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There are two ways to <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/what-ive-learned-about-success-you-have-to-keep-starting-over/">think about starting over</a>. There’s the dramatic kind: a full-stop start over. A divorce happens. Start over. You’re terminated from a job. Start over. An accident happens. Start over. That was my case.



As a teenager, I had a car accident that inspired me to strive for a different <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK536962/">quality of life</a>. I had been a depressed, upset young man, and then the accident made me recognize the importance of life. It gave me a reverence for life and shaped my intentions to fully live, love and matter. I chose to completely shift how I was showing up in the world, <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/the-exponential-impact-of-random-acts-of-kindness/">how I treated others</a>, what I wanted to contribute.



That kind of full-fledged restart is scary. But I’ve found that those full-stop second chances in life end up being monumental breakthroughs for people.



When that fear strikes you, don’t expect it to go away. Dramatic restarts will always cause doubt, worry, uncertainty and fear. I suggest that you anticipate that reality, and then honor the struggle. Expect there to be hardship, and decide that you will meet it as an opportunity to grow and show the world what you’ve got. Honor those big steps <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/how-to-get-comfortable-being-uncomfortable/">outside of your comfort zone</a> because they will make you better.



So one way you can look at big changes in life is to say, “I’m scared of that.” Another way is to say, “I’m excited for this. I’m excited for the growth that comes with facing something I’m not good at or prepared for.” <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/how-to-get-over-your-fears-and-get-on-with-your-life/">You can choose to meet fear</a> and change just like you choose to meet life—with reverence. Everything we face is a chance to stretch and serve more. That mentality makes us feel fully alive. But you’ll never feel alive unless in some ways you’re at the boundary of uncertainty.



Another type of fresh start is the daily reset. This is just waking up and choosing to have a fresh mind and set of intentions for a new day. It’s not as dramatic as a full-stop life change. It’s more subtle and straightforward. It’s the simple decisions we make to want to be better dads, moms, lovers and leaders. It’s about setting goals to be better that come from a desire to experience life more sweetly.



Both kinds of starting over have the same building blocks. So when a second chance comes along, use that opportunity to be more intentional, courageous and appreciative. You don’t have to know the full path yet. Just take a few small steps in a few directions and figure out which path feels right to you. Once you find the path that feels right and fulfilling, start marching. When things go wrong, remember to honor the struggle. It’s all going to make you stronger. Trust that.



You’re never going to enjoy anything in the first few yards of a fresh start, which is why I’m always coming back to “honor the struggle.” My team and I conducted a <a href="https://www.amazon.com/High-Performance-Habits-Extraordinary-People/dp/1401952852?_encoding=UTF8&amp;qid=1643349176&amp;sr=8-2&amp;linkCode=sl1&amp;tag=lifsgoltic-20&amp;linkId=4c3584e15f6bd7ad145e10e30a870dd1&amp;language=en_US&amp;ref_=as_li_ss_tl">three-year research study</a> analyzing high performers and what made them successful. We found that they love facing new challenges, and that whatever they’re doing, they bring full engagement, joy and confidence to the experience.



The issue is getting started. I know it’s hard. You might not <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/the-art-of-true-confidence/">have the confidence</a> yet, but you can choose to engage in the journey with joy. Just keep marching and believe in your ability to figure things out. You are stronger than you think, and the future holds good things for you.



In 2011 I was in Mexico at a bachelor party when I wrecked an ATV in the desert. I was driving, hit a little pillow of sand, and before I knew it, I was hitting the ground and rolling. I kept hearing boom, boom: the hundreds of pounds of metal bouncing inches from my sand-filled helmet. Please don’t let that land on me, I prayed.



&nbsp;It didn’t, but I got knocked out. When I came to, I had snapped my wrist, broken a couple of ribs, thrown out my shoulder and suffered a walloping concussion. I lay in a hospital bed for hours in searing pain. After my car accident 17 years earlier, this was the second time in my life I’d faced mortality. Back then, I’d asked myself a series of questions: Did I really live? Did I love? Did I matter?



The first time I faced the end of my life, I didn’t like my answers. This time, after almost 15 years of trying to live a more intentional life, I was happy with the answers. Did I live? I felt that I had. Did I love? Yes, fully. Did I matter? I felt like I had, because I led each day with the intention to serve others. I was OK with what I call life’s final questions.



I didn’t know it at first, but the ATV accident had caused traumatic brain injury. I had damage to my left prefrontal cortex, cerebellum and hippocampus. My executive functioning and emotional control were off. I struggled with making decisions, and my memory was horrible.



It took two and a half years to recover from that brain injury, and that was probably the hardest fresh start I ever had because I had to learn how to reuse my mind. When your brain is injured, you do many things you don’t know you’re doing—you’re short with your loved ones, you have anxiety and you can’t make decisions. I had to <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/why-you-have-to-take-control-of-your-thoughts/">get back in control</a> of my mind and emotions.



People frequently ask, “How’d you do it?” One day at a time.



Every day I would get up and say, Remember, Brendon, you’re compromised right now. You’re going to get upset easier. In those moments, try not to be. Try to remember to appreciate the moment. Take a pause, and have intention in what you want in that situation. Bring the joy; don’t wait for it. Honor the struggle; don’t hate it.



Often after a fresh start, you have to learn to coach yourself. You have to talk yourself through it. Soon all of those awkward and difficult situations become easier.



There are going to be difficulties on every new journey you choose or are forced to take. There will be challenges, hardships and rough patches of disappointment. But if you can talk yourself through it all, believe in your ability to figure things out and <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/why-you-should-devote-a-few-minutes-every-day-to-aimless-joy/">bring joy and intention</a> into the darkness, it will be a much smoother ride.



Take it from someone who knows a thing or two about bumpy rides.



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<h2 id="h-step-into-the-cave">Step into the cave</h2>



If you walk into a dark cave, you’re going to feel fear and anxiety. That’s natural. But you can also enter that cave as an explorer, with a childlike curiosity and joy.



Hold your flashlight out, take that step and ask, Wow, what might I discover in this amazing new space?



That shift to bring joy into the cave versus fear and anxiety can <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/if-you-want-to-change-your-life-change-what-you-think/">change your life</a>. It helps you adapt with more ease. You might not know what lies ahead, but you can always be confident in your ability to remain curious and joyous. From that place, you’ll more quickly find your footing and path.



Bring curiosity and confidence into the cave, my friend.



<h2 id="h-1-resourcefulness">1. Resourcefulness.</h2>



Moving off of a linear career path shifts you toward having a less conventional career. That means you might need to take a less conventional, more creative approach to opening up opportunities. For example, instead of relying on job boards or traditional recruiters who tend to favor traditional candidates, you might need to focus on relying more on building connections through networking.



<h2 id="h-2-resilience">2. Resilience.</h2>



When you walk away from your current career, be prepared to face external judgment from colleagues, friends, family and other professionals in your sector. Most people who want change are generally motivated by internal values and priorities others can’t necessarily see, e.g., more time with family, more fulfilling work and <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/why-focusing-on-your-personal-growth-now-is-more-important-than-ever/">more personal growth</a>. For example, landing a cushy promotion is easy to spot. However, gaining more personal fulfillment might be less obvious to the casual observer. That means you can’t get too fazed by external judgment or criticism from people on the outside looking in who think your career seems off-track.



<h2 id="h-3-drive">3. Drive.</h2>



<a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/change-is-growth-3-tips-for-embracing-new-opportunities/">Changing careers</a> is not for the faint of heart. It requires dedication and persistent commitment to creating the change you desire. It means continuing to move forward even when you feel like you’ve exhausted all of your options, and making one more phone call, going to one more networking event or applying to one more position. Often that final push is what makes the difference, and that requires commitment and drive, remaining laser-focused on where you’re trying to go and not staying down for too long when facing hurdles along the way.



<h2 id="h-4-patience">4. Patience.</h2>



Change requires time, so the idea of flipping overnight from one profession to another is not realistic. Intermediate steps may be necessary. For example, enrolling in an evening course while holding down a full-time job, working toward obtaining a certification over time or taking up a side project that might not generate the desired returns in the short run. Being realistic about the time it takes to make a major change prevents frustration when progress takes longer than you had hoped.



<h2 id="h-5-bravery">5. Bravery.</h2>



Starting over almost always involves making a decision with an element of risk. Whenever you walk away from anything in which you’ve invested time, you really never know if you’re going to uncover something better or worse than your current situation. This is why moving on is often harder than holding on. At some point, though, you have to be willing to take a brave leap in order to pursue more meaningful work. <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-art-and-science-emotions/201903/the-unintended-risk-playing-it-safe" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Playing it safe</a> is often not enough to deliver the kinds of significant shifts that make a real difference to your circumstances.



This article originally appeared in the<a href="https://store.successcom.wpenginepowered.com/by-media/success-magazine-june-2017-dave-ramsey.html"> June 2017 issue of SUCCESS magazine</a> and has been updated. Photo by AlessandroBiascioli/Shutterstock&nbsp;

Full-fledged restart is scary. But I’ve found that those full-stop second chances in life end up being monumental breakthroughs in people’s lives.

Full-fledged restart is scary. But I’ve found that those full-stop second chances in life end up being monumental breakthroughs in people’s lives. | SUCCESS

How to Start Over

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How to Start Over | SUCCESS

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Brendon Burchard is the world’s leading high performance coach and one of the most watched, followed and quoted personal development trainers in history. He is a #1 New York Times best-selling author, a Top 100 Most-Followed Public Figure on Facebook, and star of The Charged Life, a top 10 self-help podcast and the #1 self-help show on YouTube. 5 million people follow him on Facebook and over 75,000,000 have watched his videos. SUCCESS named him “one of the Top 25 Most Influential Leaders in Personal Growth and Achievement.” His most recent book is The Motivation Manifesto. Meet him at Brendon.com.

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Brendon Burchard

Money

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Achieve financial success and freedom

Success

Success Archives

Success | SUCCESS | What Achievers Read

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I’ve been through the challenge of not having enough money. I grew up in a small town in Montana, in an economically depressed Irish mining town. There was a lot of struggle there. It was a pretty tough town, pretty tough weather and pretty tough economy.



I remember one time when the heater went out. And when the heater goes out in Montana in the winter, it is a dire situation—wind chill can drop to 20 and 30 degrees below zero. It was freezing, and we didn’t have enough money to fix the heater. My parents were waiting for their paychecks to come in at the end of two weeks.



<h2 id="h-i-grew-up-with-nothing-but-i-grew-up-with-total-abundance">I grew up with nothing, but I grew up with total abundance.</h2>



You have four kids in a house with no heat when it’s 20 degrees below zero. What are you going to do?



My mom went out to the garage, grabbed our camping tent, sleeping bags, every parka and blanket we had. She brought them into the living room, set up the tent and threw everything inside, including us kids. The electricity went out at some point, so there we were, cooking dinner on Bunsen burners and just waiting for the paycheck.



My parents managed to make it fun. At school, other children would ask us, “What did you do last night?” We said we were camping in our living room! We had no idea the situation was so dire. I grew up with nothing, but I grew up with <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/11-ways-to-attract-abundance-in-your-life">total abundance</a>.



Money is not a requirement to make life fun, fulfilling or engaging. My parents worked so hard, and I have no idea how they raised us four kids. Later on, I went bankrupt, chasing my dream of becoming a successful writer, trainer and multimedia content creator. I was struggling. What did I do? <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/7-challenges-successful-people-overcome">How do people overcome the challenges</a> I now face?



<h2 id="h-1-begin-with-yourself-and-not-your-bank-account">1. Begin with yourself and not your bank account.</h2>



If your self-worth is low, your value in the marketplace will always be as low. If you don’t value yourself, no one else is going to value you.



You have something to contribute, even if you don’t know what that contribution is yet. If you’re really going to reach another level of <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/the-complete-guide-to-money-how-to-create-wealth/">financial success</a>, dial in and <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/blog/how-to-construct-an-empowering-reality">construct an empowering reality</a>.



<h2 id="h-2-accept-responsibility">2. Accept responsibility.</h2>



Whatever mess or challenge you’re in right now, it’s your responsibility to fix. You might need to <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/blog/10-ways-to-find-your-ideal-mentor">get some help.</a> You might need to get some training. You might need to get some support, but it’s your job to right the ship. Nothing is going to suddenly emerge. You aren’t going to win the lottery. There is no shortcut.



There are only two things that change your life. Either something new comes in, like an unexpected inheritance that allows you to turn things around. The second thing is when something new comes from within. <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/how-to-develop-an-insatiable-hunger">You get a greater hunger</a>, a greater passion, a greater commitment to go out there and crush it.



<h2 id="h-3-add-so-much-value-that-you-can-t-help-but-get-paid-for-it">3. Add so much value that you can’t help but get paid for it.</h2>



You can’t make money if you don’t have anything to sell. You need something to sell, so what is it you’re offering? What are you selling?



