Tag: #highachievers

The Five Principles to help you step away from average and unleash your inner greatness. Principle number Three

There are 5 principles that I believe are critical if you are going to step away from accepting an average existences and unleash your inner greatness. You must learn them and live them. I’ll be sharing each of the five in a series over the next few weeks. Over the last two weeks we covered the first two, as a reminder they are;

1. You are responsible for everything in your life, everything.
2. Continuous learning and personal development are essential in living your life to the fullest.

Principle number three

Action drives change and results


Nothing happens without action. They say knowledge is power but I disagree, knowledge is stored power. knowledge only becomes power when it is applied through action.

Everyone has hopes and dreams, everyone want a fit body, they want money and wealth, well why doesn’t everyone have these things? Why don’t people who say they have dreams and goals achieve those goals and make their dreams a reality? I say the biggest reason is that most people wont take the actions required on a consistent basis. The issue is not in the knowing what to do, but actually doing what you know needs to be done. Everyone knows that if you want a fit healthy body you must eat right and exercise, yet most will not commit to this on a long term consistent basis. Its no different with every other area of your life.

Action drive all change, results, achievement. The problem is not in the knowing what to do, but actually doing what we know needs to be done.

You must accept principle number one understanding you are responsible for your results. you must adhere to principle number two by continually learning and growing your knowledge base, but without action, nothing happens, nothing changes, dreams die.

Often the reason we don’t commit to taking the action required is because we look at the goal or dream as a whole and it seems too daunting so we procrastinate. The pain in the discipline it takes to do the work seems like its to much to handle, especially when sitting on the couch and watching just one more episode of what ever show you are into is much easier. Keep this in mind while you sit there, the actors in that show are pursing their goals and dreams while you are sitting on the couch as time keeps marching on and you are falling further behind. Every day you don’t start is another day you are behind.

We often over estimate what we can do in a day and underestimate what they can do in a year. Breakdown your goals into small components and milestones and then commit to daily action in achieving the smaller components of the bigger goal. I hear a lot about having to take massive action, I think this sets many up for failure. What if you took small “bite” size actions every day, first for a week, then and month? Soon you start developing the habit of taking action every day, what would you look like a year from today if you developed the daily action habit? If you are thinking, a year out is to far out to try and conceive, ask your self this question, if I don’t start now and take consistent action, will I ever be, do, or achieve what I want in life?

You must be intentional about what you want out of your life, Intention means an act or instance of determining mentally upon some action or result. Be intentional about taking those small actionable steps every day, the compound effect of those small steps will carry you to the realization of you dreams.

Knowledge is the fuel, action is the engine. Get your motor running.

The Five Principles to help you step away from average and unleash your inner greatness. Principle number Two

There are 5 principles that I believe are critical if you are going to step away from accepting an average existences and unleash your inner greatness. You must learn them and live them. I’ll be sharing each of the five in a series over the next few weeks. Last week we discussed Principle number 1 and that is, you are responsible for everything in your life, everything.

Principle Number two

Continuous learning and personal development are essential for living your life to the fullest.


We are here on this earth to pursue, stretch, and test the limits of our potential. We can not do that unless we are continuously improving ourselves, learning new skills, and developing our ability function at a high level.

They say success leaves clues, Tom Corely studied wealthy people and found that 83% of the wealthy read at least 30 minutes a day for education or career and 63% listen to audio books on their commute.

You’ve heard the saying that failure or mistakes teach the best lessons. I would agree with that, we certainly want to learn from our mistakes and not repeat them but I would add, while your failures may teach lessons, it is even better to learn from the failures and the mistakes of others.

This is where reading books, listening to podcast, and taking courses have the most value. Learn from others who have already done what you are trying to do, they’ve already made the mistakes. You don’t have to always reinvent the wheel. Learning from others can help you avoid mistakes and delays in the pursuit of achieving of your goals and can even propel you forward.

