Just sitting down and reading Orrin Woodward & Oliver Demille‘s new book LEADERSHIFT which I just received in the mail a couple days ago.  WOW!  This is a much needed book for the North American people.

Here is a quick message I want to share with you.  I want to talk “Attitude” today.  Everyone has an attitude.  The question is, is it a positive or negative attitude?  As humans, our natural tendencies is to think of worst case scenario instead of best case scenario.  Claude Hamilton has always thought me to think best case scenario.  To become an optimist and chase your dreams.  Now, several years ago I would have read those last sentences and said “well..ya but..you’ve gotta be careful sometimes and think of the worst case scenario”.  And to a certain extent I agree with that statement.  However there are no successful people out there who will tell you to become a pessimist.  All great leaders, all successful people have best case scenario type of attitudes.  They are optimists.  Most importantly they have positive attitudes!

Author Dr. Denis Waitley (Psychology of Winning) says there are 3 types of people; #1-Spectators: They are the majority who watch life happen.  They avoid the main arena for fear of being rejected, ridiculed, hurt or defeated.  Then there are #2-Losers: They are the people in our abundant society who never win..for they would rather look like..dress like…have fun like…have a house like…or be someone else.  You can always spot Losers by the way they envy or criticize others, after all misery loves company.  Then there’s the #3-Winners: These are the few who put themselves together across the board – at work, at home, in the community and in society.  They set and achieve goals which benefit themselves and others.  Winning is a way of thinking, winning is all in the attitude!!!

And talking about a winner’s attitude, the LIFE community in Moncton, NB area is very excited to have Wayne MacNamara come in and deliver a great message on Saturday May 11th.  My friend Calvin from PEI created a great audio remix of a fired up speech by Wayne.  Everytime I listen to it I get chills.  Wayne & Raylene are great friends of ours and have become some of our idols with their latest accomplishments.  Have a listen & we’ll see you on LIFE Seminar day!

Click on this LINK for the audio.

Love & Lead,

Joce Dionne

Sometimes I think back in my life and wonder what it would’ve been like if I had met Claude earlier on.  He is the reason I can call myself a stay at home dad.  He is the reason I can say we have financial freedom.  He’s also the reason Cynthia & I are still happily married.  The list goes on & on.  You are probably wondering..”ok, what did he do to help you??”.

The answer is: He showed us the LIFE business.  The personal development industry is so underrated.  The LIFE products are geared to help you live the life you’ve always wanted.  The audios, books & seminars have made me realize that success is in everyone, you just have to get up and chase it!  Success won’t fall into your hands on your lucky day.  Success has a price and you cannot tip toe around it.  In the past, I was scared to get on that journey.  The feelings of “what if I can’t do it” or “what if I fail” seeped into my head.  But another great bonus to the LIFE business is that you have a mentor, coach & friend to help you. They can make you look at your problems in a different perspective and help you solve them.  Succes is given to the man who has the courage to conquer his fears.  I love what Claude Hamilton wrote on a recent blog:

The word courage does not mean the absence of fear. Courage is overcoming and acting WHILE we are afraid. It’s taking the small steps even when we don’t fully understand the whole picture. It’s keeping on and keeping on UNTIL we cross the bridges and the mountains in our path. It’s making decisions even when in fear.  It’s not the absence of fear; it’s taking action steps despite our fear.

Orrin Woodward, Claude Hamilton and the Kaizen leaders have stated many times that 2013 is the year of the Round Table.  I hope you take your journey to success very seriously.  Choose courage over fear and ride this big wave with us!

I have a Good Feeling you will!

Joce Dionne

This weekend Claude Hamilton, Orrin Woodward & Dan Hawkins will be lighting up the stage in Ottawa, ON for the LIFE Winter Leadership Convention.  I can’t wait for this exciting weekend.

