"You Are Responsible For Your Life. So Take Responsibility"
John Duffy
Years ago when I was acting someone stated, "why would you expect your agent to work harder for you than yourself when they get 10% and you get 90%". That statement made a lot of sense and it is true for your life in general. Why would you expect your employer or the government to be more concerned or responsible for your life?
News flash, you are 100% responsible for your life and you are 100% responsible for the results you get or don't get in life. I know that might be tough to swallow and accept but it's the fact Jack. If you truly accept this it is very empowering for your life.......
Take 100% responsibility for;
Your Life
Your Relationships
Your Family
Your Finances
Your Health
Now just Do It............
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Monday, June 29, 2009
John Duffy's Success Tip # 11 - Keep Learning
"Keep Learning. You Can Stop Learning When You're Dead"
John Duffy
I recommend you commit to being a life-long learner. Studies vary but they state that the average American read from 1.5 -to 5 books. 27% admit to not reading a book. I find this fact both amazing and depressing.
I've never been average in this area. I dropped out of high school when I was fifteen but I had a passion for reading and learning even then and probably read 15-20 books that year and the number of books I read just increased every year. Ten years later I went back to school and I've always been a passionate reader. Today I read 50-75 books a year and dozens of magazines. of course I also read constantly online as well.
My idea of heaven is a giant bookstore where I get to read every book ever written. Ok, I admit I'm different.
Seriously, commit to learning and growing and you will be rewarded in life........
John Duffy
I recommend you commit to being a life-long learner. Studies vary but they state that the average American read from 1.5 -to 5 books. 27% admit to not reading a book. I find this fact both amazing and depressing.
I've never been average in this area. I dropped out of high school when I was fifteen but I had a passion for reading and learning even then and probably read 15-20 books that year and the number of books I read just increased every year. Ten years later I went back to school and I've always been a passionate reader. Today I read 50-75 books a year and dozens of magazines. of course I also read constantly online as well.
My idea of heaven is a giant bookstore where I get to read every book ever written. Ok, I admit I'm different.
Seriously, commit to learning and growing and you will be rewarded in life........
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Friday, June 26, 2009
John Duffy's Success Tip # 10 - Laugh at Life
"Laugh at life, laugh at yourself. Life ain’t all that serious until it is."
John Duffy
Sometimes we take life and ourselves a little too serious. We all know people who have no sense of humour and can't laugh at themselves. Maybe someone close to you? Really close?
I remember when I was going through one of the hardest and darkest periods of my life and it felt overwhelming and I decided to find a way to laugh at it and myself. I started to view my life as if I was in a Woody Allen movie and all the challenges I faced as just God having a little joke at my expense. It lifted the weight off of me and I started finding humour in anything life was throwing at me. And Lord knows it was throwing a lot at me that year. Soon I didn't have to work at it but it became my unconscious reaction to see the humour in situations.
One event stands out, I was driving home from the airport with a friend and while waiting for the red light to change a drunk driver smashed into us. We got out of the car and the driver drove off. My car was totaled and we we hurting physically and I started to laugh and my friend thought i was crazy and she asked me what I was laughing at and I replied, "no more car payments". I felt grateful in that moment to be alive and just shook my head and saw it all as a cosmic joke. i got through some worse events that summer and laughing at life and myself helped me through.
"Laugh at life, laugh at yourself. Life ain’t all that serious until it is." And when it is serious and life or death then recognize the difference and deal with it in the appropriate way.....
I continue to laugh at the struggles that I face in life.....
John Duffy
Sometimes we take life and ourselves a little too serious. We all know people who have no sense of humour and can't laugh at themselves. Maybe someone close to you? Really close?
I remember when I was going through one of the hardest and darkest periods of my life and it felt overwhelming and I decided to find a way to laugh at it and myself. I started to view my life as if I was in a Woody Allen movie and all the challenges I faced as just God having a little joke at my expense. It lifted the weight off of me and I started finding humour in anything life was throwing at me. And Lord knows it was throwing a lot at me that year. Soon I didn't have to work at it but it became my unconscious reaction to see the humour in situations.
