Monday, October 10, 2011

15 30-Day Challenges for Success

For 30 days you can...

1. Play to WIN rather than playing not to lose
2. Get FROM the day, not through the day
3. Do your best
4. Make the mundane memorable
5. Maximize your potential in some way daily
6. Be absent of hesitation. Go big or go home
7. Do the best things, not the most things
8. Leverage all of your resources
9. Build value daily in some area of your life
10. Exceed expectations
11. Invest your energy where you will get the highest returns
12. Raise the bar
13. Make choices that your ideal self would make
14. Think big
15. Make everything you touch turn to gold

Saturday, October 1, 2011

The 2 Best Goal Setting Acronyms: S.M.A.R.T.E.R. and H.A.R.D.

We all have goals, but we don't always thoroughly assess whether the goals we think we want to go after are really worthy of the chase. Here are two great goal setting acronyms that will help you decide on whether your goals are truly worthwhile:

SMARTER

S pecific: Is your goal clearly defined or are you on a road that leads to nowhere?
M easurable: Can this actually be accurately measured?
A chievable: Can you really take action on this or are you trying to achieve something that is out of your control?
R ealistic:  Can this really be achieved or is it an unattainable pipe dream?
T ime Sensitive: Is there a real deadline or will the goal be achieved one day, when the time is right?
E nthusiasm: Does thinking about your goal make you want to jump for joy?
R eward: Even if your goal takes a lot of work to achieve, is there a light at the end of the tunnel? Is there a treat that is so appealing that you can't help but be drawn to it?

HARD

H eartfelt: Do you have an emotional attachment to your goal?
A nimated: Is it motivated by a vision, picture or movie that plays continuously in your mind?
R equired: Does your goal feel urgent or necessary? Is it something that you can't shake?
D ifficult: Will your goal challenge you to commit to excellence? Will it drag you out of your comfort zone?

Thursday, September 29, 2011

Where Am I?: 10 Accountability Questions to Determine Where You Are On the Road to Success

1. Have you mastered where you are now?: You can't get promoted in life unless you are too good at what you do now.
2. Do you milk your opportunities for everything they are worth or just take them as they are?: Opportunities are loaded with benefits. An opportunity is rarely just one thing. You have to milk it for everything it is worth while it is here.
3. What would give you the most results on your journey to success: providing more value or leveraging more?: The most common reason that people don't climb the ladder of success is because they aren't providing enough value to deserve to move up or they aren't milking what you have for everything it's worth.
4. Do you learn from other people's mistakes or do you have to suffer the pain of mistakes to learn?: One of the greatest blessings that each one of us has in life is the ability to learn from other people's mistakes before we have to suffer the pain ourselves. Use that advantage!
5. If you want to reach the top, how do your skills and habits compare with the people at the top?: If you want to reach the top, you should constantly compare your skills and habits with the people who are where you want to be. You shouldn't do this as a way to beat yourself up, but as a way to see what needs to improve.
6. Do you thrive on negative feedback from experts or take offense to it?: If someone is in the position that you strive to be in, and they care enough to give you feedback, LISTEN. If they didn't know what they were talking about, they wouldn't be successful.
7. Do you adapt and thrive on whatever life throws at you, or do you complain hoping that something will change without your effort?: We cannot control what life throws at us, but we can control what we do with it.  You can either turn negatives into positives or let life get the best of you.
8. Are you an irrepressible achiever, or do you only achieve when you are happy?: Achieving when everything in your life is going well is easy. Achieving when everything is trying to break you down is commendable and shows your commitment to success.
9. Are your daily choices pushing towards success or shoving you away from it?: On the path to success, there is no standing still. You are either moving towards it or moving away from it. Align your choices with success.
10. If actions speak louder than words, are your actions saying that you are dedicated to success?:  Your actions are the ultimate words. Who cares what you are saying about how much you want to be successful? It is all about what you are doing. People don't get promoted in life because they're saying that they want to be promoted. They get promoted because they're actions are in alignment with their ultimate goals.

Sunday, September 25, 2011

5 Daily Practices To Catapult You Towards Success

When it comes to success, we often wonder what the big idea is. The most common myth about success is that it is a destination. Success is a process. It is what you do every day, not just every blue moon. Here are 5 daily practices that will put you on the fast track to success:

1. Leverage your resources: With the internet alone, millions of people have seemingly unlimited access to various resources. One of the key differences between the mediocre and the successful is the extent to which they use those resources. Using what you already have to maximum advantage puts you in a great position for success even before you have to start the actual work.
2. Put uncommon effort into common tasks: This daily practice transcends all socioeconomic status, races and genders. If you have a task, you can go the extra mile. There are very few people on the extra mile, so your excellence is practically guaranteed to get recognized. Doing what is required is a habit of the mediocre. Doing more than you have to highlights your hunger for excellence.
3. Prepare, Prepare, Prepare: Whatever break you are hoping for in the future, prepare for it now! The only way an opportunity will serve you is if it is paired with preparation. An opportunity given to someone unprepared will only lead to their demise. You have to be mentally prepared for the emotional, physical and mental demands of the opportunity of your dreams. Opportunity waits for no one. Once it is here, you're either ready or not!
4. Sharpen your advantage: Every person has strengths and advantages, things that will set them apart from the masses. It is not enough to have them and let them lay dormant. Unrecognized advantages and unnoticed strengths are nothing. You have to sharpen and develop them to activate the power that they hold to catapult you towards success.
5. Get from the day, not through the day: Every day is a new chance to benefit. Too many people see their days as beatings that they have to endure. They allow themselves to be mastered by their circumstances rather than mastering them. Success is about reclaiming the power that is already within you. When you focus on getting through the day rather than getting from it, you surrender your power. Whether your day is negative or positive, their is always a way to profit. The key is training yourself to notice the opportunity in every difficulty.



Saturday, September 24, 2011

Snap Out of It! 7 Habits That Hold You Back From Success

"Unless you are willing to drench yourself in your work beyond the capacity of the average man, you are just not cut out for positions at the top." - J.C. Penney

1. Trying to get even instead of getting ahead: Spending your life getting even with people who have hurt you will block you from success. You can't be more dedicated to blocking someone else's success than you are to achieving your own. You will never have time for both. Success is the best and most honorable revenge, anyway.
2. Trying to be perfect: Perfection is something that no person can achieve. Being hung up on achieving perfection robs you of time, your most precious asset. The highest achievement possible is excellence. Excellence is not the absence of mistakes, but it is when the rights outweigh the wrongs.
3. Procrastinating: Procrastination breeds poor quality, mistakes and disaster. Time is your greatest asset. The more time you have, the greater potential you have for quality and peace of mind.
4.  Minoring in majors, majoring in minors: Success is about being clear about and taking care of your priorities. One of the main reasons people fail is because they give too much attention to things that don't matter in the big picture and too little attention to the things that do. They want to satisfy their passions of the moment more than they want to create the future of their dreams.
5. Doing things over and over that are getting you no results: Success is a process of trial and error. You keep trying different formulas until your results are in alignment with success. If you are aware that what you are doing is getting you nowhere why are you still attached to that method?
6. Feeling entitled to success: The only possible way you are entitled to success is if you work for it. All successful (not just rich, but successful) people have worked hard for their success. The world doesn't owe you any favors. If you aren't willing to work, your success rate will always be zero.
7. Doing your job and nothing else: True success is going the extra mile. It is making yourself stand out by working harder, smarter and longer than the rest of the masses. One of the fastest ways to achieve success is doing more than what is required and expected. People take notice when you do more than what you have to do.