Tag Archives: goal setting

The first law of motion

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If you watch TV at all you have inevitably watched the commercial for Celebrex which is an arthritis drug. The commercial states that “a body in motion stays in motion and a body at rest stays at rest”.

This commercial is based on the first law of motion that Issac Newton published in 1687.  Which states that an object either remains at rest or continues to move at a constant velocity, unless it is acted upon by an external force.

This week I was having a conversation with a good friend of mine about this very concept. Not Issac Newton, we aren’t that smart.

We were talking about running. I was explaining to him that as a runner, it is very easy for me to go out and fall into a pace that my body is very comfortable with.  It could be an eight minute mile or a seven minute mile.  It just depends on your conditioning.  Whatever that pace is, it is easy to stay at it because your body can do it without efforting.

I am sure there are more scientific ways to explain it, but I am not scientific.

To increase your speed and accomplish running goals you have set for yourself, you must break the inertia, the temptation to stay at the comfortable pace.

It is hard to do, that inertia is so cozy, easy, and feels great that your mind wants to stay right there.  You may call it your comfort zone. But as long as you do this you will never increase your speed or times towards any distance goals you might want to accomplish.

I was a runner for close to six years before I learned how to really train.  For those first six years I definitely became a better runner, with better speeds and times, but it wasn’t until I started training my body to become very uncomfortable that I made significant gains.  By gains, I mean faster miles, longer distances, and winning races I competed in.

In running that training starts with forcing yourself out of that comfort zone for small periods of time over and over and over, until it stops being that uncomfortable to you. As you continue to do this repeatedly you eventually become better conditioned and you start moving the needle towards whatever goals you might have.

At almost 42 years of age, I am probably twice as fast I was when I was 32.  Its isn’t that that I am getting better with age.  That theory doesn’t hold up in athletics and age. Instead it is I am a more educated and I am better at training.

If I would have known how to train at age 32, who knows what I could have accomplished as a runner.

Whether it is running, biking, writing, speaking, investing, you name it.  For you to break any slump or cycle, you must break the inertia.  You must apply force someway and somehow to move yourself out of the comfort zone.

I am a real estate investor. I have purchased many single family homes. When I first started doing it, I was always a little scared.  I would just think things like this.  “Is this a really good deal”, “Will I be able to fund a tenant”, “What if something goes wrong”, “What if someone destroys my property”.  All of these question ran through my head.

Many years later, I never even think about those things. Purchasing single family homes is easy for me.  I never over think it.  However, it is too easy and too comfortable for me, that I can easily fall into the trap of continuing to only purchase single family homes.

For me to scale my real estate portfolio the way I want to, it is going to require me to buy bigger deals.  Multi-Unit/apartment buildings is now the direction I want to go and I must go.

Many of the same concerns and questions I had early in my investing career are popping up in my head. “Will I be able to find tenants for all of the units”, “What if all of my tenants move out at the same time”, “What if all of my hvac systems go out”.

As these questions pop up in my head it is easy for me to want to stick with the single family homes that I am comfortable with. But I am pushing through because I know I must get to the next level and the only way to do this is to go in the new direction.

I share these stories with the intent to inspire you to force yourself out of the comfort zone you find yourself in. Inertia is a bitch.  Without additional force and pressure from yourself or others you will never get out of the rut or zone you are in.

To your success and your future.

Never quit, but you can pivot

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One of my favorite topics to write and talk about is goals.  Not because I consider myself to be an expert in setting and achieving them.  It is quite frankly the exact opposite.  I actually come up short on them more often than I would like to admit.

How I learned the value of never quitting but learning how to pivot as necessary.

When I was 33 years old.  I became a student again.  This was seven years after I completed my MBA.  I consider all of my formal education, K-12, associates degree, bachelors degree, masters degree.  That formal education something I just had to do.  It was required.  Not because it was forced on to me by my parents. I knew to compete in the world I had to be prepared with those credentials.