I recently watched a great video that touched me dearly and wanted to share it with you today;

It’s about a runner, Derek Redmond, who competed in the 1992 Olympics.  He got hurt halfway through his race and instead of giving up, he continued and gave everything he had to finish the race.  You will notice his dad jumps on the track to help him at the end.  Being a new dad myself I love seeing this type of unconditional love the father has, running through security to help his son.  I’ve been lucky to have a great dad myself and I want to follow in his footsteps.

I think being a dad resembles being a leader.  You have to lead by example no matter what the circumstances!  Giving up is not an option.  In this video, Derek Redmond & his dad finished last…BUT, more importantly they finished!

Claude Hamilton, has helped me become a better person on my leadership journey.  In a way, he has been something like the dad in this video.   Helping me choose to keep going even when I didn’t feel I could.  I see many people get on this same journey with loads of potential and  unfortunately they don’t use up that potential.  What holds them back?  I’m not sure, maybe fear, laziness, lack of desire.  To be a great dad, great friend or great leader, we need to be more like role models.  What you do with your life, your kids will be greatly influenced by it.  Remember the quote “your actions speak so loudly, I cannot hear what you say”.

Therefore let’s lead by example and FINISH what we started.  I hope you chose to run to the finish line with me!

See you in Ottawa!

God bless,

Joce Dionne

10 years ago, Claude Hamilton invited me to my first Leadership Convention.  That weekend changed our lives in an amazing way.  When I think about the thin threads of how we met Claude & Lana it’s scary to think where we would be if we hadn’t jumped on this LIFE journey with them.  If you haven’t committed to coming to one of the 3 Conventions, I strongly suggest you do.  ”What if” it has the same impact on you as it did on our lives.  Here are the 3 Conventions listed below:

-January 18-19-20 in Louisville, KY

-January 25-26-27 in Visalia, CA

-& my personal favorite: January 25-26-27 in Ottawa, ON Canada!

Please watch this great video and leave a comment on how Leadership Conventions can change your life;

God bless

Joce & Cynthia

A couple days ago we brought our parents down to Halifax for some last minute Christmast shopping.  Since we were in the area we took advantage and stopped in to see our friends Claude & Lana Hamilton.  My mom & dad had never seen the fabulous Hamilton home yet.  So it was amazing to see the look on their face as they got the tour of the castle…I mean house .

If you haven’t seen or heard of their beautiful house, there is a great article on the Halifax newspaper (Chronicle Herald) about the house.  Click on this LINK.

It’s amazing to have been able to see them where they were 10 years ago and where they are today.  And I don’t only mean financially, but in every aspect of LIFE’s 8Fs.  As a front row eye witness, I can confidently say that DREAMS DO COME TRUE!

I hope you set your goals & dreams very high for 2013.  Have a Merry Christmas & Happy New Year.

God bless,

Joce Dionne

I hope you are enjoying December.  It’s a magical time of year where everyone seems to be joyful and in a happier mood.  It’s hard to believe but 2012 is almost over and a new year is beginning.  Claude Hamilton, my mentor, would often tell me to start preparing myself now to hit the new year with momentum.  To keep my “personal momentum” up during the holidays, so that when January hit I didn’t miss a beat.

Recently Claude wrote a great article on success.  The article was entitled “Claude’s Secrets to Success”.  In that article, I love the part where he lists the 10 traits of successful people.  Here is more;

Let me share 10 specific traits that are common to successful people:

1.  Focus & Purpose.  You must have a goal! If you are truly focused, you will recognize when you need to give up a good opportunity in the moment so you can receive the best in the long run. As my business grew and I began experiencing success, many people wanted to know more on how I was achieving this. Many opportunities surfaced for me to speak publicly and these gigs paid extremely well. In the short term, I was making good money but I could also recognize that this same opportunity was causing my core business to suffer. I realized that these same speaking engagements were detrimental to my main focus; that forced me to make a tough decision. I made a pact with myself: no more than 1 speaking engagement per month in lieu of every weekend.  That turned out to be one of the wisest things I ever did for my business. Today, my business takes way better care of me than these speaking engagement ever could. Despite the short term gratification, I maintained my purpose.