First and foremost, you’re selling yourself. You are selling the ability for you to serve. You are <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/rohn-6-essential-traits-of-good-character">selling your character</a> and your ability to offer something valuable to the world. When I say selling, obviously I don’t mean you’re selling out. You’re offering yourself. You’re persuading the world that you have something to contribute, that you’re a hard worker, that you care and you’re going to get it done. If you can’t do that, then you can’t grow. You can’t invest. You can’t build.



You have to find your inner power to influence and change the things or environment around you. Once you find it from yourself, then you have something to offer.



If you’re an entrepreneur: Do you have a product, a program or a service to offer to the world? How well have you dialed in this offering? Is your messaging tight? <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/10-marketing-rules-the-best-entrepreneurs-live-and-die-by/">Is your marketing world-class</a>? Are your distribution, capabilities and customer service all world-class? If not, keep dialing those in. As you dial those in, you bring in more money.



If you’re an employee: It’s time to wake up. What if they’re going to choose who’s to be fired based on who is <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/22-ways-to-become-a-relentless-learner">willing to learn</a> the most and who has been willing to contribute the most? You need to start contributing way outside of what’s put on your desk every day or what shows up in your inbox. You actually need to push away from your inbox and your desk and think, How could I add more value here? That has to be something you do every day.



<h2 id="h-4-be-obsessed-with-serving">4. Be obsessed with serving.</h2>



You have to be obsessed with contributing more than anybody else. You have to <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/top-of-mind-5-ways-to-get-ideas-flowing">bring more ideas to the table.</a> At some point, you have to make the decision to contribute. If you’re going to fly and get shot down, then you got shot down, but at least you lived!



Go contribute more at work. Look around at who else you could help, <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/7-ways-to-be-the-best-mentor-ever">who else could you mentor</a> and how else could you contribute more? How could you become the lynchpin in the organization in some way or another to keep climbing, serving and adding value? <a href="https://hbr.org/2020/04/to-take-care-of-others-start-by-taking-care-of-yourself" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Taking care of people</a>, adding value and providing new ideas makes employment or work fun. 



<h2 id="h-5-busywork-isn-t-your-life-work">5. Busywork isn’t your life work.</h2>



Some people are busy at work, but their busywork isn’t their life’s work. They’re doing the wrong thing. They knew they should have gotten out five years ago, but they didn’t have the guts to face themselves in the mirror and say, Today is my day, and <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/blog/how-to-quit-your-job-and-still-win">make the decision to leave</a>.



If you’re on the wrong path, face it at some point.



You’re never going to <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/blog/10-attributes-of-self-made-billionaires">make a lot of money</a> doing the wrong thing. And if you do, then you’re more likely to start doing the wrong things. Makes sense, right? Because there’s no meaning there, there’s no significance and no real contribution. You made some money doing the wrong thing, so now you start turning into that character who starts pursuing money for the ends of money.



<h2 id="h-6-value-your-day">6. Value your day.</h2>



Life should be incredibly valuable to you. If you really value your days, if your day is valuable, you get stuff done.



People end up feeling broke because they aren’t valuing their day. They’re broke because they added no value to their day. They’re reading celebrity gossip magazines. They were screwing around online. They were doing nothing that actually moved the needle in terms of their personal and their professional progress.



So value this day.



Get serious about tomorrow. Ask how you can add more value to the day. <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/blog/5-rules-to-win-today-and-every-day">Really work the day</a>, and as you do that over and over again, you ask, How can I serve? How can I contribute? How can I take it to the next level? You do that long enough and the breakthrough happens, the magic happens, and the money takes care of itself.



This post originally appeared on BrendonBurchard.tumblr.com in April 2017 and has been updated. Photo by @nastyatkachenko19/Twenty20

No. 1: Begin with yourself, not your bank account.

You have something to contribute, even if you don’t know what that is yet. Reach another level of financial success by dialing in on what you offer and constructing an empowering reality. | SUCCESS

How to Make More Money

How to Make More Money | SUCCESS

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Business &amp; Branding

Business &amp; Branding Archives

Stay ahead in business: strategies and insights for success

<a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/blog/how-to-confront-your-fear-based-thoughts">I reject the fear</a> that rejection is something to worry about. Let me explain.



Rejection almost never happens. In fact, rejection—at least the kind we all so desperately fear—is extremely rare. To prove this point, I ask my audiences two questions.



“How many of you have been rejected by a person in a way that truly hurt your identity and prospects in life? In a way that significantly impacted your feelings and forever altered <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/dont-let-your-net-worth-dictate-your-self-worth">your self-worth</a> or potential?” Everyone raises his or her hand to this kind of question.



I keep digging. “How many of you have had at least five people reject you in this significant way?” Fewer people raise their hands. Then I keep going. Seven people? Ten? Fifteen? Twenty?



Think about it: If you and I went to lunch, how many people could you quickly recount who rejected you in such a negative and life-altering way that it forever shaped how you thought about yourself or <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/videos/youtube/how-unlearning-can-prepare-you-for-the-future">your future</a>? I’m not talking about someone saying no to a sale, a favor, a date or a job. I’m talking about the rejection that wounds the psyche.



I’ve asked audiences in 35 countries this question. The average number I see worldwide? About seven. But let’s say I’m wrong. So double it. Fourteen people rejected you in a way that forever impacted your identity, self-worth and prospects in life.



Now let’s talk about the second question I ask my audiences.



“How many of you have met, known, interacted with, worked with or generally got along well with at least 10 people in your life?” Everyone laughs. Everyone raises his or her hand.



“How many of you have gotten along well with at least 50 people in your life, in such a way they didn’t reject you or at least didn’t hurt or bother you?” Everyone’s hands go in the air. One hundred people? Two hundred? Five hundred?



The average? Most middle-aged adults have hung out with, talked to, known or interacted with thousands of people in their lives. And those people didn’t reject them, harm them or trouble them.



So what?



If you’re an adult and still driving your life based on a fear of rejection—which many do—you have to revisit the math. If more than 1,000 people were nice to you, and fewer than 14 rejected you in a way that really shaped you, maybe it’s time to realize a few things:



<ol><li>There are much higher odds that people will be OK with you versus reject you. <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/15-brave-quotes-to-inspire-you-to-be-yourself">So be yourself.</a></li><li>One thousand people could storm the 14 oddballs who don’t get you. Let your squad bring you strength.</li><li>No matter the number, ask, Will I let a small few, those statistical anomalies among thousands, dictate the size of my future? The answer should be no.</li></ol>



This article originally appeared in the<a href="https://store.successcom.wpenginepowered.com/by-media/success-magazine-january-2018-chip-and-joanna-gaines.html"> January 2018 issue of </a><a href="https://store.successcom.wpenginepowered.com/by-media/success-magazine-january-2018-chip-and-joanna-gaines.html">SUCCESS</a><a href="https://store.successcom.wpenginepowered.com/by-media/success-magazine-january-2018-chip-and-joanna-gaines.html"> magazine</a> and has been updated. Photo by @albertolopezphoto/Twenty20

If you’re an adult and still driving your life based on a fear of rejection—which many do—you have to revisit the math.

If you’re an adult and still driving your life based on a fear of rejection—which many do—you have to revisit the math. | SUCCESS

A Simple Math Equation Explains Why You Shouldn’t Fear Rejection

A Simple Math Equation Explains Why You Shouldn’t Fear Rejection | SUCCESS

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Personal Development

Personal Development Archives

Personal Development | SUCCESS | What Achievers Read

I vomited in an alley on the way to my first public speaking event.

When I finally stood in front of the audience of 50 people, I was sweating with anxiety. I stuttered through the first 10 minutes. I could barely recall what I wanted to say. I remember standing there, sharing a story I really cared about while simultaneously realizing I was being terrorized by my own mind as I imagined everyone thinking I was an idiot.

Fast-forward to the present day. I spoke to more than 60,000 people in arenas, convention centers and hotel ballrooms in 2017. Videos of me speaking have been viewed more than 200 million times online.

Clearly something changed in my life.

How do you go from having zero skill to <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/blog/5-deliberate-steps-to-master-a-skill">mastering your craft</a>? It’s not just about putting in the hours. It’s about the right kind of practice and monitoring your progress along the way. It turns out any skill can be gained quickly through what I call progressive mastery.

Here are the 10 steps to progressive mastery I followed to learn public speaking.
<h2>1. Determine the skill you want to master.</h2>
Narrow your focus. I chose specifically to master the skill of extemporaneous speaking.
<h2>2. Set specific stretch goals on your path to developing that skill.</h2>
My goal was to give a 60-minute talk without any notes. I began with a full outline, then went to just one page of notes, then to just five bullet points. After 10 speeches, I went to zero notes.
<h2>3. Attach a high level of emotion to your journey.</h2>
I always reminded myself why it was important to speak with excellence, and in turn, I allowed myself to get frustrated and fired up to improve.
<h2>4. Identify the factors critical to success, and develop your strengths in those areas.</h2>
I had discerned that the most important components of a great speech were a few emotional stories, three clear teaching points and a motivational call to action. I practiced those elements and didn’t try to do anything else.
<h2>5. Develop visualizations that clearly show what success and failure look like.</h2>
Every morning for years, I would lie awake and imagine myself giving a strong speech. I imagined the good and bad, and how I could improve.
<h2>6. Schedule challenging practices developed by experts.</h2>
I didn’t have a coach, so I read books written by public-speaking experts and practiced as if they had taught me.
<h2>7. Measure your progress and get outside feedback.</h2>
After every practice, I wrote about what felt good, what I didn’t like and how I could improve. Then I gave free speeches for my friends and to nonprofit organizations to get more practice.
<h2>8. Socialize your learning by practicing or competing with others.</h2>
Even though I wasn’t ready, I took a class on debate so I could practice speaking and competing with others. Knowing who won in a debate helped me further discern what I should work on.
<h2>9. Continually set higher goals so you keep improving.</h2>
I set targets to speak to 100 people, then 1,000, then 10,000. I also set goals to tell more jokes and to allow myself to cry onstage.
<h2>10. Teach others what you are learning.</h2>
I regularly mentor new speakers, and I taught a college course on public speaking.
<blockquote>
Related: <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/19-powerful-quotes-to-inspire-greatness">19 Powerful Quotes to Inspire Greatness </a>
</blockquote>
&nbsp;

This article originally appeared in the March 2018 issue of SUCCESS magazine.

Be intentional to make progress on your goals.

Learn any skill quickly through progressive mastery.

10 Steps to Master Anything

10 Steps to Master Anything | SUCCESS

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Be intentional to make progress on your goals. | SUCCESS

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Sometimes your dreams for <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/videos/youtube/5-rules-to-win-the-game-of-life">living a great life</a> and having more personal freedom can seem so far away. Yet, no matter where you are on the path, never let your small beginnings make you small-minded. When people express that your ambitions are impossible, keep going. When your dreams don’t come true instantaneously, remember it is through struggle, effort and desire that you get from here to there.

Related: <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/videos/youtube/the-4-essentials-of-achievement">The 4 Essentials of Achievement</a>

Following your dreams isn’t foolish; what’s foolish is not believing in your dreams and following other people’s path instead of your own. You become who you want to become by enacting habits that move you forward every day. <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/13-quotes-about-making-life-choices">The choices</a> and practices you make in life are the building blocks that build a better reality.

Often, you don’t even know what’s possible until you’ve marched toward your dream; only with momentum does the path reveal itself and the goal get clearer. Epiphanies come as you move toward <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/3-truths-for-living-a-life-that-matters">something that matters</a>.
<h3 class="rtecenter">No matter how small you start, start something that matters.</h3>
Never let your current conditions or circumstances limit your vision or actions. Never let your current skill set limit your belief of what is possible for you or what you’re capable of. Wherever you are today, you can develop <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/pick-up-these-6-me-habits-to-be-a-better-you">new habits</a> to get you to your dream.

Success and fulfillment come from your unflagging ability to believe in what other people call impossible. Chase your dreams, <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/15-quotes-to-overcome-your-self-limiting-beliefs">believe in yourself</a>, and you will start to experience incredible levels of engagement and enthusiasm with life. No matter how small you start, start something that matters.
Related: <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/videos/youtube/caged-comfortable-or-charged-which-one-is-your-life">Caged, Comfortable or Charged—Which One Is Your Life?</a>


This post originally appeared on <a href="https://brendonburchard.tumblr.com/post/119430801458/start-something-that-matters" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">BrendonBurchard.tumblr.com</a>.

Success and fulfillment come from your unflagging ability to believe in what other people call impossible.