At 33 is when I started to take my personal education more serious and became a student once again.  I became a strategic goal setter.

At 26, I was a landlord.  I had purchased a duplex.  I had always had a desire in the back of my mind that I wanted to own real estate one day that I would rent. I am not sure why this thought entered my mind.  No one in my immediate family that I knew of had owned real estate.  The only thing that I can remember as a young kid that would have prompted me to think this way, could have been a good friend of mines grandparents who I spent a decent amount of time around when I was younger.

My friend was a really good student.  One of his motivations to be a good student was very simple.  For every A he would get on his report card he would get $50 dollars from his grandparents.  B’s were worth $25.  I can remember him showing me the money after every report card. I was jealous. Keep in mind this started around middle school up until tenth or eleventh grade.

To me my friend was rich, because his grandparents were rich.  I couldn’t imagine having that much money handed to me. Being around his grandparents I knew that they owned a lot of rental property.  That was the extent of my knowledge.  Outside of that I didn’t know exactly how much or how long, etc.

This is the only thing that I can thing of that would have planted the seed of me wanting to own real estate.

Fast forward back to age 33, I had owned the duplex for seven years.  I had not purchased anymore property up until that point. At 33, after purchasing a goal setting seminar.  I decided to set a goal of owning ten rental properties by age 40, and I wanted them all to be paid off by that time.  I didn’t know how I was going to achieve this goal. But I said if I can buy one house every quarter.  I could get there.

I set this goal and reminded myself of it daily.  For the next three years.  I purchased another five houses.  Now at age 36, I had seven total tenants and 6 properties. Seven if you included my own personal home.

I was well on my way.

Like most of life though, things happened and things changed.

In 2015, I met my future wife.  My dad died unexpectedly and about a year later in 2016, my wife and I decided to pack up and move to Florida.  When deciding to move to Florida, we also decided to sell the duplex I had owned since I was 26.  This is something I regret now, but at the time it made a lot of sense. I had also sold my personal residences a few years before.  We now had just the five rental properties. Two of them I paid cash for and the other three had mortgages.

Once we made it to Florida.  I took a position where I was 100% commission.  Meaning if I don’t sell, I don’t make any money.  For about the first year, my income was really unpredictable.  I had good months and months were I didn’t make any money.

Now during this time, I continued to put all of my money that came from the rental properties back in to paying off the mortgages I had.  Once I paid each mortgage,  any remaining money I would put towards the principal of my lowest dollar amount mortgage.  I knew if I could get one of them paid off quicker, it would make the next one even easier.  Because I would have more money to put towards it.

Once I started making some more predictable income with my new position in Florida, it was around the year and a half mark.  Also, at this time.  My wife and I decided that we were going to pack up and move again.  We didn’t love Florida, and we were now moving to Dallas.

During this time in Florida, I continued to look at real estate every single day.  My income wasn’t predictable enough at the time where we felt comfortable enough to buy anything.  But I continued to look and knew if I could find something I would figure out a way to buy it.

Now that we are in Dallas, I once again found myself with zero income.  This time, I was going to go out on my own.  I had been freelancing for years.  I knew where some opportunities existed and where I could make a difference and build a business.  So I poured all of my resources in to doing that.

Keep in mind I still had that goal of 10 rental homes by 40 and all of them paid off.

At this time I am now 38/39.  I am putting a lot of money into my business.  Pretty much most of everything I would make would go right back in the business.  I did this for about a year or so.  It was hard.  Really hard.  And it wasn’t bringing me any joy.

Once again, I pivot and take a position with a great company last fall. By this time I am now 40.  I was excited to take this new position because once again, it was 100% commission, but the product was a great and it had great market presence. I knew I could crush it.

This past February I turned 41.  I didn’t make the goal of ten houses by age 40 and all of them paid off.

I was only able to get four of the five paid off.  Yep.  I am sitting here today, and my goal wasn’t accomplished and if you gave it a measurement.  I guess you could say it took me a year longer, and I only accomplished 40% of what I wanted to accomplish.  This is true, if you look at it this way.

