Introduction: You have no personality

Introduction

You Have No Personality

That each of us has a fixed personality is a myth. It is self-limiting and it denies us our power of continuous creation.

In our ongoing creation of who we are, nothing has a greater impact on that process than the choice we make between optimism and pessimism. There are no optimistic or pessimistic personalities; there are only single, individual choices for optimistic or pessimistic thoughts. Charlie Chaplin once entered a "Charlie Chaplin Look-alike Contest" in Monte Carlo and the judges awarded him third place!

Personality is overrated. Who we are is up to us every moment.

The choices we make for our thinking either motivate us or they do not. And although clear visualization of a goal is a good first step, a joyfully motivated life demands more. To live the life you want to live, action is required. As Shakespeare said, "Action is eloquence." And as psychologist and author Dr. Nathaniel Branden has written, "A goal without an action plan is a daydream." Motion creates the self. In my experience as a teacher, consultant, and writer, I have accumulated 100 ways of thinking that lead directly to motivation. In my work as a corporate trainer and public seminar leader, I have often read and researched many volumes of a psychologist's or philosopher's work to find a single sentence that my seminar students can use. What I am always looking for are ways of thinking that energize the mind and get us going again.

So this is a book of ideas. My sole criterion in assembling these ideas was: How useful are they? I've drawn on the feedback I've gotten from my corporate and public seminar students to know which ideas make lasting impressions on people and which don't. The ones that do are in this book.

Since its first printing in 1996, this little book has enjoyed a success I never imagined. During its first five years of sales (sales that have continued to be strong every year, knock on wood) we have seen the emergence of the Internet as the world's primary source of information. People have not only been buying this book on the Internet, but they've been posting their reviews. What's wonderful about Internet bookstores is that they feature reviews by regular people, not just professional journalists who need to be witty, cynical, and clever to survive. One such reviewer of 100 Ways in its original edition was Bubba Spencer from Tennessee. He wrote:

"Not a real in-depth book with many complicated theories about how to improve your life. Mostly, just good tips to increase your motivation. A 'should read' if you want to improve any part of your life." 

Bubba gave this book five stars, and I am more grateful to him than to any professional reviewer. He says I did what I set out to do.

"Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the

complicated simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity."

—Charles Mingus, legendary jazz musician