Secret #1: Big Doers Are Big Dreamers
Marcus Aurelius,
who rose to become Emperor of the Roman Empire, shares one of the most
important secrets of World-Class Goal Achievers: “Dream big dreams; only big
dreams have the power to move men's souls.”
Procrastination is
one of the biggest complaints I hear from the people we work with. And
generally speaking, I believe one of the two main causes of procrastination is
a dream that’s too small (the other cause is belief which I’ll cover later).
It’s just too easy to put off doing something that doesn’t have a lot of appeal
even if we were to achieve it.
Big dreams drive us to do things we’d never
do for lesser dreams --- in many ways they almost pull us through the obstacles
we’re likely to have on the way to reaching them.
Living a life of
big dreams is a lot easier than you might think. It’s really just a decision.
Here’s a great lesson in that from the World’s #1 Goal Achiever:
When he was just
15, John Goddard was inspired to create a list of 127 “life goals” (he called
it “My Life List”). On a simple, yellow legal pad the young boy listed things
he had fantasized about. Many of the experiences he dreamed of he had first
encountered reading the encyclopedia (he grew up without television and read
the encyclopedia for entertainment ☺ )
When I met John for
the first time earlier this year, the young seventy-something told me that he
has accomplished 111 of his original 127 --- PLUS 500 others he set along the
way!
Here’s just a few
of the ones he’s reached:
He’s climbed many
of the world’s major peaks including the Matterhorn, Ararat, Kilimanjaro, Fiji,
Rainier and the Grand Tetons.
He followed Marco
Polo’s route through all of the Middle East, Asia and China.
He’s run a mile in
five minutes, broad jumped 15 feet, high jumped five feet and performed 200
sit-ups and 20 pull-ups.
He was the first
person to explore the 4200-mile length of the world's longest river, the Nile.
It was the number one goal of his life when he made his original list at 15,
and prompted the L.A. Times to name him “The Real Life Indiana Jones” when he
achieved it. He has also been down the Amazon, Congo and other major rivers of
the world.
John has been to
122 countries, lived with 260 different tribal groups, and explored the
underwater reefs of Florida, the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, the Red Sea,
and more.
He has flown 40
different types of aircraft and still holds civilian air records; has read the
Bible cover to cover and learned to speak French, Spanish and Arabic.
The last two on his
original list included marrying and having children (he has six) and living to
see the 21st Century, which he has done in style.
And I’m just
getting started. But I think you get the point.
More than just one
of the greatest adventurers the world has ever known, Goddard is an incredibly
wise person, as this quote of his demonstrates: "If you really know what
you want out of life, it's amazing how opportunities will come to enable you to
carry them out."
What was John’s secret? First, he wrote his
dreams down. I’ll bet that’s something you’ve heard before. I heard it for
twenty years and ignored it too! But the fact is, writing your goals down is
powerful, increasing your chances of success by at least 1000% according to
Brian Tracy.
John’s second secret is that his dreams were
BIG. There’s no power at all in small dreams. When the dream isn’t big enough,
it’s too easy to give in to the obstacles that appear in our life. It’s very
difficult to maintain the persistence that all great achievement requires when
the dream is small or ordinary.
And it’s very
difficult to get others to help us without a Big Dream. In some way or another
we’re going to need other people in order to reach our goals, and as Aurelius
said, “only big dreams have the power to move men’s souls.”
How big is BIG? If
it doesn’t make you a little nervous, you know that feeling in the pit of your
stomach; if it doesn’t take your breath away the first time you think about it,
it’s probably not big enough. Those physical symptoms I just described are the
result of a chemical change in your body caused by your thoughts. When your
dream is big enough that the thought of it causes your body to undergo physical
changes then you’re on the right path.
Now It’s Time
To Take Action: Set aside time when you can turn outside distractions off and get quiet
inside. Use a legal pad (it worked for John Goddard) and review the Dream Triggers
on the next page. Meditate a few minutes on each one and write down whatever
comes to your mind. Don’t worry about whether it’s realistic or whether it’s a
serious dream. You can prioritize your dreams when you’re finished.
· Dream Starters or Goal Triggers
·
Are you pleased with your physical appearance?
·
When is the last time you exercised? What did you do?
·
What kinds of activities do you enjoy doing with family and friends?
·
How do you spend your solitary time?
·
When is the last time you had a physical?
·
What is the name of the last book you read?
·
How do you spend your Friday nights?
·
What hobbies do you have? When is the last time you participated in any
of them?
·
Who are your five closest friends?
·
When is the last time you spent time with them? What did you do?