However you want to look at it.  Here is what I know.

Life is really hard. Things change.  People change. Our priorities and our goals change.  The world around us changes.  I know that with out the constant reminder to myself of what my goal was, I wouldn’t have even accomplished the 40%.  It may have been zero.

One of my favorite shows of all time is Boardwalk Empire on HBO.  if you haven’t watched it. You should.  The main character says something that has stuck with me ever since. He said “You always need to have something planned, because you need something to look forward to.”

I believe goals are a lot like this. You need to have them set because they give you something to look forward to, but even more importantly they give you a direction and more importantly motivation to do what it takes so you can achieve them.

 

 

 

Implementing this one activity every other day has been a game changer for my life.

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There are certain things in life that all of us must do every single day.  Things like brush our teeth, eat, drink water, and… If you have children you have to make sure they do these same things everyday as well.

Now you could say that you have to go to work every single day, but that isn’t true.  Most of us have weekends off.  And if you don’t, you probably have vacation time. So what are the things we have to do every single day?  There probably aren’t very many things we must do every single day unless we choose to do it.

About a year and a half ago, I learned from one of my mentors to do this one thing every single day.  And it has been a game changer for me. My mentor said that I should write down my 10-15 biggest goals every single day.  Yes.  He said I should do this every single day.  He said he does it as soon as he wakes up and he does it again before he goes to bed.

Maybe he does or maybe he doesn’t.  He is wildly successful, so I am not going to question him. I like to try to do what really successful people do, so I gave it a shot.

First of all, for me, I have found that I don’t do it every day.  Hence why the title of the blog isn’t, “Implementing this one activity everyday has been a game changer for my life.”

There is really no reason why I can’t, but looking in my journal over the last year, I just didn’t.  I just looked at my journal and I counted 298 days that I wrote down my goals.  Not bad, but I could do better. Again, doing anything for 365 days a year is hard.  I can do better though.

I have been a very aggressive goal setter for the last ten or so years of my life.  I have accomplished so many things that I would have never dreamed of accomplishing, just because I wrote it down and made a plan to accomplish it.  I consider myself to be in the top one percent of goal setters and goal accomplishers.  This consideration is purely from my observations of hundreds, if not thousands of people, that I interact with in my business who don’t set goals. It is not a common thing.

All of this to say, that I know a lot about goal setting and I have helped a lot of people accomplish more in their life by becoming better goal setters.

So when my mentor told me to write down my goals every single day, I thought that this was a silly idea.  I said how will this help me.  I am already doing a really good job at setting and accomplishing goals.  I have a document that I write down all of my current year goals on, and included on that document is some long-range goals as well.  They all kind of go together.

But because of his challenge to me, I decided to take on this challenge of writing them down every day.  And in my case, I did it the last 298 days of my life. I didn’t write down every single goal.  I just wrote down the 10 to 15 bigger goals that I have in my life.

For example:  I turn forty next year.  I am not worried about the forty number, but one of my goals is to be in the best shape of my life, backed up with test results, when I turn forty next year. That is one of the goals I have written down the last 298 days of my life.

Another one is “I own 100 paid for rental properties”.  Yes a big goal.  I currently have five.

What I have learned from writing these goals down for the last 298 days, is that they are always in my head, they never leave.  I am reminding myself about them every day. This has helped me put in place certain habits and other things that are helping me work toward these goals.  Id dint have this before.  This has been really beneficial for me to doing what I need to do, every day to get closer to accomplishing the goals.

Most people never accomplish much because they never commit to accomplishing anything. That is why writing down your goals is co critical. But I have learned that writing them down every single day reminds me to do the things that I need to do so I can accomplish the goals.

This is not a to do list.  This is a reminder of the bigger things you want in your life. These are the big goals.  These bigger goals is where you get your motivation.