One event stands out, I was driving home from the airport with a friend and while waiting for the red light to change a drunk driver smashed into us. We got out of the car and the driver drove off. My car was totaled and we we hurting physically and I started to laugh and my friend thought i was crazy and she asked me what I was laughing at and I replied, "no more car payments". I felt grateful in that moment to be alive and just shook my head and saw it all as a cosmic joke. i got through some worse events that summer and laughing at life and myself helped me through.
"Laugh at life, laugh at yourself. Life ain’t all that serious until it is." And when it is serious and life or death then recognize the difference and deal with it in the appropriate way.....
I continue to laugh at the struggles that I face in life.....
Thursday, June 25, 2009
John Duffy's Success Tip # 9 - Perspective
"Put everything in Perspective. Things can always get better and they can always get worse. So no whining, just make it better."
John Duffy
Can you remember the times you felt sorry for yourself? Did it make things better? Probably not. I remember the time I met W Mitchell in Maui at a Tony Robbins seminar. I was really struggling at the time to just survive and at times felt like life wasn't fair. Then I heard W Mitchell speak. He was in a wheelchair. If you don't know his story I recommend you check it out @ http://www.wmitchell.com/.
In summary this is the story I heard. W Mitchell survived first a blazing motorcycle accident and later a paralyzing plane crash four years later, he was burned over 65% of his body and sentenced to life in a wheelchair. W. Mitchell was once a heathy Marine. He chose to overcome these tragic events in his life and ran for Congress using the slogan, "vote for W Mitchell, I'm not just another pretty face" and he went on to build a career as a speaker and motivator.
As I sat there listening to him I felt a shift in me. He put things into perspective for a lifetime. I would never see life the same again.
I leave you with a quote from him:
"Before I was paralyzed there were 10,000 things I could do. Now there are 9,000. I can either dwell on the 1,000 I've lost or focus on the 9,000 I have left." - W Mitchell
Now that's Perspective.....
John Duffy
Can you remember the times you felt sorry for yourself? Did it make things better? Probably not. I remember the time I met W Mitchell in Maui at a Tony Robbins seminar. I was really struggling at the time to just survive and at times felt like life wasn't fair. Then I heard W Mitchell speak. He was in a wheelchair. If you don't know his story I recommend you check it out @ http://www.wmitchell.com/.
In summary this is the story I heard. W Mitchell survived first a blazing motorcycle accident and later a paralyzing plane crash four years later, he was burned over 65% of his body and sentenced to life in a wheelchair. W. Mitchell was once a heathy Marine. He chose to overcome these tragic events in his life and ran for Congress using the slogan, "vote for W Mitchell, I'm not just another pretty face" and he went on to build a career as a speaker and motivator.
As I sat there listening to him I felt a shift in me. He put things into perspective for a lifetime. I would never see life the same again.
I leave you with a quote from him:
"Before I was paralyzed there were 10,000 things I could do. Now there are 9,000. I can either dwell on the 1,000 I've lost or focus on the 9,000 I have left." - W Mitchell
Now that's Perspective.....
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
John Duffy's Success Tip # 8 - Excuses or Results
" You can either get Results or make Excuses. You can’t do both. Your choice."
Human's can be excuse making machines. It starts when we are young and unless we get over this bad habit we sell our selves short. I choose to operate from a place that their are no excuses and I am responsible for everything I create or fail to create in my life. It's more empowering. I choose to get results.......
John Duffy
Human's can be excuse making machines. It starts when we are young and unless we get over this bad habit we sell our selves short. I choose to operate from a place that their are no excuses and I am responsible for everything I create or fail to create in my life. It's more empowering. I choose to get results.......
John Duffy
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
John Duffy's Success Tip # 7 - Gratitude, Gratitude, Gratitude and then some more Gratitude
"Gratitude, Gratitude, Gratitude and then some more Gratitude.
We all have so much to be thankful for."
I have come to make feeling grateful a habit that I do every day and my life keeps being filled with more things to be grateful for. Strange how that works. Of course I don't list all the things I'm grateful for every day because there isn't enough time. Like many of these success tips I didn't always feel gratitude about life but I'm a good learner, well maybe sometimes a slow learner and life has a way of kicking your a... to teach you. I got stories....