Sometimes your dreams for living a great life and having more personal freedom can seem so far away. Yet, no matter where you are on the path, never let | SUCCESS

Following Your Dreams Isn’t Foolish

Following Your Dreams Isn’t Foolish | SUCCESS

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<div>
<div class="Basic-Graphics-Frame" id="_idContainer068">I have never liked the phrase “hit rock bottom.” It assumes someone has plunged into the darkest fathoms of life, and like an inanimate object, now rests there forever, fixed in the mud, with no hope of rising.</div>
</div>

And so when someone says to me, “Brendon, I’ve hit rock bottom,” my first impulse is to ask, “Have you really? What does that mean to you?”

There is no doubt that when people say they have hit bottom, they mean it. The phrase is incredibly personal. But sometimes the only way through our own truth is to <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/blog/ask-these-questions-to-reframe-your-perspective-on-life">look outside of ourselves for perspective</a>. Most of what the bottom feels like is still a few dozen meters above someone else’s dilemmas or tragedies. Often the bottom is just the height of our self-doubt.

Related: <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/top-of-mind-6-tips-for-overcoming-self-doubt">6 Tips for Overcoming Self-Doubt</a>

We must be cautious of defining our life’s situation as “the bottom” or “the worst,” or acting as if we’re somehow forever hopeless. Once you believe you are at your worst point in life, it gets even harder to <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/8-daily-habits-to-build-resiliency">find the enduring drive</a> it will take to swim back up. Perhaps you’re not as deep as you think, and if you stopped looking down and instead looked up, you might see some light breaking through. Maybe there’s another angle. Maybe someone has faced the very struggle you’re dealing with and survived—even thrived. Could it be you are not alone in the dark, that others would help if you reached out? Perhaps it’s true you have been sinking, but it’s also true that you still have sight of <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/rohn-5-ways-to-be-more-grateful-on-the-daily">something to be thankful for</a>, something to still grasp at in life, something deeper than your problems that says, “I still believe.”

Maybe this is optimistic. Like I said, if we feel we’re at the bottom then that’s our truth. But I simply suggest that’s not the truth that will empower you to rise above. The real truth is rarely, “I’m incapable or unlovable or doomed for the rest of my life.”

Related: <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/blog/say-this-not-that-7-responses-for-common-negative-thoughts">Say This, Not That: 7 Responses for Common Negative Thoughts</a>

I’ve had the privilege of working with people who have faced impossible odds and terrible tragedies, the worst life could throw at them. And they still believed. Moms who lost children to cancer. Lovers who were cheated on. <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/10-sacrifices-successful-people-make-for-their-dreams">Entrepreneurs who risked it all</a> and went bankrupt. Soldiers whose friends died in front of them. Good people who wanted to give up… at first.

Were these people at the bottom? Most of them didn’t think so. They refused to bucket themselves or their situation in the it’s-doomed-for-life column. They considered if they were at the bottom, and then realized they were barely midway through life. They said, “There’s always a new day. I can do something, even if today that only means taking a shower and <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/youre-killing-it-15-quotes-for-an-unstoppable-attitude">keeping a good attitude</a>.” They looked around and counted their blessings. They saw how others had it even worse than they did but still managed to smile, carry on and try. That stirred belief.

Never let the weight of life’s challenges sink all hope. You are stronger than you think, and the future holds good things for you.

Related: <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/13-life-rules-to-keep-you-motivated">13 Life Rules to Keep You Motivated​</a>

&nbsp;

This article originally appeared in the <a href="https://store.successcom.wpenginepowered.com/by-media/success-magazine-november-2017-scooter-braun.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">November 2017 issue of SUCCESS magazine</a>.

Gain perspective before describing your situation as rock bottom.

Gain perspective before describing your situation as rock bottom. | SUCCESS

You Are Stronger Than You Think

You Are Stronger Than You Think | SUCCESS

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Professional Growth

Professional Growth Archives

Professional Growth | SUCCESS | What Achievers Read

https://youtu.be/V95eXhXW0dw

In this inspiring talk, Brendon Burchard reveals all the indicators of high performance, straight from the minds of successful people. He shares their testimonials, sincere descriptions colored by words like “full engagement,” “joy” and “confidence” to show that achievement has an emotional tie. When you’re in a rhythm of high performance, you’ll not only know it?you’ll also feel it.
Related: <a href="https://brendon.mykajabi.com/a/5120/2MJVub6W" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Get your success score with this free performance assessment.</a>
Over a two-year period, Burchard gathered the largest set of data ever collected on high performers. From the thousands of people observed, the most successful of the bunch had a few things in common: They were less stressed, more confident and worked passionately without incentive. They were master adapters that felt appreciated in the careers, ultimately living happy, healthier lives.
<h3 align="center">“In other words, a lot of these people you might not initially like. Because you think, ‘You’re so lucky’… These people are extraordinary but not by accident and not by birthright—by habits.” ?Brendon Burchard</h3>
Related: <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/brendon-burchards-high-performance-habits">Brendon Burchard’s High Performance Habits</a>


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Explore more SUCCESS Talks videos by topic on SUCCESS magazine"s YouTube Channel, featuring thought-leaders, authors, entrepreneurs and respected researchers in the fields of human psychology, brain health, relationships and more, who share the tried-and-true tenets of human achievement and success.

Running time: 25:07

Filmed April 2017 at <a href="https://www.successliveevent.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">SUCCESS Live</a> in Dallas

Achievement has an emotional tie. When you’re in a rhythm of high performance, you’ll not only know it? you’ll also feel it. People become extraordinary not...

Achievement has an emotional tie. When you’re in a rhythm of high performance, you’ll not only know it? you’ll also feel it. People become extraordinary not... | SUCCESS

How to Know If You’re a High Performer

How to Know If You’re a High Performer | SUCCESS

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One of the worst feelings in the world is being incredibly busy but not making any progress. You’re fighting the good fight, but your approach is wrecking your health or compromising your well-being. Projects seem to take forever. Progress comes too slow. Happiness is always a distant horizon never reached.

Most of us have experienced this at some point. We’ll finish each day with a lot of to-do’s crossed off our list, but without any big-picture progress. Yet all along, balance and increased progress were possible if we had the right habits in place.

Sometimes being effective and <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/11-tricks-to-actually-get-things-done-on-your-to-do-list">checking things off of a list</a> isn’t enough. Achievement can be hollow if it gets out of sync with who we are, what we really want to be doing and what we’re actually capable of. We need to learn the difference between just getting things done and reaching high-performance productivity.
Related: <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/blog/this-is-the-secret-force-behind-all-high-performers">This Is the Secret Force Behind All High Performers</a>
I study high performers, and I have learned they all have a very deliberate approach in planning their days, projects and tasks compared to underperformers. Like most productive people, high performers score well on statements such as, “I’m good at setting priorities and working on what’s important,” and, “I stay focused and avoid distractions and temptations.”
<h3 class="rtecenter">We need to learn the difference between just getting things done and reaching high-performance productivity.</h3>
When they compare themselves to their peers, high performers are more productive and yet also happier, less stressed and <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/12-simple-habits-that-set-ultra-successful-people-apart">more rewarded over the long term</a>.

The happiness finding is especially relevant since many people believe they can’t possibly do more without compromising their well-being or sense of balance. But that’s just not true. High performers have found a way to produce more but also eat healthier, exercise more and still feel a greater love for taking on new challenges than their peers do. And they don’t just get more busywork done in the sense that they sloppily pull things together—high performers complete more activities and report <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/6-necessary-steps-to-tap-into-your-inner-excellence">being more excellence-driven</a> than their peers.

None of this is because high performers are superhuman or over-caffeinated. Nor is it because of the feel-good ideals we’re often sold today to become more productive. Believing you give more than your peers or that you are making a difference can certainly increase your sense of motivation and satisfaction, but that doesn’t always lead to increased productivity. Just because you’re a giver doesn’t mean you’re good at setting priorities or avoiding distractions.

Givers might feel a lot of heart, but they don’t always finish what they start. So how is it that high performers produce more but also <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/john-c-maxwell-4-steps-to-create-balance-in-your-life">maintain well-being and balance</a>? It’s because they have cultivated many deliberate habits over the years that allow them to increase their productivity.

In examining over 20 years of research, I’ve found that if you feel you are more productive, you are more likely to feel happier, more successful and more confident. You’re also more likely to take better care of yourself, get promoted more often and earn more than people who feel less productive. These are not my opinions; they are important and measurable life outcomes that we’ve found in multiple surveys and studies.

In my coaching experience, it’s clear that high performers are also the most valued and highly paid people in an organization. Companies want high-performance, productive leaders because they are focused, manage tasks well and succeed more often in taking projects through to completion. They get overwhelmed less, and they work on their goals longer, with a greater sense of joy and camaraderie than others experience.

Mastering our ability to set good habits and be more productive has a lasting impact. And we all have it in our power to get started.
Related: <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/brendon-burchards-high-performance-habits">Brendon Burchard’s High Performance Habits</a>


Adapted from Brendon Burchard's book <a href="https://amzn.to/2wED7Ig" target="_blank" rel="noopener">High Performance Habits: How Extraordinary People Become That Way</a>; Hay House; September 2017.

One of the worst feelings is being incredibly busy but not making any progress. Use these habits of high performers to stay productive.

Adapted from High Performance Habits: How Extraordinary People Become That Way | SUCCESS

Progress Is Possible If You Have the Right Habits in Place

Progress Is Possible If You Have the Right Habits in Place | SUCCESS

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<div class="Basic-Text-Frame" id="_idContainer014">
<h2 class="Subhead---Sofia-Med-8">1. <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/answer-6-questions-to-reveal-your-life-purpose">Seek clarity.</a>&nbsp;</h2>
Seek clarity on who you want to be, how you want to interact with others, what you want and what will bring you the greatest meaning. High performers consistently seek clarity again and again as times change. This routine self-monitoring is one of the hallmarks of their success.

<h2 class="Subhead---Sofia-Med-8">2. <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/9-easy-ways-to-naturally-increase-your-energy">Generate energy.</a>&nbsp;</h2>
Generate energy so you can maintain focus, effort and well-being. To stay on your A game, you’ll need to care for your mental stamina, physical energy and positive emotions.

<h2 class="Subhead---Sofia-Med-8">3. <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/how-to-develop-an-insatiable-hunger">Raise the necessity.</a>&nbsp;</h2>
Raise the necessity for exceptional performance. This means actively tapping into the reasons you absolutely must perform well (detailed in part above). This necessity is based on a mix of your internal standards (identity, beliefs, values or expectations for excellence) and external demands (social obligations, competition, public commitments or deadlines).

<h2 class="Subhead---Sofia-Med-8">4. <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/12-productivity-tips-to-help-you-reclaim-hours-during-the-week">Increase productivity.</a>&nbsp;</h2>
Increase productivity in your primary field of interest. Specifically, focus on prolific quality output in the area in which you want to be known. You’ll also have to minimize distractions (including opportunities) that steal your attention.

<h2 class="Subhead---Sofia-Med-8">5. <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/5-ways-to-increase-your-influence">Develop influence.</a>&nbsp;</h2>
Develop influence with those around you. It will make you better at getting people to believe in and support your efforts and ambitions. Unless you consciously develop a positive support network, major achievements over the long haul are all but impossible.

<h2 class="Subhead---Sofia-Med-8">6. <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/15-courageous-quotes-to-spark-your-inner-brave">Demonstrate courage.</a>&nbsp;</h2>
Demonstrate courage by expressing your ideas, taking bold action and standing up for yourself and others, even in the face of fear, uncertainty, threats or changing conditions. Courage is not an occasional act, but a trait of choice and will.
Related: <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/blog/this-is-the-secret-force-behind-all-high-performers">This Is the Secret Force Behind All High Performers</a>
&nbsp;
Adapted from <a href="https://amzn.to/2vFrMtG" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">High Performance Habits: How Extraordinary People Become That Way</a>; Hay House; September 2017.

</div>

&nbsp;Adapted from High Performance Habits: How Extraordinary People Become That Way

&nbsp;Adapted from High Performance Habits: How Extraordinary People Become That Way | SUCCESS

6 Necessary Steps to Tap Into Your Inner Excellence

6 Necessary Steps to Tap Into Your Inner Excellence | SUCCESS

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Learn about self-improvement in this excerpt from Brendon Burchard's book, High Performance Habits: How Extraordinary People Become That Way.

