Before you act, find out how risky any action is. Many things in life tend to be mundane, that is you do them because they need to get done. You brush your teeth or go to work for example. These are the mundane things of the day.

There are situations though that can get a bit risky. Often times these risky situations or challenges entice us with a reward, and depending on the risk, the reward can be great. When these situations present themselves, it is very important that you learn to assess the risk level involved.

What is very dangerous and risky for one person is sometimes much easier for another. For example it might be very risky for you to swim the English channel while a professional swimmer might find it easy enough. To be able to assess what is difficult for you is very important in life because it could mean the difference between great reward and utter failure.

Sun Tzu said “Know thyself”. This is very good and sound advice indeed. To know yourself you need to begin to trust your feelings. Fear and apprehension are great indicators that you might be over your head. When these emotions present themselves, you need to take the time to find out why they are there. Question yourself and your beliefs about whatever situation is causing these feelings. Ask yourself, “why?”. Follow these answer by asking this question over and over again until you are satisfied that you know why you are feeling scared or apprehensive. Doing this will give incredible insight into your own being and into your capabilities. Fear is a good thing, it is trying to tell you something important about the situation you are or will soon be in.

Objectivity is also a great resource. You must trust and understand your feelings but you must also make sure that you look at every situation with an objective eye. To do this, detach yourself from yourself and the situation for a little while. Use this time to asses everything that you have discovered. From here you must make sure that you have the detachment to make the hard choices. Learn to be cold and objective when you have to be so that you are able to see things without delusion.

With these powerful tools, you should be able to assess the risk of possible situations that you might encounter. You can then begin to see if any situation is worth the effort and the challenge. This is most important because we are often led into very risky situations because of the promise of great reward. Gambling is the great example of this, business is another area where many lose huge sums of money and time because they do not measure the risk factor properly.

If you do find a situation that does seem to be within the right risk level, then make sure that you do your best to succeed at it. The idea is to do things that warrant good to great reward with the lowest amount of risk possible. If you can position yourself in this way then you will find that your accomplishments will greatly increase.

The idea then is not to become a cold a calculating monster but to objectively pursue future endeavors so that you get more hits than misses. If you honestly question your feelings, as I mentioned above, then you will see that being that evil monster will be impossible. These feeling will let you know when you are doing something that goes against your better judgment. Know yourself and win many battles, know the risks and act only when the risks are within your comfort level.

Would you like to learn a technique that can persuade others and bend them to your will? How about a way to stop another person in their tracks and totally invade their soul? Would you like to learn a technique that creates instant sexual tension?

I hope so because this is just what I am going to teach you and if you are able to master this technique, you will be able to exert your will with incredible results.

Have you ever been to the Greece or Southern Italy? If you have been lucky enough, you might have noticed that most of the old fishing boats are adorned with a single eye. At first glance it’s easy to imagine that the locals are doing this give their boats a bit of personality.

But the reason for this eye is actually a little more sinister; this is actually the eye of Hera(Greek Goddess), and the reason all the boats are adorned like this is that they are being protected from “The Evil Eye”. The power of the evil eye is a belief that is held by just about every culture in the world; from Greece to Rome, Egypt, Latin America, to Sub Saharan Africa and beyond.

This is not the place to go into theory on why this belief is so prevalent but I use it to illustrate the power of the human gaze, and the fact that this power was recognized by just about every single ancient culture on earth. Unfortunately most of these cultural beliefs dwell on the negative aspects of the evil eye; which is said to be the result of envy and spite brought about by the powerful stare of certain others, this stare curses and brings destruction and ill health.

Why an eye to battle The Evil Eye? Because the evil eye is really the projection of evil will upon others. This evil intent is projected through an unblinking stare and the only way to beat the power of this unblinking stare is to fight it with another unblinking stare. A boat adorned with the eye of Hera will not blink, hence you have instant protection.

If you think the modern North American culture is beyond the power of The Eye then all you have to do is watch a couple of people arguing. Confrontations are always staring contests. Even when someone else loses at something, we are often apt to say, “He blinked”.

This strong gaze then, is really a projection of a strong will. If that person has evil intentions, then this is what he or she projects. But a person that has mastered this technique (the technique of the powerful gaze) can project good things as well. He or she will project their intentions whatever they may be and they will be able to project these intentions with great force.

