4 Questions You Should Always Ask Yourself Before Any Important Decision
A few years ago, I found myself face to face with a defining moment that had the power to shape my future. Some of us experience this type of moment early on, and we allow it to guide us. Like the moment on a cold Thanksgiving night when a young Tony Robbins decided he would never let his family go hungry again because of the hunger and poverty he lived in.
The Olive Tree and the Nature of Persistence
Persistence is an art you will need to master if you set out to achieve something great in this life. These days, we quit WAY too early. Why? Well, partially because we have the successes of others blasted in our faces on a daily basis. Ads, posts, stories, and videos come through our news feed by the thousands -- and the only thing tougher than sucking at something is... seeing someone else be really good at it! In business, life, and our relationships, we now have a constant measuring stick to compare ourselves to. Another reason is because, well… it’s hard to persist. To work on something and see no results; to put our hearts into a thing and still not see our labor yield any fruits. It takes a special kind of crazy to continue chasing after something even after we've failed a thousand times. Like Sylvester Stallone once was when he harassed movie agents. Or like Thomas Edison once did, when he created the light bulb after a thousand failed attempts. The Olive Tree and the Nature of Persistence Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not. Nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not. Unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not. The world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. - Calvin Coolidge Persistence is not blind stubbornness; it is deliberate refusal Persistence can only be mastered when one believes in their product, service, idea, or dream so much that they will not take “no” for an answer. It means to look someone dead in the eye when they tell you your idea sucks, and not walk away. It means to come back in the morning, and knock on the door of the very person who threw you out of their office the afternoon before. It is something that most people lack, and why so few live the kind of life they had once dreamed of living. This world is not divided up between the “successful” and “unsuccessful.” It is divided up between the people who quit, and those who refused to quit. What the olive tree teaches us about life An olive tree can sometimes take five to eight years to produce fruit, and at times even longer. This means the farmer has to give his time, sweat, energy, and most importantly, his patience, long before he gets to see any fruit from his labor. He must remain persistent in his work, and trust that his patience will pay off. He does not change his approach on a whim, but must remain consistent in his actions. Every day he rises early and tills the land. He plants the seeds, he waters it, and he waits. The farmer continues to toil over it, even though the seed has shown no sign of emerging from the soil. Even after years of growth, still, the farmer does not reap a harvest. Yet he does not question the soil, the sun, or the seed. He only persists. Learn from the farmer In any undertaking, in anything we struggle against, in anything worth accomplishing in this life, we must continue to pour into these things without ceasing. We must master this art of persistence if we are to achieve those things we merely dream of. Nothing great ever comes easy and when things are not easy, the key to victory is persistence.
How To Get Access To The World's Greatest Mentors
Creating The World’s Greatest Mastermind Group 3 years ago I hit a wall. A point in my life that brought everything to a complete halt. Depression hit me like a two-by-four to the back of the head and I began questioning everything in my life including my job, my faith, and my existence on this planet. I could think of no good reason for my being here. I was bringing no value to the world or anyone around me. I was living my life with no sense of purpose or meaning and things sure as hell weren’t the way I imagined they would be. Up to that point, life was going pretty easy for me. I went to school, got my degree, and a few months later, got the job that was going to set me up for success, as I thought back then. I had done everything I was supposed to do according to what a “successful” person should do. Only there was one thing that I completely missed. The life I was creating for myself was not one that I wanted. Somewhere over the years I was stripped of all imagination and joined a long line of people, who just like me, were going through the motions, just doing the things they thought they were supposed to be doing. All creativity, all passion, all enthusiasm, every crazy dream I had growing up was gone. Now, sitting there, staring at the cubicle wall in front of me I became honest with myself… my life was shit and I was wasting it away. My search for meaning began. I started reading. I read everything I could get my hands on that had anything to do with psychology, success, high performance, the power of the mind, or positive thinking. I wanted to know what it felt like to really feel alive and what real living actually looked like. I didn’t look for mentors, I didn’t seek a therapist, and I didn’t need a life coach. The access I had to knowledge and wisdom was unlimited as I quickly began to understand. Successful men and women from all walks of life have spilled their hearts onto the pages of millions of books and now for the price of a book, I could have that wisdom seeded into my own heart and mind. I could go into the mind of any of the world’s most influential people and see life through their eyes, do the things they did to change and create a life of enthusiasm, energy, meaning, and success for themselves. Men like Paulo Coelho, Tony Robbins, Brendon Burchard, Eckart Tolle, Wayne Dyer, Napolean Hill, Norman Vincent Peale, Og Mandino, Dale Carnegie, John Maxwell, Jesus, and many more I can mention, began to shape my life. They began to shape my beliefs and my perspective and by simply aligning my mentality and habits with them through their written experiences, I started to see my life take on a completely new form and began to appreciate my existence at a much deeper level. I began to learn that everything I wanted from life started with me. I was in full control of my destiny. “As a man thinketh, so is he” as it is said. A new passion for life was born. As I sit in my room, surrounded by stacks of books, some that I have read many times over, some that I still have yet to finish, and new ones that I just added to my collection, I can’t help but imagine sitting at the head of a large conference table and the writers of each of these books, seated around me, ready to jump in and guide me through the next step I am afraid to take. Every president, every CEO, every company or organization has a team that supports the leaders, working together as a mastermind group in unison for one goal, one purpose, one mission. Mastermind groups provide many different perspectives. They provide support and guidance at every decision or roadblock an organization or person is faced with so they are not forced to make decisions alone. A strong mastermind group is vital to your success in any undertaking. In my room, surrounded by these books, I realized that I’ve created a superstar mastermind group around myself. All of these men and women come from different cultures, different times in history, and different backgrounds but the language of success can be understood by all and collectively their experiences guide me every step of the way, helping me at life’s toughest moments. At my table, everybody works together for my good simply because I chose them to be there. Every single one of us has the opportunity to create the greatest mastermind in the world. When we read, we are allowing the world’s greatest thought leaders to speak into our lives. We have the ability to hand-pick each and every individual that we want at our “table” and walking beside us in life through their books. Choose your library wisely. There is a better way to live!