2.  Success & Excellence. Spend 30 minutes with a successful person and it will become obvious to you that they always seek to self-improve.  Get yourself and your pride out of the way! As soon as you begin thinking that you know it all, you are going down. Kaput. You’re done.  When you are successful, you know that the destination is not the ultimate prize. It’s the journey you’re on.  Being a Canadian, hockey is my my favorite sport.  Did you ever notice how the best paid professionals on this planet still consistently go through drills to stay on top of their game?  They know that the minute you quit striving, their competition can get the upper hand.  The person who strives a bit longer usually wins the game. Those who become super heroes at their game always continue striving to become even better. They strive for excellence.

3.  Success & Making People Feel Good.  It doesn’t matter what field you are in, making people feel good is a crucial component.  If you lack in relationship skills, you will not be successful. Plain and simple. Business and people go together.  To build our new home, Lana and I knew that we had to look at this as a 3-year project. We also knew that we needed to have great relationships with the contractor, the construction crew, the electricians, the plumbers, etc… People skills were important to us.  We visited every other day and made the conscious effort to treat each person with the utmost respect. We got to know these people very well and they shared at the end how they enjoyed the project of working with us, one of the best they’d had yet.  It impacted the quality of their work to the extent that they wanted to go that extra mile to please us even more. The project was a success – I attribute it all to the relationships we built and the people skills we used.  It doesn’t matter what type of business you do.  Successful people always leave people feeling better about themselves when they leave their presence. I would definitely say that the most important thing about a building project is people skills.

4.  Success & Responsibility.  Growing up, my brother loved to play hockey and he was a goalie.  As I was watching one day, his team lost.  He came bursting off the ice immediately blaming the defencemen and grumbling on how his teammates were just terrible. He wasn’t the one that let that puck go in the net! Those defencemen failed at defending him.  What he failed to recognize is that he would never get better at his game as long as he didn’t own the problem.  Blaming others would hinder his growth as a goalie and sabotage his own success. As soon as he began blaming others, he gave his power away.  I remember pointing out to him that the best goalies are usually the ones with the worst defencemen – forcing them to get even better! You always have 2 choices: blame others and believe it’s not your problem OR you can take responsibility.  Play a bit more to compensate for others and it will propel your success.

5.  Success & New Challenges.  Get out of your comfort zone!  You get comfortable at your position and you soon quit taking on new challenges.  That means you are getting stale. As a leader in what you do, you need to keep sharpening your axe.  It’s a competitive environment out there in the business world; you just can’t quit growing and expanding.  As I explained some above, it is not the destination that is the most important for leaders. It`s the journey.  According to scientists and psychologists, humans are the happiest when they are striving. You would think it’s when they get to the victory but no…. it’s during the battle. The journey makes the victory sweet. So – get out of your comfort zone – now!!! Keep conquering new territory.

6.  Success & Production.  Did you ever hear the expression, ‘Winners Win?’ It’s so easy to say you have no control over a situation or to believe there are insurmountable odds against you. When you take that position it’s as sealed a deal as if you quit. And, you know you cannot quit and achieve success at the same time.  Are you depressed over the situation you are in?  As a leader you need to give vision to others. Don’t stifle your production because a situation seems insurmountable. If you do, it disqualifies you to provide for that vision.  If you’re a winner, then win. It’s unacceptable as a leader to quit when things get tough.  Blame the situation, the weather or whatever.  As soon as you believe it can’t be fixed, you’re done.

7.  Success & Hard Work.  Hard work makes a difference, yes… but doing the hard work with the right attitude is best.  Working with a rotten attitude will get you rotten results no matter how hard you work.  Strong leaders have strong work ethics and are willing to pay the price.  They sacrifice to create sacred things.  Whether it’s financial freedom, family, success in sports or business – you will have to make sacrifices to create the sacred thing you are chasing.