In this article I want to give you the basics of learning how to develop a very powerful gaze. This gaze we are going to use in order to captivate others, persuade others, and to create sexual tension. You are going to learn how to stop another person in mid thought and if you are so inclined, to put a tingle between their legs.

To begin I am going to ask you to practice the following exercises:

•    Take a piece of white paper, draw a small dot on the paper, stick this paper on a wall just below eye level and stare at it for fifteen minutes. The idea here is that with this exercise you will develop focus and concentration . This exercise is also a great way to develop the power of your gaze.  You will find that your eyes will want to wander away on their own; if they do, then refocus them and make sure that you keep staring at the dot in front of you. Commit yourself completely to staring at the dot, do this until you feel that you are putting the full force of your being into this effort.

As you do this exercise, you will notice that within short order your eyes will wander and you will have a bit of difficulty keeping your eyes focused on the dot. Most people are not use to staring at a fixed point and they must train themselves to develop this kind of visual strength.

Begin by trying to stare at the dot on the wall for fifteen minutes. Blink as often and as much as you like but keep your eyes on the dot. If your eyes wander, then refocus them and keep staring at the dot. See if you can do it for the entire fifteen minutes without wavering.

•    Next I want you to look up to the top corner of a room. From there I want you to follow, with your eyes, the line that connects the ceiling to the roof. Follow this line from one corner to the other, so what you are doing is following a straight line from one point to the other. Move your neck when you do this but keep your eyes focused on that line. If your eyes waver from that line, start again. Do this fifteen times, blinking as much as you need to. Do this exercise until your eyes are not wavering from the line.

•    Finally I want you to go to a mirror. Stand in front of the mirror and stare into the reflection of your eyes. I want you to stare into your eyes without blinking. Do this for as long as possible.

Your eyes are going to start to get itchy and water after a while but you have to persist. When your eyes water and you have to blink, take a break for a couple of minutes until you feel normal and then begin to stare into your reflection again. Try to go for as long as possible without blinking. See if you can do this exercise until you can go for 30 seconds without blinking. (The Greek Evzones guards are said to be able to stare out like this without blinking for their entire watch!)

Continue to do the above exercise until you feel very comfortable with the power of your gaze and you can stare without blinking for at least 30 seconds.

With this technique, timing is very important. What you want to do is to catch the object of your intention or affections by surprise. One minute everything is going great then boom, you let them have it. Actually the name for this technique is called “dropping the stone”.

So try to use this when the other person is not expecting it. If you want to use this technique to get someone sexually interested in you then use this technique after you have struck up a personal conversation with them. One minute you are making small talk and then they look up at you and you drop the stone.

If you want to win an argument or persuade a person to your way of things then you must be patient and catch them by surprise as well. Let them ramble on about whatever is not important to the conflict in question, then just at the right moment, bang; you drop the stone. Fix your gaze on their left eye and in a calm unemotional way state your argument. Keep stating your point, blinking as little as possible, until the other person gives in or walks away.

The other person will become very uncomfortable but that is what you are going for really. This is the moment when you act. If you want to win an argument, then this is where you tell them just what you think. If you are going for a more sexual intention then wait for them to get a little entranced and then touch their hand or tell them how you feel about them.

Here is the tricky part;

•    If you are trying to persuade another or win an argument then you must remain totally calm and un-emotional. The trick is to let the person talk as much as they want about anything that is unimportant and then to drop the stone whenever you are making a point. Logically and calmly say your piece while staring into their left eye. Do not become frazzled or impatient, just keep gazing and making your point. Once you have dropped the stone, do not look away anymore, just keep gazing and making your point in as polite a way as possible. Do this until they blink (metaphorically and otherwise).

•    If you are a man or dominant woman then you will want to stare at the object of your affection until he/she blinks or looks away. DO NOT stare down the person. There is a difference between winning a staring contest and being provocative. This all has to do with intention; don’t think of it as a contest but more as a way to show him/her just how much you want them. If they start to talk to you then talk to them back but don’t blink; you can’t blink until he/she blinks.

•    If you know yourself to be a more submissive person and are interested in a more aggressive person, then you have to develop great timing. What you need to do is to stare at your love interest but give in to the man/woman at the last moment. As you lock on to each other with your strong  gaze, you will feel a certain connection(tension) with the person that you are staring at; when this happens, hold that gaze for a second then smile and look down at the ground slowly.

If the other looks away before you can look down as instructed then he/she is either totally uninterested or he/she is a really shy person that is expecting you to be the more dominant one. In which case you will have to instigate any contact and you will be running the show.

