The following guest blog by Marty Wolff truly resonates with our view of leadership, it’s equally important to have the business skills and the inner skills to really be an effective leader.  Enjoy his guest blog on the “Inner Game”.

Many of the master teachers have been reminding us that success, both personal and professional is an “inner game”. What happens on the inside will reveal itself on the outside. We have heard these comments from so many wise people over time, yet many of us still don’t understand the power of learning how to make this inner game work for our success.

In this context, success can be defined as achieving a certain tangible or intangible goal. Let’s avoid any detailed definitions of what goals are, let’s suffice it to say a goal is something you want to achieve, a place you want to be, or a state of mind that keeps you calm through good and not so good times.

I believe in the inner game. I have learned about it, practiced it and gained by the implementation of what I have learned. This knowledge has helped me stay on my game both personally and professionally.

So, here are the 10 steps that I believe will help you achieve YOUR success. These steps will also help you maintain a level of desired performance.

1. Take 100% responsibility for everything that happens to you and the actions you take everyday. Don’t blame your spouse, your boss, the weather, the stock market or anything else. No matter what happens, if you have the right frame of mind you will take the right actions to move you to a different and better place.
2. Read everyday. John Maxwell tells us that our success is the result of our daily agenda. Read something about business, the world, building relationships or other positive literature everyday. Feed your mind just like you feed your body.
3. Mediate everyday. I have finally discovered the power of meditation. John Assaraf and Jack Canfield convinced me “success leaves clues”. If these two very successful people meditate everyday then it’s good enough for me. The funny thing is, the more my mind is going in circles, the longer I meditate. This takes real discipline on my part. For full disclosure and to keep your expectations in line, I meditate in the morning for any where from 15 to 45 minutes. This practice will help you focus on what is really important.
4. Plan and take action on a business opportunity or personal goal that will benefit you in 6 to 12 months. Because we are so busy, we tend to let the day’s activities pull us along. That will find us at the day exhausted and with little satisfaction. If you are a business owner or a sales person this is very important. Thinking and planning for something to occur several months out, pulls you toward the goal. It energizes you. And when the time comes, which will come whether you planned or not, you will be so pleased that you set a goal and achieved it.
5. Send out a gratitude note everyday. There is ample evidence that being grateful to people that you interact with has a positive effect on your thinking. Positive thinking leads to positive behavior, positive behavior leads to positive results.
6. Work on a proposal everyday. If you don’t have one, create one. In business this is easy. If you do not have an active client you are working on, start to write a proposal on an account you have not even contacted yet, you will see yourself developing a plan to make them a client. For your personal life you may want to plan for a family reunion, a vacation, a new car or anything else you want to have or create 6 to 12 months down the road.
7. Visualize your success. “See” it in your mind as if it is already accomplished. Athletes do this all the time. Statistics validate that athletes that “see” their success are in fact more successful than their competition.
8. Exercise. Get physical everyday. For most of us our work days are very sedentary. We sit and work on a computer or some similar work.You need to move around as much as possible during the day. Take a walk at lunch, go to the gym before or after work. Try to get a minimum of 30 minutes vigorous exercise everyday. For me that is a brisk walk just about every morning. I’m describing physical exercise, however it is the “mind game” that gets you moving.
9. Keep the promises you make to yourself. This practice can jump start your success plan. If you promise yourself to spend specific time with your family, then do it! If you promise yourself to make that extra sales call today, then do it! If you promise yourself you will lose 10 pounds in the next 60 days, then do it! Keep your promises to yourself. This will lead to you being a trusted family member and business associate.
10. Finally. Affirm your worthiness. If you don’t believe you are worthy or deserve the success you seek, you will not get to where you want to go. If your self esteem needs work, then learn how to think better about yourself. You deserve peace and happiness.

I have been mentored by so many people over the years. They don’t know that, however through books, webinars, white papers, magazines etc. I have tried to learn how to improve. Improvement and excellence is never an accident, you need to work at it everyday. I suggest you pay attention to folks like John Assaraf, Jack Canfield, John Maxwell, Seth Godin, Bob Burg, Febienne Fredrickson, Janet Attwod, and Robin Sharma to name a few.

Good luck on your journey.

Marty is the CEO of Marty Wolff Business Solutions (MWBS). “We help people and their organizations perform better than they ever imagined”. Marty can be reached at marty@martywolffbusinesssolutions.com and his website is http://martywolffbusinesssolutions.com.