·
Where do you want to go that you haven’t gone?
·
What do you want to see that you haven’t seen?
·
What do you want to experience that you haven’t experienced?
·
What do you want to do that you haven’t done?
·
What do you want to try that you haven’t tried?
·
How much time do you spend on/with the people in your organization?
·
Are you more focused on results, people, or productivity?
·
Do you enjoy your job?
·
How well do you manage your time? At work? At home? Socially?
·
Do you regularly take time off?
·
When is the last time you had a vacation? Where did you go?
·
How can you improve your communication skills? (Speaking, writing, and
listening)
·
How much time do you spend with your family?
·
Do you really believe quality time is more important than quantity?
·
How can you become more organized?
·
When is the last time you made a new friend?
·
Where did you meet him/her?
·
What is the name of the last new restaurant you ate at?
·
Have you traveled internationally?
·
Where did you honeymoon?
·
If you could have any occupation in the world, what would it be and why?
·
What is the last musical or sporting event you attended?
·
What is the name of the last class you took? When was that?
·
How often have you changed jobs in the last 10 years?
·
How much money do you have in savings/investments?
·
How much do you weigh?
·
What is the last new thing you learned?
·
What is your household net worth?
·
When is the last time you “played?”
·
What trade publications do you subscribe to?
·
What magazines or newspapers do you subscribe to? Do you read them?
·
What organizations or clubs do you belong to? Why did you join?
Secret #2: The Beginning of All Achievement
In the classic
success book, Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill wrote that “desire
is the starting point of all achievement…the first step toward all riches.” And
he used these adjectives to describe the kind of desire he found after
interviewing 500 of the most successful people of the time: consuming,
obsessive, pulsating and burning. Can you describe your current desire for
your goals with the same words?
Can you remember
the feelings you had from the most intense romantic experience of your life? Do
you remember how that person was all you thought about, dreamed about and
talked about. You couldn’t get enough of them. When you weren’t in their
presence you were on the phone talking to them --- sometimes for hours. When
you weren’t in their presence or talking to them, you were busy planning your
next encounter with them. In a word, you were consumed.
Desire is so powerful that people will risk
their life, freedom, fortune and everything else in order to satisfy it. At our Claim Your Power Now
Weekend in Atlanta, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house when my friend Rene
Godefroy was describing how he left behind the agonizing poverty of his native
country to come to the abundance and opportunity of the U.S. It was desire of
the strongest kind -- consuming, obsessive, pulsating and burning – that
led him on his journey to freedom by holding on to the underside of a
tractor-trailer during a harrowing, five-hour trip that many other immigrants
didn’t survive.
Chances are you’ll
never have to risk your life to live your dream, but can you imagine how much
more effective you’ll be when your desire for your dream is as strong as Rene’s
was?
“What a different
story men would have to tell if only they would adopt a definite purpose, and
stand by that purpose until it had time to become an all-consuming obsession!,”
Hill also noted in Think and Grow Rich.
Now It’s Time
To Take Action: Professional sales people know that they must arouse a prospect’s emotion
of desire in order to have a chance at closing the sale. Why else do you think
it’s so important to the salesperson that you take their car for a test drive?
They know that the experience can arouse the emotions that create desire. So
use the same principle to arouse desire for your dream. Figure out a way to
test drive it.
Want a new home?
Buy a book or magazine with house designs. Spend the weekends visiting open
houses. A friend of mine once built a “to scale” model of the three-story
French Provincial he wanted to live in, complete with scaled furnishings. The
more you “stoke” your desire the more it will grow to be consuming,
obsessive, pulsating and burning.
Secret #3: What You See Is What You Get
World-Class Goal Achievers have trained
themselves to “vision their dream.” They see it on the inside long before the
world sees it on the outside. One of my very favourite stories about visioning the
dream has to do with Walt Disney’s widow. Whenever they were dedicating Epcot a
reporter went up to Lillian Disney and said to her that it was a shame that
Walt wasn’t there to see how everything had turned out. She turned to the
reporter without any hesitation and replied, “Oh, he saw it, and long before we
ever did.”
A key part of
visioning your dream is the practice of visualization and there are a number of
well-known examples of the power of visualization. None other than golfing
legend Jack Nicklaus is said to have always played a course in his mind before
actually beginning a game. In his own words: "I never hit a shot, not even
in practice, without having a very sharp, in-focus picture of it in my head.
First I see the ball where I want it to finish, nice and white and sitting up
high on the bright green grass. Then the scene quickly changes, and I see the
ball going there; its path, trajectory, and shape, even its behavior on
landing. Then there is a sort of fade-out, and the next scene shows me making
the kind of swing that will turn the previous images into reality."
