Denny Strecker’s Blog

This is one of my favorite articles. It’s by Tom Peters, the author of “In Search of Excellence,” and “Passion for Excellence.”

Risk Taking: Let’s say you were playing poker and you thought you had a decent hand. In fact, you were willing to bet on it! Out of your five poker chips, you bet two. And guess what? Somebody has a better hand, and you lose your two chips! Now, you better be more careful next time, right?

Did you know that many people are terrified of taking risks? Terrified to the point that they avoid trying new things? They avoid doing the very things that lead to real growth!

Well, if all risk taking were like that poker game, you would do well to be cautious, and avoid risk.

But let’s consider a different poker game. Again you are dealt a pretty good hand. You like your chances, so, once again, you bet two chips. The cards are laid down, and again, you lose!

But this time, something different happens. As the winner scoops up the pot, the dealer hands you two chips, to replace the ones you have lost! And, much to your astonishment, each time you lose, your supply of chips is replenished!

You begin playing more aggressively; your confidence soars when you discover that each chance leaves you no worse off than when you started.

And you know what happens?

Sometimes you’re gonna win. And I suggest that, because of your newly found confidence, and your aggressive style of play, you win more often than ever before!

Well, are there any of us who wouldn’t like to be in that second poker game? Where you always had a chance to hit the jackpot, and no chance of loss if you failed?

There is one thing, however, that is guaranteed. It is a sure thing that if you don’t take any risks, if you don’t try anything new in your life, you will always get the same results you are getting right now!

The only way to truly lose is by doing nothing…so…go for it!

You would do well, students, to give some thought to how this applies in your life!

There are 6 areas in your life that need to be complete in order to lead a fulfilling life. If you are not happy with your life, disappointed with where you are at, or just feel that something is missing, take a look at these 6 areas and see which is lacking. Sometimes making a small adjustment can lead to major improvements.

# 1 - Certainty - Fulfilled people gain a level of comfort knowing what to expect from their daily activities. Having certainty in your life tends to make you feel safe.

# 2- Variety - Having choices between basic things leads to fulfillment. Imagine if you wore the same color, style and brand of clothes every day. Or if you had the same food for every meal all week. Mix it up!

# 3 - Significance - Every person on the planet looks to be significant. This could be to your spouse, children, parents, neighbors, boss, co-workers, or even complete strangers. It makes you feel good to know that you have had a positive impact on someone else’s day or life.

# 4 - Connection and Love - Everyone needs to feel that they have connected with someone else in the world. A key element in unhappy people is the fact that they do not feel connected to anyone. Who are your connections to this world? Tell them that - send them a note or call them right now! While you are helping yourself feel connected, you are making them feel significant. See how these work? Isn’t that awesome!!!!

# 5 - Grow - never stop learning new things. As soon as you think you know it all, or believe that you don’t have to learn any more is the day you begin dying.

# 6 - Contribute Beyond Yourself - Some people tend to get as much as they can and hang onto it as if their life depending on it. This tendency leads to a very unfulfilling life. There is abundance in the world. There is plenty of everything to go around. Give more than what you think you can and you will see a whole new world open its doors to you in the years to come.

Parents Beware! There is a thief near you! And that thief is not after your money or your VCR. This thief is after something far more valuable. The thief is after the Self-Esteem of your most precious possession…your child.

My friends, we live in a largely negative world. And, unless you are vigilant, that negativity will drain the Self-Esteem from your son or daughter.

Protecting the Self-Esteem of your child is an ongoing, never-ending task. The responsibility falls to you. If you don’t undertake this urgent responsibility, who will?

Here is a 10 step approach I use to develop and protect Self-Esteem. You can use these strategies, too!

1. Always remind your child of their past victories and accomplishments. Let their self-image be built upon a recollection of past successes. Let the memory of failures and disappointments fade away.

2. Help your child strive for improvement….not perfection. Help them to create reasonable expectations for performance.

3. Develop a family heritage. Teach your child to be proud of your family. Tell them about the achievements and sacrifices of their parents, grandparents, and other relatives.

4. Do provide feedback; don’t be overly critical. If you do have to give negative feedback, especially to an older child, always criticize privately; on the other hand, always praise publicly!

5. Teach him the value of telling the truth. Lying steals Self-Esteem!

6. Appearance counts! Guide your child into taking pride in their appearance.

7. Try to guide her toward friends who have high Self-Esteem. Help her to avoid negative people.

8. Paint the big picture with your child. Help her to dream big dreams about her future!

9. Be healthy! Exercise regularly; eat a balanced diet.

10. Become an expert! Pick a couple of activities that are important to your child and help him to MASTER them! Don’t allow them to flit from activity to activity.