I can’t get too excited about running six miles a day, but I can get excited and motivated about being in the best shape of my life at the age of forty.

It is hard to get excited about making another sales call, or taking on a client that I know will be a pain in the ass.  But I know that I have to do it, to generate the money so I can get to my 100 rental properties.

These 10 or 15 goals set your task list for the day automatically.  The only difference is, the task list isn’t that exciting, but the goals list is.

As you can tell, I have some room for improvement in this area as well, but I want to challenge you to try this.  I consider myself to be a pretty self motivated person, but after doing this the last 298 days, I am even more motivated and committed to my goals and to my success and this has pushed me to do even more every day to get closer to accomplishing them.

If you want more information about my process, email me at bwillett555@gmail.com

To your success and your future.

Check out this blog for more information about the value of writing down your goals.

The #1 reason most people don’t hit their goals, and it is not what you think.

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This morning my wife and I started our day off in one of our favorite coffee shops in the world, located in our hometown of Louisville, Ky. We are here visiting family for the holidays and we will stop there every morning while we are here.  It not only has the best coffee and mochas on the planet, but it is also owned and operated by the best people.

As we are sitting there this morning we were doing something that I have done in the coffee shop for years before we were married.  That is taking inventory of how I did with my current year goals, and start writing and planning what I would like to accomplish in  the next year.  This year was different, because when I was single, I just did it by myself.  And now that I am married it is very important to do this activity with my wife as well.  We still have our own individual goals, but we also set goals as a couple for our life.

The first thing my wife and I discussed, was the definition of a goal.  This is par for the course, because even though we have a great marriage and we have been together for a couple of years, it can still be difficult for me to think as a couple versus as an individual.   However, I continue to get better and better at this, and sitting down and doing this yearly ritual that I have always done by myself, with her, is a great example of my growth in this area.

Once we settled on a definition of a goal, meaning we agree to disagree.  I think hers is the typical definition of a goal: an idea of the future or desired result that a person or a group of people envisions, plans and commits to achieve.   I don’t disagree with that definition, I just add another piece to it.  I add that a goal is something that you weren’t going to do otherwise.  Meaning you had to do something different, ie. change a behavior, invest money or time.  Cut out something or add something to achieve.

Some people say, I am going to show up to work everyday at least fifteen minutes early.  Well, the chances are, you were going to do that anyway.  What did you have to change?  Or they say, I am going to go to the gym 100 times this year.  Well, last year you went 100 times, what are you having to change?   Once you hit a goal, I believe you have proven that you can hit it.  Which means you did whatever was necessary to demonstrate the behaviors  or invest the time and money, you cut out or added the necessary resources to accomplish the goal. So you must change the objective to have growth in that area.

So there we are setting our goals.  We worked on this for about an hour or so, and we got about seven to ten very solid goals for 2018 written down. To some, that may seem like a lot. To others, you might be saying that seems like a little.  I agree with both of you.

The reason I agree with both of you, because setting good goals is hard.  A good goal is something that is specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time sensitive. Also, known as SMART goals.  They also have to be worthwhile towards your life.

Setting goals is hard work.  And as I have learned, it is even more difficult to do it with someone else and have to agree on what they are.  This is why most people never set very specific and targeted goals.  It is hard to sit down by yourself, and even harder with someone else, and lay out specifically what it is you would like to accomplish for the next year and your life.

This is why most people don’t usually accomplish much.  They don’t do the hard work on the front end. Which is sit down, think about what it is you want out of your life, career, marriage, relationships, finances, church, God, health, etc. And then write out specifically what you want in those areas of your life to look and feel like a year from now or ten years from now.  And that is why I believe this is the number one reason people don hit their goals.  They never set them to begin with. You can’t achieve what you don’t know you want to achieve.

Before I became a very strategic and successful goal accomplisher.  I did what most people do.  I would say I want to grow in my career.  I want to make more money.  I want to have a partner in life.  I want a better relationship with this person or that person.  I would say all of this in my head, and in many cases, I would be successful in accomplishing those things, over time.