This Is the Secret Force Behind All High Performers

This Is the Secret Force Behind All High Performers | SUCCESS

https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/legacy/sites/default/files/main/blogposts/highperformer.jpg

https://youtu.be/bDqj1URcDQ4

People aren’t afraid of starting a dream; they’re afraid of change. Here’s how to get real with ourselves and begin our greatest dreams with boldness.
Related: <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/7-ways-to-turn-your-dreams-into-reality">7 Ways to Turn Your Dreams Into Reality</a>

<h2>1. <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/blog/3-action-steps-for-an-honest-self-assessment">Be honest. </a></h2>
What’s really holding you back? Can you keep going on and on and claiming it’s fear? Could it be the old excuse that you are <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/how-perfectionism-hurts-you">a perfectionist</a>? Or is it that you are uncertain or unskilled? What if the real issue is that you’re simply uncomfortable with change? Or that you are simply trapped in a rhythm of how much action you are willing to take each day? More often than not, what prevents people from starting a dream is lack of <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/11-powerful-mantras-for-those-whove-lost-motivation">sustained motivation</a> and discipline. Because armed with those things, you can overcome fear, right? So begin with honesty about what’s preventing you from starting your dream and realize that the only way through it is to begin.
<h2>2. <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/blog/5-questions-i-ask-myself-when-i-start-losing-focus">Get focused.</a> </h2>
Many people have a dream but never reach it. Often, it’s because they didn’t obsess about achieving it enough and match that obsession with initiative. If you have a dream, you have to focus on it so much that you pull it into reality. Challenge yourself to <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/how-to-train-your-brain-to-focus">remove distraction</a> and think more often and more deeply about your dream and the steps you’ll have to take to achieve it. Say no to things that don’t align with your dream because time is precious.
<h2>3. <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/22-ways-to-become-a-relentless-learner">Create a learning map.</a> </h2>
What would you have to learn in order to confidently and competently move toward your goal? This might be the most important question in dream fulfillment. Define the topic, skills and abilities you would have to develop. Then create a learning map to <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/blog/5-deliberate-steps-to-master-a-skill">begin mastering</a> them—a real schedule of learning. If you don’t schedule when you will learn something, and have a real deadline for learning a certain level of mastery, then it’s difficult to develop real capability and momentum. Learning is the root of all progress and personal development.
<h2>4. <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/blog/3-things-successful-people-do-on-the-daily">Start with three actions per day.</a> </h2>
You start every great dream by willing yourself and working yourself each day to move toward it. That’s how you start. There’s no way around it—to succeed more, you have to take more initiative. Everyone can do something each day to move his or her life forward. Make sure you have a set of goals and checklists at the daily level. Even if it’s just something small, do it and cross it off. It’s the small wins that can give you confidence to <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/blog/try-these-30-day-challenges-to-unlock-your-inner-greatness">start taking on the bigger challenges</a>.

You were given your dream for a reason. Let’s stop making excuses and start moving toward our dreams with real focus, intensity and force. That’s why we were gifted with the hunger, drive and desire for that dream—to strive for it, to grow into it, to achieve it, to become your best self along the way. Move with enough consistency toward your dream despite your fears and soon you’ll experience what we call <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/videos/youtube/caged-comfortable-or-charged-which-one-is-your-life">The Charged Life</a>.
Related: <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/31-things-that-happen-when-you-finally-decide-to-live-your-dreams">31 Things That Happen When You Finally Decide to Live Your Dreams</a>


This post originally appeared on <a href="https://brendonburchard.tumblr.com/post/107697064033/start-your-dream-even-if-youre-scared" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">BrendonBurchard.tumblr.com</a>.

People aren’t afraid of starting a dream; they’re afraid of change. Here’s how to get real with ourselves and begin our greatest dreams with boldness...

People aren’t afraid of starting a dream; they’re afraid of change. Here’s how to get real with ourselves and begin our greatest dreams with boldness... | SUCCESS

How to Start Your Dream When You’re Scared

How to Start Your Dream When You’re Scared | SUCCESS

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https://youtu.be/o5n919vsIFg

Life blooms when we take responsibility for our full human experience. To be personally responsible and self-reliant means we have to <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/19-motivational-quotes-to-help-you-get-sht-done">get our sh*t together</a> and decide to have command over these five areas:
<h2>1. <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/blog/if-youre-searching-for-purpose-ask-yourself-these-5-questions">Our Aim</a></h2>
What is our goal, our direction, our purpose? What is it that we are moving toward and organizing our lives to achieve and contribute? These are questions of the motivated and purposeful human.
<h2>2. <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/blog/to-be-successful-focus-on-your-personal-growth">Our Attention</a></h2>
Are the things we continually focus on bringing us joy, success, connection and growth? Or are we being distracted by a bunch of garbage and gossip in life?
<h2>3. <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/why-your-attitude-is-everything">Our Attitude</a></h2>
The power plant doesn’t have energy; it generates energy. Similarly, we don’t have an attitude; we generate one. When we choose to generate a negative energy and attitude, life is horrible. But when we choose to generate and broadcast a joyous, loving and positive energy, life opens up to us, people feel something new from us and our entire life blooms and grows.
<h2>4. <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/blog/3-things-successful-people-know-about-healthy-relationships">Our Affections</a></h2>
Are we connecting with those we love and sensing the beauty of this life? The emotional quality and connections we feel in life are also a choice, and we should choose to feel again, to love again, to become passionate and emotionally open, giving, strong and vibrant.
<h2>5. <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/do-your-actions-reflect-your-values">Our Actions</a></h2>
Our destiny is dictated by our disciplined actions—what we do each day, the habits we develop, our purposeful efforts. Take no action, have no life, no adventure, no progress. But overcome apathy, fear and get going, and soon there is magic, momentum and what I love to call the charged life.
Related: <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/videos/youtube/caged-comfortable-or-charged-which-one-is-your-life">Caged, Comfortable or Charged—Which One Is Your Life?</a>
***
Have you ever met somebody who just drives you nuts, someone who makes you ask, Why are they not more responsible? For whatever reason, they cannot stand on their own in life. We all know someone like that, and some of us have been guilty at points in our lives of being that type of person, so let’s dial this in.

<a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/rohn-what-basketball-can-teach-us-about-responsibility">What does personal responsibility really mean?</a> What happens in our lives when we have it?

We are not meant to be victims or apathetic people lying around, hoping something comes along to change our lives, because only two things change our lives:
<ol>
 	<li>Something new does come into our life and it changes our direction, our insight, who we are. Maybe we win the lottery or the lucky white knight comes in and saves your life.</li>
 	<li>Something new comes from within you. That thing that comes from within us is so powerful; it retakes our life. What is that magic? It’s personal responsibility. When we are more personally responsible for our own lives, life blooms. We have <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/8-ways-to-be-a-more-confident-person">a sense of confidence</a> and certainty in who we are, but also a sense of total truth with what life is supposed to be.</li>
</ol>
It doesn’t sound sexy to say, “Be responsible for your life.” But I think we have five main responsibilities in our lives, and if we take control of each of these areas, a new power comes into our life, a new joy and zest.
<h2>1. Our Aim</h2>
The first thing we are personally responsible for is our aim, ambitions, desires, goals and dreams.

Successful people look out and say, What is it that I desire of my life? And they go for it. They’ve set an intention. They’ve set a direction for who they are and where they’re going, what is meaningful to them, and who they want to have along with them. They don’t always know the full picture, they just know, I want to be like this. I want to do things like this. They start along that path.

Because they’re following their own path, even if they don’t know where exactly it goes, they’re <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/blog/try-these-30-day-challenges-to-unlock-your-inner-greatness">living the adventurous life</a>. They’re entering a new phase of their life where they truly feel that this journey is their own, versus being carried by their parents, professors, peers or co-workers. They have their own aim in life.What do you want next week to be? If you don’t know, then you are aimless, and when you’re aimless, it’s easy to feel lost. You wander around in the world, a giant wilderness. In Montana we always say, “The time to have the map is before you enter the woods.”

The world is a big thicket of crazy throngs of people who have all their wants and wills, and if you don’t have your own direction, if you have not <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/rohn-how-to-create-a-master-plan-for-your-life">set your own life agenda</a>, they will set one for you. So you have to direct your own aim.
<h2>2. Our Attention</h2>
Where is your attention going each moment of the day? The ability to be fully present is just guiding one’s attention to this moment, giving ourselves an alertness, an intention and awareness to the very now that we are experiencing. That’s power.

When you are more attentive to your life, to the moments you experience, it’s amazing. But attention also applies to what we are paying attention to overall.

Many of us are guided by the aims of others. Our attention is stripped away and refocused on <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/how-to-eliminate-distractions">the distractions of the world</a>. So many people aren’t paying attention to their goals, their desires, their dreams, or demands and responsibilities of life; they’re paying attention to the distraction that showed up.

<a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/10-steps-to-achieve-any-goal">If we’re going to accomplish our goals</a>, go where we want to in our lives and sense the fullness of this moment, we have to guard our attention from all the garbage that can come in and sweep it away.
<h2>3. Our Attitude</h2>
How are you meeting life? Are you meeting life energized, alive and buoyant, excited, enthusiastic and positive? Like you can’t wait for the next moment to unfold? Or do you think, Well, here we go again.

Watch people when they walk down the street. They’re grumbling. It’s as if they’re emanating nasty, dark, bad energy in the world. And why? Because they chose to. They chose to have a bad attitude for so long that it became part of their personality. Their attitude fixed. It’s closed. It’s angry, upset or bordering on the negative emotional qualities of life, rather than realizing the incredible magic and experience that we all have available to us, each and every single moment of the day.
Related: <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/videos/youtube/how-incredibly-successful-people-think">How Incredibly Successful People Think</a>
There is a lot of magic around here. When your attitude is open, you’re allowing yourself to learn. When your attitude is open, you’re allowing yourself to connect to other people. When your attitude is open, finding happiness isn’t something you do; it’s something you create. <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/4-ways-to-plan-your-happiness">You choose the attitude of happiness.</a> You don’t have happiness; you generate it. You don’t have good energy today; you generate it.

Everything we’ve learned in psychology over the years is that you can literally change your attitude just by controlling your thoughts and directing them in a new, positive, healthy, social way. Why not do that? You deserve to have a good attitude. It’s a choice, so choose to have a good attitude.
<h2>4. Our Affections</h2>
I’m referring to our affections as our <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/why-you-need-emotional-intelligence-to-succeed">emotional quality of life</a>, but also those we care for.

We should control the amount of emotion that we have throughout the day—not to stifle it, but to allow the beauty of it to surface. To allow ourselves to feel affectionate toward other human beings. To allow ourselves to feel affectionate for causes. To allow ourselves to feel affectionate for Mother Nature, our planet and our God. To allow the emotional connection that happens when we care deeply about something.

So many people have been hurt in their lives, so they shut down. It takes a lot of responsibility to allow ourselves to love, because it’s so much easier to close people out, to become a victim. Because when we’re a victim, we don’t have to be responsible. It’s somebody else’s deal. They have the power. They whisked away all our goodness, and now we can just be upset and angry. That’s the easy route.

<a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/5-ways-successful-people-take-control-of-life">Demanding that we take control</a> of our emotional reality and the affections we have for others brings risk. If you heighten the affection you give to somebody, he or she might hurt you. So? Maybe your ego is trounced a little bit. Maybe you feel sad for a couple of minutes, but what is life? Is it supposed to be a bland, colorless universe where we don’t get to experience the heights and the joys and the gifts of love? I don’t think so.

Affection is something that we can all choose to feel and cultivate in our lives. If we are not overcome with emotion once in a while for somebody, then we aren’t thinking about the beauty in other people. We have become too trapped in our own thing.

Other people should fascinate us. <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/blog/how-to-attract-amazing-people-into-your-life">We should be excited to meet them.</a> Our brain is hardwired to love novelty. Guess what? We have 7 billion people who can give us that dopamine drip, just by talking to them and connecting real emotion with them again. Let’s do that.
<h2>5. Our Actions</h2>
What is it that we’re doing each and every day? Take responsibility for our actions because they are adding to our character and destiny. Who we become is a result of our disciplined actions, not our random initiatives that we do occasionally that respond to something, but,
<ul>
 	<li><a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/6-steps-to-discover-your-true-self">What do I want to be about?</a></li>
 	<li><a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/master-the-art-of-setting-goals-in-4-steps">What do I want to achieve?</a></li>
 	<li><a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/blog/true-success-begins-the-second-you-start-giving-back">What do I want to give or serve?</a></li>
</ul>
Something completely changes. We get a remarkable amount of momentum and progress in our lives.

<a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/blog/why-self-control-is-so-important">Being able to control our actions</a> and guide them toward healthy and positive outcomes for ourselves gives us extraordinary confidence, an extraordinary sense of progress. When we’re confident in who we are and we’re confident in our progress toward where we’re moving, then it’s easier to sense that magical element called happiness.

It all comes from being responsible for those five things. <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/do-these-5-things-if-you-want-an-unremarkable-life">Look at the opposite.</a>
<ul>
 	<li>Look at those who have no aim in life.</li>
 	<li>Look at those who have not controlled their attitude so they have imbued the negative emotional attitude of those around them.</li>
 	<li>Look at those who cannot control their attention during the day, how much they accomplish.</li>
 	<li>Look at those people who have no affection for other people and they do not control their emotions at all in positive ways.</li>
 	<li>Look at those who are not directing their actions intentionally.</li>
</ul>
What happens? They end up derailing their life. They end up lost somewhere. They end up frustrated and irresponsible, not only for their own lives, but often for the lives of those who they are entrusted to care for.

