In the past, I’ve talked about the power of persistence and what it takes to follow through on your goals. If you have the willpower and drive to pursue your goals NO MATTER WHAT, you can achieve anything you set your mind to.
I’d like to take that one step further by teaching you how to develop the kind of relentless persistence — so you’re able to follow through on any goal you desire.
The good news about willpower is, it’s not some inherent skill you’re born with — it’s something you learn and develop. It’s like a muscle — exercise it regularly and it grows stronger and stronger.
So how do you flex that muscle in a way that gets results and helps you achieve your goals?
Smart goal setting is an absolute must for people who want to succeed. Without clear goals, you will not have a solid direction on where you’re heading in your life.
For running a business, goals can help take your business to the next level, but there are different things you have to factor in.
The following are 3 tips for goal-setting for modern entrepreneurs.
1. Set SMART Goals
Set specific and measurable goals so you’re more likely to achieve them. One of the best methods of goal-setting is setting SMART goals.
Ensure that your goals are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bounded.
You have a better chance of achieving SMART goals than those that are vague, too broad, or don’t have a specific target date for completion.
If you not sure exactly how to start creating your own SMART goals, check out this complete guide to powerful goal-setting that is full of tips and real-life examples.
Far too often, people are stuck waiting for future happiness rather than staying in the present moment and enjoying the moment they find themselves in.
The problem is that life doesn’t last forever, and one day these people are going to look back and realize they spent their whole lives looking forward to the future rather than enjoying the moments they were given.
If you would like to make the most of the present and enjoy every minute you are given to its fullest, consider following these tips.
What does success mean to you?
In all of my years teaching my Success Principles to others, no two people have answered that question with the same answer.
Answers will vary based on values, goals, age, and life experiences. Success is a deeply personal, intimate idea and each of us will answer it in different ways.
Let me ask you another question. What does happiness mean to you?
Again, it’s deeply personal and can be framed from many different perspectives — personal, professional, spiritual, and relationships to name a few.
My sincere hope is that you position yourself so that you can live a life that includes success, happiness, and fulfillment. They are not mutually exclusive.
In fact, when you take the time to consider what truly makes you happy, it can lead to a new definition of personal success.
By following principles of success and happiness, you can lead a rich and enriching life.
Harvard researchers say the first hour after you wake up in the morning is the most impactful of your day.
So how can you spend the first 60 minutes of your morning in a way that sets you up for success throughout the day?
Here are five strategies I use in my morning routine, based on my forty-year career of learning from and working with the world’s leading entrepreneurs, executives, and creative geniuses…
If you look at any culture throughout history, you’ll find that their traditions include some form of meditation or mindfulness practice.
Christians and Muslims pray. Catholics recite rosaries. Buddhists meditate. People in India practice yoga. Native Americans perform sweat lodges…
…and so on.
So why do so many different societies evolve some sort of practice dedicated to helping people clear their minds, and access deeper levels of awareness and consciousness?
It’s because the wisest people in every culture understand the same profound truth: that the quality of our thoughts create the quality of our reality.
So if you want to experience a more peaceful, joyful and fulfilling reality, you must learn to raise your consciousness and access a higher level of thoughts.
But not all mindfulness practices are tied to religion or take the form of prayer or meditation.
Today I’d like to share some of the other interesting ways people around the world cultivate mindfulness to maximize their happiness and fulfillment in life.
Do you need to stop complaining?
It’s well understood that complaining never accomplishes anything positive, but did you know that complaining can have some very real, negative effects on your brain as well?
Complaining can actually rewire your brain over time and set you up for failure, time and time again, without you even knowing it.Research has shown that, on average, people complain about once a minute during a typical conversation.
As with any task that we instruct our minds to repeat over and over again, it doesn’t take long for your brain to pick up on the pattern and develop neural pathways specifically dedicated to complaining.
Just like a musician will develop neural pathways dedicated to the specific movements and thoughts associated with playing their instrument, people who frequently complain will do the same for the act of complaining.
