Defining “The Good Life”!

I remember a while ago I saw a news broadcast about defining what your success looks like. I really don’t remember at this point which one.  But there was a lady being interviewed because she was living her definition of the good life.  She’d wake up in the morning, get dressed in her business attire, and go to her local coffee shop to work. While she worked for corporate America she would see the man and women in business suits and dresses, and she would think to herself “Now that is what success looks like”.  The broadcast told her story about how she positioned herself toward her definition of success. As long as she was able to do that, you could not tell her that she was not living the good life.  Since then I was obsessed with creating my own version of “the good life.” We tend to look at the people around us and just our own success based on their accomplishment. If we continue to do that then we will constantly fail. You can’t judge your beginning by someone else’s ending. The truth of the matter is you don’t know what it took for them to get where they are. So just Stay focused on your goals!

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For me, as long as I can spend time with my family,  Enjoy my hobbies,  travel, see and experience great things, and be able to provide for my loved ones, then I have succeeded in creating “the good life” for myself.

Jim Rohn, in an article on success magazine, said that there are 5 essential things needed to achieve the good life.

1. Productivity. You won’t be happy if you don’t produce. The game of life is not rest. Yes, we must rest, but only long enough to gather strength to get back to productivity. What’s the reason for the seasons and the seeds, the soil and the sunshine, the rain and the miracle of life? It’s to see what you can do with it—to try your hand to see what you can do.

2. Good friends. Friendship is probably the greatest support system in the world, so don’t deny yourself the time to develop it. Nothing can match it. It’s extraordinary in its benefit. Friends are those wonderful people who know all about you and still like you. I lost one of my dearest friends when he was 53—heart attack. As one of my very special friends, I used to say that if I was stuck in a foreign jail somewhere accused unduly, and, if they would allow me one phone call, I would call David. Why? He would come and get me. That’s a real friend—somebody who would come and get you. And we’ve all got casual friends, friends who, if you called them, they would say, “Hey, if you get back, call me and we’ll have a party.” You’ve got to have both real friends and casual friends.

3. Your culture. Language, music, ceremonies, traditions, dress. All of that is so vitally important that you must keep it alive. The uniqueness of all of us, when blended together, brings vitality, energy, power, influence, uniqueness of all of us, when blended together, brings vitality, energy, power, influence, uniqueness and rightness to the world.

4. Spirituality. It helps to form the foundation of the family that builds the nation. And make sure you study, practice and teach—don’t be careless about the spiritual part of your nature because it’s what makes us who we are, different from dogs, cats, birds, and mice.

5. Don’t miss anything. My parents taught me not to miss anything, not the game, the performance, the movie, the dance. Just before my father died at 93 if you were to call him at 10:30 or 11 at night, he wouldn’t be home. He was at the rodeo, he was watching the kids play softball, he was listening to the concert, he was at church—he was somewhere every night.

What I ‘ve learned over the years is, Everyone has a different definition of what a success or joyful life entails.   Once you define it for yourself, You have more of a chance of finding your own happiness.

Resources 

– See more at http://success.com/article/rohn-a-good-life-contains-these-6-essentials#sthash.4b8Itx1R.dpuf

 

 

 

Action leads to traction!

“If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything” – George McFly – (Back to the Future)

In 2008, my wife came to me was full of emotion to say, I am going to get my PhD.  Although I laughed, I fully supported her. After all,  I expected nothing less from my professional student!  As of this week, 7 years later, she completed her goal.  During the process, she discovered exactly what I am about to tell you.  Simply setting your goals and staying focused will not do it alone.  It takes work.  It takes action!  It takes movement every day.  Make the movement that will get you closer to achieving your goals.

Robert Kiyosaki spoke about this concept in his book Rich Dad Poor Dad.  He calls it, minding your own business.  This entails doing the work necessary to completing your goals including setting goals, staying focused and taking action!

How do you know what actions to take?  This is where your baby steps come in to play.    Breaking your big picture goal into smaller chunks will allow you to set your weekly actions to move you to success.  So here is what I want you to do:

  1. Take a look at your goal.
  2. Break your goal into baby steps. ( What actions can you take today to get going)
  3. Take action!