Once you have performed your power gaze, look somewhere else and act as if nothing happened. If the person is interested in you then they will begin to send you signals letting you know that they want to step things up a bit.

But even if you don’t hear from them for a while or ever; if you have practiced your exercises and you have given them ‘the eye’ correctly, you can be sure that you will be entranced in their minds for a very long time.

Do not underestimate the power of your gaze and of a strong focused look. Next time that you want to exert your will or create sexual tension, ‘drop the stone’.

Many people set goals for themselves, which is a good thing. Unfortunately following through on those goals becomes a very difficult thing for for many, and most goals are never achieved.  In this article, we will explore some techniques that you can use to help you meet the goals that you set for yourself.

Let us begin though by becoming very clear on what you want your goals to be. To do this, you will have to spend some time alone and explore your inner visions. See a picture of your ideal future self and work backwards to find out what you will have to do to get there.

It’s also possible that you already have a list in your head of all of the things that you would like to accomplish in the next little while. This will not be enough though; you have to put all these goals on paper. You have to create for yourself a sort of mission statement
that will give you the guidance that you require to get yourself going in the right direction.

Putting your goals on paper makes them real and takes them out of the chaotic mess that your mind can become sometimes. Creating a mission statement for yourself, with as much detail as possible, allows you to have the focus that will allow your mind to begin to work on solutions to possible obstacles and to prepare itself to work hard for your benefit. Get detailed; plan your short term and long term objectives, but more importantly create an inspirational paragraph that will represent what you plan to accomplish.

It is also very important that your goal is a dream that you have, not a deadline that you have to meet. If you think of a goal as a deadline, then the pressures that you put on yourself will never allow you to meet those goals. Deadlines seem logical since this is how things seem to work in a  mechanical world, but people are far more complex than a mechanical instrument. You have to take into account the fact that you are a person with feelings; when you don’t consider your psychological make-up, you are not taking advantage of your full potential.

When you try to achieve a dream, as opposed to meet a deadline, you are following an inner vision. You look forward into the future and you are inspired to use all of your abilities to complete this goal because you have a deep desire to fulfill a wonderful dream. Learn to see your future goals as wonderful dreams and you will naturally create a forward momentum that will give you the strength and impetus to achieve them.

And if you need some final bit of inspiration, then there is nothing more inspirational than your death! If you were to die tomorrow, then what would you have accomplished today? A great way to put this together is to think about what your tombstone, or better yet your obituary, would say. Think about what people would say at your wake. As gruesome as this might seem at first, please try to think about what others would be saying about you after your death.

Would they talk about all of the things that you did or would they be talking about what a quiet and dull life you led? Would they talk about the fact that you died at such a young age because of your eating habits or would they talk about the fact that you were in amazing shape and looked great even at your advanced age?

Become the person that you always wanted to be before it’s too late. Use the techniques and suggestions in this article to achieve all of the dreams that you have.

Those that would be successful leaders must master paradox.

Leaders must be in it to win. Weather its overcoming an obstacle, finishing an objective, or beating the opposition; leaders have to be in it to prevail. If you do not carry a winning objective in mind, those that follow you will soon rebel.

Leaders need followers and followers need to feel that they stand behind someone that is strong and will succeed against any opposition. You cannot fake a winning attitude. You must know deep within yourself that you can win, that you will win, and that you have the methodology to win.

Winning means being a master of contradiction.

When they expect you to go high, you have to go low. When they think that there is no way that you can catch up, you must appear ahead of them. To do this you have to appear to be one way while in reality you are the complete opposite.

To win, you must do what they don’t expect. In order to catch the opposition off guard, you have to trick them into thinking one thing while in reality you do something completely different.

When you have finished all your work and are ready to move ahead, appear totally unprepared. Frazzled and unready in appearance, within you are ready to strike ahead. Act agitated but be prepared.

When you are ready to let them have it, act as if you are ready to run. Don’t telegraph your moves, especially your attacks. An attack or strike is a forceful action; this can be a strong attempt to overtake an obstacle, direct line of questioning in a debate, or the launch of a new product.

If you are boiling mad and crazy with emotion, appear to be the picture of calm peacefulness. This is beyond not sweating the hard stuff. This is outright deception. If you are calm, then appear emotionally crippled. In other words sweat when it suits you. If you care, act as if you don’t but if you don’t care then act like a nervous Nelly.

