HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

I’ve been agonizing over what would be the perfect gift to give YOU to show my appreciation for all your support of this blog and all the experiences we have shared together.

I thought, instead of giving you a tree, how about giving you some seeds you can plant in the hearts and minds of other people.

As my mentor Jim Rohn taught me, “The best gift you can give is the gift of personal development.”

I’d like to encourage you to give the gift of personal development to others by making it really attractive for you to do so.

Much to the panic of my colleagues at SUCCESS Media and SUCCESS Books, here is what I wrangled to help you do this…

The testimonials of those whose lives have been transformed after reading and listening to The Compound Effect book and audio have been stunning. I want you to feel the impact of being responsible for touching someone’s life that profoundly.

So here is what I organized for you…

The book and audio combo is $60 retail. Buy 5 combos to give to people you care about and what to help succeed, for only $120 (instead of $300).

That way you experience the benefit of giving to others.

I can hear you asking, “That’s great and all, but besides the good vibes for making a difference for someone else, what do I get?”

Okay, here is where it gets really good—for you!

I want to GIVE you (as in FREE) a few special items—never-before-released-individually, my private interviews with four very special people:

Jim Rohn—my mentor and whom the book is dedicate to.

Tony Robbins—who wrote the Foreword to the book.

Brian Tracy—whose endorsement is on the cover.

Paul J. Meyer—another mentor mentioned several times in the book. read more »

Did you know your brain is NOT designed to make you happy? I know this might be alarming to you, but your brain has only one primary responsibility—to keep you alive. Thus your brain is constantly on the lookout for danger and attack warnings. Your brain is programmed specifically to seek out the negative.

This is a problem if you desire love, prosperity and happiness—those things beyond simply safety.

Left unguided (as most do), your brain will stew in the negative all day, every day of your life. The conundrum is—what you think about comes about. Where your attention goes, energy flows, thus the direction your life takes.

This is where the power of gratitude comes in. If you want to direct your life in a positive direction, you have to redirect your mind towards abundance and what’s positive by forcing it to focus it on what you are grateful for.

If you want to become great, you have to focus on being grateful. You can change any situation in your life by simply redirecting your mind to focus on what’s right about it versus what is wrong.

I have a Thanksgiving Challenge for you. Of the many insights shared in The Compound Effect, one repeatedly I am told has made a profound difference is the story of the Thanksgiving Journal (read the excerpt below). My challenge to you is to think of an area of your life you are having difficulty in and want to improve. For the next 21 days, take three minutes at the end of the day and write down what about that problematic situation you appreciate, what’s good and what you’re grateful for. This could be a confrontational co-worker at the office, your job as a whole or your troubled marriage… anything or anyone that frustrates or negatively affects you.

I promise you, when you change how you look at a situation, the situation changes.

Who is up for this simple challenge? Come on, reading this blog won’t help you. As Johann Von Goethe said, “Knowing is not enough; we must apply.” Ideas without implementation are useless. Ideas executed have the power to change the world—particularly your world.

Take the challenge. Not for me, for you. Will you? 3 minutes a day for 21 days. Who’s in? Declare that you will and what you are committed to being grateful for during the next 21 days in the comments below. Don’t be a silent “lurker”, encourage others by sharing your declaration in the comments section.

Excerpt from:
The Compound Effect—Multiplying your Results. One Simple Step at a Time.

Thanksgiving Year-Round
We’re particularly gifted in the finger-pointing department when it comes to our romantic relationships—you know, where the other person is the one who needs to change. Let me explain how something extremely simple, taking less than 5-minutes a day, can literally change your life.

A few years back, a friend of mine was complaining about his wife. From my observation, she was a terrific lady, and he was lucky to have her. I told him as much, but he continued to point out all the ways she was responsible for his unhappiness. That’s when I shared an experience that had literally changed my marriage… and me.

