Get Leverage!

Happy Friday!  13 Days until 2015.    Time to make a change, and time to act!  Remove any fear or doubt.  Besides Triskaidekaphobia (fear of the number 13), what do you have to be afraid of?   Yesterday, you picked the one thing that you are committed to giving your all...remember?   Today, we are going to take that a few steps further and Get Leverage.  Your point of decision was a great first step, but only a first step.  The key to real change is a steady combination of right thought and action.   The thoughts you think either motivate you or talk you out of taking the right action or into taking no action at all.  Mind controls your motivation, so we have to get leverage on your mind.    How do we do that to ensure we follow through the next 13 days? I have 5 things that I do to Get Leverage on myself.  Doing these will test your resolve, help identify true commitment, and will be a temperature check to see if the goal is truly worthy of your focus;   1.  Keep the goal in front of you at all times.  At a minimum, the goal should be written down, but you can take it a step further by getting pictures, videos or other 'live" representations of your desire.  With I-Pads and smartphones, visual representation of your goal should never be more than a screen saver away!   2.  Write down the things that will be better when you achieve this goal - The Carrot.  In rapid-fire, brainstorm style, list the benefits of accomplishing this goal.  You want to amass as many positive results as you can.  Nothing is too big or small.  If it only appeals to your vanity or makes you feel good, that is not superficial.  In fact, that is perfect, proper leverage!   3.  Write down the things that will be the consequences of not achieving this goal - The Stick. In a similar fashion, you have to list the ramifications and repercussions of not following through and achieving your goal.  You have to see, visually, that procrastination, fear and doubt have a heavy price.  These triplets do not extend credit...they demand payment in full!   4.  Spend a few minutes, several times a day, seeing yourself engaged in the activity that will bring the desired results and fast forward the visualization to your ultimate success.   5.  Tell someone you trust about your 13 day commitment.  Share your goal with an accountability partner.  There is something about us that doesn't want to let other people down...even if we would let ourselves down.  Take it a step further, sign a "contract" with them that if you don't act consistently, there is a corresponding "penalty" to pay.   In that spirit, my "pick one" from yesterday...get to 180lbs.    How committed am I to that goal? The January 1, 2015 crumbs will have me with shirt off!  Before I change my mind (or Natalie looks over my shoulder), I better hit the send button!   Stay tuned.  Now you know I mean business!    Do you?   Then do something today to get committed and to...    Get Leverage!   Until Monday, I wish you Money, Power, Success!

Pick One!

 

14 Days until 2015.  Excited?   You should be.  2015 will be the best year of your life!!!     Where have I heard that before?   Oh yea, this same time last year when someone told me that 2014 was going to be the best year of my life!   There is nothing wrong with anticipating a best year ever.  Humans are designed to have hope and look forward to the future.  What becomes counterproductive is to always put the "best ever" perpetually in the future.   What about the here and now?  What about today?   I want you to go and take a look at your 2014 goals list.  Take a moment to applaud and celebrate yourself for the things you have done and accomplished.  Now, take a look at the things that are as yet undone.    We still have time.  You have the 3 choices listed above;   Give Up. Give In. Give It Your All!   Pick one.   Somehow, you don't strike me as the giving up or giving in type.  That leaves you the best option...Giving It Your All!   "You have never seen what you could be IF you threw your WHOLE SELF at YOUR DREAM!  Throw EVERYTHING you've got at it...HOLD BACK NOTHING! T.D Jakes   What can you do in 14 days?  Who knows, but it sure beats wasting them!   Didn't make your weight loss goal?  Can you lose 2 - 5 pounds in 14 days?  Can you make better choices through the holidays?  Thought you would be out of debt?  Can you send $100 dollars to your credit cards?  Can you call them to make arrangements if things are bad?  Can you commit to not charging anything this holiday season or stick to a strict budget?   Wanted to make 6-Figures of income but fell short?  Can you do something to earn even a few hundred dollars?  Can you reach out to your clients for the holidays and let them know you will be in touch with a great product in 2015?   I am not asking you to move mountains in 14 days, I am asking you to plant seeds.  The seed of any a small action can have powerful results.  The best way to begin is to set a target, engage a behavior...and build positive momentum going into the New Year.   If you have 3, 4, 8 goals that you did not achieve, I am not asking you to scatter your thoughts and actions evenly across them and end up with watered down momentum.  I am asking you to focus everything you have on the one that will bring you the most satisfaction.  I am asking you to concentrate your energy and effort in one all out last push.  I am asking you to... Pick One!   Until tomorrow, I wish you Money, Power, Success!

