Never Ever Give Up

Never give up.Successful people persevere through the toughest times regardless of the obstacles. Success is dependent on the willingness to persist even in when facing seemingly hopeless challenges.

That’s Step 21 of my 21 Steps to Success Guaranteed To Change Your Life Forever.

There is a lot to be said about perseverance.

Step 21 is paramount. It’s essential. It’s important. It involves a good amount of discernment between moving on and quitting because things get hard. I have dedicated several blog posts to this topic and encourage you to take a look:

5 Reasons Why You Should Not Give Up

..and my guest post for Doina’s Infinite Solutions on why quitting is not an option for me.

I believe in you.

I know you can do it.

I know it’s tough and I know that success can seem so far out of reach. If you missed it, review my 21 Steps to Success Guaranteed To Change Your Life Forever once again.

It is possible and it is within your reach.

To your success and outrageous goals.

Measure your Success and Know the Score

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Are you tracking where you are and where you want to be?

Know the score. Know your numbers. That’s Step 20 of my 21 Steps to Success Guaranteed To Change Your Life Forever.

As an entrepreneur with outrageous goals, I want to make sure that you are not only writing those outrageous goals down but measuring and mapping your success. Creating a visual representation of your personal progress is imperative in moving forward in your business.

My suggestion is to write out your 3 month, 6 month, 9 month and 12 month goals. (you can break it down to monthly goals if it it makes more sense to your business)

Then chart where you are at 3 months, 6 months etc.

One of the main reasons for doing this is to quantify and assess what is working and what is not. As you progress, you will not only see where you are but know when you need to alter your methods, scale up when something is working or perhaps adjust your goals

The goals don’t need to be just financial goals. You can (and should) track goals and progress in other areas like the number of new clients, new leads, visitors to your sites.

Watching your own success and seeing that you are moving closer to your desired end result also creates confidence . Confidence creates action, action creates success habits, which create successes (results) which builds more confidence… and the cycle repeats itself. This momentum cycle is a cycle you want to be in!

Knowing the score involves things like knowing how much one additional client is worth to you in revenue for the year or how much retaining that one client for a course of 3 years is worth in revenue. What activities would you focus on if retaining your clients was responsible for the majority of your income ?

Imagine for a moment you are playing a game or sport. Would you go about the game/ sport ‘hoping” that by the end of the game, you would have enough points to win the game or would you focus on the activities that were working on getting you the most points? Would you keep your strongest players on the bench and the weakest on the field?

Knowing the score, who’s on the team, how the points are tabulated and where you are in the game allows you to position yourself yourself to win!

To your success and outrageous goals,

21 Steps to Success · Personal Development

Be Teachable and Listen To Mentors and Coaches

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Be teachable. Listen to mentors and coaches

This is Step 19 of my 21 Steps to Success Guaranteed to Change Your Life Forever.

What does being “teachable” really mean? Teachability, simply put, is the ongoing willingness and openness to learn.

Being teachable means listening more than you talk and preach, being open to other people’s ideas, being open to change and new lessons and doing things differently.

This story about being teachable illustrates the importance :

A university professor went to visit a famous Zen master. While the master quietly served tea, the professor talked about Zen. The master poured the visitor’s cup to the brim, and then kept pouring. The professor watched the overflowing cup until he could no longer restrain himself. “It’s full! No more will go in!” the professor blurted. “This is you,” the master replied, “How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup.”

From: http://truecenterpublishing.com/zenstory/emptycup.html

Being teachable involves coming to the table with an empty glass…willing to fill it with new knowledge even when you think you have mastered it all. It involves a little humility and being vulnerable; admitting that you don’t know everything.

When you cease to be “teachable”, that’s when you stop growing, when you get stuck and when you fail to be a good leader.

My suggestion to you is to commit yourself to ongoing learning. Listen to coaches and mentors. Be open to new ideas. Come to the table with an empty cup. When you do this, it will be filled over and over again with a wealth of ideas and knowledge that you can put into practice and share with the world.

To your success and outrageous goals,

21 Steps to Success · Personal Development · Uncategorized

What Live Events Can Do For You

Listen to audios regularly

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My previous post talked about the important of reading daily to feed the mind. Audios are equally important. It is a daily habit of successful people that doesn’t need to take up a lot of time at all.

Listening to audios regularly is Step 17 in my 21 Steps to Success Guaranteed to Change Your Life Forever.