One night in 1987,
Jim Carrey was a 25-year-old struggling comic when he drove his old Toyota up
to Mulholland Drive in the Hollywood Hills. Sitting there overlooking the City
of Angels and visioning his future, Carrey wrote himself a check for $10
million. He dated it Thanksgiving 1995 and added the notation, "for acting
services rendered."
This story has
become famous, of course, because Carrey's expression of brazen optimism turned
out to be conservative. By the time 1995 actually rolled around, his
rambunctious goofball roles in "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective,"
"The Mask" and "Dumb & Dumber" had yielded worldwide
grosses of $550 million, and the newly minted superstar's asking price was up
to $20 million per picture.
Brian Tracy says
that, “All improvement in your life begins with an improvement in your mental
pictures. Your mental pictures act as a guidance mechanism that causes you to
act in ways that make your mental pictures come true in your life.
The Law of
Correspondence says that “As within, so without.” It says that your outer world
tends to be a reflection of your inner world-like a mirror. What you see in the
world around you will be consistent over time with the world inside you. The
Law of Concentration says that “Whatever you dwell upon grows in your reality.”
Those two laws in combination explain much of success and most of failure.
Successful people
are those who continually think about pictures and images of the people they
would like to be and the lives they would like to lead.” Your subconscious mind
is extraordinarily powerful, but it is a servant, not a master. Your
subconscious mind coordinates every aspect of your thoughts, feelings,
behaviors, words, actions and emotions to fit a pattern consistent with your
dominant mental pictures. It guides you to engage in the behaviors that move
you ever closer to achieving the goals you visualize most of the time.
Now It’s Time
To Take Action: Our Champions Club member Julie Pierce shares something she
learned in our program that is one of the best ways to begin to vision your
future: “In January of 2006, I started using a dream board. I placed on the
board pictures of a beluga whale encounter at SeaWorld, a variety of pictures
of famous figure skaters with great costumes, with my head edited on to their
bodies, pictures of jewelry that I lost, dates for an incentive trip to Panama
next year and several other things.
Here it is only
September, and I'll be petting the beluga whale next week. Although I cannot
skate like a professional figure skater, something very interesting has
happened. A friend and professional acquaintance of mine fitted and made
costumes for Elvis Stojko. She will be visiting Atlanta in January, and has
agreed to fit me for a skating costume. Although I will be making the costumes,
I will be fitted by the same person who fitted a famous professional skater. My
skating skills have dramatically improved as well.
While I never did
find the jewelry I lost, my husband came home with a new necklace for Mother's
Day (from my dogs), and on a recent anniversary trip he bought me a new ring
and earrings. We are on track to make our sales goal and the trip to Panama
with at least a month to spare :)
My dream board was
not anything fancy, just pictures placed on my computer credenza. They are
always in my peripheral vision when I am at my desk. My experience with a dream
board has been so positive, that the first thing on my agenda after I return
from petting the beluga whale is to add new pictures and set new goals. On
second thought, this works so well that I do not think I will wait - I'll
update the pictures today! “
And here’s an
exciting update to the outcome of Julie’s vision – she was recently chosen to
skate in “The Nutcracker on Ice” during the upcoming Holidays.
Don’t wait any
longer! Start your dream board today!
Secret #4: Can You Believe It?
It’s no doubt the
number one secret of World-Class Goal Achievers. When all other things are
equal, it's the reason why one person makes millions and the other one can
barely make a living. It’s the power of belief.
It was a change in
my beliefs that turned my life around. In 1997, after we’d been evicted from
our home and lost our last automobile, I was at a seminar when I heard 13 magic
words: “the size of your success is determined by the size of your belief.” I
instantly knew that belief was the last piece of the puzzle and I created a
plan and began a program to change my beliefs (I later put those exercises into
a program called Can You Believe It? that has helped thousands around
the world harness the power of belief).
Within 90 days
changes began occurring in my life. Within six months I achieved national
recognition from the sales company I was with at the time. And within one year
I was earning a six-figure income. Nine years later I regularly have days where
I earn more income than I earned in all of 1997 put together. All of it as a
result of changing my beliefs.
Napoleon Hill said
that faith was the most powerful force on earth (faith is belief without
proof). Christians know that the power of faith has been described as being so
powerful that a tiny amount (the size of a mustard seed) could move mountains.
Belief is nothing more than what we accept as
true or real. Now here’s something important to understand: what we accept as
true may not be true and it may not be real. But if we accept it as true or
real it influences our decisions just as if it were.