I got most of these things, but I didn’t get them in the amount of time that it should have.  It took way more time than I even care to share.  When I started to sit down and said I want to be a VP by this year.  I want to make X amount of dollars by x date.  When I said I want a wife that has these characteristics by this date.

Once I started setting goals this way, I have since achieved a lot more in my life, my career and in so many other areas of my life, that I would have never accomplished if I didn’t do the hard work on the front end and decide what it is I wanted to accomplish.

If you want to accomplish more this year than you did last year, do the hard work now and decide what it is you want to accomplish and then write it down.  This is another blog for another day, but writing your goals down is one of the major contributors to the success of you accomplishing your goals as well.

If you need help to do this reach out to me at bwillett555@gmail.com and I can help you achieve everything you want to achieve in 2018.

To your success and your future.

 

 

 

The Facts and Numbers about New Years Resolutions

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I am half listening to the television this morning.  The news anchors did a segment on New Years Resolutions.  They interviewed six or seven people about what/if any New Years resolutions they have.  One person was holding a cigarette saying that he wanted to give these up, (as he pointed to his cigarette). Another person said they would like to eat healthier, another said be better with their finances, another said get out of debt.

Any of these sound familiar?  Maybe you have some of these same New Years Resolutions. Some people hate on the words: New Years Resolutions.  I can understand why they do, because there is a such a negative stigma around those words anymore with failure that it isn’t even credible.

According to the University of Scranton. Journal of Clinical Psychology  published January 1, 2014. http://www.statisticbrain.com/new-years-resolution-statistics/  the top 10 New Years resolutions are:

  • 1. Lose Weight
  • 2. Getting Organized
  • 3. Spend Less, Save More
  • 4. Enjoy Life to the Fullest
  • 5. Staying Fit and Healthy
  • 6. Learn Something Exciting
  • 7. Quit Smoking
  • 8. Help Others in Their Dreams
  • 9. Fall in Love
  • 10. Spend More Time with Family

Any of these look like yours?  Also, in this research was the real numbers on New Years Resolutions success  rates:

Percent of Americans who usually make New Year’s Resolutions: 45%
Percent of Americans who infrequently make New Year’s Resolutions: 17%
Percent of Americans who absolutely never make New Year’s Resolutions: 38%
Percent of people who are successful in achieving their resolution: 8%
Percent who have infrequent success: 49%
Percent who never succeed and fail on their resolution each year: 24%

Lastly, and most important is this. The data on how long New Years Resolutions last:

  • Resolution maintained through first week 75%
  • Past two weeks 71%
  • Past one month 64%
  • Past six months 46%

Pretty interesting data isn’t it?  I think so.  Here is what I see, you tell me what you see.  Only 45% of the population make New years resolutions.  Call them what you want, goals, commitments, you name it, but only 45% of the population do this. Then of this 45% of the population who do make New Years Resolutions, only 46% keep it going past the six month mark.  So that means if we use 100% as a number of the population, and 45% make new years resolutions, and of that 45% only 46% keep it going after six months, that means about 23% or so of the population actually can make a commitment and stick to it.  That is what is amazing to me.

Oh yeah:  Here is the final interesting statistics:

  • Percent of people in their twenties who achieve their resolution each year 39%
  • Percent of people over 50 who achieve their resolution each year 14%

I’ll let you tell me what you think about the numbers on how age plays a part in the success  rate of New Years Resolutions.

So what do you to ensure your New Years Resolutions become habits and become a part of what you do everyday this year and future years:

Intent:  Your intent is what you would like to do.  It starts here.  The first step is knowing what you should or would like to do.   

Motive: Your motive is “WHY” you want to do this.  It can be a lot of different things, but it should be a deep desire related to a deep emotion within that is so compelling that nothing can stop you from achieving your New Years Resolutions or goals.