Get "Hangry" for Success: Why Your Lack of Ambition is Starving You
We’ve all been there, when we feel a hunger so bad we get light-headed and feel like we need to vomit. When we are this hungry, most of us turn pretty angry too. Your brain is critically dependent on glucose, which your body gets from fats, proteins, and carbs. So when it begins to run low, it treats the situation as life-threatening. Your brain begins to shout, "Feed me!" Suddenly, you have a short fuse and have a hard time concentrating on your tasks. Everything else takes a back seat to your need for nourishment, and you become what we call “hangry" (hungry and angry). You will compromise your rules of “normal” social behavior until you get something to eat. You may be rude, snap at people, and skip people in line to get your meal faster. There will be very little that you'll let get in the way of you getting some grub. Get "Hangry" for Success: Why Your Lack of Ambition is Starving You Be hungry for success, hungry to make your mark, hungry to be seen and to be heard and to have an effect. And as you move up and become successful, make sure also to be hungry for helping others. - Arnold Schwarzenegger (read more quotes) Take it from the Kit-Kat thief. You can’t help but feel for this guy’s hunger pains! “Saw Kit-Kat in your cup holder. I love Kit-Kats so I checked your door and it was unlocked. Did not take anything other than the Kit-Kat. I am sorry and hungry.” This was a note left on the seat of a college kid’s car after someone broke in and stole his Kit-Kat. I’m pretty sure I have experienced this level of hunger before. There is nothing more disorienting and distracting than an empty stomach. Snacking through life When we are this hungry, you can bet we will do anything that's necessary to get what we desire. So why is it then that when we desire success in any area of life, be it money, health, wellness, or in our relationships, we settle? Why don’t we behave like the Kit-Kat thief, and take from life what we want? What stops us from breaking all the rules to find the success we so desperately claim to seek? Perhaps we never get to that level of hunger for success because we “snack” through life. When you get bits and pieces of satisfaction here and there, from the little accomplishments, you never develop a hunger that is strong enough to provoke massive action. You have a “safe” job, so you never take the leap to start that business. You have a boyfriend or girlfriend that “treats you nicely,” so you never meet that person that your soul craves. You aren’t as fat as some of your friends, so you never take those gym sessions seriously. You get a decent paycheck, so you never strive to bring more value than is required for payment. You get just enough from the ordinary to temporarily keep the hunger pains away, and so you never seek the extraordinary. The hunger pains I speak of are those pains that will drive you so angry, you will do whatever it takes to succeed. They are the pains that have propelled many of history's highest-achieving men and women to new levels of greatness. Yet, you and I continue to be sedated with our little “snacks” of success. Hunger leads to action, action leads to success Hunger is the greatest motivator of action, and action is the key to success. When you are dying of hunger, you will do whatever it takes to get yourself a meal. And if you don’t succeed, you will die trying. If we truly want to be great, to do great things, to find success in life however it might look to each of us, we need to stop snacking and let those hunger pains push us a little harder. We can’t keep munching on the little things while our biggest dreams draw further away. What does “hangry” for success look like? Being hangry for success is when you sit on the toilet with a pen and notepad writing new ideas instead of scrolling on your phone. It's reading books instead of watching TV shows. It's following thought leaders instead of celebrities, and meeting like-minded people instead of party people. If we want to succeed, we can’t be killing our appetites. We must stay hungry. We must not settle for the little victories of life which only temporarily subdue our search for greatness. We must want it bad enough that everything else becomes a distraction, and the lack of success becomes life-threatening. We have to get hangry for success. There is a better way to live!