From the days of
the Greeks and the very first Olympics, it was debated whether a human being
could run a sub-four minute mile. The medical community, the scientific
community said that it was not possible. They said if a person ran a mile that
fast, their heart would explode. So if you are an athlete out there in training
and the medical community says if you break that barrier, your heart is going
to explode, do you think that belief might affect your training?
For thousands of
years it was a widely held belief that a sub-four minute mile was not only
impossible, it was dangerous. Until a medical student named Roger Bannister
came along in the 1950's. In England he was studying anatomy and physiology as
part of his medical studies and in the process looked at the medical evidence
that against a sub-four minute mile.
Evidence is so
important when you're trying to change your beliefs. If you took all of your
limiting beliefs and searched for the evidence to support them, you wouldn’t find any. For instance, take the
limiting belief that “it takes money to make money.” If you studied the
evidence you’d find that belief is false. There are simply too many examples of
people who had little or no money who created a fortune (I’m one of them --- so
I know there’s no evidence for that).
One of my limiting
beliefs for many years was that my financial success was limited because I had
dropped out of college before getting a degree. So let’s study the evidence of
whether a college degree is required for financial success. You wouldn’t have
to look too far to find the evidence. The richest person in the world, Bill
Gates, dropped out of college without a degree. So that belief is obviously
false.
Our beliefs are
just like the thermostat in your home. If you set the thermostat to 72 degrees
and turn your air conditioner on, the thermostat will make sure that the
temperature in your home never goes over 72 before it directs the air
conditioner to begin working.
If you’ve been
struggling with trying to increase your income but you just can’t seem to
increase it by a significant amount, it’s probably because of your “belief
thermostat.”
And the same
applies for your performance in any area, whether it’s weight control or goal
achievement of any kind.
Roger Bannister
looked at the evidence and the evidence told him that not only would the heart
not explode, but the body of a human being was more then capable of achieving
that mark. He convinced himself from the evidence. He changed his belief from
that of the held belief and then he actually went out and boldly told the
world, "I am going to break the four minute barrier."
Most everyone knows
that in 1956, he went out and ran a mile in three minutes and 59.4 seconds and
broke the record. Now here's what a lot of people do not know. Within two
weeks, another person broke the sub-four minute barrier. In the same year that
he did, nine other people ran a mile under four minutes. In thousands of years
of recorded history, no one had been able to run a four minute mile, and in one
year, nine people did. What changed? The human body or the human belief?
I talked earlier
about what I consider the two main causes of procrastination and one of those
is “belief.” It's rare that we will attempt to do something that we don't
believe in, and we will never give 100% of our effort to something without a
strong belief that we can do it. It's our human defense mechanism. In As
A Man Thinketh, James Allen tells us, "The will to do springs from
the knowledge that we can do." In Above Life's Turmoil he tells us,
"Belief always precedes action."
Our limiting
beliefs are created and sustained by our limiting thoughts (some of which we
inherited from others), our limiting words (some of which we inherited from
others) and the limiting people in our life. Changing our limiting beliefs is
such an important part of success that we spend a lot of time and put a lot of
emphasis on it when we’re working with our Champions Club. To a person I
believe they would all agree that their work on their limiting beliefs has
yielded the greatest results. It’s allowed some of them to start their own
business, triple their income and reach goals in half the time they thought it
would take.
How powerful are
your beliefs? Dr. Maxwell Maltz, the legendary author of Psycho-Cybernetics
said, "Within you right now is the power to do things you never dreamed
possible. This power becomes available to you just as soon as you can change
your beliefs."
Now It’s Time
To Take Action: Set aside time when you can turn outside distractions off and get quiet
inside. Write out the top 5-10 limiting beliefs you can identify that are
holding you back. Things like “I don’t have enough time,” ”I always have such a
hard time _______________ (fill in the blank),” “I can’t ever seem to get
ahead,” are just a few examples of limiting beliefs.
Take each limiting
belief you’ve written down and research and find the evidence that the belief
is not true. That was one of the keys to Roger Bannister’s success and my own
as well. I like to find examples of others who have my circumstances that have
succeeded in spite of their circumstances.
Rent (or better yet
buy) the movie “Rudy.” It’s one of the most incredible examples of the power of
belief that I’ve ever seen. I’ve seen the movie so many times I quit counting
at 25.
Secret #5: Stand on the Shoulders of Giants
World-Class Goal Achievers never waste
valuable time re-inventing the wheel. While some of them appear to be master
innovators, they are in fact masters at studying previous successes and
applying a new angle or new twist to an old idea.