I’ve worked with a lot of people over the years. And without exception, the single biggest obstacle that has held them back from achieving their goals has always been – themselves! We haven’t learned how to overcome procrastination and laziness.
WE are our own biggest roadblock.
We let our fears immobilize us and tell ourselves stories that justify our reluctance to take action. We convince ourselves that we’re not good enough, and that our efforts will probably end in failure.
But those stories are pure fiction and have no real basis in reality.
And today I’m going to show you how to rewrite those stories once and for all, so you can free yourself from “procrastination paralysis” and finally become a “do-er” instead of a dreamer.
Kids aren’t the only ones who need to play, adults need regular playtime, too.
Earlier this year, my wife and I spent a month living in a beachfront house in Maui, Hawaii. We had done the same thing last year and went back this year because it was such an amazingly fun and bonding experience for us.
Every morning, I got up early and did my regular meditation and yoga or qigong routine. Then I ate breakfast and spent two hours writing.
After that, the rest of the day was devoted to playtime.
My wife and I went swimming, snorkeling, sailing, and hiking. We relaxed on the beach and enjoyed some incredible meals at some great restaurants. And we spent our evenings reading, socializing with friends, playing Scrabble, listening to music, and watching our favorite TV shows.
And you know what?
Maybe you lose your job or your romantic partner leaves you…
Or you injure yourself, a family member falls ill, someone breaks into your car or your new boss turns out to be a total jerk.
And when you turn on the TV to escape from it all, the news is full of horrible and disturbing stories about a world in seemingly never-ending crisis!
But it’s important to remember that you have the power to change your experience at any moment. And that’s because it’s your thoughts that create your own reality.
And I mean that very literally…
The things you choose to focus on determines how you perceive the world – AND the experiences you have as a result.
If you focus only on the negative things in your world, the world can seem like a terrible place.
But when you focus on the positive things in your world, you see that the world is actually full of love and kindness and beauty and inspiring people doing incredible things.
Here are 5 powerful tips on how to retrain your brain for positivity, so you can maintain an optimistic, inspired, motivated outlook – no matter what is happening in your life or the world around you.
Every day, we’re bombarded by horrible stories in the news and on social media. From natural disasters and terrible acts of violence to climate change, international conflicts, and more. No wonder so many people feel hopeless and depressed!
But it’s important to remember that for every problem we face as a society, there are many brilliant people around the world working on solutions. And some of these solutions are so incredible, they give me a great deal of hope for the future. It’s a matter of how to be optimistic that’s the hard part.
Here are 6 reasons to be optimistic about the future.
Success is no accident, it takes hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do.
For parents, success is something that children should be encouraged to achieve. However, in order for children to be successful, they must first be given the tools and habits that they need to benefit from the advice and words of wisdom from their parents.
Here are five parenting tips that will give you the guidance that you need to help your children be more successful in their current and future endeavors and it can improve your relationship with your child.
“Success isn’t always about greatness. It’s about consistency. Consistent hard work leads to success. Greatness will come.” – Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson
How many things do you do every day without even really thinking about it?
It’s so easy to walk up to the counter at the coffee shop and order a pastry to go with that highly sweetened coffee. Or, to flop onto the couch when you get home instead of taking a detour toward the rowing machine.
The power of habit can feel nearly unbreakable and it can feel incredibly hard to form better habits.
Our habits are patterns that provide comfort and familiarity.
But, I don’t have to tell you that not all of our habits are beneficial to us. Some of our habits leave us with problems like expanding debt or expanding waistlines.
Others can keep us in a holding pattern where we want to improve ourselves in many ways, but never get around to putting them into action because we’ve created bad habits.
Researchers who’ve looked at habits and patterns of behavior say that it can take 60 days or more to get rid of an old habit and get a new one to stick.
The Law of Attraction is the most powerful law in the Universe, however, some people scoff at the idea because they haven’t been able to harness it for themselves…
A lot of the time people have trouble with the Law of Attraction simply because they have incorrect views of how it works and how to harness it in their lives. The Law of Attraction is very real, and if you truly learn how to use it, can change your life forever.