I have created a program to give parents the tools they need to teach their child the skill of Confidence and I am offering the 1st week free so you can test drive it and see if this program is for you.

It is an audio program so make sure your speakers are turned on.

Check out the special offer if you purchase before the end of this month.

Click Here to Listen to Program

Several months ago I created a Safety Tips program to help empower women by learning how to keep themselves and their children safe. This morning, I expanded those tips from 1 month to an entire YEAR!!

You can register to receive your FREE tips at: www.SafetyTipsForWomen.com

The following is one of my favorite tools in teaching the “Denny Strecker’s Karate” system to the teachers and assistant teachers. It easily translates to parenting skills!

Concerning a Teacher’s (Parent’s) Influence:

“I have come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in the classroom (home). It’s my personal approach that creates the climate. It’s my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher (parent), I possess a tremendous power to make a (my) child’s life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated, and a (my) child humanized or de-humanized.”

This is an excerpt from Professor Paul Pilzer, author of “Unlimited Wealth” and “Other People’s Money”…One of the questions I am frequently asked by parents, particularly parents who have succeeded themselves but didn’t have the opportunity to go to college, is what subject their son or daughter should study in college in order to achieve financial success.

I usually turn their question around, asking them detailed questions about what their child is really passionate about -sports, pets, movies, etc.- until they interrupt and tell me that they are asking my opinion about their child’s economic welfare, not their child’s social life. Then I explain the answer to their original question. The key to achieving financial success today, or success in any field for that matter, is being able to learn new things. And the key to having the ability to learn new things is developing confidence in your ability to learn.

Even if there were one field or another that you could study in college for financial success, it wouldn’t matter because most of what you studied in school would be technologically obsolete by the time you graduated. Today, it doesn’t matter anymore how much you already know about a particular subject - things change so quickly that the most successful people in virtually every field are the people who learn new things the fastest.

Thus, the goal of every educational program should be to develop confidence in one’s ability to learn. And the way to develop confidence about one’s ability to learn is to learn something very well. And the way to learn something very well is to be passionate about learning it.

The hope, then, for every parent concerned about their child’s future economic welfare, is that the child discover an interest in anything - music, art, history, psychology, math - that they passionately want to learn about. If this happens, the child, on his or her own, will master learning about it and possibly even major in the subject…eventually rising to the level where they will debate the subject with their professors.

If, and when, this happens, their future will be set - for they will have developed confidence in their ability to learn. This confidence in their ability to learn will lead them to success in whatever they seek.

Thus, if there is any gift a parent could give to a child, it is to nurture, whenever it occurs, the passion that a child might develop at any time to learn about any field or subject. For if the child masters learning just one subject, the parent who encouraged the child will have given a great gift. A true “gift of the magi,” a gift that keeps on giving for the rest of the child’s life.”

As some of you know, one of my favorite quotes is: 

“Of What Use To Make Heroic Vows of Amendment, If the Same Old Lawbreaker Is To Keep Them?” - Ralph Waldo Emerson 

This quote has a special significance for me. In the mid-1980’s, I began to aggressively set goals in my personal and my professional life. At the beginning of each year, I would be filled with excitement and optimism about the awesome things I was going to accomplish. And by early spring, in each of those years, it would be clear that I wasn’t going to even come close to the goals that I had set. It was so discouraging! 

Had I been too ambitious? Were my goals too aggressive? Were there obstacles that were difficult to overcome? Maybe. But, about ten years ago, I had a huge breakthrough – and discovered what the problem really was. 

It was me! 

I was not yet the type of person who honored the commitments I made to myself! I easily lost focus. I procrastinated. I became tired and discouraged too easily. 

It became clear to me that the problem wasn’t that the goals were set incorrectly. It wasn’t that the obstacles were too big. The problem was that I was the “lawbreaker” described by Emerson!

When I really got a hold of this important truth, it was easy to understand what needed to be done. I needed to work on me! Instead of setting external goals, I needed to work on becoming the type of person who honored the commitments I made to myself; who followed through; who persevered; who maintained the energy and focus that my responsibilities required.

This was a tough truth to face. But – gaining this understanding was the key to every wonderful thing that has happened in my life over the last ten years.

Best wishes for an awesome year!

Transformation Truth #6:

Transformation Truth #3: