YOUR GUIDE TO PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

It's Your Key to Getting Ahead of the Competition

by Susanna K. Hutcheson

Spend time on yourself every single day. You are your biggest asset. And if you don't spend time developing that asset to its' fullest potential and well-being you will lose the race for success to others who do devote time to personal and professional development.

What is meant by spending time on yourself? Simply put, it means that you should not let one day go by that you don't do something to increase your value.

You can do anything if you will just concentrate on developing yourself. Did you know that there are more books and articles written on that subject than anything else? There are more books, tapes, articles and courses that will help you develop your potential than have ever been available before.

If you're not reading every day, if you're not listening to tapes in you car and taking courses that will improve your performance then you're simply not too serious about your future.

The least successful people in life are those who do only what they have to do...no more. They make no attempts to develop their skills or their thinking or their work habits.

So what do you need to do to develop yourself to your fullest potential? First, set a goal to be one of the very best in your profession. Excellence is not a destination, it is a journey. And you should be taking that journey.

Another goal should be to focus on serving other people...making yourself valuable to them. And to do that you must know everything there is to know about what you do for people, about your profession. That means you must know more than your competitors. YOU WANT TO BE THE BEST.

Master marketer, Cecil Hoge, Sr., author of THE ELECTRONIC MARKETING MANUAL and other books says you should ask yourself what you can do to help the other person to increase his or her business. Then, you should proceed to go the extra mile and help that person. This is one of the steps the competition probably isn't taking. And it's one of the main steps that will insure your success.

So what else do you need to develop yourself so you can be of great value to others?

Lee Iacocca said in one of his books that he reads one business book a week. How many books do you read? The average American reads less than one book per year. Isn't that amazing?

If you make the decision today to read thirty to sixty minutes each day or one book a month it would put you in the top one percent of the people in the WORLD in terms of personal and professional development.

But if you read one book a week that would be 52 books a year. In ten years that would be 520 books. Just imagine what POWER all that knowledge would give you in one short year, in two, in ten. Imagine how much VALUE that would bring to you and what you do professionally and personally! It's staggering.

Talk about a slight edge...you would have so much power and knowledge at your fingertips and in your head that your success would be almost assured unless you yourself sabotaged it.

And to the reading of books you can add listening to motivational and training tapes, watching videos that will improve your knowledge and taking courses.

Now remember...the average person reads less than one book per year. You put that person up against the person who reads one book a week, or even one book a month, and who do you think stands the better chance of being successful; of being of more value to others?

This development program does not require you to have money or advantages over anyone else. You can begin right where you are with what you have at hand. The choice is yours. You can become everything of which you are capable. You can be as successful as you want to be. But remember, the price has to be paid before you are handed the product. You have to reap before you sow. You have to develop yourself and make yourself valuable before you can reap the rewards that will inevitably come as a result.

Remember, excellence is not a destination, it's a journey. Good luck on your journey.

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Susanna K. Hutcheson is a professional advertising and direct mail copywriter. She was the first copywriter to utilize the Internet as a place to market this type of service. Susanna has clients all over the world. Some who hire her for one or two yearly projects and others who retain her on a yearly basis. Visit her Web site at http://www.powerwriting.com. Her e-mail address is powerwriter@powerwriting.com. To subscribe to her newsletter, MARKETING INSIDER NEWS, send a blank e-mail to subscribe@powerwriting.com. Telephone: (316) 684-0457.