Basics of Success

Be Proactive
To live a reactive life is to live waiting for something to happen in order for us to take the next step…to react. This is the typical lottery mentality, of waiting for that special moment, for that ship to come in, or that windfall to arrive. And I don't deny that those moments do come but they are few and far between. A successful person mustn't live reactively.

And if you were to look at these lottery moments you would see that after a momentary appearance of success the person falls into a deeper hole of failure, unless they have already instituted one of more of these foundations of success.

Make goals, and follow through. Set your eyes on things far ahead of you ad don't settle for second best.

Be A Leader
Help others find success. Help others on their journey. Initially you might find this a waste of time but in fact what you are doing is investing in your own future. No of us were born successful. We may have been born to a successfully family but that doesn't mean that we are automatically successful as well.

It takes the time and effort of someone else, in our lives, which propels us into the success we desire. Be that force in someone's life and you will see that what you sow you will reap.

Don't Let Fear Stop You
Fear is a daunting force that can make even the greatest men falter. As a police officer I was told from the first day in the academy "Don't hesitate.” When a person doubts (ie fears the outcome) and hesitates it does several things. It causes everyone else in the room to doubt you, and worst of all it causes you to double doubt yourself.

I am not advocating doing things haphazardly. Do your homework. Research the matter and make a decision. If the decision was the wrong one then there will be a time to reassess and correct. But if you fail to move you will sink in the water, and signal to those around you that you don't know what you are talking about.

Take Responsibility
Failure can be a building block if you aren't afraid of admitting them.

Edison failed more than he succeeded with the light bulb. But do we call him a failure? Of course not. I believe that the secret to his success was that he owned up to his failures. He wasn't afraid of failing or what others thought of him. On the contrary he took responsibility of them, and took them apart to identify what it was that produced the flaw in the light bulb design.

If you don't take responsibility you will stop trying.

Don't sit on your laurels…never stop moving forward
After Fear, I think Success is the greatest cause for failure. So many people who have achieved a form of success fail to continue or follow through. I believe that success is a continual journey. We will never truly reach the end, but we will continually build on our past accomplishments to reach higher levels.

In other words success is not passively achieved. Take the shark, for instance. It doesn't have a passive breathing system. It must continually move in order to force water past his gills in order to breath. If for what ever reason the shark were to be immobilized it would die. Success is the same way. We can't sit idly by and wait for it to happen, or for it to continue.

We must continue to look forward, accomplishing bigger and greater things.

Vision Failure

If you can't see your goal you will never make it.

Ask any athlete and they will tell you the same thing. If you can't see yourself crossing the finish line ahead of the pack, or holding the winning medal you will never be good enough. The wisest man known on earth wrote in his book named Proverbs that "Without a vision the people will perish." (proverbs 29:18).Vision is essential for success, vision is the starting point.

This secret principle of "Vision" has never been fully understood. It isn't wishing or hoping. And it isn't just a mental picture. This principle of success is a much deeper rooted desire painted on the canvas of your mind's eye and seared into your heart. It is what you wake up every morning with and the last thing you think of at night. It's your banner. It's your long-term project. It is something that is so established in your mind that no one and nothing can deter you from it. Even through disappointments, failures, or setbacks you can see yourself winning, successful, standing in the winner's circle. You will know if you have vision if the people around you are both excited and scared for you when you talk about it.

Vision can be seen in children as they tell you with no hesitation that they are "superman" and go about "flying" in the house with a towel tied behind their back. They are so convinced that the parents watch carefully to make sure they don't try to fly off tall furniture, or balconies. My father told me the story of when he first saw the movie Mary Poppins. He went back to his grandfather's ranch and found a tractor umbrella. He climbed up to the top of the barn and jumped out of the second story hay door because he was convinced that he was going to fly like the lady in the movie. (Don't worry. He obviously survived.) The point is that he not only saw himself flying but actually took steps that could not be reversed to fulfill his vision. That is key.

As you read this there are many who will tell you that they a have a vision (some call them dreams). But the litmus test is found in their actions. Have they "put themselves out there"? Have they done anything outrageous, daring, or gutsy that affected their life in such a way that there is no turning back? If they have, then you may be looking at a future billionaire, astronaut, Gold medal winner, or president.

We all need vision to take us to the next level. Whether we like it or not, vision defines us. Where are you headed? What is your next level? The majority of people can only envision retirement at 55-60. That is the best they can dream. And one day they will enjoy their vision, but we can do so much more.

Here are some basic steps to follow to find your vision and make it a reality.

• Find out what it is that you want.
• Write it down.
• Meditative on it until you see it in your mind's eye.
• Write it down again with more detail.
• See yourself doing it, living it, enjoying it.
• Imagine every detail. (this may take weeks)

When your vision is just as real as tomorrow, then you aren't far from walking in it.