8.  Success & Personal Development.  Successful people invest in themselves.  When Abraham Lincoln was chopping wood for eight hours, he spent 7 hours sharpening his axe.  As a leader, understand your value by investing in yourself  and serving others.   Increasing your value creates more territory in serving more people.  An employer will pay for your professional development because it’s an asset to the company.  As an independent business owner or a leader, you have to be willing to do the same.  I remember spending money (that I could have had a lot of fun with) on books, CDs and for travels to seminars. I invested in myself and in the long term, it created the lifestyle that I wanted.

9.  Success & Perseverance.  Do NOT give up when the going gets tough. To be successful, you have to think long-term!  Do not let the ups and downs affect your outcome.  We have had great years and some that were not so great.  But, we persevered because quitting was not an option.  That is how we got to harvest our crop down the road.  Learn right away that you must persevere longer than your competition. Continually assault the problem; if you do long enough? You will conquer.  Despite the untruths of the media, success is not instantaneous.  You’ve got to keep the dream alive in your heart and work at it.  Surround yourself with encouragers and like-minded people. Greatness is not accomplished overnight and God’s delays are not His denials.

10. Success & Prioritization.  Ever heard that busy people get things done?  It is mostly true but as you add responsibilities to your life, you will have to prioritize.  Time management is one of the most important element to your success.  It’s important to know what you will do and also to know what you will not do.  I love hockey. I coached hockey, watched hockey and I played hockey. But I realized that watching and playing hockey was not helping me to reach my goals.  I had to stop and prioritize.  Putting hockey on the back burner for a bit was tough. If you give up what you really want in the future for what you can have in the moment, that is what will cause you to fail. I had to decide that watching hockey every day on TV would not build my success.  Now that I’ve crossed to the other side, I can go see the Stanley Cup every year. Throw aside the things that won’t help you to your goal.

That is great information.  I know Claude & Orrin Woodward have had many years of achieving success in their personal lives and also helped many people become successful.  These 10 traits aren’t just theory, they are actual applied principles that have worked in their lives.

That’s a wrap for today folks.  Take these 10 principles and make 2013 the best year in your LIFE.

Merry Christmas,

Joce Dionne

When you hear the word “friend” it’s easy to overlook that simple word.  Years ago I heard a speaker give the definition of a “real friend” and it really impacted me.  Here it is;

“A REAL FRIEND DOESN’T TELL YOU WHAT YOU WANT TO HEAR, INSTEAD HE TELLS YOU WHAT YOU NEED TO HEAR.”

And obviously you know where I am going with this.  Claude Hamilton has been that person for me.  Some friends will come into your life and not really help you become better.  Like that quote says, they will only tell you what you “want” to hear and not get uncomfortable and tell you what you “need” to hear in order to awaken the potential inside of you.  My wife Cynthia & I are so thankful to have bumped into Claude & Lana Hamilton 9 years ago.  It’s amazing the thin threads that brought us together, but I’m sure it was all in God’s plan.

Here is a great article by Orrin Woodward on LIFE Founders Claude & Lana Hamilton:

click on this LINK

Enjoy the great post by Orrin Woodward.

Thank you,

Joce Dionne

After the seminar many people felt the same way, we need to encourage more.  Can you remember the last time your boss corrected you on a mistake you made at your job?  Or the last time your friend corrected you on something you were doing wrong?  The list goes on & on with these human “auto-correct” examples.  Why is that?  Some say it’s our educational system.  That would make sense.  I rarely remember being encouraged for something I simply did right at school.  But as soon as I did something wrong five different people would make sure they would let me know.

