It is certainly important to look where you are walking. It is even more important to look where you are going with your life. In other words, you want to keep your eye on your objectives. 

Many people tend to spend a lot of time looking back on where they have been. Some focus on some positive things that happened in the past that they feel they may not be able to match in the future. Dwelling on the past makes them feel good at the moment; however it causes them to miss all the opportunities that exist ahead of them. 

Others tend to dwell upon past mistakes, failures, and 
shortcomings, seeing them as a reason that they may be unable to succeed in the present. A brief glance at past missteps can be valuable when used as an opportunity to learn from our mistakes and not repeat them. Dwelling on them, however, is a recipe for failure. 

To succeed you need to look ahead to where you want to go and to whom you want to become. 

Although you always want to look ahead, you also need to look down. Imagine walking in a desert with a majestic hill 
directly in front of you. You certainly want to focus on that 
hill to keep up your motivation to reach it. If you keep your eyes focused only on the top of the hill, you will probably 
never complete your journey. 

You also need to look down to see where you are walking. You want to avoid objects that may be in your path and will cause you to stumble and fall. In life, too, you want to look down to your very next step while maintaining your overall focus on your ultimate objective. 

Your goal:

To keep focused on your objectives and your immediate 
actions. 

The result:

You will move more quickly and easily toward your desired outcomes and objectives. 

Your assignment:

Notice any time you find yourself looking back to past events in your life.  If they are positive events, are you using them as motivators and quickly moving on?  If they are negative events, are you using them to learn what to avoid or do differently in the future and then moving on?  If you find yourself stuck in the past, push yourself to take some immediate action to start moving ahead with your life. Wishing You the Very Best!

Sandy Karn
Results Specialist
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Sandy Karn is president of her own company, Creative Results Sources, Inc., a consulting and training company of over 30 years. She is a Field Manager with Inscape Publishing, publishers of proven self-assessment tools used in training and consulting. Take her WINNER's PROFILE! 
http://www.keykonnections.com/quiz-test.html
___________________________________

How to handle rejection? 

Most of us experience rejection of one kind or the other, 
often for no apparent reason. It is that another person 
turned down our proposal or turned against us or issued 
some thoughtless comment and did something not good for us.

It is said that some of life's most painful rejection comes 
from childhood experiences. Rejection suffered in the early years often has great impact on a person's entire life. Whenever a grandparent, or someone we hold in esteem-rejects our ideas, feelings of being unloved, unworthy, useless, or insignificant often arise. 

Learning the reason for rejection and the correct way to 
respond to rejection are essential to avoid feelings of hurt 
and incompetence. 

One of the first things taught to life insurance agents is 
to realize that out of 100 people contacted for selling life 
insurance policies hardly 10 people would buy and 90% would refuse to buy because of one reason or the other. Even then life insurance selling is highest paid hard work if one works with the right approach.

Here are different thoughts of different people.

A rejection is nothing more than a necessary step in the pursuit of success. _Bo Bennett

It is not rejection itself that people fear, it is the possible
consequences of rejection. Preparing to accept those 
consequences and viewing rejection as a learning experience that will bring you closer to success, will not only help you to conquer the fear of rejection, but help you to appreciate rejection itself. __Bo Bennett

There's nothing like rejection to make you do an inventory of yourself. __James Lee Burke

Rejection is Part of the Deal
by Anne McCullagh Rennie 

I've been sitting in the background reading for a while. But 
today I thought I'd share my experiences on rejection. 

It's part of the deal! 

I have published six books, been invited to contribute to books and had my books on bestseller lists but I have also had my fair share of rejections (some demanding payment for manuscript returns).  The classic was of a short story presented to New Idea, in which the hero proposed to the heroine the third day they met.

The then short story editor of New Idea rejected my short 
story on the grounds that it was 'sentimental, saccharine and unbelievable'. 

The short story editor left New Idea. 

The next short story editor exclaimed that she 'loved my 
writing and story telling style, that the story was so 
romantic'.  New Idea printed it within weeks!

I repeat: Rejection is part of the deal. Get over it and
keep writing!  Anger over rejection helps us write.  If you
can't handle rejection get out of the game 

Happy writing 

PS my husband proposed to me on the ski slopes of Austria two days after we met and we were married within four months and still are!.

Anne McCullagh Rennie
Curl up with a good book?
Check out Anne's titles at http://www.annerennie.com 
Want freedom from arthritic pain forever?
visit http://www.annerennie.com
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Is It Really Guaranteed?
by Bill Staton

According to our 2,229-page Webster's New Universal 
Unabridged Dictionary, the word guarantee means "a promise or assurance, esp. one in writing, that something is of specified quality, content, benefit, etc., or that it will 
perform satisfactorily for a given length of time: a 
money-back guarantee."

Within the financial community, the word guaranteed is tossed about very loosely and often in a misleading way. Two years ago we lost a money-management client because an investment-products salesman said he could earn 9% a year "guaranteed" for the rest of his life. Who wouldn't be attracted to that?

What this man failed to understand and/or was not told is 
that a good chunk of that 9% was an annual return of part of his original investment. The rest was from income.

We saw an ad recently with the big bold headline: "An AXA Equitable annuity can mean guaranteed income for life." In hard-to-read print one-sixth the size of the headline at the bottom of the page was the warning: "All guarantees are subject to the claims-paying ability of AXA Equitable Life Insurance Company."

We're not questioning AXA's ability to provide what it's 
offering, but as far we know the only 100% guaranteed 
investments in the United States, England and other advanced nations are the debt securities of those nations such as a U.S. Treasury bond or its equivalent elsewhere.

Next time some investment-products salesman leads you on with the siren song "guaranteed," be sure to read and 
understand what he's really trying to sell.

Not sure if you need a Money Manager? Take this quick quiz  and find out: http://www.billstaton.com/quiz.htm