One Thanksgiving, I decided to keep a Thanks Giving journal for my wife. Every day for an entire year I logged at least one thing I appreciated about her—the way she interacted with her friends, how she cared for our dogs, the fresh bed she prepared, a succulent meal she whipped up, or the beautiful way she styled her hair that day—whatever. I looked for the things my wife was doing that touched me, or revealed attributes, characteristics, or qualities I appreciated. I wrote them all down secretly for the entire year. By the end of that year, I’d filled an entire journal.

When I gave it to her the following Thanksgiving, she cried, calling it the best gift she’d ever received. (Even better than the BMW I’d given her for her birthday!) The funny thing was that the person most affected by this gift was me. All that journaling forced me to focus on my wife’s positive aspects. I was consciously looking for all the things she was doing “right.” That heartfelt focus overwhelmed anything I might have otherwise complained about. I fell deeply in love with her all over again (maybe even more than ever, as I was seeing subtleties in her nature and behavior instead of her more obvious qualities). My appreciation, gratitude, and intention to find the best in her was something I held in my heart and eyes each day. This caused me to show up differently in my marriage, which, of course, made her respond differently to me. Soon, I had even more things to write in my Thanks Giving journal! As a result of choosing to take a mere five minutes every day or so to document all the reasons why I was grateful for her, we experienced one of the best years of our marriage, and it’s only gotten better.

After I shared my experience, my friend decided to keep a Thanks Giving journal about his wife. Within the first few months, he completely turned around his marriage. Choosing to look for and focus on his wife’s positive qualities changed his view of her, which changed how he interacted with her. As a result, she made different choices about the way she responded to him. The cycle perpetuated. Or, shall we say, compounded.

I’m in the Dallas publishing office this week assisting the world’s finest magazine staff put the finishing touches on the September issue of SUCCESS. Another issue you won’t want to miss—Michael Dell on the cover—very cool story!

While here, I’ve been revisiting emails, voicemails and blog comments with your inspiring feedback on my new book, The Compound Effect. Your stories of how the principles in the book have already made a remarkable difference in your relationships, health and income performance are awe-inspiring! WOW!

Just five minutes ago in fact, I opened up personal letters from Rudy Giuliani, Jim Collins and Dr. Kenneth Cooper on how the book affected them. How cool is that?!

Yet, I’m bummed. You see, we launched the book offering signed copies to the first 200. They went so fast (some snuck in the system before it was even officially released!) that even most of the early birds missed out. I am seeing some of those notes now.

That sucks. I want to fix it.

We had a corporate client (thank you, Nevada State Bank) pay extra to get 150 signed copies (they’re giving a copy to their best customers . . . great idea!), so I am signing them while I am here.

Since I already have the Sharpie flying, thinking of you (and some of you being bummed), I had the warehouse bring up a few hundred more.

So here’s the deal. If you buy the combo of the book and audio program (it’s my strong recommendation to have and study both!), the book will come signed! If this is valuable to you, then please hurry so you don’t miss it.

CLICK HERE TO GET YOURS NOW

Even if you have a copy of the book already, give that one to someone whose success you care about and keep the signed one for yourself. Or order the signed book for a valuable customer, friend, family member, employee, etc.

Okay, I hope that makes the world right again. Be sure to send me your stories on how your life is impacted by the tools shared in the book and the extra insights shared in the audio program!

Your ally in success,
Darren Hardy

P.S. Help me help others. Here are 10 ways you can help spread the word about The Compound Effect. Thank you for your help!

My mentor Jim Rohn emphasized that one of the first things everyone should work on is their physical health. He said, “How terrible would it be if the mind said, ‘let’s go conquer the world’ and the body said, ‘I can’t even get out of bed’?” It takes your healthy body to carry around your head full of ideas and your heart’s desires.

There is nothing more pitiful than a ready and willing mind but an incapable body.

There is a well-known quote from the philosopher Virgil that says, “The greatest wealth is health.” I also believe that health is the beginning of wealth. In other words, your health will help you create wealth.

