my gratitude to Chris that he follows His lead and shares that information with others. What a blessing he is!
-- Jamie B. Massie

It's great to keep receiving your newsletters and to hear of your professional growth and personal aspirations. The recent article on Focus on Today Only, among other suggestions, was so pertinent to my current situation that I decided to send a return email to say hello and thanks!
-- Ann

I really liked this issue. Great reminders of what one should focus on. I enjoyed the way you put your thinking into words.
-- Theresa

Keep up the great work -- your books are great. I have a couple of books "Twelve Pillars" signed by Jim Rohn so, there is a signature missing, will leave that for when I see you! The Weekend Leadership Event/CDs/DVDs, are giving me the senses of life.... have a great time!
-- Manuel Rodrigues

Chris, I met you in Dallas at the Anatole at Hannah Dugan's big presentation. I've been giving your Angel & Pillar books to all my team as they promote - great gifts! Hope your 40th year is your best yet, and many wishes for God's continuing abundance to you and your family!
-- Pam Calder

I think the book, Twelve Pillars, is a book everyone should read. It has opened my eyes to see the world and myself in a new way. Thank you for sharing your wisdom!
-- Jamie


Thank you Ezine readers, for the sincere and kind words of encouragement and appreciation you sent us! -- CW
 

7. More Information

Ezine Archives - To review previous issues of Chris Widener's Ezine, please go to: Ezine Archives