When your people are cohesive and united, make them seem like they are all over the place.
The idea then is to portray a completely different image of what you are. The reason for this is simple and obvious; if your competition knows what you are going to do, they can counter or block any move that you make.
Winning means taking the initiative in all action and always being one step ahead of the competition. If your are easy to read then you are at best second. People do not follow second best.

But don’t make the mistake of appearing weak , clumsy, or haughty to your own people. The idea is to deceive the opposition and not to discourage those that are under you.

Let your people in on your deceptions. Command with a velvet touch and keep them in the loop. When in private council with your people, talk straight and let them see your strength. If you are planning something big then let them know about it. If its better that some people stay in the dark, at least let them know that you are on top of things and plans are in the works. Always assure those that you would lead that you have it under control.

Those that win act as if they can’t…until it’s the right time to move.

Resource—The Art of War by Sun Tzu

Great leaders must be swift. Whatever it is that you need to do and whatever it is that you have to get done, has to be done quickly and with great confidence.

You must calculate and while you calculate you must not appear as if you are calculating. You must become a master of misdirection, and never let your competition see your intention, BUT there will come a time when calculation and misdirection will be over, this will be the time to act.

Action must always be swift and aggressive even when it might appear that it is the easiest thing in the world; action must always be focused, decisive and fast.

George W. Bush has begun to acquire the very unpleasant moniker of the worst American president of all time. Why do you think this is? Certainly many people could name many faults that have landed this president in hot water but the thing that began his downfall and the most persistent mistake that is alluded to is his lack of effective action in Iraq.

Bush and his policies failed in Iraq because his actions there were not well calculated and worst of all, he turned this offensive into a dragged out occupation that has cost the American people and the government dearly.
A leader cannot afford to take any action that will be prolonged in any way.  If you prolong your actions in any way, you are taking a huge risk that your forces will be depleted and your strength will be gone before you can best whatever obstacle you are facing. If this is the case and you find yourself facing an obstacle that you can no longer best because of your lack of forethought and swift action, other leaders will be appointed in your place to do what you could not do. Moreover those that are beneath you will be subject to harsh criticism and will most likely also be seen as lacking in skill and ability.

These kinds of problems must be avoided at all cost and the way to avoid them is to calculate before hand and only act when your efforts are sure to be short, sweet and highly effective. You must see the weakness in the obstacles or the challenges that you face before you take action.

You must rally the people at your command and make sure that they know what they are doing to the letter. You must gather your forces and weigh the consequences of your actions and when you are certain that you have an Achilles heel; act, and act swiftly, with the full momentum of all your people and forces at your disposal.

You could be the smartest person imaginable, you could be incredibly clever and imaginative; this unfortunately will not make one bit of difference. Once you find yourself in a prolonged campaign that has no end in sight, you are done.

Even clumsy and brash actions can be successful sometimes, most usually if they succeed quickly, but you will never find any success in an action that is long and dragged out. Please do not make the mistake in thinking that this is effective only when it comes to physical conflict. All action follows this rule; whether it is a marketing campaign, a mountain climb or crossing the street.

You can have a large vision; any challenge poses many obstacles. The idea though is that before you undertake any challenge; you try and foresee as many obstacles as you can and you make your move only when you know you can deal with these obstacles in a winning manner.

Winning means acting quickly. Winning strategy is swift action!

Resource—The Art of War by Sun Tzu

Every single objective has cost.

Leaders must understand that any goal comes with a certain price. Nothing is free that is in anyway meaningful and certainly any campaign that has a possibility of success must have a certain cost.
This cost is not always measured in money or energy per se, often times what we risk is something more existential; our future.

Every time that you take responsibility for an action, you are risking your standing and reputation.  You are putting yourself on the line as soon as you are willing to stand up and take action. Taking responsibility means instant scrutiny from others so you must stand firm against this challenge.
Since you risk so much when you take a decisive action, you must be very certain that you calculate the cost of all that you are about to do. Leaders take responsibility and because they are responsible, they put themselves in harm’s way.

To be a leader is therefore to be a risk taker. Leaders gamble on the fact that what they are about to do will have future gain.  This future gain is for their good, and for the good of all those that they lead.

Leaders need to calculate the cost of any venture before they commit to an action. They need to look past their emotions and let go of any instinct to act on first impulses.  To be a leader means to plan and to look ahead. Impulsive actions can have a terrible cost, a cost that can most often not be reversed.