Agenda: What are you going to do everyday?  This is where the intent and motive are now put into action.  What kind of tasks or things will you do everyday to ensure you keep your New Years Resolution. Your success is determined by your daily agenda.

Behavior: How are you going to act to ensure you accomplish your goals.  Sure you have a great goal, your motive can be strong, you have established the right agenda, but you don’t change some of your behaviors such as going outside on your breaks at work with the other smokers, or you still binge eat on the weekends, you don’t create a budget for your finances, or other kinds of behaviors that prevent you from keeping your commitments.

The thing about New Years that I like, is it truly is a new season. It just makes sense to make some new goals and commitments at this time.  Is it the only time you can do this?  Absolutely not, I would encourage you to always raise the bar and establish goals and commitments, and this time of the year is as good as any.  However, don’t be that person, that makes New Years Resolutions that people laugh at because they know you have done it before, and haven’t kept them.  Let’s be honest the stats are not in your favor to begin with.

If you want a proven success plan that I have seen work for many people, then reach out to me via thebrianwillett.com and let’s make a plan together.  I am meeting with people currently at a reduced rate of $100 an hour.  That one hour could change your life?  Would that be worth $100?

To your success and your future.

What now?

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As you wake up on this awesome day, the first day of 2015, it truly is an awesome day.  Really, it is.  Most of you don’t have to work today, and secondly if you are reading this, congratulations, you made it to the next year.

The question that I have on my mind this morning is this.  What now?

2014 was a great year.  I accomplished more in 2014 than I did in almost any other year in my life.  So what do I do now?

The more goals I set, the more commitments I keep, the more I want to do.  The bar keeps getting raised.  What I thought was a big deal two years ago, is no longer that big of a deal anymore, you shouldn’t think so either.  You have to raise the bar.

I remember running an 8 minute mile for the first time.  I thought I was going to die.  But immediately I raised the bar and said, now I have to run 8 minute miles for 3 miles, then for 6 miles, then 10, then for 13.1.  I haven’t accomplished the last one just yet.  Close, but just haven’t made it yet.  Raise the bar.

What is your “what now?”  Many of the people I know are killing it.  Good jobs, great families, enough income that they aren’t starving.   So I ask them “what now” .  You have to have a “what now”.  This is what life is about.

We have three things we must constantly do;

  • 1) consider the past
  • 2) concentrate on the present
  • 3) think and plan for the future.

Too many people do the first two more than they do number three.  Give each area enough time to make the decisions that need to be made.  But on this first day of 2015, I  challenge you to really think about these three things today. Spend most of your time reflecting on 2014 enough to make some good decisions about what you will do in 2015.  You will have plenty of time tomorrow to concentrate on the present.

I am currently meeting with clients and discussing commitments and goals for their life in 2015 and beyond.  If you are someone who has set goals, made commitments, and fell short on them.  It means your system doesn’t work.  Maybe my system will work for you.  If you are interested in meeting with me one on one via face to face or over the phone. Please go to thebrianwillett.com and send me a request.  I am currently meeting with clients at a reduced rate of $100 an hour.

What now?  Only you can decide what that will be.

To your success and your future.

 

 

 

It’s a miracle

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In my business I have a chance to talk to a lot of people about their career and their goals.  Many of these people are incredibly talented and work extremely hard.  What I have found is that most of these people do set goals and some of them even write them down. But the difference I have found in-goal setters that write them down versus the ones who don’t write them down is what is really interesting.  Here is an example of this difference:

Mark McCormick in his book What They Don’t Teach You at Harvard Business School tells of a Harvard study conducted between 1979 and 1989.

In 1979, graduates of the MBA program were asked to set clear written goals for their future and their plans to accomplish them. It turned out only 3 percent of the graduates had written goals, 13 percent had goals but they were not in writing and 84 percent had no specific goals at all. 

