To be at our best, to be a winner, all we have to take responsibility. Too many businesspeople just live on the surface. They do not look inside and take a good honest look. In other words, they never get down to the basic causes of their problems. They just deal with the symptoms. They are pessimistic, have trouble getting along with people, their self-esteem is low and they are always trying to fix their behavior. They are always trying to fix the symptoms.

It's good that you're trying to improve yourself, but many times your fixes are only temporary because as long as the basic causes are still there, you're going to continue to have poor results. It's like the saying, "bad root bad fruit."

We should never let resentment cloud our attitude and contaminate our life. Don't hang onto that old stuff. Take the lessons learned from the experience and forget the rest. Today is a new day with a new set of circumstances and unlimited potential.

If you have done any gardening at all, you know that if you keep on cutting off weeds at the surface, they just keep coming back again. You have to get to the root.

I want to challenge you today to look inside yourself and not just look at what you do, but why you do it. Why do I keep presenting that person? Why do I always let little things get under my skin? Why am I always comparing myself to others and have to prove that I'm as good as them?

When we really get to the source of the problem and start dealing with that, then we can make lasting changes, then we can free ourselves.

A friend of mine started having stomach aches. She began taking some medicines designed to soothe the symptoms, like Alka Seltzer. Her stomach aches went away for awhile, but they kept coming back and she kept taking those symptoms relieving medications. After awhile, she decided to see a doctor. The doctor got to the source of her symptoms. She had gallstones. She was operated on with those new minimally invasive techniques and in a few days she was back tof the symptoms, her gallstones.

This is what we often do. We only try to fix the surface things. "Let me just try to fix my behavior, let me just turn over a no normal. The doctor had gotten to the root of the problem, the source ew leaf. I'm going to stop trying to do everything myself. I'll try to trust people enough to delegate all those little tasks that I really shouldn't be doing in my business. I'm going to try not to be so fearful and stop avoiding people that I should be calling on.

Let me repeat that is good that you're trying, but so often, just like the lady with a stomach ache, you're not dealing with the real source. So no matter how much you try, that problem just keeps coming back.

You have to learn to get to the real root of your problems. You need to examine your life and find those areas that you're constantly struggling in. Is it really your employees' fault? Is it really your spoiled customers?

Or could it be you are going about things like the woman with a stomach ache, you are not dealing with the true cause but only the symptoms.

Remember; don't keep just trying to fix the surface behavior. Look deep in yourself and find the real cause. Then you know what you have to fix and have a much better chance of fixing it.

Yes, you were born to win. All you need to do is get all that junk out of the way.