I remember when i first got the idea of gratitude. It was 1989 in NYC and a very dear friend/ex-girlfriend was dying of AIDS and I was spending a lot of time with her. I was going thorough the most difficult period of my life at the time, struggling to not become homeless, getting hit by a drunk driver and having my car totaled and suffering whiplash and a lot more. In the midst of this my friend told me she didn't want me to visit one day because she didn't want to depress me because she was having a real bad day. In that moment of extreme compassion on her part I got it.
She was dying and she was concerned with not depressing me.
This was more that a light bulb moment it was more like a sun lighting up all the dark places in my head and heart. I got it, I really got it.
I realized how much I had to be grateful for and that no matter how tough things were I would always live my life grateful for every single moment. So I offer you the gift I was given in that moment and I pass it along. Make a list of all the things you can be grateful for, large and small and then live every day knowing that you can be grateful for even the challenges as well.
Gratitude, Gratitude, Gratitude and then some more Gratitude......... It will transform your life.
John Duffy
We all have so much to be thankful for."
I have come to make feeling grateful a habit that I do every day and my life keeps being filled with more things to be grateful for. Strange how that works. Of course I don't list all the things I'm grateful for every day because there isn't enough time. Like many of these success tips I didn't always feel gratitude about life but I'm a good learner, well maybe sometimes a slow learner and life has a way of kicking your a... to teach you. I got stories....
I remember when i first got the idea of gratitude. It was 1989 in NYC and a very dear friend/ex-girlfriend was dying of AIDS and I was spending a lot of time with her. I was going thorough the most difficult period of my life at the time, struggling to not become homeless, getting hit by a drunk driver and having my car totaled and suffering whiplash and a lot more. In the midst of this my friend told me she didn't want me to visit one day because she didn't want to depress me because she was having a real bad day. In that moment of extreme compassion on her part I got it.
She was dying and she was concerned with not depressing me.
This was more that a light bulb moment it was more like a sun lighting up all the dark places in my head and heart. I got it, I really got it.
I realized how much I had to be grateful for and that no matter how tough things were I would always live my life grateful for every single moment. So I offer you the gift I was given in that moment and I pass it along. Make a list of all the things you can be grateful for, large and small and then live every day knowing that you can be grateful for even the challenges as well.
Gratitude, Gratitude, Gratitude and then some more Gratitude......... It will transform your life.
John Duffy
Monday, June 22, 2009
John Duffy's Success Tip # 6 - It's All About Choices
"It’s all about Choices. You always have choices, make the right ones."
Looking back on my life I can see all the turning points in my life were caused by me making the right choice in difficult moments. I didn't always understand that I had choices in every moment and circumstance of my life. Growing up in the South Bronx I believed I was the victim of circumstances and life wasn't fair and of course the actions I took reflected those beliefs. It was very liberating when I realized I always had a choice to decide what something meant and what i was going to do about it.
And yes life isn't fair and that's a fact Jack but it doesn't matter what matters is what you are going to do about making your life the best.
Understanding the power of choice helped transform my life from initially one of surviving to one of striving and eventually one of thriving. You are truly the master of your life and as Chris Gardner says 'You drove here and you can drive out".
Chose wisely my friends, it's only your life that depends on it.......
John Duffy
Looking back on my life I can see all the turning points in my life were caused by me making the right choice in difficult moments. I didn't always understand that I had choices in every moment and circumstance of my life. Growing up in the South Bronx I believed I was the victim of circumstances and life wasn't fair and of course the actions I took reflected those beliefs. It was very liberating when I realized I always had a choice to decide what something meant and what i was going to do about it.
And yes life isn't fair and that's a fact Jack but it doesn't matter what matters is what you are going to do about making your life the best.
Understanding the power of choice helped transform my life from initially one of surviving to one of striving and eventually one of thriving. You are truly the master of your life and as Chris Gardner says 'You drove here and you can drive out".
Chose wisely my friends, it's only your life that depends on it.......