Personal responsibility is a big thing. Master those five elements of your life. Bring intentionality to those five elements of your life, and life blooms. An extraordinary new quality of experience comes into our lives, we feel an incredible spark and zest about each day. We feel what we call the charged life.
Related: <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/videos/youtube/5-rules-to-win-the-game-of-life">5 Rules to Win the Game of Life</a>


A version of this post originally appeared on <a href="https://brendonburchard.tumblr.com/post/88770370853/the-power-of-personal-responsibility" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">BrendonBurchard.tumblr.com</a>.

Are you intentionally in charge of your life?

Life blooms when we take responsibility for our full human experience. To be personally responsible and self-reliant means we have to get our sh*t together... | SUCCESS

5 Tenets of Personal Responsibility

5 Tenets of Personal Responsibility | SUCCESS

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bxtb-PpZih8

<a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/blog/the-5-non-negotiable-disciplines-of-a-high-achiever">To become a high performer</a>, you have to learn faster. How do you do that?

Let me tell you first what not to do, because a lot of people just jump in and say, “I’m going to learn faster. I want to learn speed reading. I want to learn a new language. I want to learn all these new skills…”
And what’s happening is that people are very transient with their learning goals. What do I mean by that? I mean they’re kind of phony about it. They really don’t want to learn.

They say I’d like to learn this, I’d like to learn that. Someday, I’d like to learn French. Someday, I’d like to learn photography. Someday, I’d like to blog… and they never actually learn it, because learning doesn’t happen someday—it has to happen consistently.
Related: <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/3-techniques-to-never-stop-learning">3 Techniques to Never Stop Learning </a>
If we’re really going to get to the point where you learn something faster, we have to approach learning itself differently. It can’t be these one-off, little goals of little things we want to learn. That doesn’t work for people. They don’t stay consistent. There has to be a broader vision for who they are and what they want their life to be about.

If you’re going to <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/22-ways-to-become-a-relentless-learner">stay on a learning habit</a>, then you have to have a bigger vision for yourself.
<h2>1. Connect your life goals with what you want to learn.</h2>
If you want to learn something faster, you must first know the connection between your learning goals and your dream life.

I tell people all the time, don’t just come up with things you want to learn, because guess what, we want to learn everything. Everyone wants to learn 50 new things immediately, but no one ever learns anything. Why? Because it’s not real for them—it’s a transient desire. If you want to become a great learner, it has to be attached to <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/rohn-5-simple-steps-to-plan-your-dream-life">a dream life of yours</a>, a true lifestyle that you see for yourself.

You have to know what you want of your life before you become a master learner.

Until I know what I want my life to be about, what I want to experience on a daily basis, what I want my dreams to be or who I want to be, I don’t know WHAT to learn. I’m just going to be curious about things and then I’ll dabble in them.

But the path to true mastery is the part where we say, “What do I want my life to be about?” Let me develop the knowledge, the skills, the competencies, the capabilities to build into that life. And that’s where you get <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/22-ways-to-become-a-relentless-learner">someone who becomes a master learner</a>.

You won’t know what to learn and what competencies and capabilities to develop until you know what your mission is. Otherwise you’re just playing around with skills. You’ll play around with learning something but you’ll never immerse yourself into them.

So once you know what you want your life to be about, what your passions are, you’ll learn what you have to learn along the way, and then everything changes.

I’m not saying you have to know <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/answer-6-questions-to-reveal-your-life-purpose">your ultimate purpose in life</a> before you can learn anything. I’m just saying if you want to learn faster, start figuring out that purpose, start figuring out your direction, and you’ll learn a lot faster.
<h2>2. Follow an example. Don’t reinvent the wheel.</h2>
If you want to learn something, you need to be able to model something. You need to be able to see somebody who’s already done it. You need to be able to <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/13-must-read-books-on-success-and-being-successful">read about somebody who’s already done it</a>. You need to experience somebody who’s already done it.

The worst thing you can do in learning is start from scratch. With no foundation of what’s worked before, you’re just making stuff up, which is the slowest way to learn.

The wheel was invented a couple thousand years ago as you know, so the worst thing you can do is say, “Let me start trying a bunch of stuff.” That’s not learning; that’s called being an idiot, and being an idiot is about bumbling through life without realizing someone has already done it for you.

So go read a book about somebody who’s done what you want to do. Take a course from someone who has already accomplished what you want to accomplish. Follow someone’s online thing about who’s already done what. There are so many <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/25-successful-people-who-can-help-change-your-life">examples for you to learn from</a>, and it has to begin with that.
<h2>3. Make it a practice.</h2>
You have to make a consistent practice out of <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/blog/5-ways-to-be-better-than-just-good">mastering skillsets</a>.
Related: <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/blog/5-deliberate-steps-to-master-a-skill">5 Deliberate Steps to Master a Skill</a>
What does that mean? I mean daily exposure and immersion into what it is you’re trying to learn.

If you’re going to try to learn piano, you aren’t going to learn it by going to piano lessons once a month. If you want to learn French, you aren’t going to learn it by talking to somebody who speaks French once a month or even once a week. It has to be more than that.

If you want to learn something, <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/the-10000-hour-theory-does-practice-make-perfect">you have to deeply immerse yourself in it</a> over a long period of time. It can’t be a weekend event or seminar. It can’t be a one-time course. It has to be something you get into.

For my personal development, I read a book a week on personal development, and I’ve done it for 17 years straight, never missing a week. It was dedication to me. I was going to learn it. I was going to master my life. I was going to learn to master my mind, master my relationships, master my finances and master my health. It was so important to me that I made it a daily reality.

If you’re someone who’s saying, “I can’t give every day to learning something,” then great! You’re giving every day to the steady decline of your competencies!

Don’t tell me you can’t do something every day to learn and grow. If you don’t feel like you can take some time every day to learn and grow then you’re mismanaging your life.

I think that what’s lacking for a lot of people right now is that they have a disconnection or disassociation from any sense of mastery in their life. Because if we’re not mastering something and working toward getting better at something, then we’re never going to have a sense of progress. And if we never have a sense of progress, then we’ll never experience <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/quiz-are-you-satisfied">that deep satisfaction, fulfillment, joy or happiness</a> that comes from being excellent at something.

So you have to practice something constantly, at some level every day. And people will go, “Wow, how did you get so good at this?” You’ll tell them, “I worked at it. Every day.”

That’s why there’s no mystery. I got good at it because I did it every day. It’s immersion and consistency in a practice, a habit of learning that very thing that you have a goal for and a dream life for.
<h2>4. Get feedback to grow.</h2>
If you want to become a world-class athlete, then you need a coach. If you want to become a world-class person at whatever you’re doing, you need someone to look at it and give you feedback. Maybe it’s a mentor who gives you feedback on presentations. Maybe it’s a friend of yours who has a discriminating eye, who can look at things and give good, valuable constructive feedback, and you say, Hey, before I send this out could you look at it?

<a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/how-to-overcome-the-fear-of-feedback">It’s about getting feedback</a>, whether it’s from a friend, family, spouse, just someone who can look at what you’re going to contribute to the world first and say, “Try this. I like this or I don’t like this.”

There are some things that can destroy learning, and that is when people are so brutal in their feedback or they’re so judgmental about something that it stops your learning. If it came from a dark place and a mean person, then don’t listen to it. There’s nothing relevant there because it’s from the wrong space. It shouldn’t mean anything to you when people are harsh to you and they don’t know you.

But if someone does know your heart, they know who you are and they give you feedback, but you don’t like the way it was delivered or you feel they were too confrontational or rude, don’t listen to the emotion of what they’re delivering or what it feels like. Instead, ask, “Is the content of what they’re saying relevant or capable of improving my learning and my mastery?”

If it is, then you have to take the content for what it’s worth. Find the nugget of wisdom they gave you, even if it was wrapped in a big turd. (Feel free to quote me on that.) There’s probably something there where you can say, “That is relevant, and if I apply that I can probably get better.” That’s vital.
<h2>5. Have a deadline.</h2>
How fast do you need to learn that? How fast do you need to master that? Is it something you’re going to master this month, this year, this next decade?

Without a timeline for developing your competencies, you’ll never act or you’ll fall off track. <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/blog/the-3-types-of-procrastination-and-how-to-beat-it">No deadline means guaranteed distraction.</a> So, WHEN do you need to learn this new topic or reach the next level of skill? What’s the consequence if you don’t learn it by then? Knowing the answer to these two questions will accelerate your learning.
<ul>
 	<li>You know what you need to learn.</li>
 	<li>You have people you can learn it from.</li>
 	<li>You can practice it with these habits.
You can get feedback from these types of people and experiences.</li>
 	<li>You know you have to do it and get good at it at this certain timeframe.</li>
</ul>
Follow these things and you will start to learn faster. You’ll be more engaged with your life. You’ll have more enthusiasm for learning. You’ll notice things more. <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/videos/youtube/the-4-essentials-of-achievement">You’ll feel like you’re growing</a> and be more satisfied with your life.
Related: <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/rohn-how-to-start-a-new-discipline">How to Start a New Discipline</a>
A version of this post originally appeared on <a href="https://brendonburchard.tumblr.com/post/106434424303/how-to-learn-faster" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">BrendonBurchard.tumblr.com</a>.

To become a high performer, you have to learn faster. How do you do that? the path to true mastery is the part where we say, “What do I want my life to be...

To become a high performer, you have to learn faster. How do you do that? the path to true mastery is the part where we say, “What do I want my life to be... | SUCCESS

5 Ways to Learn Faster

5 Ways to Learn Faster | SUCCESS

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<div class="Basic-Text-Frame" id="_idContainer318">
Jon Acuff is the author of <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Do-Over-Rescue-Monday-Reinvent/dp/1591847613/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1496178120&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=Do+Over:+Rescue+Monday,+Reinvent+Your+Work,+and+Never+Get+Stuck&amp;linkCode=ll1&amp;tag=sm0fe-20&amp;linkId=a4fec6a0aaca68ddfc69c726ad930795" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Do Over: Rescue Monday, Reinvent Your Work, and Never Get Stuck</a> and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Quitter-Closing-Between-Your-Dream/dp/0982986270/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1496178179&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=Quitter:+Closing+the+Gap+Between+Your+Day+Job+&amp;+Your+Dream+Job.&amp;linkCode=ll1&amp;tag=sm0fe-20&amp;linkId=39a720ef694231e2aa6af96d4ff013f0" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Quitter: Closing the Gap Between Your Day Job &amp; Your Dream Job.</a> Here’s his advice on starting over:

Related: <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/videos/youtube/the-pursuit-5-steps-to-create-your-dream-career-the-jon-acuff-way">The Pursuit: 5 Steps to Create Your Dream Career, the Jon Acuff Way</a>

<h2 class="Subhead---Sofia-Med-8">1. Starting over isn’t a one-step process.</h2>

There are two things I believe about people: You’re capable of more than you think, and it’s going to be harder than you think. The first one is about hope, and the second one’s about a plan. My belief about a <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/5-lessons-on-how-to-make-a-successful-career-change">career do-over </a>is that you get hope, you get inspired, you give yourself the permission to have a do-over, and the second part is that you have a plan to execute it.

<h2 class="Subhead---Sofia-Med-8">2. Brush up on skills, old and new.&nbsp;</h2>

When you realize being stuck doesn’t have to be your final destination—that there are things you can do, there are skills you can work on—that can be really exciting. It’s this idea that I see this thing I’m doing, but I know it’s not my final destination.

<h2 class="Subhead---Sofia-Med-8">3. Assess yourself.</h2>

The first thing to tell yourself: <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/blog/3-easy-tricks-to-fall-in-love-with-your-job-again">Work doesn’t have to be boring.</a> It doesn’t have to be average. It can actually be meaningful; you can actually do something that matters. The second step is starting to see where you really are.

<h2 class="Subhead---Sofia-Med-8">4. Get ready to buckle down.</h2>

You read a lot of books that kind of say, “OK, so the goal is to do less and less work with your life.” And my goal is the opposite. It’s to do more and more <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/want-to-make-money-doing-what-you-love-ask-yourself-these-4-questions">work that you love</a>. And I think that relates to a lot of people. I’ve had stay-at-home moms say, “I’m not going to believe the lie that I’m just a stay-at-home mom. I get to do things, too.” And it all involves work. Work is not the enemy.

Related: <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/blog/how-to-start-over">How to Start Over</a>

&nbsp;

This article originally appeared in the <a href="https://store.successcom.wpenginepowered.com/by-media/success-magazine-june-2017-dave-ramsey.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">June 2017 issue of SUCCESS magazine</a>.
</div>

No. 1: Starting over isn’t a one-step process.