The key here is to take action!  Repeat this process every day. And you will be well on your way. Remember your actions leads to traction.

Resources

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Staying focused

Yes, We all do have the same 24-hours in a day.  But regardless of what we do we spend most of our time putting out fires.  And the things that we want to do end up on the back burner, and many times forgotten about.

I had an instructor tell me that If you don’t fill your day with tasks to accomplish your goals, someone else will fill your day for you to accomplish their goals.  And no matter how hard you try, It is difficult to get your life back once someone else has control of it. That is why setting and accomplishing your goals needs to be a priority in our lives. Setting goals gives your life purpose. You are much more likely to achieve a well-defined goal than you are without one. As Earl Nightingale says in The Strangest Secret “… the man who has not goal, who doesn’t know where he is going and whose thought must therefore be thoughts of confusion and anxiety and fear and worry, becomes what he thinks about.” In other words If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time. With your goals at the forefront of your mind, you will have a driving force that will help you to succeed at any task.

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It is not however, just a matter of setting goals. You have to take action as well. You have to move toward the accomplishment of your goals with such an intense focus, that you have now choice but to succeed. How do you get that focused? I’ll tell you. But first, I am assuming you know how to set “SMART” goals, If I am mistaken, and you need a quick lesson on goal setting, feel free to read my blog post, where I give you instructions on how to set Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound goals.

Get a web based software that helps you track goals and sub goals, manage tasks Build habits and helps you to visualize your goals!

Now that you have your goals, Let’s work on helping you achieve intense focus, to see it through to completion. Here are three tips that I use every day to maintain focus on whatever it is that I am trying to achieve.

  1. Have an image of what it is you want to do! Mental pictures are good. But If at all possible turn your mental picture into a physical representation of what it is you want to accomplish. When I first imagined this blog, It was a part of a bigger picture for me becoming an entrepreneur. Since I did not have a physical image of the business I wanted, I drew a flowchart detailing exactly how I wanted the company to look. I keep that flowchart readily available so I can see it for inspiration. This image keeps me motivated to move every day towards making this picture a reality. You can do the same or something similar. If you don’t have a picture of your goal, create one. Either way, the point here is to have an image so that you can look at it for inspiration and motivation to achieve it.
  2. Break your goal into baby steps! One of the best tools that I have ever learned with regards to goal accomplishment is the use of baby steps. Although I cannot claim responsibility for creating this concept, there have been multiple renditions of the baby steps used over the years, their implementation will prove invaluable. The movie Analyze This with Billy Crystal and Robert De Niro, was probably not the first movie to use the baby steps, But I must admit, I didn’t notice them there. I originally noticed the use of the baby steps from Dave Ramsey’s book the Total Money Makeover. The baby steps simply break your larger goals into smaller, manageable tasks. By doing this, it makes your goal seem more attainable. Every step that you complete brings you closer to achieving your goals.
  3. Schedule time to work on your goal. I don’t mean this figuratively. literally take out your calendar, look at the blank time slots and write down ( or type) WORK ON MY BABY STEPS!. I don’t know about you, but when there is an empty space on my calendar, I usually fill it with things that may hinder my productivity. Usually Facebook, Twitter or email. I tend to look at those free slots as times to take a break. If you have to schedule your breaks as well. This way you are more likely to stay focused until then.  Don’t be surprised or get frustrated if you have to move this around to “put out fires”. This slot on your calendars is not to be so firm that you put everything off to get it done. It also cannot be so rigid, that you blow it off when it comes up. It is there to serve as a reminder to you that you have something to do where ever it is on your calendar.

The longer you stay focused on things other than achieving your goal the more difficult it will be to achieve it. Here is what I want you to do.  Turn that mental picture that you have into a physical image, keep it where you can see it everyday.  Use it to motivate you.  Break your large tasks into smaller tasks to make them more manageable, and schedule the time to complete each task. No matter what you are attempting to do, use these tips to help you to stay the course until you achieve success.