Leaders therefore are planners, they calculate. They measure, they ponder, and they examine every possible outcome to every possible circumstance. Before leaders act and put themselves and their people in the spotlight, they must ponder and calculate every possible outcome. Anything less is most certain defeat.

“Walk softly and carry a big abacus,” should be your motto. Realize now that everything that you do when you act as a leader has a price. Since everything has a price, make sure that you do not commit until you are ready, willing, and able to commit with as many of your resources as it takes to win.

There are times when the world thrusts a big problem on your shoulders and you are not given the choice to take action. The playing stage that is a leaders domain is full of uncertainty and there are times when you can’t calculate, but are thrust into the spotlight by powers beyond your control.

When this happens, and it will, a leaders creates time. When a leader is face with odds that he or she hasn’t had time to calculate, he/she lets his mind expand and looks for ways to create time which can be used to postulate the right decision.

Leaders engage their competitors with a free and open mind that is not concerned and they look for ways to distract those competitors. These distractions must be abstract and catch the competition unaware.
This allows a leader to retreat for a moment so that he/she can quickly contemplate his/her actions and choose the one course of action that will be best suited to thwart the opposition. The more time that you can give yourself to calculate and to reposition your forces the better.

A great leader could be thrown into a pit of hungry lions and walk out with their food bowls.

Learn to do this so that when you are faced with the worst, you pull out of your hat the impossible. Then calculate, calculate and calculate some more. And when you think that you have made the best possible decision, taking into account every possible outcome, ACT.

If you can do this, then you will succeed over all those obstacles, challenges and competitors that you meet. Your people will begin to see your power and will trust your command. With trust and good will, you can get your people to do anything.

Resources—The Art of War by Sun Tzu

In order to be a good leader, you must be able to conceptualize and implement strategy. Any action that we take in life, weather its buying a house, eating dinner or crossing the street; involves strategic thinking and action.

It is the craziest of notions to think that strategy does not apply to everything that you do in life. You might think that it doesn’t apply to you if you are a happy go lucky wanderer but in all things, strategy has played a role in what you do and how successful you are at it. The strategy of having no strategy is a strategy.

As a leader of people then, it is MOST essential that you begin to understand and use Strategy in all things that you do.  Strategy is deeply rooted in the way of nature and nature only allows  the fittest to survive. To ignore strategy is to invite defeat.

As human beings, our greatest weapon, our greatest survival tool, is our brain. Our ability to plan ahead, to organize and to follow through on long term goals, has made us one of the most successful creatures on the planet. To ignore this is foolish and quite costly, even deadly.

Leaders therefore must become masters of strategy. If they ignore this, then they will not lead and if any are foolish enough to follow leaders without strategy, they will fail.

The first fundamental of a great strategist, and therefore a great leader; is the ability to calculate. Before we can take any action, we must calculate probabilities and possibilities so that we can be as certain as possible that what we are about to do will be successful.

Logic is our great friend in this, but if studied to any extent, logic will eventually dictate that calculation is flawed and moreover, you cannot calculate for all probabilities. Why did Big blue (supercomputer) beat the greatest chess player of all time (Kasparov)? Because they were playing in a closed system. In Chess there are about  (10)¹²⁰ possible moves. This is a gigantic number but not beyond a supercomputer, Kasparov was beaten because Big Blue was able to calculate moves to a far greater number than he could but Big Blue could not cross the street by itself while Kasparov could do it, I would imagine, while chewing gum and listening to his ipod.

The point is that we do not live in a closed system and our moves involve infinitely complex boards of action that have so many random probabilities, that figuring out what might happen next is really impossible. But what we can do is to make very educated guesses as to what might happen next and therefore position ourselves and our actions so as to gain the greatest amount of profit.

Leaders that calculate will win. Leaders that do not calculate will fail. Leaders that calculate better and more thoroughly will win over those that do not.

You must learn to calculate, and you must learn to calculate better than your opposition. In order to do this, there are some general principals to consider. These are broad schema that will allow you to come to general conclusions. This is just a starting point, from these general thoughts, create a deeper understanding of your enemies, your allies, your obstacles and your resources.

•    Learn to understand the psychology of those around you. Understanding a person’s psyche is the surest way to know what their next move will be. The psychology of people and things involves; the motivation, the general cohesion of the personality or group, the fears, the desires, their repressed emotions.
Calculating psychological makeup is not just for individuals. Groups of any kind can also be analyzed psychologically. Even places or events can be seen to have a psychological makeup. Learn to understand psychology and apply these fundamentals to understanding those that you must deal and compete with.

