It is a Challenge to Succeed

“I am a nice person,” the man says to himself. “How come this other guy is happy and prosperous and I’m always struggling?” He then asks, “I am a good husband, a good father and a good worker. How come nothing seems to work out for me? Life just isn’t fair. I’m even smarter and willing to work harder than some of these other people who just seem to have everything going their way,” he says as he slumps into the sofa to watch another evening of television. But you see...

You have to be more than a good person and a good worker. You have to become a good planner, and a good dreamer. You have to see the future finished in advance.

You have to put in the long hours and work with the setbacks and the disappointments. You have to learn to enjoy the process of disciplines and of putting yourself through the paces of doing the uncomfortable until it becomes comfortable. You have to be prepared-- and willing-- to attack the challenges if you want the success because challenges are part of success.

Now that may sound like a full menu of activities, but let me assure you that the process of going from average to fortune isn’t really all that difficult. Thinking about it is the difficult part. Anticipating all the effort and the changes and the disciplines is far worse in the mind than in reality. I can promise you that the challenges you’ll meet on the road to success are far less difficult to deal with than the struggles and the disappointments that come from being average. Confronting and overcoming challenges is an exhilarating experience. It does something to feed the soul and the mind. It makes you more than you were before. It strengthens the mental muscles and enables you to become better prepared for the next challenge.
 
I’ve often said that to have more, we must first become more... and to become more, we must begin the process of working harder on ourselves than we do on anything else. But in addition to gathering new knowledge, new skills and new experiences, it is also important to discover new emotions. It is how we feel about what we know that makes the biggest difference in how our lives turn out. How we feel about the chances we have and the choices we have determines the intensity of our effort.  

Whether we try or don’t try.

Join or don’t join. 

Believe or don’t believe.

I’d like for you to discover some strong feelings about your life and about what you want to do with that life. You probably have much of the knowledge and a lot of the experience and perhaps most of the skills that it takes to become successful. What you may be lacking are the strong feelings about what you want and what you want to do. You may be one of those who have become so involved in the process of earning a living that you’ve forgotten about the choices and the chances you have for designing your own life.

Let these strong feelings help you take a second look at your life and where you’re headed. After all, you’ve only got one life, at least on this planet. So why not make it an adventure in achievement? Why not discover what you can do and what you can have? Why not discover how many others you can help, and in the process, how that can help you?

Why not now take the Challenge to Succeed!

Share your thoughts in the comment section below! Post your suggestions on how you plan to tackle your challenges to succeed into your day.

Our Lives Are a Compilation of the Little Things Decisions We Make

Over my career I have read and heard thousands of quotes from great leaders, but there is one I replay in my mind more than any other. Jim Rohn, one of the greatest personal development teachers of our time said,

“Success comes from making a series of good decisions over time, while failure comes from making a series of bad decisions over time.” 

I believe this is one of the most accurate statements of human achievement ever articulated during the 20th Century.

Decisions to Ponder
Every day we each make hundreds of little decisions, most of which seem inconsequential at the time. But every decision—no matter how little—will lead us closer to or further from our goals. Today’s lesson will focus on what I define as “either/or” decisions, because you’re deciding to “either” do something “or” not do something.

• Do we get out of bed early enough to properly prepare for the day?
• Do we straighten up our bedroom and make the bed before heading out the door?
• Do we dress and groom ourselves so that we make a positive impression on people?
• Do we make food choices that will improve our health?
• Do we control interruptions so we can focus on our responsibilities?
• Do we set aside specific time to spend with our children?
• Do we show our spouses that we love them?
• When talking on the phone, do we sound happy to be speaking to the other person?
• Do we exercise even when we don’t feel like it?
• Do we think about what we want to say before speaking?
• Do we show courtesy by holding the door open for someone else?
• Do we compliment people when they are deserving of one?
• Are we friendly in our emails?
• Do we say please and thank you?
• Do we show people respect by letting them finish talking before responding?
• Do we apologize without making excuses when we are wrong?
• Do we have a positive attitude even when things don’t go our way?

The Power of Our Decisions
These and hundreds of other little decisions we make each day may seem insignificant when looked at individually, but when looked at collectively they influence every part of our lives. From our relationships to our health, no part of our lives is exempt from the effects of these little decisions.

We are where we are and whom we are at this very moment in life based on the decisions we have made. Our physical health is largely the reflection of our decisions. Our finances are what they are because of our decisions. Where we work and what we earn is the outcome of our decisions. The state of our relationships is the result of our decisions. Everything we have or don’t have is a reflection of our decisions.

We can avoid accepting personal responsibility for our decisions by blaming others, but if we consider how something occurred, it all points to a decision we made.  From time to time there will be exceptions, but if we are honest with ourselves, our lives are a mirror image of our decisions.

There is also a positive side effect from intentionally making good decisions.  When you make wise choices regardless of how little they may be, you will feel happy with yourself and who you are becoming because you will know you are doing the right thing.

Improving Our Decision-Making
If deep down inside you want to become a better person and enjoy greater success and fulfillment in your life, then consider these suggestions.

• Accept responsibility for your decisions and stop blaming others for where you find yourself today. This is the first step forward.

• Become aware of decisions you are making every day and start making decisions consistent with the person you want to become.