John Duffy
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Friday, June 19, 2009
John Duffy's Success Tip # 5 - Be a Leader
"Life needs more leaders not followers. Decide to be a Leader. Step up in every area of your life. Leaders lead by example. Lead on...."
John Duffy
John Duffy
Thursday, June 18, 2009
John Duffy's Success Tip # 4 - Never Quit
"Promise yourself that you will never give up, never quit."
John Duffy
John Duffy
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
John Duffy's Success Tip # 3 - Take Action
"Take action and then take some more action and yes then take some more. You"ll know when you've taken enough if you reach your goal. Get in the Game.... Game on........"
John Duffy
John Duffy
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
John Duffy's Success Tip # 2 - Daily Improvement (DI)
"Every day do just 1 more thing to improve an area of your life. What would your life be like if you improved 1 thing every day in the key areas of your life?
Family / Friends
Fitness / Health
Career
Finances
Contribution / Volunteer
Psychology / Mindset
Growth / New Learnings
Legacy
Commit to a philosophy of Daily Improvement (DI)........."
John Duffy
Family / Friends
Fitness / Health
Career
Finances
Contribution / Volunteer
Psychology / Mindset
Growth / New Learnings
Legacy
Commit to a philosophy of Daily Improvement (DI)........."
John Duffy
Monday, June 15, 2009
John Duffy's Success Tip # 1 - Solutions
"Solutions, Solutions, Solutions.
Okay I've heard the problem now what's the solution?
There's always a way and an answer. Your job is to find it."
John Duffy
Okay I've heard the problem now what's the solution?
There's always a way and an answer. Your job is to find it."
John Duffy
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Sunday Review - Looking Back - Looking Forward
"Another week has past, so can you look back and say you did your best...?"
James Hayes - Friends of Ireland
Great question. Ask it regularly and step up your life........
James Hayes - Friends of Ireland
Great question. Ask it regularly and step up your life........
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Friday, June 12, 2009
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Thought For Day - Be a Winner
"If you don't see yourself as a winner, then you cannot perform as a winner. "
Zig Ziglar
Zig Ziglar
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Thought For Day - Poverty or Success - Your Choice
"If you are born poor, it is not your fault. But if you die poor, it is your fault."
Unknown
Unknown
Tuesday, June 09, 2009
Thought For Day - Write Your Story
"You're the author of your story, Do you want to be the Victim or the Hero?"
Write the story of your life you want and live it.....
Write the story of your life you want and live it.....
Monday, June 08, 2009
Thought For Day - Questions
I don't pretend we have all the answers. But the questions are certainly worth thinking about.-
Arthur C. Clarke
Questions generate answers.......... Ask many questions, especially empowering ones.....
Arthur C. Clarke
Questions generate answers.......... Ask many questions, especially empowering ones.....
Sunday, June 07, 2009
Saturday, June 06, 2009
Friday, June 05, 2009
Thought For Day - You Have A Choice
" For 24 years of my adult life BY CHOICE I have weighed well over 200 lbs. I say BY CHOICE because I have never accidentally eaten anything. I mean it's always been deliberate. And when I CHOOSE to eat too much today, I have CHOSEN to weigh too much tomorrow....... You can CHOOSE to set goals and realize your potential or CHOOSE not to......"
Zig Ziglar
Zig Ziglar
Thursday, June 04, 2009
Thought For Day - Lead By Example
"Discover that the most powerful way to help those
you love is to lead by example — and realize
you're leading by example all of the time."
— Joe Caruso
you love is to lead by example — and realize
you're leading by example all of the time."
— Joe Caruso
Wednesday, June 03, 2009
Thought For Day - Gratitude
"Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others."
Cicero
What are you grateful for today?
What can you be grateful for ?
Cicero
What are you grateful for today?
What can you be grateful for ?
Tuesday, June 02, 2009
Monday, June 01, 2009
Thought For Day - Part of the Solution
"If you're not part of the problem, you can't be part of the solution"
Recognize your role in a problem and then be part of the solution. Don't be a victim be a player.
Thanks to Tony Robbins
Recognize your role in a problem and then be part of the solution. Don't be a victim be a player.
Thanks to Tony Robbins
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