No. 1: Starting over isn’t a one-step process. | SUCCESS

4 Basics of Bouncing Back

4 Basics of Bouncing Back | SUCCESS

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Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship Archives

Entrepreneurship | SUCCESS | What Achievers Read

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In 2008 Patrick McGinnis was working on Wall Street at AIG, climbing the ladder, doing everything he was “supposed” to do. Then, in the depths of the Great Recession, the company received a government bailout, his group was put up for sale, and the AIG bonus scandal hit the headlines. All of a sudden, everything McGinnis worked for was tainted by the letters A, I and G across the top of his résumé.

So he diversified—his life, that is.

Related: <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/blog/how-to-start-over">How to Start Over</a>

He started some small investments that grew and grew alongside a new philosophy he explained in his book, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/10-Entrepreneur-Startup-Without-Quitting/dp/1591848091/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1495144920&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=The+10%25+Entrepreneur:+Live+Your+Startup+Dream+Without+Quitting+Your+Day+Job.&amp;linkCode=ll1&amp;tag=sm0fe-20&amp;linkId=b2d485f01bc5061a0c18a5c4d930211a" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The 10% Entrepreneur: Live Your Startup Dream Without Quitting Your Day Job</a>. We asked McGinnis how to dip a toe in the water of business ownership.

<h2 class="Subhead---Sofia-Med-8">Most people think of entrepreneurship as an all-or-nothing proposition. Why is that untrue?</h2>

The falling price of technology coupled with widespread connectivity has clear implications for anyone who has dreamed of doing something entrepreneurial. I’d argue that it’s never been cheaper and easier to start and manage a business, technology-focused or otherwise. You need little more than a laptop, an internet connection and a smartphone to run the day-to-day operations of a small business. This has also made it possible to <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/5-tips-for-running-a-successful-business">run a business</a> part time, on the side, while keeping your day job. You can be entrepreneurial, customizing your engagement to your life, your resources, and your interests and passions.

<h2 class="Subhead---Sofia-Med-8">For someone looking to make the leap into entrepreneurship, why might 10 percent be better than 100 percent?</h2>

Starting an entrepreneurial venture on the side helps you mitigate some of <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/3-emotions-all-entrepreneurs-feel-and-how-to-keep-them-in-check">the biggest challenges</a> of full-time entrepreneurship. You can test ideas, try out business models, and fail without having to worry about paying the bills. By starting something on the side and making sure it works before going all-in you give yourself the runway to get things right. Basically, you de-risk the model before you go all-in.

Related: <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/to-successfully-start-over-you-need-these-5-traits">To Successfully Start Over, You Need These 5 Traits</a>&nbsp;

<h2 class="Subhead---Sofia-Med-8">What should people plan for before taking that 10 percent leap?</h2>

The biggest downfall versus full-time entrepreneurship is—given that you are dedicating only a portion of your time to your side venture—you will move more slowly than if you were working full time. That is a reality. But here’s the other reality: The typical startup takes seven years from founding to exit. Despite the legends and the myths, there are really <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/blog/overnight-success-is-a-myth-here-are-4-ways-to-persist">very few overnight successes</a> out there. Thus, adding months or even a few years to the timeline of a venture in order to de-risk the process of building it is a reasonable trade-off.

<h2 class="Subhead---Sofia-Med-8">How do you manage this without upsetting your everyday boss?</h2>

One cardinal rule of the 10% Entrepreneur is that your day job must come first. After all, it is your day job that allows you to build your 10 percent. <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/9-tips-to-help-you-strengthen-your-integrity">You must act with complete integrity</a> at all times with respect to the division between your day job and your side gig. Blurring this line is far more prevalent than you can ever imagine. In fact, at a time when over 30 percent of Americans have side hustles this is not at all an uncommon concept.

<h2 class="Subhead---Sofia-Med-8">Are there types of entrepreneurship that are better suited for this toe-in-the-water approach than&nbsp;others?</h2>

I’ve seen 10% Entrepreneurs in all kinds of industries. Investing in real estate, technology, restaurants, fashion, old-economy companies, etc. That said, the best ventures are the kind where you can build them incrementally and where you do not need to deploy a significant amount of capital up front. Additionally, you will be most effective when you can leverage technology (everything from <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/16-tools-you-need-to-be-a-business-badass">your smartphone</a> to social media) in order to make things happen. Asset-intensive industries that require you to raise external capital are not as well suited to 10% Entrepreneurs.

Related: <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/9-entrepreneurial-lessons-you-never-learned-in-school">9 Entrepreneurial Lessons You Never Learned in School</a>

&nbsp;

This article originally appeared in the <a href="https://store.successcom.wpenginepowered.com/by-media/success-magazine-june-2017-dave-ramsey.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">June 2017 issue of SUCCESS magazine</a>.
</div>

Consider the 10 percent approach. | SUCCESS

How to Be an Entrepreneur Without Quitting Your Day Job

How to Be an Entrepreneur Without Quitting Your Day Job | SUCCESS

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Leadership

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Leadership | SUCCESS | What Achievers Read

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Maybe you’re leading a team, in charge of a large organization or you’re just trying to lead your own life. <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/blog/titles-dont-make-leaders-but-these-7-actions-do">What is it that leaders actually do?</a>

This was my graduate school work. In 2001, I wrote a book called The Student Leadership Guide. I never had any clue that thing would blow up the way that it has. This framework for leadership is called E-6. It answers that question: What are the major practices of leadership that we must enact on a continual basis to be able to have the amount of <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/6-powerful-personality-traits-of-influencers">influence and impact we desire</a>, in our work lives or any role in which we’re leading other people?
Related: <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/5-ways-to-increase-your-influence">5 Ways to Increase Your Influence</a>
Let’s get right into it.
<h2>Practice 1: Envision</h2>
Great leaders envision a compelling, different and vibrant future than what’s here. They have an alternative, clear view of what the world could be like tomorrow than it is today. They have a shared purpose. They believe that they and others would be compelled by, interested in, inspired by and want to work toward it, and that’s a big deal.

You’ve read that in leadership, you have to have a vision. It’s biblical; where there is no vision, people perish. We know the power of having that vision, so you have to sit down and actually do it.

The reason we say envision versus just “have a vision” is because it’s a practice of envisioning. What should tomorrow look like for my team? What should tomorrow be like for my business or organization? What should tomorrow be like for my life?

And not just tomorrow, but a long-term mindset and view, the dream, that magnificent obsession, that bold desire, <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/blog/9-ways-to-achieve-your-biggest-goals-quickly">the moon-shot goals</a> and purposes and missions of life—the bigger picture.

That’s envisioning a different reality in the future than we experience today. And that’s why everybody gets excited about leadership. Where there’s no vision, there’s no leadership. Where there’s no vision, people perish, so we have to envision.

By the way, I say that these are six practices of leadership and not six steps, because it’s not like you envision once and then you move on in the process. We always have to continually sit down and envision where we are and where we can be going. It’s an active process.

If you set a vision one time and forget about it, it’s not going to help you accomplish <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/6-powerful-personality-traits-of-influencers">the influence or impact that you want</a>.
<h2>Practice 2: Enlist</h2>
As you’re developing this vision, remember that it’s not just your vision. You’re enlisting other people to share their voices, their perspective, their dreams and desires for where you could be going.

I think the most important leadership lesson in the world is that people support what they create. If people are involved in the ideation of a vision, they’re involved in creating ideas, brainstorming, figuring out what it is we are about.

What do we stand for? Where are we going? <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/9-things-great-leaders-do-differently">Great leaders</a> enlist that from other people; they’re constantly asking people what they think, how they feel, what things they desire and need.

A great leader is always enlisting other people to believe in the dream, shape the dream, stay dedicated to the dream. It’s an honest and authentic and genuine desire to see other people be involved in the process and to enjoy that process.

You’re asking questions. You’re paying attention to their needs. You’re reflecting back to things you’re hearing. You’re always enlisting others to support and build this vision, this ideal future, together.
Related: <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/rohn-7-personality-traits-of-a-great-leader">7 Personality Traits of a Great Leader</a>

<h2>Practice 3: Embody</h2>
Leaders stand for something. There is a congruence between who they are, the behaviors they’re enacting into the world, how they treat people, what they’re working toward and what they say is important. It’s integrity. There’s nothing more important is there? You don’t <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/john-c-maxwell-how-to-live-out-your-mission-statement">believe the message</a> unless you believe the messenger.

As leaders, we have to stand for and demonstrate and show and portray what we really believe in. Is our team and people around us seeing us work for it, sweat for it, sacrifice for it, champion it over and over, even when it’s hard, even when there’s conflict, even when people are pissed and want to quit?

Are you still there? Do you still stand for it? If you do, then you’ll become a legend.
<h2>Practice 4: Empower</h2>
Empowerment means giving people the decision-making authority and trust to be able to work toward this vision. It means allowing them the autonomy, strength and input. It means equipping them with the knowledge, skills, abilities, technology, tools and training to allow them to succeed as they march with us to <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/to-achieve-something-outrageously-extraordinary-requires-extreme-effort">achieve something extraordinary</a> and phenomenal.

That’s vital. That’s what empowerment is about.

Many leaders come in with a big vision, get everyone excited and seem like they want everybody involved. They do a great job of standing for it, but they don’t equip their teams to kick some butt. They never get to that place of real stride, <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/8-ways-to-create-momentum-in-your-life">real momentum</a>.

Training other people and equipping them with everything they need to succeed is a vital practice of every great leader. It doesn’t happen just once.

That’s a huge failure in the working world, especially in corporate America:
<ul>
 	<li>Great leaders come in.</li>
 	<li>They nail the vision.</li>
 	<li>They get people around it.</li>
 	<li>They stand for something.</li>
 	<li>But they only empower people at the beginning. They give some training and then they just disappear.</li>
</ul>
Training has to be consistent. Coaching has to be consistent. Equipping people to deal with the <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/7-challenges-successful-people-overcome">new challenges</a>, the new tools, new technologies and competitive realities, that’s vital. We have to have that in place.
Related: <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/5-things-strong-leaders-do">5 Things Strong Leaders Do</a>

<h2>Practice 5: Evaluate</h2>
Evaluation is one of the hardest things we do in leadership. To evaluate the key people who are with us, their contributions. To evaluate their skills, needs and the ethics that are going on in our organization, in our team.

We’re evaluating on these questions:
<ul>
 	<li>Are we being excellent?</li>
 	<li>Are we being ethical?</li>
 	<li>Are we being excellent and ethical as we are progressing?</li>
 	<li>Are we progressing? If not, why?</li>
 	<li>Are we being ethical? If not, why?</li>
 	<li>Are people being excellent? If not, why?</li>
</ul>
We have to ask these questions. This takes practice. You have to keep your thumb on the pulse to see how we are doing. Are we alive? <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/podcast/jocko-willink-on-forward-progress-through-discipline">Are we moving forward?</a>

That evaluation also brings up the incredible challenge that we face as leaders, which is to give honest, direct, immediate, constructive feedback to those who are trying to influence and lead—to our collaborators, friends and followers. It’s vital that we are paying attention and seeing when things are going off the rails. We can never check out. Evaluation is a consistent process of checking in and seeing how we’re doing and paying attention, to <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/measure-your-progress-to-achieve-your-goals">measure the progress</a> of our mission.
<h2>Practice 6: Encourage</h2>
Encourage. Be the champion. Be the cheerleader. <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/6-ways-to-motivate-your-employees-when-theyre-feeling-burned-out">Be the person always motivating</a>, inspiring and uplifting people.

Many leaders have pet projects that they get excited about it, and then those projects just disappear. You need to encourage on a continual basis. You need to light people up.

You need to have it in your heart and in your soul, that desire to want to lift people up, to get them up off their butts, to get them excited about things. If you can’t motivate them with <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/blog/25-successful-peoples-thoughts-on-the-power-of-passion">your passion</a> and example, then what are we doing?

You have to encourage people when this gets hard. When you’re working toward a mission, it gets hard. Longer term, the more people involved, the bigger the organization, the bigger the vision, the bigger the dream, the longer the duration to accomplish it, the more struggle, more challenge, more conflict, more discord, more disappointment, more frustration, more doubt, more delay.

All those things happen and leaders have to deal with it by always being that encouraging voice. When the chips are down and it looks most bleak, you’re still that beam of light. When it gets dark. When it gets challenging. When there’s conflict, turmoil and turbulent seas, you’re solid.

<a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/videos/youtube/how-to-train-your-brain-for-positive-thinking">Never stop being the voice of positivity.</a> You’re somebody they know they can go to because you’re always going to turn a negative into a positive. You’re always going to help them see the alternative you, the next step. You’re going to champion people. You’re going to champion the mission and the cause.

That’s leadership. The six E’s: Envision, Enlist, Embody, Empower, Evaluate, Encourage.

What overlays all of this is a philosophy about what we’re doing. That it’s important to us; that there’s a purpose, a mission to it that we feel deeply within us is so powerful; and we honor, respect and love those we work with.

