Thought Process 2011:
I absolutely love this quote from Herbert Agar's book, A Time for
Greatness, "The truth that makes men free is for the most part the truth
which men prefer not to hear."
How true it is, as if you deny the truth in any area of your life, you will
soon discover that life is a game of undesirable consequences.
True honesty, self-respect, trust, authenticity and character are built on
truth not on perceptions.
The acceptance of truth is a moral obligation, not an option.
The reason is both simple and profound; lies destroy progress, compromise
character, undermine reputations, and ruin relationships with others and
ourselves.
A Blunt Instrument?
Truth is what it is - the truth.a collection of facts!
Your health, wealth, relationships, and peace of mind are what they are.
You choose your behavior, and you also chose the consequences of that
behavior--for better or worse.
If you're not happy with your current results or consequences in your life
right now, than you have only ONE choice to make, choose better behavior.
You either get the message in that last paragraph, or you don't. Behavior
never lies, so be the one who gets the message.
Fact is we Either change our behavior, or pay the consequences of your own
ignorance.
Live Authentically
To live authentically is to live transparently.
People who consistently win have no room in their lives for denial, fantasy
or fiction.
They are self-critical rather than self-deluding, and they hold themselves
to high but realistic standards.
They deal with the truth, since they recognize that nothing else will make
their goals obtainable.
Every decision about your life must be based on truth, as that is the
gateway to authenticity.
Confront truth and reality as it is, not as it was or as you wish it to
be.
If you are committed to making 2011 the best year of your life, you have no
choice but to see the world in the purest, most transparent way possible or
you can't make decisions on a rational basis.
Make a Breakthrough in 2011
What are you pretending not to know?
What truth are you hiding from?
What part of your reality do you find undesirable?
Denial makes us do this.
Refusing to see or acknowledge what is right in front of us - truth, is a
way of coping but in the end you only survive, you do not thrive.
I want you to soar in the New Year and I want you to reach each goal you
set.
However, in order to do that you must accept this critical reality:
You MUST have a plan, and you must choose a new strategy.
There is simply NO OTHER WAY!
If you'll allow me, I'd like to help you make this the best year of your
life.
Your Coach,
Bill
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Sunday, December 19, 2010
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Put The "Extra" In Ordinary
What do you think of when I say the word “ordinary?” These are the words that come to my mind: Common. Usual. Normal. Boring. Average. Something you see everyday.
What about “extraordinary?” I think of: Amazing. Incredible. Uncommon. Unusual. Special. Above average. New.
In the English language, only five little letters separate “ordinary” from “extraordinary:” extra. And while “extra” can be defined as “outside,” in English it also means “just a little bit more.”
The word we use is not as important as the idea: the distance between ordinary and extraordinary is shorter than you think. For too long, people have thought there was a huge gap between normal and special. They’ve assumed that “above average” was far above “average.” Unfortunately, once you believe that, it’s easy to conclude that since you’re “average,” you’ll never be anything else; that there’s no way to claw your way up to “above average.”
I’m here to tell you that you’ve made the gap too wide. Let me illustrate. If you’re an average reader, you’ve taken 2-3 seconds to read this paragraph so far. Two lines of text = one second. How much more would you be able to read in another second? Another line? Not very much, but really, what difference does a second make?
Well, in some areas of life, a second makes all the difference in the world. Have you heard of Usain Bolt? Often referred to as The Fastest Man in the World, Bolt is the current world-record holder for the 100-meter race in track and field. His record for that race is 9.69 seconds. In the Olympics, he won the gold medal racing against seven other men in the finals. What was the time difference between his time and that of the silver medalist, Richard Thompson? Thompson ran the 100 meters that day in 9.89 seconds. The difference between gold and silver was .2 seconds. The “fastest man in the world,” the winner of that race and world-record holder, ran 100 meters in 2/10 of a second less than his nearest competitor. A second – or even a fraction of a second – CAN make a huge difference.
In life, just as in sports, an extraordinary performance is often separated from an ordinary one by the slightest of margins. What if your ordinary life could become extraordinary with only the smallest of changes? Would it be worth trying?
Here are some “extras” that can help you close the gap between ordinary and extraordinary:
A little extra effort. There is a price to be paid for achievement. Sometimes it’s a large price. But sometimes just a little extra effort can yield significant results. What price are you willing to pay for success?
A little extra time. To give something time, we need something other than perseverance. We need patience with the process of growth. I believe that many of us overestimate events and underestimate the process. But we’ve got it all wrong. As I wrote in the Law of Process in The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, leaders develop daily, not in a day.
A little extra help. I love this saying: “If you see a turtle on top of a fence post, you know he had help getting there!” Why do I love it? Because I’m a turtle on a fencepost. I know that I didn’t get to where I am in life on my own. I’m just not that smart, gifted, or fast. The truth is that those who reached “extraordinary” had help getting there. And many types of success can only be achieved with help. If you refuse to ask for – or accept – it, you limit yourself and your work to a lower level of achievement.
Remember that ordinary and extraordinary are not far apart. If you accomplish just one of the above “extras,” your work will begin to be above average in that area.