•    Learn to understand your environment. “Wherever you go, there you are,” some wise jester once wrote and no truer words have ever been spoken. Understand the lay of the land; find out about the land that you find yourself in now and the land that you will find yourself in the future, especially if it will be a place where you will encounter some kind of obstacle, test, or conflict.  This may involve the weather, where the lights will be in the office, or even what it will smell like.

•    Learn to calculate the situation. Is it going to be easy going or is it all up hill? Will you need to make concessions or will you have a flexible position?  Will you be surrounded by friendly and easy competition or are you going to find yourself surrounded by those that would cut out your heart and hand it to you?

•    Calculate the competency of the leaders that you will face. Is your opposition calculating? How good are they at it? Do they inspire group cohesion? Are they fair and logical or are they crazy? Is this a facade?

•    Learn to calculate the experience and organizational skill of those that you will face. Have they been at it long? Do they have a system? How old is the system? Can you break it?
Even inanimate obstacles can be measured like this.

If you would lead others and win, then you must begin to use the things and ideas mentioned above.
We are now in the midst of the information generation, do not overlook this. A computer is a wonderful ally and the World Wide Web can supply you with infinite information that you can use to your benefit. Wikipedia for example is an amazing source, just remember that it can be flawed. Never trust anything 100%. Doubt has kept many a man alive in a wet jungle( or the stock market ).

Keep your eyes open. Be observant. Write notes. Always study, always keep learning because you must calculate to win.

resource:—The Art of War  by Sun Tzu

The ability to persuade others to your desires is an incredibly powerful thing. It is hyped about in many articles, books and seminars. What is rarely discussed in this material though is the power of the voice to persuade and entice others.

The timbre and resonance of a powerful voice can make a great impression on a person.  The power to move people emotionally with your voice can be incredibly potent when you are trying to persuade others to your point of view.

The power of a well developed voice can shatter glass, entrance and soothe.  A very clear and resonant voice can affect even the coldest heart.  So the need to develop a powerful speaking voice is most important to anyone that has to deal with people on a regular basis, and unlike other persuasion techniques that require you to be in front of the person, this technique allows you to affect others even while on the phone.

The following , simple, exercises will allow you to develop your voice so that in a very short period of time you will be able to have a dramatic influence on others through speech alone:

1.    This exercise will allow you to develop the timbre and musicality of your voice. All that you have to do in this exercise is to sing with your mouth closed. It doesn’t matter what you sing but you don’t want to sing too loud as this might damage your vocal cords.
This is a very easy exercise to do every morning as you are getting dressed and ready for work.

2.    Read half a page from any book out loud, and as you do this pronounce every syllable of every word in a clear and prolonged manner. For example;
I-saw-te-rri-fic-thun-der-while-I-was-at-the-ca-bin-by-Kam-loops-lake.

3.    The resonance of your voice is what determines the emotion but what gives your voice impact and the ability to persuade is its clear, crisp, and clean articulation and tonality. In order to have a clean perfectly articulated voice, you need to read out loud  the words that you read in the prior exercise, but this time pronouncing each consonant as if it were three letters instead of one. For example;
I-sssawww-ttte-rrrrrri-ffficcc-thththunnn-ddderrr-whwhwhillle-I-wwwasss-attt-thththe-ccca-bbbinnn-bbby-KKKammm-llloopppsss-lllakkke.

4.    The last exercise is to repeat the above exercise but at a faster rate.  You will want to increase the speed at which you can read the above passage but never forgetting to pronounce the consonants as if they were three and also remember to add pauses in there when the pauses are needed.

The above exercise quickly develops the your ‘verbal suggestion ’ power. These exercises make the voice larger than life, penetrating, and very persuasive. Your words will be recorded deeply within the mind of those that you are communicating with, and they will imbed themselves in their minds so that your words will be remembered repeatedly throughout the day.

If you are diligent in your practice, it will be very hard for others to refuse your affirmations and it will become nearly impossible for others to refuse your instructions. And if you are able to repeat your message, using a powerful voice, your commands will come to fruition even quicker.

Remember to also maintain a serene state while speaking to others, and never lose sight, even for an instant, the final desired outcome of your words. Never rush your words for this is a sure way to have them lose their power. Remember also that you want to pronounce all your syllables in a clear and crisp manner.