Now it’s not just you the leader, but it’s a group of us. We are the movers and shakers who are shaping and making this mission happen every single day. We love to work together. We have fun.

Now people are standing up and they are helping come up with a vision. They are championing and cheering on, bringing in and enlisting other people. They are standing up for something. They’re living that value and truth. They are empowering other people and championing the cause. They are your eyes and ears, evaluating how the organization or mission is going. They are encouraging it so it doesn’t just ride on your shoulders.

When we do that right then we have this thing called leadership.
Related: <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/10-qualities-of-masterful-leaders">10 Qualities of Masterful Leaders</a>


This post originally appeared on <a href="https://brendonburchard.tumblr.com/post/92261681098/what-great-leaders-actually-do" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">BrendonBurchard.tumblr.com</a>.

What do you stand for? Where are you going and why should people help you get there?

Maybe you’re leading a team, in charge of a large organization or you’re just trying to lead your own life. What is it that leaders actually do? let's get r.. | SUCCESS

6 Daily Practices of Great Leaders

6 Daily Practices of Great Leaders | SUCCESS

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<div class="Basic-Text-Frame" id="_idContainer206">
In 2006, I felt a calling to <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/5-lessons-on-how-to-make-a-successful-career-change">start a new career</a>, and I followed it. I left a corporate job as a consultant to <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/31-things-that-happen-when-you-finally-decide-to-live-your-dreams">pursue my dream</a> of being a personal development writer, trainer and coach. It was a big leap for me. I didn’t know how to do it, and back then there wasn’t some defined path for would-be thought leaders. I also wanted to create online video courses for people to improve their lives, even though video buffer speed was awful and there wasn’t much of a market for online courses back&nbsp;then.

Related: <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/blog/how-to-start-over">How to Start Over</a>

I faced what a lot of people face when they don’t know what they’re doing: I promptly went broke. I had to move in with my girlfriend because I couldn’t pay my rent. It’s a difficult place to be when you’re an adult and someone else is buying your groceries.

Soon after, <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/top-of-mind-how-do-you-find-motivation-when-youre-not-feeling-it">I lost my motivation</a>. There were a lot of days when I would just sit at my desk, fooling myself into thinking I was preparing or organizing. I was doing busywork, but not my life’s work. One night I was working in this tiny little bedroom we had in San Francisco, which is a hard place to be broke. I was writing on a foldout three-legged table I borrowed from my mom, and the bed next to me had become my extended desk. The bed was always covered in all of my research, my vision boards, my journals and my growing pile of bills. My girlfriend walked into the room quietly, trying to not disturb me while I was pounding away on the&nbsp;keys.

&nbsp;

<h3 class="Subhead---Sofia-Med-8 rtecenter">I had started my second chance, but I was failing productively and financially until I became clear about who I was fighting for.</h3>

&nbsp;

She crawled under the covers to go to sleep and said good night. I looked at her and realized she was sleeping under the weight, literally, of my bills. It broke something inside me. It hurt my heart so much to see her struggle because I couldn’t get my act together. And <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/blog/4-signs-youre-ready-to-make-a-change">that changed it for me</a>: For the first time in my life, I&nbsp;realized I had someone to fight for.

I had started my second chance, but I was failing productively and financially until I became clear about who I was fighting for. I didn’t want my girlfriend to have to suffer because I wasn’t being focused or confident enough to <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/17-motivational-quotes-to-help-you-achieve-your-dreams">truly go for my dreams</a>. I wanted her to have joy and be with someone who had <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/11-ways-to-attract-abundance-in-your-life">abundance in his life</a>.

So find something to fight for. Because you know what? When times get tough you’ll quickly give up on yourself, but you won’t give up fighting for others.

Related:&nbsp;<a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/blog/john-addison-how-to-find-your-why-in-life">How to Find Your ‘Why’ in Life</a>
</div>

When times get tough you’ll quickly give up on yourself, but you won’t give up fighting for others.

When times get tough you’ll quickly give up on yourself, but you won’t give up fighting for others. | SUCCESS

Find Something to Fight For

Find Something to Fight For | SUCCESS

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People ask me, “How do I reprogram my mind?” Why? Did somebody ninjutsu your brain and hypnotize you into thinking something horrible?

Here’s the thing. Most people don’t need to reprogram anything; they just need to program for the first time.

There are all these patterns of instances and circumstances that have all coalesced into these <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/blog/your-thoughts-create-your-beliefs">automatic thoughts and behaviors</a> that people aren’t necessarily being responsible for. They come up automatically and they happen. It’s not as if someone said, “I want you to think this.” No one ever sat them down and wooed them into it.
Related: <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/rohn-how-to-stop-listening-to-the-negative-voice-in-your-head">How to Stop Listening to the Negative Voice in Your Head</a>
What they’re really struggling to do is master their mind in a more capable way.
<ul>
 	<li>I need to get a hold of my mind because sometimes I just have constant negative recurring thoughts that come up. I can’t get rid of them.</li>
 	<li>Sometimes I get obsessed about this one bad thing that happened to me.</li>
 	<li>Sometimes I can’t even <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/how-to-train-your-brain-to-focus">control my attention</a>. </li>
</ul>
Let’s talk about how your thoughts are generated. I’m going to give you one simple framework to think through and then some tips, tools and strategies that you can immediately input into your life to better manage your mind.

First of all, if you’re having <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/blog/how-negative-thinking-can-ruin-your-life">negative recurring thoughts</a> and feelings, those are “easy,” and here’s what I mean by that.

Psychologists say we have two systems of thought: System 1 theory, which is your automatic, unconscious immediate thoughts and impulses that come from your body. Usually your brain is saying, Hey dude, we’ve thought through this before, or Hey dude, we’re trying to protect you. It’s running at a baseline easy energetic level.

Your brain loves to optimize itself. It doesn’t like to have to do a lot of thinking. It just likes to say, What do we already know? How can we apply it to this situation?

If you had fears in the past and a similar situation is here, your body generates those fears and says, Hey man, run away again. If you had challenges in the past and you want to protect yourself, your brain just says, Hey, protect yourself right now—we’re worried about this.

But sometimes <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/blog/say-this-not-that-7-responses-for-common-negative-thoughts">those are not helpful thoughts</a>. They’re automatic, but they aren’t actually helpful; it’s just your brain saying, This is the easiest route we know.

Part of becoming a more mature, conscious, enlightened person is to take better control of our System 2, which is the conscious dashboard in our mind. It’s our ability to more directly work, control, generate and create our own thoughts and behaviors in the moment, not relying too much on just the things that come up for us.

Of course, most of our lives are very System 1 driven, unconscious, automatic; we’re just going through the emotions.

But the people who achieve the peak amounts of success, <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/blog/the-5-non-negotiable-disciplines-of-a-high-achiever">the highest performers in the world</a>, say differently. They say, You know what, I need to discipline my mind to support me even when it comes up with automatic immediate thoughts. I want those to be positive, buoyant, confident and strong, something that leads me to healthy decisions for my life, not just things that protect me.

We have to learn how to do that. One of the simplest ways to do that is this framework to understand how thoughts develop into strong and automatic thoughts. I call the framework “RWID,” which stands for relative weight of importance and duration.

People who often have <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/how-to-stop-negative-emotions-from-derailing-your-success">negative recurring thoughts</a> and feelings in their life, the reason those keep coming up is because at some point in their lives (or continually), they are giving those thoughts, the negative ones, more attention than any other thoughts.
<h3 class="rtecenter">That simple repetition causes the negative thought to keep coming up over and over.</h3>
In other words, the relative weight they give those thoughts is high. They keep thinking about those thoughts, and it’s all that repetition that seals it in the back of their head. Now their head says, This is an easy thing, I know this one, and it pulls the thought forward. So that simple repetition causes the negative thought to keep coming up over and over.

There’s a negative and a positive aspect to that. The negative is, if you keep obsessing about negative things, your mind will be automatically conditioned to bring it up without your control—automatically. The positive aspect is that we can use that same skillset and same rule to <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/10-clever-tricks-to-trigger-positive-emotions">apply positive thoughts</a> into our own life.
Related: <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/blog/what-i-learned-from-30-days-of-positive-thinking">What I Learned From 30 Days of Positive Thinking</a>
We can give positive thinking, positive questions, positive approaches a lot of importance in our life. Focus on them and give a lot of duration to them over a period of time, and they get sealed in the brain as well. Now the brain says, That’s easy, and automatically thinks about positive things.

I’ve done this so much in my life that I automatically think about the best possible outcomes in almost everything I do. I used to think about the negative outcomes, but I thought that wasn’t supporting me. Leveraging RWID helped. I’ll break it down for you.

The first thing you have to do in order to <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/5-things-you-need-for-a-successful-mindset">improve your mind</a> is to take total control of your attention and notice where your thoughts are right now. On a continual basis you have to think:
<ul>
 	<li>Where are my thoughts right now? </li>
 	<li>Are they supporting me or are they automatically coming up negative and self-protective in ways that are not advancing my life? </li>
</ul>
Be aware, be conscious of what’s going on in your body, in your sense of feeling and emotion, and have a sense of the thoughts you’re actually having. Just start paying attention.

Start paying attention to your thoughts any time you’re in line from now on. If you’re in line at Starbucks, just say, What are my thoughts saying right now? Check in. If you’re in line in traffic waiting for the next car, just sit and think, What are my thoughts right now? Notice what you’ve been thinking about. The more we notice what we’ve been thinking about, the more we can interrupt what we’ve been thinking about.
<h3 class="rtecenter">If it’s negative and it’s not supporting you, redirect it.</h3>
If we just allow that feeling to keep coming up and we don’t pay attention to it, our life can be frazzled and <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/quick-tips-for-coping-with-anxiety">highly anxious</a>. But once we say, What’s my mind on right now? and we redirect it, that’s where personal power comes from. First awareness, an understanding and the consciousness to what’s going on, but then the ability now to be self-directed to choose what we want to focus on.

If it’s negative and it’s not supporting you, redirect it. How do you redirect it? Say, What would be the opposite of this negative thing? <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/blog/5-ways-to-stay-positive-when-youre-having-a-bad-day">Think about the positive thing.</a> Focus on that and repeat it to yourself. For many people, that might include closing their eyes and visualizing a more positive outcome. Or even just thinking, What are the next steps I should take?

Visualize that positive thing and assign a high amount of importance and duration to it. Make that thing important to you by giving it a sensation.
<ul>
 	<li>You feel that thing.</li>
 	<li>You sense it.</li>
 	<li>You sense what your next step would be.</li>
 	<li>You sense how it would feel if the outcome would be better.</li>
 	<li>How would it feel emotionally, psychologically, spiritually for that thing?</li>
</ul>
Allow it to have a lot of emotion. Pay attention to it with your eyes closed. You see that thing, you feel it and sense a different step, you know what you’re going to do, you pay attention to it and you keep focusing on that over a period of minutes.

When your mind automatically wants to go back to the easy, which might be negative, you think, No, no, I’m not into easy right now—I’m into conditioning my mind.
Related: <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/5-things-you-can-do-to-improve-your-mindset-in-20-minutes">5 Things You Can Do to Improve Your Mindset in 20 Minutes</a>
Focus, give attention, duration and sensation to positive thinking. Attention, duration, sensation. Attention, duration, sensation.

By repeating a positive alternative to a negative impulse, we give ourselves personal power.

You can either give a negative thought more time, energy and focus, or you can just stop it and force your brain—creatively force and direct it—to a different possible alternative. Force it. I’m sensing this negative thing coming up for me. I’m sensing it. Stop! OK, get to work, brain! <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/it-takes-a-positive-attitude-to-achieve-positive-results">What positive thing could I create and focus on?</a> Close your eyes and think about it, focus on it and build it out. Make it a labyrinth in your mind so you can visualize and see the positive thing, feel it and focus on it. Later in the evening, focus on it again. You start building in that capacity.

If this all sounds way too philosophical and you’re like, How do I make it happen? Here’s a very simple thing you can do to <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/blog/4-ways-to-actively-reprogram-your-thoughts">reprogram your mind</a>. Create a sheet of two simple things.

First, write down five positive questions that you’re going to ask yourself three or four times a day. Every day you’re going to read these questions to yourself and answer them. They can be questions like…
<ul>
 	<li>What can I feel incredibly grateful for right now?</li>
 	<li>How could I surprise somebody right now?</li>
 	<li>How could I have fun right now?</li>
 	<li>How could I demonstrate love or excellence right now?</li>
</ul>
Do this for 30 days and you will recognize a total shift in your life.

They’re simple questions, but you’re giving them weight by focusing on them three times during the day. You have duration by focusing on them over 30 days. Your mind starts to re-shift its gears to give automatic ease to answering those questions and living in that mindset versus an undirected, unconscious mindset.