Ten years later, in 1989, the researchers again interviewed the students of that same graduating class. They found that the 13 percent who had goals that were not in writing were earning, on average, twice as much as the 84 percent of students who had no goals at all. Most surprisingly, they found that the 3 percent of graduates who had clear, written goals were earning, on average, 10 times more than 97 percent of their graduating class. The only difference between the groups was the clarity of goals they had set for themselves when they graduated. (research pulled from DarrenHardy.success.com)

As I mentioned earlier, I have been a goal setter for all of my life and did okay.  About four years ago, I became an intentional goal setter that actually wrote them down on paper (or electronic). About two years ago, I purchased a program (a very expensive one I might add) on goal setting.  The last two years, I have seen exponential growth.  The last two years I have spent no less than eight to ten hours in December on setting goals and writing them down for what I would like to accomplish the following year.  This is where the miracle occurs.  First of all taking the time to focus on doing this.  The time invested to plan out a game plan for the next year is valuable within itself.  Secondly, writing very clear and specific goals down. These two activities are truly miraculous in my opinion.  Something magical happens when you do these two things.

There are seven or eight key areas in everyone’s life.  They include career, financial, family, health, spiritual, relationships, social, business, etc.  Having very clear, written, specific goals in each of these areas is what separates the goal accomplishers versus the people who just get by.

Is this another article, blog, or Facebook post about goal setting at the end of the year.  Nope, I hope not.  Here is the difference when setting goals, what you want to accomplish next year is just as important as what you want to accomplish in the next 30 days, or 10 years.  The kind of goal setting I am talking about is “designing a life” not just setting some goals. My mentor told me this: he said don’t set your goals too low, set them high so you have to stretch to reach them.  In 2015,  I plan on accomplishing goals that require me to stretch and are a piece of my puzzle in the life I am designing.

Lastly, if you would like to schedule a one on one meeting with me to discuss some goal setting for you and your life.  I am meeting with people right now for a discounted rate of $100 an hour.  Please go the thebrianwillett.com   and contact me and I we will schedule a face to face meeting or over the phone.  Lets see what we can accomplish in 2015.

To your success and your future.

 

 

You are Self-Employed

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I am sure some people read the title and assumed I would be discussing owning and operating your own business.  Sure why not!  I suggest you do that as well.  Because one thing I know to be true is Profits are better than Wages.  However, what I am discussing is reminding all of us that we are all self-employed.

Sure you and I both work for a company.  That company pays us for the value we bring to their business.  But ultimately we are the CEO of US and company.  Maybe you’re the only employee of your company, or maybe you have others on the payroll of your company.  Like a spouse, children, etc.  Regardless of how many people are within your company it is your job and responsibility as the CEO to operate your business to make a profit.

Just like in business you must set strategy, set goals, plan, invest, make sales, and evolve with the marketplace and conditions so your product (which is you) doesn’t become in less demand as time goes by. You have to continue to create a competitive advantage in the marketplace for your services, just like Apple, GM, and any other company have to do.

So here is your challenge today!  What is the competitive advantage your Company offers (Which is you).  What is the unique selling proposition you offer?  What will your companies services be 3-5 years from now, to maintain a competitive advantage in the marketplace?   This kind of thinking allows you to plan and ultimately execute your plan.

I believe most of us have an entrepreneurial spirit within us.  Maybe this is you owning and operating a company that offers a specific product or service.  But remember this, you are already doing this, you already own your own company and operate it daily.  The questions that I challenged you with above is the first step for you determining your value to the marketplace.  If you can’t come up with some very good answers to the above questions, before asking for that next raise or next promotion focus on firming those things up.  Just like a business I think we all can agree that we want to keep Revenue High and expenses low.  Take the first step today to bigger revenues.

To your success and your future.

Spare Time

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We have discussed this before on selfdevelopmentaddict.   What you do in your spare time will determine your success or non-success.  Keep in mind, success to me is defined as the constant pursuit of worthwhile goals and dreams.  So you must establish what those worthwhile goals and dreams of yours are and then lay down the action steps and plan to achieve them.