I always have the
same advice for anyone whose about to embark on a goal that may be radically
new to them. And its wisdom that’s at least as old as the Greeks. It’s the shortest
route to success: find someone who’s doing what you want to do (or has the
results you want to achieve). Study and determine what they did to achieve
their result. Then simply engage in the same activities that brought them
success and you’ll be on a collision course with your goal.
I jokingly (but
truthfully) tell audiences that I don’t do anything original. Everything I do
is something I copied from somebody else. But I also tell them the biggest
secret --- I always copy from the very best.
It’s easy to trace
this principle in areas like music. 1950’s idol Buddy Holly copied some of the
style and music of legendary bluesman Muddy Waters, who had copied from the
icon Robert Johnson. Later, the Rolling Stones copied some of the style and
music of Holly (and Waters and Johnson). AC/DC copied some of the style and
music of the Stones, and the list goes on and on, always moving forward with a
slightly different twist to an old idea.
I’m not sure why
neophytes will many times want to re-invent the wheel. I don’t know whether
it’s a fragile ego screaming for satisfaction, or whether it’s remembering our
days in school when copying from someone else was frowned upon (and has been
cause for dismissal of many a promising student). But I do know this, if you
want to spend more time, more money and endure more frustration than you would
otherwise, then strike out on an unproven path to your goal.
On the other hand, if you’re looking to
significantly improve your odds of success and get to your goal on the
straightest, shortest path, find someone you can model.
Now It’s Time
To Take Action: Take the biggest goal you have that you’ve been struggling with and find
someone (Internet research has made this so easy) whose achieved it or
something similar. Begin a study of them and their methods. If possible, figure
out a way to meet them and get around them. Look for the things they did that
you can copy. How can you apply your skill or your particular perspective to
what they did? How can you make it “new,” “improved” or “different”?
Secret #6: Manage Time with a Laser Focus
They are probably
the two biggest problems I consistently hear from those that we coach and
consult: “I can’t seem to stay focused” and “I never seem to find the time
during the day to work on my goals.”
We lay out some
great goals, maybe even writing them down like the experts encourage. We
enthusiastically start taking action. We can feel the power and the energy. We
know that this time we're on the right track, this time is going to be
different than all those other times. Then it happens... Life gets in the way!
Maybe it's a personal or family illness; or things get turned upside down at
work. Maybe an unexpected financial crisis occurs. Whatever the interruption,
it consumes us and before we know it, our once bright and shining goal that was
out there in front of us is now just a tarnished and painful memory of what we
could do if such and such hadn't happened. Life gets in the way of
everybody, but the more successful have a way of keeping their focus in spite
of life. Whether it’s watching a master like Tiger Woods on the back nine,
Peyton Manning leading his team to a Fourth Quarter comeback or a third-grader
playing a brand new video game, it’s obvious that Champions know how to
concentrate their energy and efforts on what they want and blocking out
anything or anyone who threatens that focus.
In As A Man
Thinketh, James Allen writes, "Having conceived of his purpose, a
person should mentally mark out a straight pathway to its achievement, looking
neither to the right nor left." With that in mind, stop and think about
the analogy of planning a trip by car. Typically you’d select a route on the
map that got you to your destination as quickly as possible. If you didn’t need
to reach your destination by a certain time, you might take detours along the
route to see or do other things of interest to you. If it wasn’t important that
you reached your destination, you might choose to end your trip on one of your
detours and never make it to the intended destination.
I see many
comparisons to that analogy when I’m investigating a “lack of focus” with some
of our clients. After a lot of probing we are able to determine that the
destination (the goal) really isn’t as important in the final analysis as they
originally thought it was. Remember in Secret # 2 I talked about the power of
Desire. How important it was to have a desire for our goal that is consuming,
obsessive, pulsating and burning.
·
If you are having a problem staying focused, the first place to look is
at the goal.
·
Is it really my goal – or is it someone else’s goal for me?
·
Why is the goal important to me?
·
Is it a big enough “why” (see Secret #1)?
·
How will I feel if I don’t achieve the goal?
Your answers to
those questions may indicate whether you’re ever likely to develop a Champion’s
focus on that goal.
When you solve the
focus dilemma, you’ll also solve most of your biggest struggles with managing
time.
If you’re very
successful you’re never going to have enough time to do everything you WANT to
do. There are simply too many opportunities available to you everyday. In fact,
if anything, World-Class Goal Achievers have more challenges managing time
because of the abundance they attract.
