There is a fine line between considering the opinions of others and letting them rule your life. Opinions of the periphery can very easily and quickly overtake you, and perpetuate that stagnation and procrastination in life that we talked about in the last Mindset Mastery post.
Easily Influenced
The majority of people who fail to accumulate money sufficient for their needs, are, generally, easily influenced by the “opinions” of others. They permit the newspapers and the “gossiping” neighbors to do their “thinking” for them. “Opinions are the cheapest commodities on earth. Everyone has a flock of opinions ready to be wished upon anyone who will accept them. If you are influenced by “opinions” when you reach decisions, you will not succeed in any undertaking, much less in that of transmuting your own desire into money.
If you are influenced by the opinions of others, you will have no desire of your own.
Keep Your Counsel
Keep your own counsel, when you begin to put into practice the principles described here, by reaching your own decisions and following them. Put confidence in no one except the members of your “Master Mind” group, and be very sure in your selection of this group, that you choose only those who will be in complete sympathy and harmony with your purpose.
Close friends and relatives, while not meaning to do so, often handicap a person through “opinions” and sometimes through ridicule, which is meant to be humorous. Thousands of men and women carry inferiority complexes with them all through life, because some well-meaning, but ignorant person destroyed their confidence through “opinions” or ridicule.
Use Your Personal Resources
You have a brain and a mind of your own. Use it, and reach your own decisions. If you need facts or information from other people to enable you to make decisions, and you probably will in many instances get the facts or secure the information you need quietly, without disclosing your purpose.
It is characteristic of people who have but a smattering or a veneer of knowledge to try to give the impression that they have a lot of knowledge. Such people generally do too much talking and too little listening. Keep your eyes and ears wide open—and your mouth closed, if you wish to acquire the habit of prompt decision. Those who talk too much do little else. If you talk more than you listen, you not only deprive yourself of many opportunities to accumulate useful knowledge, but you also disclose your plans and purposes to people who will take great enjoyment in defeating you, because they envy you.
And Remember…
Remember, also, that every time you open your mouth in the presence of a person who has an abundance of knowledge, you display to that person your exact stock of knowledge, or your lack of it! Genuine wisdom is usually conspicuous through modesty and silence.
Keep in mind the fact that every person with whom you associate is, like yourself, seeking the opportunity to accumulate money. If you talk about your plans too freely, you may be surprised when you learn that some other person has beaten you to your goal by putting into action before you the plans you unwisely talked about.
Let one of your first decisions be to keep a closed mouth and open ears and eyes.
As a reminder to yourself to follow this advice, it helps to write down the following quotation in large letters and place it where you will see it daily.
“Tell the world what you intend to do, but first show it.”
This is the equivalent of saying, “deeds, and not words, are what count most.”
Fundamental Life Lessons
Essentially what it comes down to is your ability to block out the noise that is inevitable and believe in yourself and the group that you have built as your advisors. As mentioned, it is not that outside contribution cannot be helpful, but only if carefully selected and evaluated. At the end of the day, even an action that may prove to be somewhat mistaken is an action that propels you toward your end goal, so you have to have some faith and confidence in your ability and decisions, and take the leap!
Sean Rasmussen
Success Communicator
Aussie Internet Marketer © 2004 – 2010
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