Want to be number one at your company? Number one in your industry? Why not seek out who is number one now and study that person. Learn what it is that is making them successful and implement it. What if you chose a career or industry specific subject every 90 days and studied it, read a book a month on it, researched on the internet, study industry product literature, etc. What if you reached out to others with the skill or knowledge you want to learn and asked questions? If you picked a subject every 90 days and studied it like I suggest, how far ahead would you be in a year? Three years?

Jim Rohn always said, work harder on yourself than you do on your job. What he meant was by continuously learning and improving your skills you become more valuable. It is a fact that your value in the market place is in direct proportion to your skills and knowledge. You want to make more? Be more? You must continue to lean. The real learning starts when you leave school. Mr. Rohn also said, formal education can make you a living, continuous learning and personal development can make you a fortune.

Continuous learning and personal development is essential to living life to the fullest

Lastly, developing your interpersonal skills and emotional intelligence is key in any business, job, or personal relationships. Learning how to communicate which also means focusing on the lost art of listening. One way I have found to hone these skills is by reading and listening to sales trainers, not the shading used car salesman guy but real salesman. Real sales trainers teach communication skills with an emphasis on listening skills. It is important not to just hear the words of the person in front of you but to know what they mean, what the really mean, what they feel, what the pain points are. We are all selling, maybe not a product but maybe an idea, maybe a path forward, maybe that we understand. If you learn, build on, and exercise great communications skills this skill alone can take you a long way.

Continuous learning and personal development are essential, If you don’t continue to grow and learn, you are falling behind. Continuous learning and personal development are like fuel in the fuel tank, without it the race car isn’t going anywhere. They say that knowledge is power, I disagree with that, Knowledge is stored power. We’ll discuss in the next article how we turn knowledge into real power.

Our pursuit of personal devleopment and self improvement

In our pursuit of personal development and self improvement we are constently working on honing our leadership skills and our ability influence others. You know the better you can communicate your vision, respect for others, and your ability to influence others to want to follow you, the more successful your projects, plans, and goals will be. Your hands on application and training is most effective and accomplished by developing the potential and skills of those you work with and those around you.

In this effort I often use issues and incedences that I experience to study and improve my own skills and the skills and leadership approach of those around me.

Think back over the last few weeks, were there incedences where maybe you came up short with regard to leading your team? Did your team or someone you know experience a challenge or setback that may have been responded to better or possibly avoided completely? Did you have folks around you complaining about other people but not willing to address and resolve the problem?

I’ve experienced or seen all three of these issues recently.

True leaders take extreme ownerships


The best leaders take what retired Navy Seal and leadership expert Jocko Willink call’s Extremme Ownership, The leader develops the vision and with his team develops the plan, then leads, supports, and empowers the team to achieve project goals. I personally fell short recently. One of my pet peeves and something I preach about is NOT assuming someone else is takig care of a task or a loose end. Dont assume, take the initiative and be sure. Yes, team members have their responsibilties and they should live up to the requirement of those responsibilities but they are human, errors are made. I should have as the leader verified everything was in place. I assumed a subcontractor’s paper work for access to a project was in place and being processed.

I try not to micromanage folks, I think it kills individual ownership. Having said that, as the leader of the project and all it entails it is my responsibility, I did not make sure a loose end that can derail progress was tied up. It caused some chaos and scrambling at the last minute. I own that. The leader, and all of us should hold ourselves accountable. Assuring that your team has all it needs, knows exactly what is required, when it’s required, etc. is your responsibility. When they fall short you as the leader have fallen short. Remember, those who want to be their best consider themsleves as leadrs at what ever “level” they are, you need to take the same extreme ownership approach.

When mistakes and set backs occur


As good as you think you are you will experience mistakes and set backs, either by you, your team, or others you interact with. Its how you respond to these experiences that determines first how successful you’ll be and second, how much respect and reverence you build with those you come in contact with. Our goal should always be to learn from mistakes, if you do not dissect the mistake or set back, you won’t learn and you won’t improve. Mistakes are not failures if you learn from them. The goal in life is though to learn as much as you can from other peoples mistakes.

