Harvard Emotional Intelligence Class

Chapter 70 Positive action is the guarantee of success (2)
Famous life insurance salesman Frank Bettger suffered the biggest blow of his life shortly after I turned professional baseball—he got fired.The reason is that he played listlessly.The boss said to him: "Frank, after you leave here, wherever you go, cheer up and work with vitality and enthusiasm."

He kept the boss's advice in mind, and when he entered the New Haven team, he made up his mind to become the most passionate player in this league.

Since then, he's been on the court like a fully charged warrior.The throw was so fast and so hard it nearly knocked off the glove of his fellow infield receivers.In the scorching sun, he ran up and down the court in order to win a crucial point, completely forgetting that he would easily suffer from heat stroke.The next morning's paper read: "This rookie's enthusiasm has infected our lads. Not only have they won the game, but they seem to be in better spirits than ever." Nicknamed "Spirit", he is called the "soul" of the team.Three weeks ago, he was called a "lazy guy", but now he is nicknamed "Spirit".

What followed was a rise in his monthly salary from $25 to $185.He didn't think he was great at the game or had a lot of ability because he knew very little about baseball before playing it passionately.So he thinks that passion has caused his salary to skyrocket so much.

After quitting professional baseball, Frank Bettger went to work selling life insurance.After ten frustrating months of salesmanship, Mr. Carnegie advised him: "Bettger, how can you interest anyone with your dead talk?"

So he decided to put his passion into playing as a salesman with the New Haven team.One day, he entered a shop and mustered all his enthusiasm to try to persuade the owner of the shop to buy insurance.The shop owner probably never met such an enthusiastic salesman. He straightened his body, opened his eyes wide, and listened to Betger's words. In the end, he didn't refuse the salesman and bought an insurance.From that day on, Bettger really started selling.In his 12-year sales career, he has witnessed many salesmen double their income with passion, and he has also seen more people achieve nothing due to lack of passion.

In addition to his own talent, Frank Bettger's achievements came from his passion. His passion infected others, made him get out of depression, and brought him a brilliant life.It is difficult for a person who has no enthusiasm for work to be recognized by others. Just imagine, who would want a person who looks listless all day to be his partner?Who would be persuaded to buy something by a man without enthusiasm? ★

If a person only works for the sake of work, then he will be sloppy in doing things, and even cause disasters. Only those who are full of passion regard what they are doing as a challenge. Not suffering, but a kind of enjoyment.

Passion is the catalyst to maximize a person's ability. It can urge you to keep moving forward without getting tired. In the face of difficulties, passion can help you regain your fighting spirit. At any time, you must keep your passion. For yourself Life is of great benefit to one's own career.Passion keeps you young and uplifting at all times; passion makes you high-spirited; passion makes you have better interpersonal relationships; passion makes it easier for you to be affirmed by others; passionate you are more likely to become the focus of a group .So, never lose your passion.

(Section [-] Persistence is the only way to succeed
Professor D. Burns of Harvard University made a statistic and found that a common characteristic of successful people is: regardless of their intelligence or not, and no matter which industry they are in or what position they hold, they are all doing what they are best at. thing.Many facts show that a person's success comes from his focus and devotion to the work he is good at.Only by making efforts and paying the price without complaint or regret can we enjoy the sweet fruit.

We often talk about how lofty our ideals are, and we often envy the brilliant life of a successful person, but have we ever thought about how to realize our ideals?How do successful people achieve success?If we think carefully, we will find the same answer to these two questions: Only by focusing and persisting can we realize our ideals, and there is no successful person who is not a model of concentration and persistence.

Persistence is the only way to succeed. There are many things that cannot be accomplished overnight, and you may even encounter various difficulties in the process of progress, hindering your progress. What you need most at this time is concentration and persistence. Only this kind of strength can make you You move forward step by step, getting closer and closer to the end.

John MacArthur, Dean of Harvard Management School, once said to students: The success of Harvard College is not because of what students have learned in school, but because of how much students have done after graduation; the reason for the success of Harvard graduates is not to come to school Gilded, but in their own hard work.Students are already on the road to success before they come to Harvard. It is not the school that makes them but the students themselves.

★Insist on walking the next mile
Mr. Seward Ryder, a well-known author and war correspondent, wrote in the April 1957 issue of "Reader's Digest" that the best advice he ever received was "Keep going the next mile." The following is A paragraph in its article: "During the Second World War, several people and I had to parachute out of a damaged transport plane and landed in the woods at the junction of Myanmar and India. The only thing we could do at that time was to drag a heavy The 140-mile walk to India at the pace of the August heat and the torrential rains brought by the monsoon had to trek over mountains and mountains. After walking for an hour, the studs of one of my boots Bleeding and bleeding on both feet the size of a dime in the evening. Can I limp 140 miles? Others are in the same situation or worse. Can they walk We thought we were done, but we had to go. We had no choice but to walk the next mile in order to find a place to rest for the night...