If Ordinary People …
Gave a Little Extra Effort,
Spent a Little Extra Time,
Sought a Little Extra Help …
They Would Become Extraordinary!
Thanks John Maxwell
Your Coach,
Bill
What about “extraordinary?” I think of: Amazing. Incredible. Uncommon. Unusual. Special. Above average. New.
In the English language, only five little letters separate “ordinary” from “extraordinary:” extra. And while “extra” can be defined as “outside,” in English it also means “just a little bit more.”
The word we use is not as important as the idea: the distance between ordinary and extraordinary is shorter than you think. For too long, people have thought there was a huge gap between normal and special. They’ve assumed that “above average” was far above “average.” Unfortunately, once you believe that, it’s easy to conclude that since you’re “average,” you’ll never be anything else; that there’s no way to claw your way up to “above average.”
I’m here to tell you that you’ve made the gap too wide. Let me illustrate. If you’re an average reader, you’ve taken 2-3 seconds to read this paragraph so far. Two lines of text = one second. How much more would you be able to read in another second? Another line? Not very much, but really, what difference does a second make?
Well, in some areas of life, a second makes all the difference in the world. Have you heard of Usain Bolt? Often referred to as The Fastest Man in the World, Bolt is the current world-record holder for the 100-meter race in track and field. His record for that race is 9.69 seconds. In the Olympics, he won the gold medal racing against seven other men in the finals. What was the time difference between his time and that of the silver medalist, Richard Thompson? Thompson ran the 100 meters that day in 9.89 seconds. The difference between gold and silver was .2 seconds. The “fastest man in the world,” the winner of that race and world-record holder, ran 100 meters in 2/10 of a second less than his nearest competitor. A second – or even a fraction of a second – CAN make a huge difference.
In life, just as in sports, an extraordinary performance is often separated from an ordinary one by the slightest of margins. What if your ordinary life could become extraordinary with only the smallest of changes? Would it be worth trying?
Here are some “extras” that can help you close the gap between ordinary and extraordinary:
A little extra effort. There is a price to be paid for achievement. Sometimes it’s a large price. But sometimes just a little extra effort can yield significant results. What price are you willing to pay for success?
A little extra time. To give something time, we need something other than perseverance. We need patience with the process of growth. I believe that many of us overestimate events and underestimate the process. But we’ve got it all wrong. As I wrote in the Law of Process in The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, leaders develop daily, not in a day.
A little extra help. I love this saying: “If you see a turtle on top of a fence post, you know he had help getting there!” Why do I love it? Because I’m a turtle on a fencepost. I know that I didn’t get to where I am in life on my own. I’m just not that smart, gifted, or fast. The truth is that those who reached “extraordinary” had help getting there. And many types of success can only be achieved with help. If you refuse to ask for – or accept – it, you limit yourself and your work to a lower level of achievement.
Remember that ordinary and extraordinary are not far apart. If you accomplish just one of the above “extras,” your work will begin to be above average in that area.
If Ordinary People …
Gave a Little Extra Effort,
Spent a Little Extra Time,
Sought a Little Extra Help …
They Would Become Extraordinary!
Thanks John Maxwell
Your Coach,
Bill
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Just Get Started!
Do you want to be a success?
As you know, many obstacles can keep even a highly-motivated person from succeeding. But today I want to talk about the ONLY obstacle that will ALWAYS keep us from success: Not starting.
Starting is the Great Separator. It separates…
The doers from the do-nots,
The haves from the have-nots,
The winners from the whiners, and
The successful from the unsuccessful.
If a desire were enough, then everyone would be a success. But success is like a book, and starting and finishing are the front and back covers. Until you open that front cover, you can’t experience anything from the pages within.
So how do you get started?
1.Start with Yourself.
If you’ve ever flown on an airplane, you’ve heard the pre-flight instructions about the oxygen masks – which drop down from the ceiling in the case of emergency. If you’re traveling with someone who would need help, who do they always tell you to place the mask on first? Yourself! They want to remind you that you can’t help anyone else get oxygen if you aren’t able to breathe.
Starting with yourself is not a selfish goal – as long as you’re not doing it for your benefit alone. By putting on my oxygen mask, I get the oxygen I need in order to help others get oxygen. As a leader, I obtain what I need in order to help others succeed.
2.Start Early.
I can’t overstate how much you gain from starting early. It’s something you can’t really understand or grasp when you’re young. One creature that understands this principle is the ant. Consider what the Bible says in Proverbs:
“Go to the ant, you sluggard;
Consider its ways and be wise!
It has no commander,
No over seer or ruler,
Yet it stores its provisions in summer
And gathers its food at the harvest.”
-Proverbs 6:6-8
The activity of any individual ant seems to have little impact. After all, it can only carry one seed or leaf or grain of sand. And it’s not clear what any single grain has to do with the big picture of what is being formed. But regardless of how it looks from the outside, the impact is happening, and something is developing.
Whether you are trying to lose weight, build a business, build a marriage, raise a child, overcome a pattern, resolve a depression, or build a business, it is done the same way: one brick at a time. And the earlier you begin, the more bricks (or grains of sand) you can accumulate.
3.Start Small.