Focus Gabriel, Focus

Focused strength can accomplish things that might otherwise seem impossible. I remember when I was staying the summer at my cousins’ house in North Carolina I was given the chore of cleaning the stove top. I was more than happy to oblige and wiped the stove top clean, removing the spaghetti and sauce stains with a clean rag. Upon inspection by my Uncle after a shouted “I’m done” I was disappointed to find out that there were stains on the stove top that I hadn’t noticed. (You see, I was losing valuable play time doing this menial chore.)

My Uncle pointed out jagged circles of the burnt down, carbonized, petrified, substance that surrounded each burner on the glass surface of the electrical stove top. I couldn’t believe that my Uncle wanted me to clean that. I had already “scrubbed” them and they refused to come off. I had run my fingernail over the top of them and they were hardly noticeable. So I reached for a butter knife to scrap the stubborn things off, but my Uncle told me I couldn’t use it would scratch the glass surface. Now I felt like Daniel San when Mr. Miyagi in Karate Kid told him “man who catch fly with chopstick, can do anything”.

So I scrubbed the rings with the rag and some soap. The rings wouldn’t budge. I wrapped my finger and then my fist, I sweated, and grunted and those rings sat and mocking me. I looked up at the clock in the kitchen and realized that a whole five minutes had been lost in this struggle against the impossible. I threw in the towel and informed my Uncle of how impossible it was to remove the rings.

“Focus your efforts, Gabriel.” He said. “You can do it if you focus.” I envisioned myself with my fingers on my temples staring hard at the stove top “focusing” and I couldn’t see how that would work. He chuckled imagining how I had interpreted his words. So he took my rag and folded it to a point. Placing the point under his finger he rubbed a section of one of the circles and “miraculously” the stain gave way.

Focused Strength

I followed his example and although it still wasn’t easy I was able to complete the chore, without too much lost play time.

As a Police officer I was asked over my career to help several people break into their cars to retrieve their keys that hung safely from the ignition in their locked vehicles. I won’t forget one occasion in particular. It was cold outside and the owner was anxious to get home. So my partner and I used our PR24 (a nightstick) and hammered on the rear side window. The window didn’t budge. Not even a crack could be seen. So my much stronger partner punched at the glass window, and the window still did not break. After repeating both methods unsuccessfully I remembered something I had seen in the trunk of our patrol car. I pulled out the snow/ice scrapper out and saw what I had remembered. On the side of the scrapper was a steel cone. It was perhaps half an inch in diameter and came to a very sharp point. I placed it against the window of the car and applied some force. The window shattered.

We can see this in other areas of our life. Did you ever use a magnifying glass to focus the light of the sun into a burning spot of light? The quarterback on the football team can shut out all distractions and focus on the receiver running down the field. The mother of the new born can hear the baby cry in its’ crib from across the house. The stock broker on the floor can buy and sell over the deafening din of other shouting their orders. The focused strength of the repressed water in a dam turns huge hydroelectric turbines.

I am sure we have already used this principle in our lives in one way, shape or fashion. But now that we have identified it we should purposefully use it. Take inventory of your life and the activities you currently are involved in. Are they taking longer than you had expected? Do you finish your daily chores? When you go shopping, do you leave the store with things you never knew you needed? When you watch TV, does the one-hour program extend to the entire night?

Learn to focus your thoughts, ideas, and strength to become more effective and rise above mediocrity.

Fear Will Destroy You

One of the greatest obstacles to success is none other than Fear. When someone mentions fear images of monsters are conjured up. Dracula, the Mummy, Frankenstein’s Monster walk out of the recesses of our mind as emissaries of FEAR. But in reality it isn’t the Hollywood produced creatures that paralyze our prosperous future. It is the common garden variety of fear that does the most damage. It’s the heart pounding that you feel when you know you have to talk to someone about your product. It’s the reluctance you feel when you look at the phone on your desk, dreading to make those phone calls.

I don’t know why we have those feelings. But I do know that we all experience them from time to time. And if left unchecked, they will destroy your future just as sure as a constant drip of water will eventually break a cinder block. The existence of these feelings cannot be avoided but we can certainly take measures to avoid their residence in our mind and especially in our heart.

As you know, thoughts and ideas soar and float in and out of our mind. At times they enter like a fast moving train with force and a purpose, while at other times they creep up on you like a fog, slowly filling in the crevasses of your mind, taking over your entire thought process. But we are in control of what remains there and what we will meditate on. What we meditate on will eventually be written on our heart. What is written on our heart becomes a life directive.

If you are succumbing to fear you are allowing that thought to take hold of your heart.

Some would say that if you cannot talk to clients then you shouldn’t be in sales, but I disagree. Perhaps you shouldn’t be selling that product or service but in life we are all in sales in one form or another. But you will not be able to stand against that fear that is causing you to fail by simply resisting. To stand against fear by saying “I’m not afraid”, or “They like me” or something like that will not help you overcome in this area. As a black belt in Aikido I’ve learned that you cannot win by simply being stronger than the opponent, and you cannot win by trying to be impervious to the other one’s blows and strikes.