When I turned down other jobs and started writing a 25-word book, I couldn't settle down, and I almost gave up the dignity of a professor that I have always been proud of.In other words, I almost didn't want to do it. In the end, I forced myself to only think about how to write the next paragraph, not the next page, and certainly not the next chapter.For six full months, I did nothing but write paragraph after paragraph, and it turned out to be written.A few years ago, I took on an errand to write one radio script a day, and have written 2000 so far.If I had signed a contract of "writing 2000 scripts" at that time, I would have been intimidated by the huge amount and even rejected it. Fortunately, I just wrote one script and then another, and I really wrote so many over time. . "★
The principle of "keep going the next mile" worked not only for Seward Ryder, but it certainly will work for you too.Focusing and sticking to it is the only smart way to achieve any goal.The best way to keep fit is to stick to it "day after day".I have many friends who use this method to stick to their fitness program, and the success rate is higher than other methods.Many people always make detailed fitness plans for themselves, but once they start doing it, they find it difficult to stick to it. The only way to succeed is to keep running for a while every day. After a long time, they will get used to this way , so that you can finally achieve your fitness goals.

The British writer John Cleese can be said to be one of the most prolific writers in the world. He has published a total of 564 novels. If you count by publishing 10 books a year, he spent nearly five or sixty years writing novels.With so many books published, you may think that he is an invincible writer, then you are wrong, he has been rejected 60 times!How can you bear 753 times of depression?What kind of torment is this process?But he persevered, so he succeeded in the end.

People who are focused and persistent are more likely to succeed, concentration can stimulate people's potential, and persistence can create miracles.If you are still tossing around in your own hype, then stop now!Take what you want to do the most and what suits you the most as the goal at this stage, then focus on it, and persist in achieving it.

Edison, who was considered dull by his teacher in his childhood, created 1093 inventions. He is truly a king of inventions. Do you know how many times he failed? He failed 3000 times.So as a master, he would say this: 99 points of hard work, [-] point of genius.Edison insisted on his ideal through repeated failures, and finally became a world-famous inventor.

As Harvard professor Fred Shweder said: No one can gain anything without hard work.The results you get depend on how hard you work, don't always fantasize about chance and coincidence.

As ordinary people, we also have our own dreams, but how many people stick to their dreams?If you are very persistent in your dream and want to realize it very much, then focus on your dream and keep going, even if you encounter setbacks and failures, don’t give up. You must know that concentration and persistence are the best way to realize your dream method!

(Section [-] Tap Potential and Explode Strength

Human potential is unlimited, but very few are tapped out. A large part of the reason is that people are used to their status quo and are too lazy to change it.But when there are external stimuli that have to make changes, the potential is exploded.

★The person who got up from the wheelchair
An American named Steven, who had been living in a wheelchair for 20 years because of an accident that made his legs unable to walk.He felt that his life was meaningless, and drinking became the best way for him to forget his depression and pass the time.One day, he came out of the tavern and went home in a wheelchair as usual, but encountered three robbers who wanted to rob his wallet.He shouted and resisted desperately, and the robber who was cornered even set fire to his wheelchair.The wheelchair quickly burned, and the desire to survive made Steven forget that his legs could not walk. He immediately stood up from the wheelchair and ran a street in one breath.Afterwards, Steven said: "If I didn't run away, I would have been burned, or even burned to death. I forgot everything, jumped up, and ran away desperately. When I finally stopped, I realized that I would Gone.” Now, Steven has a job, is healthy, walks like a normal person, and travels.

Steven has been disabled for 20 years, but he recovered miraculously because of an accident. What does this mean?No one can tell how great a person's potential is, even we can't see it clearly, so we are used to the way we are now, we don't want to make any changes, and we don't think about doing things that we don't seem to be able to do. But something that can be done with hard work.When our lives are threatened, the desire to survive overcomes everything, so it is a miracle that such a large energy can burst out in an instant.The famous writer Colin Wilson once wrote passionately: "In our subconscious mind, near the surface of daily life consciousness, there is a kind of 'surplus energy storage tank', which stores energy ready to be used. Just like the money stored in a personal account in the bank, it can come in handy when we need to use it.”★
If we can also try to tap our potential in ordinary days, can we do better in many aspects than our current self?It is also important to know how to tap your potential.

We all need to learn to be positive.When you make progress, you can attribute it to your own efforts, which will stimulate your desire to continue to challenge yourself; you can also regard your progress as a manifestation of your own strength, so that you will have more confidence in your future efforts , because you believe in your own strength.When you encounter setbacks, you can take it as a test and deal with it with a positive attitude. You can think about solutions to problems from different angles, and maybe you can find solutions to problems inadvertently. Self-confidence can better tap your own potential.

Habit is often an important factor in people's refusal to realize their potential.It is like an energy regulator. Good habits spontaneously make our potential guide thinking and behavior in the direction of success, and bad habits do the opposite.Good habits unleash the potentials necessary for success, and bad habits erode the treasure trove of potentials that help us succeed.

(End of this chapter)