Times of great danger. The great efficiencies of technology have made us more inactive and sedentary than ever before. Food has become more abundant, more easily accessible, super-sized, bulk packaged and mass merchandised. Commercial marketing has proliferated into every space of attention with ingeniously creative and utterly tantalizing commercial marketing. It has never been more difficult to become and remain healthy.

If you are in the business of attracting, influencing, selling or leading others, how you show up, your physical appearance, speaks volumes about who you are, how you are and what you are or not capable of.

I know, people shouldn’t judge you, right? Well, here is a clue… they do!

Whether you like it or not, people make judgments and draw conclusions about you in the first 10-15 seconds they meet you, based solely on how you look. Like it or not, how you show up on the outside says a lot about you on the inside. Our body advertises our personal development. All the habits, behaviors, choices, disciplines (or lack there of) are made physical (literally) in your physique.

Here is a good question to consider: read more »

Today is the birthday of The Compound Effect—Multiplying Your Success. One Simple Step at a Time! Through all the labor pains I’ve endured while creating this book, today is the day!

As a man, I think this is as close as I can ever get to gestating, worrying about and carrying the burden of nurturing a child for nine-plus months, and then, finally (and not without pain), give birth to this thing you have worked so hard to develop and care for. Today is the day! Whew!

Below I am including a free view of the book‘s  introduction. I think you will find value in it alone and that it will give you an idea of what you can gain by having your own copy of the book. You’ll also find a video intro, success quiz and more info.

Amazing. Movies: I have always found it amazing that you can own the product of someone’s $200 million investment into a production (Avatar, for example), and thousands of people’s years of work for less than $20. Even more incredible to me is the chance to own the best ideas, strategies and advice, proven by someone’s life experience and condensed into a written book, also for less than $20. Now, I know how much blood, sweat, tears, pain, suffering, heart and soul goes into getting it just right–I think books should cost $1,000 each! But now, I am biased, of course. My new book, too, is less than $20. Crazy, I know!

As my mentor, Jim Rohn, said (whom, along with my dad, this book is dedicated to), “This is your chance to turn pennies into fortunes. If you feed the body and not the mind, you will settle for pennies and not fortunes. If you can feed your mind, you can feed your life and your family forever.”

I can promise you this, though: The ideas presented inside The Compound Effect are worth hundreds of times more than what it will cost you to obtain them. Oh, and I also HIGHLY recommend getting the audio program that goes with it—I am especially excited about that! In it I share additional ideas (not in the book) given to me by Richard Branson, Donald Trump, John Wooden, Cal Ripken Jr., Jillian Michaels, Dr. Mehmet Oz, Donny Deutsch… and many more! The audio program really brings the ideas in the book alive. I think you will love it!

The Compound Effect—The Introduction

This book is about success and what it really takes to earn it. It’s time someone told it to you straight. You’ve been bamboozled for too long. There is no magic bullet, secret formula, or quick fix. You don’t make $200,000 a year spending two hours a day on the Internet, lose 30 pounds in a week, rub 20 years off your face with a cream, fix your love life with a pill, or find lasting success with any other scheme that is too good to be true. It would be great if you could buy your success, fame, self-esteem, good relationships, and health and well-being in a nicely clam-shelled package at the local Wal-Mart. But, that’s not how it works.

We are constantly bombarded with increasingly sensational claims to get rich, get fit, get younger, get sexier… all overnight with little effort for only three easy payments of $39.95. These repetitive marketing messages have distorted our sense of what it really takes to succeed. We’ve lost sight of the simple but profound fundamentals of what it takes to be successful.

I’m tired of it. I won’t sit back and watch these reckless messages derail people any longer. I wrote this book to take you back to basics. I’m going to help you clear the clutter and bring focus to the core fundamentals that matter. You can immediately implement in your life the exercises and time-tested success principles read more »