The key to overcoming that fear is PASSION, not resistance. When you become passionate about your product, service, idea or thought you will be able to talk to anyone about it. In fact you will be keenly aware of openings in conversations where you can insert yourself. Your passion will carry you past the fear that made you stumble before.

Do you want to overcome that fear in your life? Find your passion and invest in it. Believe in it. When you are consumed by it then nothing will be able to stop you.

Today Matters

Every day you wake up is the most important day of your life. Yesterday is gone and there is nothing that can be done about it. The errors that were made have certainly changed your future but it there is nothing that you can do today that will change what happened or didn’t happen yesterday. Tomorrow is yet to be determined. No matter how efficiently you plan or organize, the winds of chance have a way of modifying what we hope or expect tomorrow to be.

It is today that we have the greatest control over and to be more exact it is the very moment of “Now” that is the most malleable. What you do this very instant will put into motion a future that will benefit you or be your demise.

I’ll wait until that sinks in.

You might think that that statement is too drastic and practically unrealistic. But, in fact, it is a truth that needs to be understood. If you were to stop reading this article this instant you wouldn’t understand this secret that I have learned over years of work and life. You won’t be able to “Wow” your friends and family with this insight.

The majority of people understand and grasp the logic of what I wrote but the problem arises when you put this article away or set it down. What will you do with this insight? Will it remain as an interesting thought to be resurrected in a cocktail or boring business meeting or will you take it to heart and do something about it?

I like the movies where the protagonist has been told erroneously that he or she is going to die in a short period of time. They spend the rest of the movie living life to its fullest. They say what they want to say and do what they have always wanted to do. Then as the end of the movie draws near the doctor who had prematurely pronounced his death date apologizes and the protagonist is free again from the impending doom of his death.

The protagonist filled his every waking moment with life altering activities. He didn’t spend more time at work nor did he get another job. He did things with what he had. Just like every one of us can do.

Too many times we waste precious moments waiting for that special condition, whether it be more money, an opportunity, or more favorable conditions…it doesn’t matter. It is an illusion. It keeps us sitting down in front of the TV, behind a desk, letting people walk on us until our days dim and we are finally put to bed. We let death creep up on us.

Make today matter. Chance your actions and change your future.

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3 Steps to Success

I realize that this isn't what most of us what to hear. It would be more palatable to say success is who you know and the money in your pocket. Success is written in the stars or whispered to you by a lady leaning over a crystal ball. But that simply isn't the truth, although it is convenient. It allows us to pin our losses on other people or circumstances. I am sure we have all heard comments such as,

"I can't get a job there because I don't know anyone in the business." Or "If only I had -write in a sum of money- I would be happy."

It would seem, by those comments, that Success is based on many variables all of which are out of our grasp or control.

In reality, Success is defined as "the favorable or prosperous termination of attempts or endeavors." (Dictionary.com) Success requires that we do our part. We must step out of the ordinary and commit ourselves to an action or a purpose. Imagine an athlete getting ready to run a race and he quits prematurely citing a lack of friends that could support him. Wouldn't that be silly? On the contrary, the athlete trains, his body and his mind prior to the race. And when the gun goes off he has committed himself to win, even before he has crossed the finish line.

What I see here are the three steps to success.

1. Preparation
2. Commitment
3. Action.
   
   Preparation The Athlete doesn't appear on the track the day of the race. He has invested months or years prior to the race. He has prepared Mind, Spirit, and Body. (I'll write about that in a later article.)
   
   Commitment The Athlete has determined in his mind that there is no other outcome than victory. Have you leaned on a piece of furniture and have it collapse under you? If you had any less than all your weight on the furniture you could have helped stop your fall. But if all your whole weight were placed on the piece there was no way you weren't going to hit the floor. That's called commitment. It's called putting all your eggs in one basket, jumping in with two feet, eating the whole enchilada. It is the recipe for failure and for amazing success. A farmer when he sows his field doesn't sow half of his seed or even 80% of his seed. He sows all of his seed. That is what makes for a successful farm.
   
   The third step is Action. The Athlete has to leave the blocks. When that gun goes off he must put his preparation and commitment to the test. Imagine the Wright brothers getting the materials, alienating friends and family to build something that didn't fit within the concepts of reality at the time and leaving the plane in the warehouse. Can you see them now, sitting together looking at the plane and toasting to each other..."That's a great plane." "I know it will fly." "How great is that...we built the world's first airplane." then closing the door so that the plane wouldn't get damaged. NO! it took action to place those boys' invention on the map and change the world.
   
   They had to risk it all and actually fly it in order to be successful.

Your success is based on whatever it is in your life that you are willing to risk it all for.

Success Online and In your Life