The Ultimate Skill e-Newsletter

By Mike Lipkin

The Ultimate Skill

To be published later this year, my new book The Ultimate Skill is in fact a game designed to help you live at your highest level, where you thrive, not just survive.

In line with my personal commitment to innovation and personal breakthroughs, I have an extraordinary idea for you for this brand new year. Instead of each issue of the newsletter being an independent message, I'm going to be serializing The Ultimate Skill. I will share its development with you real-time as I develop it, chapter by chapter, rule by rule.

Now, aren't you glad you signed up to be an e-newsletter recipient? Are you ready to take yourself to a whole new level? Then let's begin:

• How Big is Your Want?
• How hungry are you?
• How big is your appetite for Big?
• How often do you dream of doing something that will take you to the next level?
• Are you playing in the safety zone?
• Or are you already living in the domain of Personal-Stretch?

Without the Want, there is no Will. And without the Will, there is no-way.

But when I ask you about your Want, I'm not just enquiring about what you want to do about you.  I want to know how much you want to do to make others successful. I want to know how much pleasure you get from causing others' breakthroughs. I want to know if their success is as meaningful to you as your success is to you.
 
Is it?
 
The Ultimate Skill is only available to those who want to give it to others. It is magnetized to generosity. It is permanently on loan. You pay interest by paying it forward. That's what I'm doing by creating this program. That's what you're committing to by participating in it.  Let's go.
 
So WHAT is The Ultimate Skill?

You tell me.
 
Besides your family, think about the most valuable people in your life. Why do you see them that way?  What is it that they do? What is it that they give you? What kind of people are they? What distinguishes them from all the other people in your life? What makes them so important to you?
 
Think about it before you move on. You have a point of view. So do I. You cannot appreciate mine until you understand your own. My mission is not to convert you to my point of view. It's to enrich yours.  I want to increase your ability to expand the capacity of others through the same techniques and insights I'm sharing with you here. It's all about opening up your perspective so you can see what may have been hidden from your view before.
 
But don't rush it. Pause, and write down your thoughts. Let's partner together in pursuit of mutual expansion.
 
I get clear about what I think by seeing my words in front of me. Then I need to hear them. Then I need to see and hear others' response to them. Only then do I know what to believe about what I believe. Without you, I cannot understand me. If you weren't reading what I'm writing, I'd be lost inside my own head. And that's a dangerous place to be. So thank you for rescuing me. I know I'm about to return the favour. Something you read in the coming weeks will open up a new space for you. And that's where new possibilities will land.
 
You see, I am a nomad. Every year, I visit over twelve countries, deliver about 160 seminars and speak to around 100 000 people. Since my first engagement in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1993, I have spoken to well over a million people. My insights are grounded in my own personal experience with a kaleidoscope of humanity. They're also rooted in the extraordinary Environics Social Values research which tracks more than 100 socio-cultural trends in the United States and Canada, representing peoples' values, hot buttons and personality traits.  
 
For 25 years, I have studied people. I study their actions, their words, and their wants. I study what makes them happy and what makes them hurt. I study how they connect with others, and how they become apart. All the time, I'm looking for the defining qualities of those people who become successful and stay that way.
 
By successful, I mean they're fulfilled. They're leading a life they love, with people they love. They're healthy and they believe they're wealthy. They're masters at work that has meaning for them. They're members of strong families and expanded communities. They are making a difference. They are power-full. And so power is attracted to them.
 
Let me share with you the first Lipkinism of 2007: Whatever you carry within you is what you attract to you. In the world of people, opposites do not attract. Like draws like.
 
Here's what I've found out: The world's most valuable people are value-beings. They don't just create, bring or add value. Being value-able is a way of being for them. It's not just an action or a philosophy. It's who they are. Enriching, expanding, energizing, encouraging, empowering others is who they are being, not just what they are doing.
 
Survival is a given for them. They know they will always prevail. They've come too far to doubt their ability to go further. Self-preservation is not their status quo. They belong to the world. And they know the world belongs to them.
 
Which brings me to a second Lipkinism: It's about being first, doing second. It's easier to be than to do. Who you are being when you're doing what you're doing determines the value of what you're doing. If you're being power-full, your actions will be powerful. You are the source of everything that you do.
 
Do you get that? You become valuable by being valuable. Not by chasing value. That will exhaust you. Like it's exhausting thousands of people around you. There is no question: To be Value-able is the only way to be.
 
So what's The Ultimate Skill according to Lipkin?
 

• The Ultimate Skill is to be someone who creates opportunity for others, with others.
• The Ultimate Skill is to be someone who expands the capacity of others to create remarkable results.
• The Ultimate Skill is to be someone who introduces others to new possibilities.
• The Ultimate Skill is to be someone who motivates others to see themselves as extraordinary.
• The Ultimate Skill is to be someone who shows It Can Be Done so others believe they can do it.

In essence, The Ultimate Skill is to help others live at such a level that they thrive not just survive.
 
How does that sound to you? How does that feel to you? Is that the kind of life you're living?
 
Here's what I see: the vast majority of people live at the level of personal survival. They know that somehow they'll get through the day, the week, or the year, but their focus is on doing what's required or what's expected of them. They are competent because that's the minimum qualifying standard. But they are not compelling. Their line of sight ends at The Line of Enough. They do enough but no more. Not because they can't, because they think they can't. Or they're not thinking at all. The Line of Enough is their mental wall.
 
And finally, a third Lipkinism: The Ultimate Skill lives beyond the wall. It lives north of The Line of Enough. It resides in the space of Can Be. It's located in the realm of faith, imagination and guts. It's open to everyone. That is, everyone who is willing to travel through Ordinary to The Land of Above and Beyond.
 
Are you? Think about it…

I wish you a remarkable 2007! 

- Mike Lipkin

 

Watch for the next issue of The Ultimate Skill e-Newsletter, and make sure to tune in to the next
On Fire TV and Radio episodes, as Mike guides you step-by-step to where you want to go for 2007. You will find out what it takes to thrive, not just survive! 

Get this year off to a great start. Invest in you by taking advantage of Mike's New Year motivational special, available for a limited time.

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