You may not have time to do everything you
WANT to do, but when you’re focused you’ll have plenty of time to do everything
you NEED to do to reach your goal. Goal setting is really nothing more than
deciding in advance how you will allocate your time, talent and treasure in
order to achieve a pre-determined objective. When you’re focused on the goal,
you are more likely to stick to your original allocation plan.
James Allen also
told us that all successful people “hold fast to an idea, a project, a plan,
and will not let it go; they cherish it, brood upon it, tend and develop it;
and when assailed by difficulties, they refuse to be beguiled into surrender;
indeed, the intensity of the purpose increases with the growing magnitude of
the obstacles encountered." And that last sentence is the true secret:
"indeed, the intensity of the purpose increases with the growing magnitude
of the obstacles encountered."
Now It’s Time
To Take Action: Take a lesson from expert marksmen who get totally focused on their
target. Starting tonight before you retire take an index card and write down
the most important goal in your life today. Flip over the index card and write
down the number one activity you need to do to get you one step closer to the
goal. Meditate on both sides thoroughly just before you go to bed (let your
subconscious work on it while you sleep). Upon arising spend some time again
meditating on both sides. After your work day has begun attempt to complete the
activity before you do anything else. If it’s an activity that can only be done
later in the day, keep reviewing both sides of the card during your breaks,
lunch, etc. until you’ve completed the activity. Do the same thing every
evening for a week. If you still haven’t taken any action on the goal, then
it’s time to go back and read Secret # 1.
Secret #7: Act Now -- And Keep Acting
In the Christian
Bible one of the writers instructs that, “Faith without works is dead.”
World-Class Goal Achievers know if you don’t take action on a dream or a goal
it will eventually die. They also know that taking action now, being decisive,
is simply a habit that can be learned. The great success icon Lee Iacocca said
that ““If I had to sum up in one word what makes a good manager, I’d say
decisiveness. You can use the fanciest computers to gather the numbers, but in
the end you have to set a timetable and act.”
It’s been said that
“the masses make decisions slowly and change them quickly” while the
super-successful “make decisions quickly and change them slowly, if at all.” World-Class
Goal Achievers don’t wait until they have ALL the information before they
decide to do something. They know it’s only important to have ENOUGH
information to make a decision. Since they fully embrace failure (I’ll tell
you about that in Secret # 9) they don’t let fear stop them from taking action
on their decision.
I have often been
amazed at how little action I have to take on a big decision before some great
things start to happen. It’s almost as if the energy of my action attracts many
times that amount of energy from the universe. If nothing else, taking fast and
decisive action gives me confidence and energizes me because I have overcome
the natural inertia of my lower self.
Getting into action
also increases the likelihood of maintaining action. And that’s supported
scientifically by Newton’s Law of Motion: A body at rest tends to remain at
rest and a body in motion tends to remain in motion. It is the continuing
motion that creates momentum, or as it’s fondly called, the “Big Mo.”
We know “momentum”
to be a cornerstone concept of physics. And while I don’t understand physics, I
know that when I climb on a bicycle, I can expect the first few turns of the
pedal to require some significant effort to get me moving. I also know that I
can use a short burst of intense energy to pedal the bicycle up to speed, and
once up to speed, I can relax some as I pedal only enough to maintain the speed
or momentum.
The bottom line:
it’s harder to get into action than it is to stay in action. So just get
started!
Now It’s Time
To Take Action: Take one major goal or activity you’ve been putting off because you
didn’t want to deal with it. Things like filing your past due taxes, getting a
physical or dental work or even cleaning out the garage. Choose some type of
reward that you’ll treat yourself to when you’ve reached the goal (make sure
the reward is in proportion to the achievement). Make the decision – right now
– that you will take some type of action on the goal in the next 24 hours. Then
act --- the confidence you gain, not to mention the burden that will be lifted,
will inspire you to apply the principle to other goals in your life.
Secret #8: Champions Manage Fear and Doubt
I’ve heard it said
that we’re born with only a few fears – like the fear of falling and the fear
of loud noises. All other fears we learn along the way. Like the fear of
failure, the fear of rejection - even a fear of success. I believe our greatest
enemy in life is fear, because fear keeps us from doing many of those things we
would like to do that would make our life more complete and more enjoyable.
Doubt is the first
cousin of fear and precedes it. We weren’t born with doubt. Our habit of doubt
has grown throughout our life. If we dwell on a doubt and give in to it, it
then grows into fear. In his epistle, the ancient writer James reminds us that
doubt makes us ineffective, “a doubtful mind will be as unsettled as the wave
of the sea that is tossed and driven by the wind; and every decision you then
make will be uncertain, as you turn first this way, and then that.”