It is said dogs learn a lot more from being encouraged over being corrected.  When a dog does something right we give him a doggy treat and the dog’s behavior improves.  Often times we see dog owners try to slap the dog and raise their voices to make a correction.  It’s hard to believe the negative motivation (correction) doesn’t work as well as positive motivation (encouragement) for dogs.  Our built in “human auto-correct” system is so much of a habit to us that we feel it’s the only way to help the dog.  And let me make something clear, my point  is not that correction doesn’t have value in today’s world.  What I am saying is that we need to do less of it and more encouraging.

Ann Franks said that for every 1 negative comment we need 4 positives to counter balance.  Or how Claude Hamilton puts it, when dealing with people it should be 90% encouragement & 10% correction.  That is probably very accurate.  I know personally when I receive positive encouraging words it feels sooo good.  On the other side when I am corrected for doing something wrong I feel  awful and discouraged.  Many of my friends feel the same way.  Author & friend of mine Chris Brady puts it another way.  He says we need to become “good finders” with people.  Which means we need to sincerely compliment people and find their strengths instead of pointing out their weaknesses.  There is a great quote “Hurting people hurt people”  that explains how some people point out other’s weaknesses and belittle them to cure their own self-esteem or confidence problems.  I believe that to be true.  Everyone wants to give their opinions on whatever & whoever it is.  Realize this, opinions are free and are often on the negative side which again, kinda fits into correction.  Nowadays it’s human nature to want to correct and offer our opinions on things.   Instead we need to change our focus to encouragement.  Here is a test for us, next time we want to give our opinion on something, let’s ask ourselves if it’s a negative or a positive one.  If it’s negative, than bite your tongue and keep it to yourself.  If it’s a positive one, let’r go & encourage!!!

With that, I’m off to Columbus, Ohio to see Orrin Woodward and the rest of the TEAM at Fall Leadership Convention.

It was great sharing & happy Halloween,

Joce Dionne

There is a great article by Dan Hawkins that explains the whole history behind this amazing character & courage these men displayed with their decisions.  It’s funny to see some “un-informed” people say Orrin & the LIFE business  compensation plan is a scam.  The real story is, they were involved with a company that they felt was going backwards.  So they decided that morally they could no longer be involved and left back in 2007.  Please read up on this on Dan Hawkins‘ whistleblower article and also Claude Hamilton’s latest blog post to get more information.  On top of that, Claude explains how LIFE compensation plan is the greatest & fairest compensation plan available today.

Because of that decision Orrin Woodward is often called a whistleblower.  Now with my french background I didn’t know what a “whistleblower” was so wikipedia came in handy:  A whistleblower (whistle-blower or whistle blower) is a person who tells the public or someone in authority about alleged dishonest or illegal activities (misconduct) occurring in a government department, a public or private organization, or a company. 

You see, reputation is what people think of you & how you act when you’re in front of people.  But character is who you are  even when nobody is looking.  Therefore these men were faced with a decision.  Either to not rock the boat, stay silent like “yes men”.  Or be the whistleblower, change direction and chase better opportunity.

The LIFE compensation offers great monetary rewards and recently the LIFE Founders have added amazing free trips!!!  For great details, go to my good friend Denis Leger’s website.

To wrap up, these men stood strong and made the right decision, which is an amazing display of character & courage.  For that I want to personally thank Orrin Woodward & Claude Hamilton and the rest of the LIFE Founders for creating the best business opportunity in the industry.

Sincerely,

Joce Dionne

The LIFE business’ newest product MFC is almost creating a new industry!  That is how impactful LIFE Founders Orrin Woodward & Chris Brady think this product really is.  Orrin Woodward says: “The Mental Fitness Challenge is a culmination of nearly 20 years of filtering out the good from the bad in the personal development field. This is pure self-help food provided in bite-size pieces for anyone desiring to improve his or her life!”

The craziest part is that not only can someone make a positive forward change in their personal, work or family life with this product.  But if they choose so, they can also participate in the compensated community part of the LIFE business opportunity.

QUESTION FOR THE READERS:  What is your favorite part about the Mental Fitness Challenge and why do you think this can help you (and others) in your life?

Take the challenge!

Joce