By listening to quality audios over and over again (preferably in personal development or in an area you want to excel in), you are feeding your mind. You are learning from leaders and positioning yourself to become an expert. By listening to powerful communicators, you will become powerful.

Imagine for a moment your subconscious mind controlling your actions and your decisions. Often times, even with the best intentions we fail because our subconscious mind’s previously stored beliefs, fears and attitudes are in conflict with what we consciously desire.

Does it not make sense that what you “input” in that subconscious mind should be reflective of the outcome you desire ? If you are consistently reinforcing your mind by listening to audios that input positive, valuable knowledge from people who have achieved what you want to achieve, chances are that this will have an amazing, positive effect on your life and business.

Control the input that goes into your mind and then alter the beliefs and attitudes that may be holding you back.

Listening to audios on a daily basis can be done in your downtime, or when you are doing other activities like bathing, driving, cooking or laundry. In the words of my mentor .. This will affect your thoughts, your words, your actions, your habits and ultimately your destiny.

Change your input and you will change your outcome.

To your success,

P.S I personally listen to audios every single day… click here and join us in this mastermind designed to reprogram your brain for success.

21 Day Blogging Challenge · 21 Steps to Success · Personal Development

Why Reading Daily Is So Important

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There’s a secret weapon of successful people and it is much simpler and much more available to the average person than you may think. It’s reading.

Leaders are readers.

I’ve listed Reading as Step 16 in the 21 Steps to Success Guaranteed to Change Your Life Forever.

By reading daily you are feeding your mind. Reading is an amazing source of wisdom. It is an opportunity to be mentored by great leaders and an opportunity for growth and development. Reading improves intelligence, increases and improves our vocabulary and inspires creativity.

Dedicating yourself to learning and development by reading daily helps you to cultivate and develop what God has blessed you with.

Reading daily is a habit of highly successful people, one that I encourage.

My challenge to you… Read daily. Read a quality book every month … finance, health or personal development. Just read.

Here are some suggestions:

The New Psychocybernetics by Maxwell Maltz
Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill

The Leader Who Had No Title by Robin Sharma

The Success Principles by Jack Canfield

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey

Act Now! A Daily Action Log for Achieving Your Goals in 90 Days.

Awaken the Giant Within by Anthony Robbins

The Holy Bible

To your success and outrageous goals,

21 Day Blogging Challenge · 21 Steps to Success · Personal Development

The power of focus

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Focus. That’s step 15 in my 21 Steps to Success Guaranteed to Change Your Life Forever.

In business, they tell you to have multiple streams of income and not to put all your eggs in one basket. What you need to know however, is that in order have true success in one thing, you need to have laser focus. Perfect this one thing and achieve the success you want first by focusing your attention on this one thing and then move onto the next if you must.

There are a multitude of shiny objects and a multitude of possibilities and opportunities that we are exposed to every day and the temptation to go from one endeavor to another can be very powerful. I have heard this referred to as “Entrepreneurial ADD” and “Shiny Object Syndrome”. The key is to stay focused on the opportunity right in front of you and see it through to completion. Distraction and information overload will just make you unproductive.

Tackle one task, one client, one project at a time. You will be much more productive, less stressed and the work will get done.

When you are focused on one definite purpose, you are committed and determined . Your eyes and ears are open for situations, people, opportunities that will aid you in the endeavor you are focused on.

Intense focused emotion that is focused on your chief desire is powerful beyond measure.

I found the following illustration very interesting : Imagine a light bulb in a lighted room. The light bulb will have little effect on you aside from lighting up the room. The light, or particles of light are dispersed across the room you are in. Imagine however, that same light, the same amount of light and wattage, with no more energy… but now the light is not dispersed but condensed like a beam. The light is focused. The room around you is dark but there is this condensed, focused beam or ‘laser beam of light’ that could potentially start a fire.

Compare now this laser beam of light to your intensity of emotion towards your chief business aim or your “laser-beam” of focus on your goals and desires and just imagine how powerful that can be!

Stay focused.

To your success and outrageous goals,

21 Steps to Success · Personal Development

The Power of Gratitude in Creating Success

How exactly does gratitude contribute to business success?

Studies have shown that grateful people are happier, healthier, more optimistic, positive. An attitude of gratitude contributes to feelings of well-being and contributes to greater success at work.

The universal law of attraction suggests that you get more of what you focus on. Why then focus on what you lack? Does it not make more sense to focus on the good and what we have rather than what we don’t have. Expressing gratitude daily for everything we have experienced and have will attract more ! Gratitude shifts your focus from lack to abundance.