Most of us would love to see the entire path from where we are to the top. But life doesn’t work that way. Like a person carrying a lantern, most of us only see the small portion of the path ahead. Our best response is to just take the next step.
Why start small? It encourages you to get started and allows you to prioritize and concentrate. It also provides the necessary step to take the next step.
Like the person carrying the lantern, your path will only be illuminated a short distance ahead. We’ve all walked home in the dark. The lantern we carry may not illuminate the house, but it does show us the path that will take us there.
4.Start with The End in View.
John Wooden, an American basketball coach, was known for his focus on preparation. Every practice kept the goal – the next game – in view. Why? Because, as he said, “It’s too late to prepare when opportunity arrives.”
First, pursue your passion. A passion, a goal that you feel strongly about, gives you energy. Next, let planning give you direction. The beginning of the journey is the place to study the map. You may not always know the entire route, but your planning should always point in the direction of your destination.
5.Start now.
It’s too easy to say, “I’ll start tomorrow.” We promise that tomorrow, we will start a diet, studies, a career, or a relationship. But until we actually begin, a dream remains a dream.
It may be a cliché to say that every journey begins with the first step, yet it is still true.
Successful people don’t wait for everything to be perfect to move forward. They don’t wait for all the problems or obstacles to disappear.
They don’t wait until their fear subsides.
They take initiative. They know a secret that good leaders understand: momentum is their friend.
As soon as they take that first step and start moving forward, things become a little easier. If the momentum gets strong enough, many of the problems take care of themselves and talent can take over.
But it starts only after you’ve taken those first steps.
Your Coach,
Bill
As you know, many obstacles can keep even a highly-motivated person from succeeding. But today I want to talk about the ONLY obstacle that will ALWAYS keep us from success: Not starting.
Starting is the Great Separator. It separates…
The doers from the do-nots,
The haves from the have-nots,
The winners from the whiners, and
The successful from the unsuccessful.
If a desire were enough, then everyone would be a success. But success is like a book, and starting and finishing are the front and back covers. Until you open that front cover, you can’t experience anything from the pages within.
So how do you get started?
1.Start with Yourself.
If you’ve ever flown on an airplane, you’ve heard the pre-flight instructions about the oxygen masks – which drop down from the ceiling in the case of emergency. If you’re traveling with someone who would need help, who do they always tell you to place the mask on first? Yourself! They want to remind you that you can’t help anyone else get oxygen if you aren’t able to breathe.
Starting with yourself is not a selfish goal – as long as you’re not doing it for your benefit alone. By putting on my oxygen mask, I get the oxygen I need in order to help others get oxygen. As a leader, I obtain what I need in order to help others succeed.
2.Start Early.
I can’t overstate how much you gain from starting early. It’s something you can’t really understand or grasp when you’re young. One creature that understands this principle is the ant. Consider what the Bible says in Proverbs:
“Go to the ant, you sluggard;
Consider its ways and be wise!
It has no commander,
No over seer or ruler,
Yet it stores its provisions in summer
And gathers its food at the harvest.”
-Proverbs 6:6-8
The activity of any individual ant seems to have little impact. After all, it can only carry one seed or leaf or grain of sand. And it’s not clear what any single grain has to do with the big picture of what is being formed. But regardless of how it looks from the outside, the impact is happening, and something is developing.
Whether you are trying to lose weight, build a business, build a marriage, raise a child, overcome a pattern, resolve a depression, or build a business, it is done the same way: one brick at a time. And the earlier you begin, the more bricks (or grains of sand) you can accumulate.
3.Start Small.
Most of us would love to see the entire path from where we are to the top. But life doesn’t work that way. Like a person carrying a lantern, most of us only see the small portion of the path ahead. Our best response is to just take the next step.
Why start small? It encourages you to get started and allows you to prioritize and concentrate. It also provides the necessary step to take the next step.
Like the person carrying the lantern, your path will only be illuminated a short distance ahead. We’ve all walked home in the dark. The lantern we carry may not illuminate the house, but it does show us the path that will take us there.
4.Start with The End in View.
John Wooden, an American basketball coach, was known for his focus on preparation. Every practice kept the goal – the next game – in view. Why? Because, as he said, “It’s too late to prepare when opportunity arrives.”
First, pursue your passion. A passion, a goal that you feel strongly about, gives you energy. Next, let planning give you direction. The beginning of the journey is the place to study the map. You may not always know the entire route, but your planning should always point in the direction of your destination.
5.Start now.
It’s too easy to say, “I’ll start tomorrow.” We promise that tomorrow, we will start a diet, studies, a career, or a relationship. But until we actually begin, a dream remains a dream.
It may be a cliché to say that every journey begins with the first step, yet it is still true.
Successful people don’t wait for everything to be perfect to move forward. They don’t wait for all the problems or obstacles to disappear.
They don’t wait until their fear subsides.
They take initiative. They know a secret that good leaders understand: momentum is their friend.
As soon as they take that first step and start moving forward, things become a little easier. If the momentum gets strong enough, many of the problems take care of themselves and talent can take over.
But it starts only after you’ve taken those first steps.
Your Coach,
Bill
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