Don’t believe these 3 most common Law of Attraction myths and continue to keep yourself from experiencing true abundance in your life.
To start off, when I say “boss,” I’m talking about the kind of manager whose leadership strategies are all about command and control.
Bosses want to be seen as the dominant force in the office and business and tend to “manage” their employees through intimidation and fear.
They have a very “top-down” way of doing things and think it’s more important to be in control of their team rather than to establish trust and inspiration.
Often, a boss’s management style is very rigid. There’s no nuance, no ability to see different sides of an issue.
The boss declares, “I’m in charge” and “I’ve decided this” and “I expect that” – without encouraging any input from their team. It’s the boss’s way or the highway.
Of course, big decisions need to be made all the time in business, and being decisive is necessary and important.
Given the opportunity, everyone would love to accumulate more wealth, make more money, and live an abundant life. However, many people have a poor relationship with money. They have trouble manifesting money and wealth into their lives, and as a result, never achieve the financial success they desire.
The truth is that financial success starts in the mind and the number one thing holding many people back is their belief system concerning wealth and money.
With that in mind, leveraging the Law of Attraction is one of the most effective ways to change your beliefs about money into a belief system that will open you up to the prosperity that is all around you. But first, you must take some steps to really see it work to change your life.
Everyone has a unique purpose in life, and finding and following that purpose is the key to creating a happy, abundant, meaningful and fulfilling life for yourself.
Sometimes, though, for one reason or another, you may unconsciously drift away from your staying true to your purpose, or you may think you are on the right path when really you’re heading in the opposite direction of where you intended to go.
Every moment of every day, we make decisions. Sometimes those decisions are small and inconsequential, and sometimes those decisions are life-altering. In the end, though, the outcome of your day, your year, and your entire life are mostly defined by the sum of decision making and the actions that you take along the way.
There’s power in making a decision – even when you’re not completely sure that it’s the right one. I promise you that once you realize the incredible impact that making decisions can have, you can truly begin to live your best life.
Decisions can be powerful, but they aren’t always easy…
To a degree, almost all of us suffer from decision paralysis at some point in time. Realizing the impact that your decisions can have is often frightening.
After all, if a decision is important enough to change your life, it’s understandable that you’d want to be sure to get it right.
The problem is that many people have a “deer in the headlights” moment when faced with decisions. Afraid of making the wrong decision, they end up not making a decision at all. However, not making a decision is a decision in and of itself – and it’s almost always the wrong one.
The inability to make a decision can leave you frozen in place when changes are necessary. It can also wreak havoc on your confidence, your happiness, and your overall emotional well-being.
Faced with the problem of decision paralysis, it’s essential to realize that – in almost every case – any decision is going to be better than no decision at all.
If you can push past the fear and doubts associated with making decisions, you can start taking control of your life’s outcomes.
Almost everyone has too much STUFF in their lives. Things we’ve bought but have never used, or things we used to love but haven’t used in years.
Gifts people have given us that we never needed. Old newspapers, magazines, and junk mail. Clothes we no longer wear. Broken, useless stuff that we’ve never gotten around to throwing out.
All of these things mess up our home and our office, disturb our peace of mind, and fill our world with useless clutter.
And that’s just the physical stuff! I’m not even talking about the way we fill our lives with too much “busy-ness” and too many unnecessary distractions that pull us away from the important things we should be focusing on.
So today I’d like to share five powerful spring-cleaning strategies that you can use to declutter your life at all levels, so you have more focus, clarity, space, and freedom to focus on what truly matters most to you.
I’m pretty sure at least one of these strategies is going to surprise you.
Some people, when they hear the word, “visualization,” think it means sitting around daydreaming.
But that’s not at all what it is…
Visualization is the practice of intentionally creating detailed pictures in your mind – both still pictures and movies – of the outcomes you want to achieve.
Visualization is a powerful tool that can help motivate you to achieve any goal – such as writing a book, getting a promotion, making more money, paying off your debts, becoming financially independent, taking that dream vacation you want, losing weight, or improving your golf game.
Visualization helps you achieve your goals for several reasons.