Grateful people see potential and opportunity.

Gratitude blocks negative emotions.

Gratitude is contagious. When you express gratitude, you encourage others to do the same. The recipient is grateful and feels empowered as well, and so grows the positive ball of energy in your circles.

When appreciation is shown to your teams, your employees, and your business partners, they reciprocate with more of the same behaviour that resulted in the gratitude in the first place.

Gratitude can transform common days into thanksgiving, turn routine jobs into joy, and change ordinary opportunities into blessings.” ~William Arthur Ward

While these “lovey-dovey” emotions may not be traditional in the business world, it is important to note that studies have shown that the attitudal factors like gratitude have more to do with success than skills and numbers.

Practice gratitude every day!

To your success and outrageous goals,

21 Day Blogging Challenge · 21 Steps to Success · Personal Development

Be happy | It’s your key to success

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Be happy. Be happy. Be happy. This is Step 13 of my 21 Steps To Success Guaranteed to Change Your Life Forever.

Can being “happy” truly help you with your success?

Studies have shown that happiness is paramount to good health, a healthy immune system and healthy marriages Happiness is contagious. People who are happier, sleep better, have healthier appetites, and exercise more . Happy people are more productive and successful. Happiness is linked to living a longer, more fulfilled life.

“Happiness is Good Medicine. Happiness is native to the human mind and it’s physical machine. We think better, perform better, feel better and are healthier when we are happy. Even our physical sense organs work better.”

~ Excerpt from The new Psycho-cybernetics

Does it not make sense then to make happiness a part of your life?

Happiness is now

I received some valuable advice at a critical time in my life about happiness that became a way of life for me:

“Don’t wait for something to make you happy. Be happy first and that ‘something’ WILL happen”, I was told.

Successful people aren’t happy. Happy people are successful.

Happiness is NOW. It isn’t a destination. It shouldn’t be somewhere you are trying to get or something you are constantly trying to achieve. When you choose to be happy now and when you choose to develop a habit of being happy, you are choosing a more fulfilled life NOW instead of waiting for some accomplishment or ideal conditions to make you happy.

This philosophy I’ve adopted may seem hard to live by when illness, death and/or financial worries hit, and understandably so but understanding how this emotion/ state of mind can effect you is intrinsically important in living life to the fullest.

We can manage to be happier even in circumstances that may not be ideal. Don’t let “outward conditions’ effect your happiness.

Fact versus opinion

When things get tough, consider this; our opinion or our own interpretation of of the situation is not fact and often misguides our emotional state. For example when financial pressure or debt arises, it may be one’s opinion that it is a ‘catastrophe and that life is not worth living’. The fact is that, yes, the debt is there, however it is merely an opinion that this is a catastrophe and life is not worth living. Next time you find yourself in a situation where you begin to think that you are doomed or things are doom and gloom, think again… is it fact or is it an opinion… then change it.

Choose happiness….

To your success and outrageous goals,

21 Day Blogging Challenge · 21 Steps to Success · Personal Development

Why successful people wake up early

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Step 12 of my 21 Steps to Success Guaranteed to Change Your Life Forever involves working when the rest of the world is sleeping. Wake up early!

Don’t use time as an excuse. This is something that really separates the successful from the unsuccessful. While the rest of the world is sleeping, the successful people are awake, taking care of the things they need to take care of to achieve and maintain success and to take care of many of the steps in my 21 Steps.

Why wake up early?

The hours between 5am -8am are the hours when you are most energized and when there are the least number of distractions.

Waking up just 1 hour earlier every day, gives you 15 whole days of extra productive time in a year!

Morning is the best time to exercise and set yourself up for an energy filled, focused and productive day.

Morning is when your competition is up – the movers and the shakers. Give them a run for their money!

Early risers are more organized. They use this time to plan, read, pray, mediate.

Breakfast is more feasible when you wake up early and we all know how important a good breakfast is .

Take Small Steps

It may take time but you can take small steps, 15 minutes a day earlier until you are up an hour earlier a day.

Visualize

When you go to bed in the evening, visualize yourself getting up at the hour you intend to. It is amazing how this works. I wrote an interesting post on this here.

I challenge you… wake up early. Make it a habit. Try it for a month. Time is precious

“There will be plenty of time to sleep when you are dead.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

To your success and all your outrageous goals,