Never Give Up!

When my son, Christian, was about 8 years old, he brought a picture of a toy to me.  Mind you, it wasn't close to his birthday or Christmas. "Hey Pop's, I want my next goal to be this mini skateboard park."   He showed me the picture and all the neat things he could do with it and his growing mini skateboard collection.  He knew the way to get to me was through the "goal setting" angle.    I fought off my initial inclination to "just say no" and made a counter-offer,   "If you still want it in 30 days, I will get if for you."   Then, he gave me the look.  The one that knew there were going to be strings attached, and I said, "No conditions, if you still want it in 30 days, we will go get it.  That simple."   After 30 days, I went to him and without prompting told him, "It was time."   "Time for what?" he said oblivious.   He had forgotten.    Or more precisely, his desire for the skateboard park had waned.  Make no mistake, Christian was intense as a child...and now as a man.  This experience only exemplifies what some of us demonstrate day in and day out with most of the things we say we want.   We are casual.    There are some things on your list of life that are under the "that would be nice" category.  We see something online, in a magazine or on T.V and it sparks a momentary impulse of desire.  That is how a lot of things become impulse purchases!   Then, there is The List.  The real list.  The things that will not go away.  You write them every year.  They come in and out of focus, but in a moment of excitement and inspiration, you dare to believe in them again.  It is in that moment of belief that your "if at first you don't succeed, try and try again" mentality beckons to you...   Never Give Up!    I know you think I should quit prodding you, quit pushing you.  I can't help it.  Remember that at the top of my list is, "Helping millions achieve success...one at a time."     Someone has to be the voice of treason...yes, I said treason.  It is those treasonous thoughts that are trying to get you to slack off - to give up.  If you are honest with me (and yourself), what appears to be innocent slacking off is really just another way of giving up. "Never, never, never give up." Winston Churchill         "Never give up, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn." Harriet Beecher Stowe     I want to see what we can do if we generate a little more focus and muster up a little more strength to push hard these next 16 days.  Yes, I know that Rome wasn't build in a day, but I'm they sure made a lot of progress in 16 days. So can you if you... Never Give Up!   Until tomorrow, I wish you Money, Power, Success!

Finish Strong!

Happy Monday!       Seems like we just finished a 30 day countdown and it is time for another one...the countdown to 2015!   It would be easy (and somewhat understandable) to lay back these last 2 1/2 weeks and just coast into the New Year.  I am sure some of you met all your goals for 2014 and are using the holidays to celebrate a banner year.   What is that you say?  You didn't reach all of your goals?   For those of you that did everything you set out to do in 2014, take a powder.  For those of us (yes, that means me, too!) that left some work undone, we can't afford to take the last 17 days off - that is 5% of the time of the entire year!   If you dare, take a look back at the things you set out to do in 2014.  In the areas of mental, spiritual, social, physical and financial, did you achieve the things you wrote down?    Before you beat yourself up, did you "miss" in the right direction?  Effort and energy expended in pursuit of a worthy ideal is never failure.  You just may need to define and refine your approach. The next two weeks should be spent focusing on where you missed it and how to get things back on track.  It means taking concrete action that will help you be more effective going into 2015.   Now, the tougher question; Did you even really attempt the things on your list?  If the answer is no, than you have a major decision to make - Is the goal still one you are committed to?   No.  Then strike it off as a casual wish.  Something that you are not willing to pay the price for.  No shame in that.  You don't want it bad enough so it is not important.  Reality.  Better that, than lay back for 17 days and then proclaim a newfound vigor for that goal January 1st just to have it fall back into a non-priority by February.    That is how years come...and go.    Ah, but if the answer is yes and you still want it, then I challenge you to begin moving in the direction of that worthwhile goal today.  Right now!  To get your mind and body in motion, keep them in motion and build momentum going into the New Year.   You can erase 11 1/2 months of procrastination, fear and doubt in these next 17 days.  You can prove to yourself that you are a person of action and conviction.  You can prove to yourself that the things you want are coming to you through merit, time and attention...action!   "Whenever you have taken up work in hand, you must see it to the finish. That is the ultimate secret of success. Never, never, never give up!" Dada Vaswani     Dust off that list from January 2014, we are about to attack it where we can. We are about to   Finish Strong!   Until tomorrow, I wish you Money, Power, Success!