Organize a “Sprint Week” in your company, your organization, or just by yourself. Plan in advance to make it the most productive week of the year. Give your supreme effort — sprint! Then celebrate your amazing successes.
Success
Footsteps Along the Path to Success
You can learn a lot about life by hiking in the mountains and I am struck with the many similarities between a mountain hike and our journey to success. Here are a few simple lessons we can learn: plan ahead, pay attention, adjust for obstacles, don’t compare yourself to others, and keep going. Cultivate mental toughness to create your ideal future tomorrow.
Use Goals to Reach Your Dreams
Do you ever feel like Alice, in Lewis Carroll’s classic story, Alice in Wonderland? Do you feel like you are trying to get somewhere, but just don’t know exactly how to get there? Perhaps you have never actually harnessed the full power of goals. True goals, the ones that change your life, have six essential components. Leave one out, and the framework falls apart with it. Follow through on all six, and you can’t fail. Here they are…
A Strong Foundation
When I was a teenager, I visited the Sears Tower (now known as the Willis tower) in Chicago, Illinois. At that time, it was the tallest building in the world. In some ways, we are like a skyscraper. We work every day to achieve higher and higher levels of achievement. At the same time, we are susceptible to conditions that surround us. The foundation for the Sears tower is a massive cement structure that is 100 feet deep. If we are to stand strong, we too must have a solid foundation.
Think About Breathing
There is immense value in taking a few minutes a day to just be alive and pay attention. It fosters clarity, perspective, and awareness. A great way to do this is to stop whatever you’re doing and focus on your breathing. Every day, take a few minutes to just focus on your breathing. Be totally aware and alive in this moment. Suddenly, the cares of the day will be swept away and you will wake up and notice your surroundings. Make this a daily habit for greater clarity, perspective, and confidence in your life.
Challenges Build Strength
The woman or man who overcomes the most strife is also often the one who makes the greatest contribution to this world. The poem “Of Trees and Men” clearly articulates this principle of the power of overcoming adversity.
Disadvantaged Childhood? Succeed Anyway!
If you think that you had a disadvantaged childhood, listen to the story of Mario Andretti. Mario was born in Northern Italy the same year that World War II broke out. When the war finally ended, borders had shifted and his family found themselves in communist-controlled Yugoslavia. They decided to leave their homeland as refugees[Read More]
The Principle of Planned Auto-Response
Automate your success by putting your brain to work with the principle of planned auto-response. Repeated actions, practiced over and over, create neuro-pathways in the brain, nerves and muscles. Over time these neuro-pathways become stronger and virtually bypass your conscious mind. Thus trained, the body reacts promptly on cue, with perfect accuracy and poise, and without any conscious thought at all.
Give Yourself a Second Chance
As much as we strive for perfection, we all fall short. The truth is that making mistakes is the very way that we learn and grow. We strive, we fall down, we get up again
Just One Little Thing
You never know when changing one little thing can make a major difference in your life. Identify one little thing that you can do to improve right now. Then do it.
Pluck, Not Luck!
Next time you feel that adversity has beaten you down, think of James Cash Penney. Don’t worry about luck, just put a P in front of it and forge ahead.
Take Action to Overcome FEAR
Fear is the greatest enemy of any professional. Fear of looking silly prevents many from giving enthusiastic effort.
Persistence Really Does Pay
The story of Alex Hailey and how he wrote the book “Roots”.
What is Your Excuse, Today?
My son and I are going on a backpacking trip with his scout troop. Yesterday, a backpacking expert came and spoke to our troop and their parents about how to prepare for this trip.
Plan to Succeed
The more time you have to do something, the longer it takes. Don’t just hope you’ll have time to get something done. Plan it, schedule it, then do it. That is a recipe for success.
Start Boldly and Finish Strong
Years ago, as a member of a cross country track team, I learned a concept that has helped me in life. Coach taught us, “The important thing is to start boldly and finish strong. What happens in between isn’t nearly as important as how we begin and end the race.”
Something To Think About
The importance of controlling the outside influences and being cautious about what we allow to go into our mind.
How Happy are You?
Recently, I had dinner with an old friend who I’ve known for 28 years. Pat Hill is a world-class artist, illustrator, painter, and commercial designer–with talent up to his eyeballs.
Don’t Put It Off
For many of us, procrastination has become a habit, a way of life that is difficult to change. Like other habits, we are often so close to it that we don’t see how it negatively affects our lives.
Listen Up
Conversations that are based on solid listening skills not only result in more effective communication, they foster trust, improve relationships and are more likely to be followed up with action. Here are 5 tips to improve your listening skills.
Be Quiet
Take 15 minutes a day to be quiet. Find a peaceful place where you can be alone. Turn off all electronics and just enjoy being with yourself. Listen to your inner voice and cultivate peace in your life. Bring a pad and pencil to jot down the ideas and thoughts that come to you. Then, jump back into life, refreshed, invigorated, and prepared to take on the day.
Be a Driver!
I saw a bumper sticker on an old car the other day. It said, “I go where I’m towed.”
Cultivate Humility
Do you want to be among the most intelligent, charismatic people in the world? Do you want to be a top achiever and an effective leader, one who has the respect and admiration of peers? Cultivate humility.
Quit Now, Before You Get Fired!
If you want to hold on to your job, you should quit. That is, quit complaining, quit worrying, quit wasting time, quit spreading bad news, and quit holding back.
Can I Really Change?
Self Improvement is all about changing–identifying things that we would like to be different in our lives, then taking action to effect the changes. But, if you’re like me, you’ve tried changing some things in the past and found yourself slipping back into old habits. It can make us wonder if lasting change is really possible. I’m here to assure you, it is!
Freedom to Fail, Freedom to Succeed
But, today I want to talk about the freedom to fail. What? Who would ever want to celebrate the freedom to fail? You and I should–because without the freedom to fail, we do not have the freedom to achieve real success.
Take Charge of Your Life
Today, millions of people walk around incarcerated in their own personal jails called addictions. These people are addicted to substances (such as alcohol, tobacco, prescription drugs, or even caffeine) or to behaviors (such as gambling, porn, overeating, or too much TV) which rob them of time, money, and control.
The Window of Opportunity
Seize the opportunities when they come. To do that with success you must prepare before the opportunity presents itself.
Does Success Change You?
Imagine this scenario… You spend years working hard to succeed. During these years, you have some success, mixed with lots of false starts. But you never really reach the level of success you dream of. And then something shifts. Everything begins to work, and your fame and fortune take off…
Don’t Bother Setting Goals
Setting goals and working towards them often will be a frustrating exercise until one is truly motivated for self improvement and has cleared out any major conflicting intentions and beliefs. When you’re self motivated and not in conflict, you’ll reach your goals faster and easier than you ever thought possible.