For some reason I wanted to sleep in this morning.  It happens to all of us.  The difference for me this morning was that I had a good friend of mine texting me on what he was working on.  This wasn’t extremely early, but it was before I was motivated to get out of bed.  His texts inspired me to get out of my bed and quickly get on with the day and ultimately inspired me to write on this topic today. It is good to be surrounded by people who push you to be better.

Most of us have three parts to our day.  We have work, sleep, and then spare time.  It is Sunday afternoon as I am typing this, so I will classify the weekends as spare time. If you work on the weekends (As I do), then you work a lot in your spare time and that is good, but what are you working on is the key?

Depending on your work and sleep schedule, it determines how much spare time you have.  Also, I realize many of you may have families and children, lets just go ahead and say it now.  It is up to you to determine what you will get out of your life. If your life is not where you want it to be, then what you do in your spare time will determine your success.  Maybe your life is where you want it to be, for you to continue to have success and achieve more success it will require you to continue to grow and develop.  Things just don’t happen, you must make them happen. So spending time with children and family needs to be budgeted in as well.  I heard a great quote yesterday, while I was spending my spare time in a meeting with other trainers (on a Saturday) learning how we can get better.  The quote was:  “The world we went to sleep in last night, is not the same world we woke up in today”.  WOW, isn’t that true, the world changes so fast.

So what do you do in your spare time.  Well since it is Sunday, most people I know make time for their spiritual thirst and need.  Maybe you attend church on Sunday mornings or Sunday afternoons.  Then you spend time with the people at your church at dinner or lunch.  I am not here to judge right or wrong in what anyone does in their spare time, however, I would say that this kind of activity leads to other good activities and feeds a person spiritually and mentally and allows them to develop and ultimately positions them to achieve their goals and dreams, I know.

What else are you doing in you spare time.  Are you recharging?  Well, that is something we all should do.  You gotta do it for your own health and well-being.  Are you investing in yourself?  That is the question. A portion of you spare time should be devoted and invested in developing your self. Maybe it is reading non-fiction book, maybe it is listening to a webinar, maybe it is working on a small business, etc.  All of these investments are opportunities that will allow you to get closer to your goals and dreams.

What are you doing today, to invest in yourself?  Is it recharging?  Is it spiritual?  Is it learning a new skill or developing a skill?  Please share with me what you are doing.

The Law of Diminishing Intent

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This truly is a law.  It’s a law because it is true and without a doubt I have, and many of you have all broken this law many times in our life.

What does the law mean:  We have all had that moment when we get really excited about something, maybe it is dieting, getting out of debt, planning our day more effectively, redoing the kitchen, painting the bedroom, etc.  You name it.  At that moment we get excited about doing the “thing” but we don’t take any action to get the ball rolling on doing it.  So for every second, minute, hour, day, week, month that goes by, we lose that passion and excitement about accomplishing what we were so excited about accomplishing.

I can remember learning this lesson years ago.  It was around November or so, and I was telling a friend of mine that I was planning on starting to workout after the New Year.  Sound familiar?  He replied back “Why wait, why not start now, what is the difference between now and then?”  He was right.  I learned the Law of Diminishing intent almost 16 years ago.  He didn’t call it the law of diminishing intent, but that’s what it was.  I started that day.  Guess what?  It is a discipline that I practice still to this day.  My mentor Jim Rohn says it like this:  “The pain of discipline weighs ounces and the pain of regret weighs tons.”

The key is to set up the discipline while the emotion is at its highest.  Go buy the paint, clean the refrigerator out of all of the snacks, cut up your credit cards, go outside and run a mile or walk.  The goal here is to start down the path of setting up some disciplines in your life, some activities, that can then turn into habits that will allow you to accomplish the activity or goal that you are so excited about at that time.

Is there something in your life right now that you are excited about?  What are you doing to set the disciplines and activities in motion to ensure you keep the energy and actions moving forward? Please share with me, I would love to hear them.

Brian Willett