• Believe in yourself and in your ability to make good decisions. Follow your gut and do what you feel is right; 95% of the time you will make the right decision.  Like any skill, as you become intentional about making positive decisions, you will get better and better.

What methods do you use to make these little daily decisions? Which ones present the most challenges? I encourage you to share your thoughts in the comment section below.



The little decisions you make each day will form the person you become tomorrow.

Thinking Outside the Box

According to Dictionary.com, creativity is described as "the ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns, relationships or the like, to create meaningful new ideas, forms, methods, interpretations, etc.; originality, progressiveness, or imagination.” Said in simple terms, it’s thinking outside the box.

In this entry I am going to share with you one-of-the best techniques for being creative. By implementing this strategy throughout my career and personal life, I was forced to be innovative when it would have been easier to choose a more standard approach.

What do you do?

Before I share this strategy with you, I’d like you to consider your own. When you go into problem solving mode, how many different options do you generally consider? When you search for a better way to do something, do you make a list of your choices?

If you’re like most people I’ve met, you probably consider fewer than 5 options and these are the ones that immediately come to your mind. Are there others? Where are they? Deep in the recesses of your brain? It’s time to bring them out!

Make a list of 20 options

According to Todd Smith of the Little Things Matter, the next time you need to solve a problem or explore a better way to do something, compile a written list of 20 options. Not 5, 10 or 15. I said 20!

"The first five things you think of will be the tip of the iceberg. They’ll probably be the same five things everyone else would think of in a similar situation. They are the most obvious answers. The key here is to stretch yourself to think of 20. You will struggle getting up to 13 or 14, but your biggest breakthroughs will come when you push yourself to 18, 19 and 20. Often times it is in those final three where you will find the hidden jewels."

Here are some circumstances where you can apply this lesson:

• Where your family should go on vacation next year
• Evaluating where you want to move
• Considering restaurant options for a special occasion
• Your career options
• Ways to cut expenses
• Making investment decisions
• How to stand out from the crowd in your profession
• Strategies to drive sales
• How to provide a higher level of service to your customers
• Choosing different incentive programs for your sales team
• Improving your ability to reach your target market
• Finding a baby sitter on New Year’s Eve

The biggest challenge you will have is sticking with the process. It takes more effort than you think to make a list of 20 options. I have experienced several occasions where I had to really push myself to think of 20. Many times I had to take a break and come back to it. But the intense focus always opened my mind and forced me to ponder things that I normally wouldn’t have considered.

Here is my recommendation to you: The next time you have to solve a problem or think of a better way to accomplish something, sit down with a pad of paper and a pen and make a list of 20 options. Don’t stop at 17... Push yourself to 20.

Todd Smith then recommends, as your next step, to make a list of pros and cons for each option. From there, narrow your list down to your top options and study them. If you remove emotion from your decision and focus on the facts, it’s likely you’ll make the best decision. And at the very least you’ll feel confident that you’ve explored all of the available options.

For example, my husband and I were recently making plans to travel abroad to attend a close family member's funeral. The weekend prior to our scheduled flight all airports in the United Kingdom were shut down due to volcanic ash from the erupting volcano in Iceland. When they eventually opened, many people were vying for all available seats to and out of the UK. My husband and I were forced to take emotion out of the equation, and focus on the facts... should we continue out plan to have us both go and possibly not make the funeral on time, or do we send just one person with the guarantee to make the funeral on time. We chose the second option, and thus were able to have my husband take a flight to Paris and then a train to London. Had we not take emotion from the decision making process, we would not have obtained our goal to attend the funeral.

So, is there anything going on in your life right now where you can apply this lesson? If the answer is yes, grab a pad of paper and get started.

To be creative you must go where you have not been before. You must expand your mind to new ideas, opportunities and a fresh way of thinking. Only then will discover a new world of possibilities.

Discipline and Loyalty: Are They Dead?

We live in a world where these two great words (discipline and loyalty) are becoming meaningless.

Does this mean that they are worthless?

On the contrary, they are becoming priceless qualities because they are so hard to develop in the first place. And should you be one of the fortunate few who have caught the vision, your battle has just begun because the greatest battle is to keep what you’ve learned from these two priceless qualities.

Discipline is that great quality few people use that enables them to be constructively busy all the time. Even in discouragement and defeat, discipline will rescue you and usher you to a new place to keep constructively busy while you forget about doubt, worry and self-pity.

If more people in this day-and-age would realize the absolute necessity of discipline, and the degree of growth and happiness to be attained from it, what a better world this would be.

Most people think that loyalty is to a "thing" or to a "person", when actually, it is really to one’s own self. Some think that it is to a goal or an objective, but, again, it is to one’s own convictions. If loyalty has to be earned, then it is deserved, more than devoted emotion based on a temporary feeling. Loyalty is the character of a person who has taken upon them-self the task before them, and they will always realize that out of a loyal heart will spring all the other virtues that make life one of depth and growth.

As my mentor Jim Rohn once said,

"The best motivation is self-motivation. The guy says, ‘I wish someone would come by and turn me on.' What if they don't show up? You've got to have a better plan for your life."

If you aren't disciplined and loyal to yourself, your goals, your convictions, you will never have the motivation to accomplish the goals most valuable to you.

Will you commit, today, to write down your game plan, and commit yourself to achieving the desired outcome?