Your very first thought should be, what did I do or not do that created or played a part in this mistake. Our first thought in any issue whether it be work or private life should be to look within. Most fail here, they never look within. Most look at others, pointing fingers, and assigning blame. These are not leaders, these are losers. They lose because they will never learn, their ego does’nt allow it. You must understand that the greatest influence you have in improving any sutuation is YOUR OWN ACTIONS. Humble yourself and reflect inward, ask yourself, how could I have approached this issues differently for a better outcome. The folks that can do this are the confident respected leaders.

Your second thought should be how can I use this setback as a teachable moment for the team or an individual to make them better. Educate them to get better without humiliation or ridule. When they trust that you are correcting them or teaching them for their best interest, in a safe environment, and because you care, you build respect and a loyal ally. Some dont like to be “educated” so this is where your soft skills and savvy come in to play. The best leaders can teach a lesson without talking down to people.

Complainers and whiners


Many people like to talk about a problem, a bad situation, or other people while making no attempt to resolve an issue or problem. Your job when there is a problem is to start facilitating an environment for ideas and solutions. If you dont bring a solution to the problem you are just whining, nobody likes a whiner.

The quickest way to have a team breakdown is to have people talking about a problem they have with an individual with everyone but the individual. Ive seen it first hand myself recently. There is no room for this in your work life or personal life. If you have problem with someone else and if you are confident in yourself you should be able to bring the subject up in a respectful productive manner. If you are’nt confident bringing the subject up you may need to look inward as discussed above. Confront the situation in a respectful manner. A good tactful way is to bring up the issue in the form of questions instead of accusations, examples, can you help me understand? I thought I was in charge of this, was I wrong? Questions like these open the conversation up in a non-threatening accusational manner.

Be intentional about improving, think about how you reacted in the past and how you may want to change that reaction in the future. Always look within, its where you have the most power. Do these things and by your leadership example you make others around you better as well.

You are in control, dont let anyone derail your dream. 3 Tips to achievment

You are in control, dont let anyone derail your dream. Just wanted to send out a reminder that where ever you are in your life, financially, job, career, business, or relationship, whatever, it does mean you have to stay there. Its a fact that we are all where we are because of the decisions we have made and the actions we either have taken or not taken. But the truth is, those past decisions do not have to dictate your future.

You have the ability to choose the future you want right now. Once you decide what your goals and dreams are you have started the process of changing and shaping the future you want. However, this is the easy part.

The key to making any change and achieving any goal requires action. This is where people stumble and fail. Everyone wants the money but are’nt willing to commit to what it takes. Everybody wants the fit and attractive body but manny are’nt willing to put the work in, to sacrifice. You can achieve your goals and dreams but you must be willing to work and sacrifice. Nothing great comes easy.

Commit goals to paper


Once you decide what it is you really want to accomplish or what you really want to become you must commit it to paper. I know we all have high tech devises but Im telling you to pick up a pen and a sheet of paper and write your goals out. Right out exactly what it is you want to achieve or become. Detail what your plan is and the effort you will put in to achieve your goal. Review those goals every morning and every evening. Hold yourself accountable. For a time tested method for setting and achieving your goals and dreams I highly suggest you read “think and grow rich” by Napolian Hill.

Commit to massive action


Commit to taking consistent massive action. We get fired up starting off while we are all excited about our new goals that will deliver the life we dream of. Once we experience a little friction and that excitement wears down, it gets a little tougher to keep putting out that effort. It can get diffuicult pushing forward without seeing results or at least the results we think we should be seeing. Keep in mind that results follow momentum, keep pushing, cosnsistent effort is always rewarded. The reason why most fail is because they fail to accurately consider the work required to accomplish their goals. Understand up front that what ever your first thoughts are on what action is required, double it, tripple it. Doing this you start to find out if you are actually committed. Grant Cardone author of “The 10X rule” says that what ever goals you have, what ever effort you think it will take multiply that by ten. Its actually a great mindset, I agree with Cardone that we think to small, we must think much bigger and set our goals higher. We set our goals to low and hit them, we should be setting our goals so high it stretches the limits of our potential.