Remember to try not to irritate those to whom you are speaking. Do not interrupt when another person is speaking, always wait until the other person is done and then speak in a serene manner. Never argue but wait until the other is done making his or her point, then use the power of your voice to imbed within them your thoughts and ideas.
If by the end of the conversation, you have not been able to get the other person to your point of view, then do not act in a nervous fashion, and hide any kind of emotional response because the game, as they say, is still on. Your words will, because of the power of your voice, have been deeply embedded in the mind of your listener and he or she will undoubtedly ponder them long after you have parted.

First and foremost: becoming a leader means that you take responsibility. Whether this means responsibility for your general situation in life or just the situation that you find yourself in at the present moment. This personal responsibility is the one factor that will spur you to take action in your life.

The majority of the human population is a made up of followers. It makes sense that most of us find ourselves in this role since mother nature would not want a whole species of leaders: that would be chaos. The biggest reason why most people are followers is because it’s much easier to take orders than to give them. It’s much easier to not have to put your neck on the line. But there might come a point when you say to yourself that enough is enough and that the outcome of a situation is too important. At this moment you will have to make a decision to take responsibility for the outcome, because as they say, “If you want a job done right, you have to do it yourself.”

So just in case you find yourself in that situation in the near future, let’s go over a few things to keep in mind.

Perhaps are thinking that if mother nature wants only some leaders and mostly followers then maybe you are most likely part of the majority. If this is what you think, then stop reading now and go back to watching television…sorry to have bothered you. If on the other hand you have felt the pang of needing to get things done right, then remember that true leaders are self made, not born.

The most important factor in good leadership is the ability to tell people what to do. “I’m covered,” you say, “I can tell anybody what to do.” Well it’s not that simple. A leader must learn to influence others in such a way that he or she does not ruffle any feathers.

Leaders must master the art of prudence and group cohesion. To be a good leader means being very understanding of the needs of others. Only when you can understand the needs of those that you wish to lead, will you have any chance of attaining a leadership role. The average person has the idea that the best leader acts just like the sergeant does in those war movies; screaming orders at everyone and ruling men through fear. Well let me tell you that the only place that those sergeants exists is in boot camp, the movies and bad armies. In an elite army, the leader is always responsible, respected, and liked. If people don’t like you in a war situation, you tend to accidentally get shot in the back.

So how do you get others to follow you?

People follow strength and certainty. They follow those that act in a very congruent manner. Congruency means that all your actions (body language), tone, and phrasing are aligned with the message that you are conveying. When you say something, you believe what you say with every ounce of your being. People follow those that seem very certain of what they are doing and seem to know exactly where they are going.

In order to be a leader, you must see the big picture. You must understand where you fit in the scheme of things. To whom do you answer to? What is the overall group motivation. What are the general group benefits, rewards and punishments? What are the obstacles that you must overcome in order to accomplish your mission or goal?

To be respected and trusted you must set an example that others would follow. Truly grand leaders do not even need to command others at all. They just set an example that others must follow. When advice is asked of them, they respond with kind words and set others in motion towards the completion of the group objective.

In order to be a good leader, you must work very hard to maintain good relationships. You must always show others as much self respect as you can. In this way others will be prepared to follow you anywhere. If you ever disrespect another, you can be very sure that they will remember it for the rest of your relationship together.

You must understand your trade better than anyone in your team. You don’t need to know the ins and outs of every little thing but you must have a familiarity with all the things that you will be dealing with and most importantly you must understand how these things fit in the big picture.

Learn to communicate. Rehearse if you must but be sure to master the art of verbal, kinesthetic (body language) and written communication.

To be a good leader often times means being a good judge. Practice the art of fair and ethical judgment. Learn to logically appraise a situation and give judgment in the most fair and humane way possible.

Leaders must also know how to assign tasks. You can’t do it all yourself so you must remember to assign tasks to all of the members of your team. This means that you will have to judge the characters and merits of all of the people that you are charged to lead. Those that are strong at some things will most often be weak at others. Discern the strengths and weaknesses of each member and assign tasks accordingly.

As you can see, being a leader takes a lot of hard work and diligence. That must be why most people would rather just be followers and why most leaders fail. But if you have the will and desire to become a leader, then you only need courage and hard work.

Follow the instructions given and you will become a great leader in no time! Your courage will come from taking responsibility for your life and your situation. And with hard work you will learn to master the techniques needed to change your life and the life of others for the better.