by Darren Prine

Created on: May 24, 2008

Perhaps the most common conversation overheard is a version of someone complaining. For many, complaints seem to be their favorite topic of conversation. If this is so common how can it be considered dangerous? A certain amount of perspective is required, dear reader, for this to make sense. Obviously, I'm referring to "dangerous" in a different context than say smoking cigarettes, speeding in an automobile or skydiving. However, this habit impacts more people in a negative way than any other habit including smoking and poor diet. How can the author be so arrogant to surmise such a conclusion? The answer is simple logic and reason.

Ask the owner of any company and they will confirm that 20% of their sales force produces 80% of their sales. Approximately 80% of our country's wealth is controlled by 20% of our population. I could continue citing examples of the 80/20 rule but you get the gist. Approximately 20% of us are what we would consider extraordinary. Extraordinary when related to a person means someone who does things that most of us are not willing to do. Extraordinary people tend to do, say, think and act in ways quite different from the majority.

What I'm leading up to, dear reader, is that we all have the choice of being ordinary or extraordinary. If we choose to be extraordinary, we need to study the way the "extraordinary" think, act and speak and move away from the comfort of being "normal". "Normal" is a label for what is considered acceptable for the majority. In other words, we will see the "ordinary" engaged in "normal" activities. It makes sense that if we do things the "ordinary" do we can expect the results that the "ordinary" get.

So what do the "extraordinary" do to enjoy extraordinary results? Volumes have been written covering just this topic by some of our greatest minds. For the purposes of keeping this article to a reasonable length, let's focus on just two of the most important common habits of the "extraordinary": 1. Being conscious of consequences and 2. Deliberate creation. Although these two habits are actually intertwined, let's start with being conscious of consequences. Science tells us that "every action has an equal or opposite reaction". More simply stated, every one of our thoughts, words and actions contains within it a certain level of creative force and thus will have a positive or negative consequence. If we read the books written by the sages of our time we will find the common theme, stated one way or another, "to think

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>