Dr. North’s Creed …
Be present.
Tell the truth.
Play to win.
Don’t be attached to the outcome.

The last two posts focused on being present, and on telling the truth as the first half of my personal creed. This week focuses on the third part of the creed: Play to win.

Playing to win may seem self-evident, but often people play not to lose. Ever done that? I think most of us have; it takes more courage to play to win than to play not to lose. It could be a small thing such as choosing the color to paint a room (which my wife and I just did). Do you take a chance with a bold color that could be either stunning or awful, or do you go with the safe bet? We played to win, and we now have a stunning red room!

Harry Truman made what may be the toughest leadership decision in history – dropping “the bomb”

– By TC North, Ph.D.

“Definiteness of decision always requires courage, sometimes very great courage.”
“Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill

Do you make great decisions under pressure? Great football quarterbacks, such as Tom Brady, quickly read a defense and decide which receiver to throw to. Great salespeople, such as Sara Quick, land the largest new accounts by being creative — like selling to businesses their companies usually don’t serve. Great leaders, such as Harry Truman, the 33rd president of the United States, make decisions that affect the lives of innumerable people, such as dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end World War II.

Napoleon Hill studied over 25,000 people who had experienced failure and concluded that lack of decision-making was one of the top causes of failure. To make great decisions, consider Harry Truman’s three-step decision-making process:
1. The logical decision. Gather the best information from people who know the most about the subject. Make a pro and con list and determine your logical decision.
2. The emotional decision. Search your heart for your emotional decision. Truman’s emotional decision was to not drop the bomb; he hated the idea.
3. The intuitive decision. Take time away to quiet your thoughts and emotions. Then pay attention to your intuition. You may find your intuitive message in the pit of your stomach, like Harry Truman did, or it could be a quiet sense of knowing. Intuitive messages are different for everyone.

It takes courage to make the tough decisions;
a good decision-making process will give you
more confidence in your decisions.

Please leave me your comments and thoughts.  If you would like to hear more from me, go to http://TCNorth.com.

Dr. TC North

Accept your life just as it is, no excuses, no finger pointing, no complaining. With acceptance as your starting point, you can improve your life.

This acceptance of what is frees your energy to improve your life. You brain is like a computer with different operating systems competing to take control the computing system. You have a confident neuronetwork (operating system) and a fearful neuronetwork (operating system). To be more confident, especially under pressure, strengthen your confident neuronetwork and weaken your fearful one.

There are specific brain training techniques that will help you strengthen your confidence and weaken your fears. One world-class athlete who had a very strong fearful neuronetwork, got so anxious at a world championship he almost committed suicide.

The next year, after working on strengthening his confident and weakening his fearful neuronetwork, he competed very successfully at the world championships.

The beginning of improving your life, is beginning with full-responsibility and acceptance of it now.

“Definiteness of decision always requires courage,
sometimes very great courage.”
“Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill

Do you make great decisions under pressure? Great football quarterbacks, such as Tom Brady, quickly read a defense and decide which receiver to throw to. Great salespeople, such as Sara Quick, land the largest new accounts by being creative — like selling to businesses their companies usually don’t serve. Great leaders, such as Harry Truman, the 33rd president of the United States, make decisions that affect the lives of innumerable people, such as dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end World War II.

Napoleon Hill studied over 25,000 people who had experienced failure and concluded that lack of decision-making was one of the top causes of failure. To make great decisions, consider Harry Truman’s three-step decision-making process:

1. The logical decision. Gather the best information from people who know the most about the subject. Make a pro and con list and determine your logical decision.

2. The emotional decision. Search your heart for your emotional decision. Truman’s emotional decision was to not drop the bomb; he hated the idea.

3. The intuitive decision. Take time away to quiet your thoughts and emotions. Then pay attention to your intuition. You may find your intuitive message in the pit of your stomach, like Harry Truman did, or it could be a quiet sense of knowing. Intuitive messages are different for everyone.

It takes courage to make the tough decisions;
a good decision-making process will give you
more confidence in your decisions.

“The soul is dyed the color of its thoughts … .
The content of your character is your choice.”
Heraclitus

– By TC North, Ph.D.

This is the second post on defining moments (a time when you made a life-changing decision). This week, let’s examine defining moments when you had the choice to stay the same, or become more of who you want to be.

I am generally a very positive and happy person, but this wasn’t always true. In my twenties, a girlfriend broke up with me by saying, “I can’t live in your world of negativity anymore.” As I reflected on her statement, there was a painful realization that she was right. I had a choice: Do I continue on as I was, or do I have the courage to …

“It takes courage to grow up and turn out to be who you really are.”
E.E. Cummings

– By TC North, Ph.D.

We’ve all had defining moments in life (a time when we made a life-changing decision). This and the next posting examine two types of defining moments. This posting focuses on having the courage to become who you really are, and next week’s is having the courage to become more of who you want to be.

In the small town where I grew up, most guys hunted. When I was about 12 years old, I was walking in the woods mindlessly shooting chipmunks with my BB gun when a bird began chirping really loudly at me. I walked closer, thinking the bird would fly away. But it sat on a branch and chirped more loudly. I thought …