I once heard Zig
Ziglar quote Mark Twain when he said, “True courage is not the absence of fear,
it’s the mastery of fear.” World-Class Goal Achievers have just as many fears
as those who live miserable, unfulfilled lives because of fear - they have just
learned to master their fears instead of allowing their fears to master them.
In fact, because they play on a much larger stage, they have to confront the
fear of things much larger than the masses will ever confront.
Faith and fear are totally opposite views of
the future. And because they are, they cannot co-exist. Norman Vincent Peale, writing
in You Can If You Think You Can, provides us with a prescription for
mastering fear and doubt. “You can cancel out fear with faith. For there is no
force in this world more powerful than faith. The most amazing things can
happen as a result of it…There are two massive thought forces competing for
control of the mind: fear and faith, and faith is stronger, much stronger. Hold
that thought of faith’s greater power until you believe it, for it can be the
difference between success and failure.”
It really helps to understand that fear is
nothing more than your perception of a future occurrence. As I pointed out in Secret # 4
about limiting beliefs, the perception may not be based on truth, and that’s
generally the case with fear. You may have seen or heard the expression that
uses the acronym F.E.A.R to make the point that fear is “false evidence
appearing real.”
For instance, if
you’ve been thinking about starting your own business but have been stymied by
fear, it’s probably because of some perception that the business might fail and
then what would you do? That thought leads to even bleaker thoughts that you
might lose your home or your car. There’s really no evidence that any of those events
will occur. It is all in your perception. Is it any wonder then that you can
never take the necessary steps to do what you’ve always wanted to do?
World-Class Goal
Achievers master fear and doubt by confronting it --- by facing it --- and by
applying knowledge to the situation. Fear and doubt are most often caused by
ignorance or avoidance of the real facts or truth. In addition, they know that
the old aphorism to “do the thing you fear and fear will disappear” is some
very powerful wisdom.
In the final
analysis, fear is present in everyone’s life. In only creates a problem when in
causes inaction and paralysis. Conquer fear and you truly have gained one of
the real “keys to the kingdom.”
Now It’s Time
To Take Action: Take one of your biggest fears and on a sheet of paper list the fear
using as much detail as possible. For instance, if you have a fear of speaking
in front of others, don’t just say “Fear of speaking in front of others.” Say
“I have a fear of speaking in front of others because
__________________________________________________(fill in the blank).
Once you’ve listed
the fear, now list all of the possible outcomes if you were to take action in
spite of the fear. For instance, what are all the things that could possibly
happen if you got up and spoke to a group of people? One outcome is you could
get a standing ovation. Another outcome is you could get polite applause. And
certainly one possible outcome is that you could be booed. Be very thorough and
list every one you can possibly think of.
Now go back and
review each outcome and ask yourself two questions:
What’s the worst
thing that can happen to me if I had this outcome?
Could I carry on
with my life if the very worst happened?
If you’re truthful
with yourself, it will be a very rare occurrence that you would find an outcome
that would be so bad that you couldn’t carry on.
Now, with your
changed perception of the future, take some type of action step as you assure
yourself that no matter what the outcome, you’re going to make it.
Secret #9: FIDO Is More Than a Dog’s Name
One of the most
inspirational people I’ve ever heard is a former Marine Lieutenant named Clebe
McClary. Critically wounded in Vietnam, Clebe was presented the Silver Star and
the Bronze Star by the President of the United States. And although he suffered
the loss of an eye, an arm and then underwent 34 operations to retain usage of
the remainder of his body, he never lost the determination, dedication and
courage to overcome his circumstances.
I heard Clebe
during the time in my life when I most needed to hear him because I had been
“critically wounded” in my own special way. During the financial disaster I
described in Secret # 4, I heard Clebe describe the acronym that not only
helped him get up out of the hospital bed but helped him create a remarkable
life. The acronym F.I.D.O. stands for “Forget it – Drive On!”
Now isn’t that just
like a Marine ☺
I can’t tell you
how many times I’ve used that to move past a negative circumstance. To this day
I will repeat to myself “Forget it –Drive On!” when any kind of disaster or
distraction takes place.
In 1923 Winston
Churchill who had endured some stunning defeats earlier, was defeated in an
election and was, for the first time in twenty-two years, out of Parliament.
This shocked him into speechlessness. "He thought," noted an
observer, "his world had come to an end." In attempting a comeback,
he was defeated two more times. By the early 1930s his career seemed finished.
He was approaching the age of sixty and was all but washed up and forgotten.