Prepare for the cynics


Prepare yourself for the naysayer, the critics, cynics, and detractors. There will always be naysayers and critics, people who will always find the negative in everything and everyone. When you start stepping out of your comfort zone, you’ll be putting your self out there for the world to see. You are going to be vulnerable, again, here is where you find out how committed you are. Some will criticize and try to ridicule, they do this mainly because you are a threat. You by your actions are challenging them to question their own abilities and commiment to pursuing their own potential, some cant handle this. Rather than re-evaluate themselves they feel better criticizing you. You must get your friends and family on board also, share with them what your trying to accomplish and the effort it will take. You’ll need them to understand that you must block out the time required to acieve your dreams, Its in their best interest as well. Make sure you commit special time for them as well. You need them on your side, on your team.

Where ever you come from, lower financial background or status, High school drop out, over weight, what ever it is doesnt matter. What matters now is that you have decided now to make a change,set goals, and chase your dream. Whatever they may be, you want to achieve financial freedom, you are going to become a Senior Poject Manager, or you are going to get in the best shape of your life; whatever you dream of it can become real. You are in control, dont let anyone derails your dream.

The Choice Between pain and Pleasure, it’s what determines your success.

We all have a choice but do we have the courage to make the right choice. The choice between pain and pleasure determines your success. The successful, the achievers, they understand this truth;

The Pain of regret is much worse than the pain of discipline

We all face fear, fear of failure, fear of ridicule, or fear of rejection. Whats holding you back from your goals and dreams? Fear typically manifest itself in procratsination, self doubt, and negetive self talk, you know that voice in your head.

We all have big goals and dreams, in fact I confidently believe Like Les Brown who often says, We ALL have greatness within us. Sadly though, most of us never achieve our greatest desires, in fact most settle for a life of medeocrity, never even start the pursuit of the life we dream of. Why is this?

Our pursuits and our decisions are drivin by pain and pleasure, Its how we are wired. We subconciously make a choice between pain and pleasure. Obviously we fear pain, the pain of rejection. The fear of stepping out in front of the world and failing, scared of what our friends and loved ones might think. We fear ridicule and judgement. Funny how those who are most judgemental are the ones that would never risk attempting anything great themsleves so your attempt scares them. It makes them feel threatended or exposed as weak because they havent the courage to face ther fears, yet I digress.

Pleasure is a much easier pursuit but its not alawys the best choice. Instant graditification is often the root of destroyed relationships. It is for many the reason we are over weight and unhealthy. its in large part why many struggle financially. It is the easy way out with regard to the decision making process, this is why as a society so many seek instant gradification yet to our own detriment.

The most successful, the achievers, they understand putting off instant gradification for long term success and happiness. Folks that are healthy and fit put in the time to excercise and are disciplene to eat healthy. Those that are financially fit set their budget and are disciplened in their spending and their saving. It is not by magic or for most that they were born with a silver spoon.

High achievers use their time wisely and intentionally, here are just three examples of what successful wealthy people do to help face and overcome their fears. They set themsleves up for success so they wont feel the pain of regret. These are just a few exapmples from Thomas Corley’s study of wealthy folks.

80% of the wealthy are focused on accomplishing some single goal. Only 12% of the poor do this.

Succesful people more easily face their fears when they have a clear vision of what they want. They have a clear writtin plan, a blueprint for achieving the goal. They understand their why behind the goal, and their why and their desire is greater than their fears.

6% of the wealthy watch reality TV vs. 78% of poor.

Achievers dont just sit on the side lines of life and watch others chase their dreams, or in some cases in reality TV destroy their lives. They intensionally and activly pursue their dreams.

86% of the wealthy believe in lifelong educational self-improvement vs. 5% of poor.

Those who understand that to chase your dreams and to face fear you have to embrace personal development, living your best life is about improving yourself everyday. Jim Rohn always said, “work harder on yourself than you do on your job”.

With regard to these statistics it is Understand that wealth is not necessarilly THE determining factor for success and happines. Having said that there obvioulsy is a clear correlation between success, achievement, happiness and wealth. Success is a reslult of smart habbits. If you will embrace just these three habits you too can pursue your goals with more courage to face your fears.