Great quote from Steve Jobs

I read a great quote from Steve Jobs today. 

Here it is:

"When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: 'If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right.' It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: 'If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?'"

Pretty powerful question, wouldn't you say?

I will be turning 75 in several weeks. 

It's a bit shocking to realize that. Asking, "Where did the time go?" seems appropriate if a bit pointless. 

I am a great fan of making lists, as you might know. One of the lists I suggest people make for themselves in my book, "Mind, Time and Power!" is this question:

"What would I do if I only had one year to live?"

When I was writing that book, more than 40 years ago now, being 75 was just a concept. Not one I was too concerned with. 

I recently wrote an article called, "My Friend Warren". It was about a good friend of mine who recently died of lung cancer. 

I quit smoking in 1975, when Warren and I were working together on the Vancouver waterfront. 

 

For a while, like some ex-smokers, I became a bit of a vocal advocate for quitting smoking. I remember Warren saying to me, "Well, we all have to die sometime." as though that were justification for continuing to smoke. 

When the doctors discovered his cancer, they gave him a few months to live. He died five months later. The last time I saw him two years ago he was still smoking. I had been smoke free for 45 years. 

These days, this list of "What would I do if I only had one year to live?" seems quite poignant.

At my current age, I can almost sense the grim reaper trudging his way through the town looking for my street. 

I'm not trying to be morbid. Just saying.... some questions sharpen the mind. 

.............................

Anthony Hamilton is the author of, "Mind, Time and Power!"

Are you a Smoker? Would you like to stop?

Hello my friend,

This message today is going to be brief. It's only for you if you are a smoker who would like to stop smoking, or perhaps you have a friend that fits this category who you would like to send this message to. 

My history with smoking is this:

I started smoking at the age of ten, picking up butts on the street. I found the best place to find them was at bus stops. People would throw away large ones when the bus came before they were done. 

By my mid to late teens I was smoking a package of cigarettes a day. By the time I was in my late twenties, I was smoking up to three packs of cigarettes a day. I had wanted to quit for a while but always found it pretty well impossible. I couldn't make it more than a day without a cigarette. 

Then, when I was 28, I decided to give it a real shot. I thought that if I could quit for six months I would have it beat. But it didn't turn out that way. I actually did manage to make it for six months, but unconsciously started again without even knowing why. That was depressing and frustrating.

Around this time I got into studying "Mind Power" and had been doing meditation for a few months. I was building my belief in myself and increasing my self-esteem and confidence. I decided once again to quit. 

It nearly drove me crazy. But I believed so much in the power of the mind to change my life that I put together a program for myself. I recorded a couple of meditation exercises and put together a few worksheets on which I did some brainstorming.

I created some small cards on which I wrote down key ideas from these worksheets that I could carry with me in my pocket. I had learned that as powerful as the ideas on the worksheets were, they were no help to me if I forgot them when I was tempted with the urge to smoke. These small cards, which I carried in the same pocket that I used to carry my cigarettes worked great, because when I unconsciously reached for a cigarette, I would pull out these cards instead.  That was a great idea!

I developed a way to strengthen my self-image. 

I developed a way to increase my motivation. 

I developed a way to boost my self esteem. 

I developed a way to increase my feelings of success.

I developed a couple of visualization exercises I did in the morning and evening.

It worked!

I eventually developed a way to deal with every craving I had. After a while I put my plan into a little booklet with my "CUE" cards (Cigarette Urge Erasers) and a cassette tape with the meditation exercises on them. I began teaching my method at through the board of education night school in the city where I lived. This was the first book I ever wrote and was the beginning of my "Success Coaching" business and my writing and public speaking career as well. I have written a couple of more books, including one with Brian Tracy which will soon hit the best-seller lists.

I realized the other day that this month it has been 38 years since I last smoked a cigarette and I owe it all to this program I put together for myself all those years ago.

I haven't taught this method to anyone for quite a while. But I recently came across a copy of the booklet and the cassette tape that was in a box of my earlier writing which I had in a store room and had forgotten about. 

Listening to the cassette and reading over the little booklet again, I realized that this little program was not only the beginning of a new life of health and personal power and confidence for me. It was also a darned good program. In many ways I am still using the same techniques to move my life ahead today.

So I decided to see if any of my loyal readers were interested in getting their hands on this stop smoking program. 

I dubbed the instruction recording and the meditation exercises onto a cd and redid the booklet. 

If you are interested, I will upload them to the web so you can download them. You can listen to the recordings and fill out the worksheets and cards. I will even conduct a series of live coaching calls that you can listen to. This will guarantee that you understand how to use this program to transform yourself into a non-smoker, the way I did. 

What am I asking as an investment in this program?

Probably less than you are spending right now in a month of smoking.  Of course, when you stop smoking you will get all the money back in few weeks, and.... have that money re-appear in your pocket every month for the rest of your life to spend on other things.

Not only that... you'll feel a tremendous sense of pride, accomplishment, satisfaction and success.

AND ........ if you want to.... once you succeed, you will be able to teach other people this method and earn an income as a success coach for years into the future. 

That's what I have done. 

Interested?

Just send an email to me at www.anthonyhamilton.org with "smoking" in the subject line, and I'll contact you right away.

And, as I said, if you have a friend who you think might want to take advantage of this program, please forward this email to him or her. 

Take care, 

To your success, 

Sincerely, 

Anthony.