His big unreached
goal still stood out in front of him: the long shot goal of becoming Prime
Minister. Here was a person who defined success as “the ability to go from one
failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.” And it was this enthusiastic
person who, more than anyone is responsible for saving the world from
annihilation by the Nazi’s. It was his personal experience dealing with his own
darkest hour that allowed him to lead the World during its darkest hour.
And what carried
him from one failure to the next “with no loss of enthusiasm” was his unbridled
desire to be Prime Minister. It drove him to “Forget it – Drive On,” and that
made him stick in the game long enough that when his country called in time of
crisis, Winston answered the call.
If I had to pick one character trait that I
think is a “must have” in order to be successful in any endeavor, it would be
persistence. In fact, it seems to be the one trait that is the dominant trait
in every single World-Class Goal Achiever I know. I believe it to be the one
trait that any ordinary person can use to become extraordinary
(”extra-ordinary”).
Napoleon Hill
devoted an entire chapter in Think and Grow Rich to Persistence
and said that the only thing that was different about Henry Ford and Thomas
Edison was their persistence.
If you have
children, you’ll recognize one of the key ways to develop persistence. What
happens when you have your young child in a store and they spot something they
want? Maybe it’s a particular candy, cereal or toy. Depending on their age (and
their desire for the object of their attention) they can become very animated
and loud in demanding that you purchase the object for them.
If your on-spot
discipline (or threat of discipline) doesn’t get them to shut up --- and it
won’t if they really want the object --- the only way to quiet them down is to
either remove them from the area of their object or in some other way distract
them.
What drove Winston
Churchill is the same thing that drives your child. It’s the total focus on an
object of desire. As long as the object is there, and as long as the desire for
it is consuming, obsessive, pulsating and burning (remember Secret #2),
a person will continue to do whatever it takes to satisfy their desire for the
object.
That’s a critical
lesson when we need to shore up our persistence.
World-Class Goal Achievers Always Fail
Forward
An equally
important lesson is the need to learn how to “fail forward” as John Maxwell
describes it. World-Class Goal Achievers NEVER see failure as the end of the
road. It’s simply another step in the progress toward their goal.
Many people would
consider bankruptcy as the ultimate failure, and unfortunately many people who
go through it never recover because they think it’s the end of the road. Here’s
just a few of the World-Class
Goal Achievers who came back from bankruptcy:
Samuel Clemens
(also known as Mark Twain)
Search engine giant
Google’s attitude toward failure is no doubt one of the reasons the company
dominates its market and is the darling of Wall Street. Here’s an excerpt from
a recent Washington Post story:
“Although Google
places a premium on success, it appears to shrug off failure. The resulting
culture of fearlessness permeates the 24-hour Googleplex, a collection of
connected low-rise buildings that looks like a new-age college campus…Google
employees are encouraged to propose wild, ambitious ideas often. Supervisors
assign small teams to test them.
Philip Remek, an
analyst who follows Google for Guzman and Co., sees the many initiatives as a
series of lottery cards.
"A lot of them
aren't going to work," he said. "Maybe there will be a few that take
off spectacularly. And maybe they're smart enough to realize no one is smart
enough to tell which lottery card is the winner five years out."
"If you're not
failing enough, you're not trying hard enough," said Richard Holden,
product management director for Google's AdWords service, in which advertisers
bid to place text ads next to search results. "The stigma (for failure) is
less because we staff projects leanly and encourage them to just move, move,
move. If it doesn't work, move on."
But my favorite
(true) story of an example of failing forward is about Maxcy Filer. In 1966
Maxcy took the California Bar exam for the first time at the age of 36 and he
failed. He took it again and he failed. He took it again and again and again,
and each time he failed. He took it in Los Angeles, San Diego, Riverside, San
Francisco and anywhere else it was offered. He took it when his children were
still living at home and he took it with each of his sons when they had earned
their own law degrees. He took it after he started working as a law clerk in
the law offices of his sons, and he kept taking it even as he reached an age
when most people are thinking of retirement.
After twenty-five
years, $50,000 in exam fees and review courses, and 144 days of his life spent
in testing rooms, Maxcy Filer took the bar exam for the 48th time,
and he passed. He was 61-years-old. Maxcy never saw each failure as the end of
his dream. They were merely another step toward the inevitable dream that he
had a burning desire for.
Now It’s Time
To Take Action: On the next page is part of an exercise from a new tele-seminar we’ll be
introducing soon based on the original version of Think and Grow Rich.
Take the time to complete it and take your persistence to the World-Class
level.