Second, come up with three words that describe <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/5-ways-to-become-the-person-you-aspire-to-be">your ideal self</a>. Mine are “present, excited and bold.” Focus on those questions three times a day as well. Put them on your phone where they come up as an alarm three different times during the day. My phone buzzes and those words are there. I might be in a bad mood and completely detached. And then I look and I’m like, Dude! No! I’m an excited person. Break that thought and get back into this. I’ve got this. This is who I am.

That might sound so simple, but people won’t do the discipline. They are so frustrated with their mind because they haven’t done <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/blog/7-ways-to-develop-daily-discipline">the conscious discipline</a> to program it.

Our unconscious and conscious mind are incredibly programmed not just by thought, but it’s also incredibly conditioned by action and behavior. You’ve heard the saying, “Fake it till you make it.” I don’t love that, I’d rather just say, “Be authentic over and over again.”

If you take action on a consistent basis, it teaches your mind to do that. So do things that are positive for you. <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/top-of-mind-4-bold-habits-to-make-you-fearless">Take bolder actions.</a> Teach yourself, I’m just going to be confident for no other reason.
<h3 class="rtecenter">The more you take action, the more your brain is automatically conditioned to understand that’s what we do.</h3>
I want you to really think about this. The more you take action, the more your brain is automatically conditioned to understand that’s what we do. You can actually condition your mind without doing any thought other than just behaving in a more positive manner… and suddenly you find yourself <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/7-practical-tips-to-achieve-a-positive-mindset">thinking more positively.</a>

I know it sounds duplicitous but I want you to really think about that: Your actions condition your mind as much as your recurring thoughts condition your mind. So be a person of good positive thinking. Be a person of good positive action. And suddenly, one day you’ll wake up and be like, I feel amazing, extraordinary, positive.
Related: <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/how-positivity-makes-you-healthy-and-successful">How Positivity Makes You Healthy and Successful</a>


This post originally appeared on <a href="https://brendonburchard.tumblr.com/post/90849597298/how-to-reprogram-your-mind-for-positive-thinking" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">BrendonBurchard.tumblr.com</a>.

Stop and direct your brain to a different possible alternative.

Let’s talk about how your thoughts are generated. I’m going to give you one simple framework to think through and some tips, tools, and strategies that you... | SUCCESS

How to Train Your Brain for Positive Thinking

How to Train Your Brain for Positive Thinking | SUCCESS

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https://youtu.be/OI9jv_KJsTw

I’m always amazed by people who say they’re unhappy in their lives, and they act as if happiness is this big mysterious force that is difficult to figure out.

Happiness is one of the most studied areas of human endeavors in the history of the world. When you look at psychology and philosophy, this is all they’ve been talking about for literally centuries.
Related: <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/videos/youtube/ted-talks-the-habits-of-happiness">TED Talks: ‘The Habits of Happiness’</a>
So we figured out the basics of happiness, but sometimes common sense isn’t common practice, so people struggle for no reason.
<h2>1. We know happiness comes from an orientation toward the world in which we look at the past, the present and the future in specific ways.</h2>
We often tend to <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/videos/youtube/ted-talks-want-to-be-happy-be-grateful">look at the past with gratitude</a> and fond recollection, even if there were struggles, challenges, suffering and turmoil.

We find our places in the past, and we feel a sense of acceptance about the past. It happened. It’s good.

All things were as they were and today they are as they shall be. It’s being OK with whatever the past is—finding a peace, acceptance and gratitude there allows us to be a little freer in the present.

And <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/rohn-wherever-you-are-be-there">being in the present</a> makes us happy. Being engaged in whatever we are really doing. Really engaged in it, mentally engaged in what we’re doing each day. Where we’re challenging ourselves just a little bit. Where we’re finding something we’re passionate about and interested in. Challenging ourselves to bring our full conscious presence to the moment. To develop awareness.

Almost all spiritual texts, teachers and trainers are trying to help people become present in the moment, more accepting of the world as it is—the power of now. Get here. Be engaged and be present with the moment.

Then with the future, it’s all about anticipating with excitement what’s to come in the future, even if the future is scary, even if you know there’s still going to be a hardship (because there will be), even if you know there’s going to be struggle, there will be tomorrow.
<h3 class="rtecenter">You’ve forgotten that there is magic to life, that there is something tomorrow.</h3>
What are you excited about for tomorrow? If you can’t find anything, that has nothing to do with the reality of tomorrow. <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/5-things-you-can-do-to-improve-your-mindset-in-20-minutes">It has to do with your mindset.</a> You’ve poisoned yourself in pools of pessimism for so long that you drowned yourself of hope. You’ve forgotten that there is magic to life, that there is something tomorrow.

You can find something.

Even if you just say, You know what, tomorrow I’m going to feel better, just because I’m going to decide to be. Be excited about that.

Tomorrow I’m going to go <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/try-these-30-random-acts-of-kindness-to-brighten-someones-day">do something nice for somebody</a>. Tomorrow I’m going to get focused on this one project I’ve been waiting to do. Tomorrow I’m going to make the damn bed. Whatever it is, find something to be excited about for tomorrow.

That’s the basis of everything we know about your emotional world and your mental world of happiness. It’s so simple: Be accepting and at peace with the past. Be present and engaged here in the present. Be excited and anticipate something for the future.
<h2>2. We’ve also learned what it takes to be happy and healthy physically.</h2>
What does it take to be happy and emotionally and physically healthy?

Physically, health is easy. It’s…
<ul>
 	<li><a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/7-quick-tricks-to-sleep-better-tonight">Sleeping eight hours.</a></li>
 	<li><a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/do-you-drink-enough-water">Drinking more water.</a></li>
 	<li>Making sure you take breaks throughout the day to break your concentration, to stand up and not sit hunched over all day.</li>
 	<li>Working out two- to- four times a week.</li>
 	<li><a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/why-exercise-makes-us-happy">Getting outside and moving around a little bit.</a></li>
 	<li>Eating more greens.</li>
 	<li>Avoiding sugars and caffeine, the things that amp you up and then crash you down.</li>
 	<li>Avoiding the food groups you’re allergic to.</li>
</ul>
We all know this, but what’s so easy? Common sense isn’t common practice, if we’re hungry: pizza! Happiness and being physically happy is very simple and easy; you’re just not doing it consistently enough if you don’t feel physically enlivened and vibrant.
<h2>3. Another thing people often struggle with in their happiness is their relationships.</h2>
I’m not saying relationships aren’t hard, but are you applying the common sense that we know from years and years and years of <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/17-things-every-strong-relationship-has-in-common">relationship advice</a>?

Are you present with your loved one?&nbsp;<a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/blog/secret-to-a-happy-marriage-put-your-spouse-first">Are you appreciative and adoring of them?</a>&nbsp;Are you giving them the benefit of the doubt?&nbsp;Are you realizing that it’s you in the relationship with them, fully interdependent?

They aren’t causing the problem separate of you; the two of you are in a dance together in which you have to honor and respect each other. You have to make life fun for each other.

If your marriage is stale, it’s not because the marriage is stale; it’s because you and the other person allowed each other to go stale. You have to fire each other up again.
<h2>4. What about spirituality?&nbsp;</h2>
Everything we know in spirituality comes down to the basics: having faith, having a sense of connection to something larger than ourselves, to allow ourselves to be amazed and awed by the mystery of the world, of this universe, of our God and our Creator, to be honoring of those very things in which we have faith toward.

None of this is magic. It’s about looking at your life sometimes and just doing a full-scale evaluation on a Sunday once in a while. Look at your life and say:

Am I emotionally happy? If not, how am I looking at the past, the present and the future? Am I physically healthy? If not, <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/7-superfoods-you-need-for-a-longer-healthier-life">how am I eating?</a> How am I sleeping? How am I working out? Am I doing the basics here?

If your relationships aren’t happy, then the answer is:

What is not happening in the relationship? What am I not bringing into this relationship anymore? How am I not sensing and contributing to this relationship anymore? What have I not asked for consistently enough? What is it that they specifically need that might turn it around?

<a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/15-thoughtful-quotes-about-gratitude">Spiritually, just feel gratitude.</a>

Aren’t we so blessed to have these moments? That we get to be here, listening to ideas and concepts about improving our lives?

How blessed are we that we have people who are around us?

How blessed are we that we could give more love to the world just because we choose to?

How blessed are we that we can get up tomorrow, <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/5-ways-to-become-the-person-you-aspire-to-be">decide who we are going to be</a> and start becoming them?

How blessed are we that we can wake up tomorrow and start designing the life we always wanted to live?
Related:&nbsp;<a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/13-quotes-about-finding-your-bliss">13 Quotes About Finding Your Bliss</a>
This post originally appeared on <a href="https://brendonburchard.tumblr.com/post/84701151938/how-to-be-more-happy" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">BrendonBurchard.tumblr.com</a>.

Happiness is one of the most studied areas of human endeavors in the history of the world. People have figured out the basics of happiness, but sometimes...

Happiness is one of the most studied areas of human endeavors in the history of the world. People have figured out the basics of happiness, but sometimes... | SUCCESS

How to Be Happier?

How to Be Happier? | SUCCESS

https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/featured-pic-78.png

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LfM9ZPGmVY

I believe there’s a huge difference in the way successful people and <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/5-reasons-you-arent-successful">unsuccessful people</a> think. And I believe that success itself is not some big mystery that people haven’t figured out before. Even though when we’re struggling and fighting and trying to make it day by day to get better, it can feel like this arduous un-noble process. Success has been figured out—and it’s a mindset game.
Related: <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/5-things-you-need-for-a-successful-mindset">5 Things You Need for a Successful Mindset</a>
Most of success is just about how we use our psychology.

I remember when I was starting my business and I really wanted to be good at it. I was trying to become an author and a speaker, and people were saying you may or may not be successful with that. I thought, It’s not like there’s a trait of successful people.

You <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/5-must-live-by-rules-from-historys-masterminds">look across history</a> at successful people and they aren’t from a given background. They don’t come from a specific economic stature. They aren’t in a position where they are of one or another demographic; it’s all over. We have thousands of collective years of history. <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/rohn-why-some-people-fail-and-others-succeed">Some people succeed, some don’t</a>, and I think it comes down to how we manage our mind and our days.

I think there’s a difference between successful and unsuccessful people in the way they particularly think about approaching something new. I think unsuccessful people, when they have a big dream and start thinking about what’s going to be required to accomplish that dream, they get very limiting in their beliefs about themselves and what’s possible.

They say three types of things specifically:
<ul>
 	<li>“I don’t know how to do that.” So they stop.</li>
 	<li>“I don’t have those things. I’m not like those people.” So they stop.</li>
 	<li>“I’m not like that.” So they stop.</li>
</ul>
<a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/10-little-things-successful-people-do-differently">Successful people have a different way.</a>
<h3 class="rtecenter">The challenge is that unsuccessful people keep stopping when they think of what they currently know, have or are.</h3>
Everybody dreams. You dream, I dream, successful people dream. Everybody dreams and has a vision. Everyone, if we could just take five minutes and think about their lives, we could all come up with ways to improve our lives and reach another level of success, joy, happiness, achievement, contribution, fulfillment and soul. We can all elevate. The challenge is that unsuccessful people keep stopping when they think of what they currently know, have or are.
Related: <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/blog/4-things-successful-people-dont-do">4 Things Successful People Don’t Do</a>
However, successful people say, “I want to do that, but I don’t know how,” and instead of stopping, they say, “Then my job is to go learn that.” They take their current limitation and put it on their agenda as a job to do, as a thing to figure out and make happen. Instead of saying, “I don’t have that,” they say, “Then my job is to go build that.” Instead of saying “I’m not like that,” they say, “My job is to go become more of that, <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/rohn-better-is-something-you-become">become that person</a> who could accomplish those things.”

When I was starting to do online marketing for the first time, I was literally bankrupt. I went from a place of bankruptcy to the point where I really committed to becoming successful at it. And in 18 months, I made $4.6 million. It was a huge leap.

What created that breakthrough wasn’t that I had <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/rohn-how-do-you-attract-opportunity-into-your-life">new opportunities</a> or new technology, like, “Wow, there’s the internet now!” Those things were already there. I went from one level of thinking to the next level of thinking:
<ul>
 	<li>I used to say, “I don’t know how to build a web page,” so I wrote an agenda that said, “Figure out how to build a web page.” I spent hours, nights and weekends on my job, figuring out how to do that.</li>
 	<li>I used to say, “I don’t have one of those lists, no subscribers and nobody knows who I am.” So I said, “Job: Go build a list, get subscribers, add value and content into the marketplace, and they’ll come.”</li>
</ul>
Keep putting stuff out there. <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/11-things-smart-people-dont-say">I also didn’t say</a>, “I have that dream, but I can’t have that because I’m not like that.” I wasn’t a public speaker and didn’t know how to do video. So I thought, I have to go learn that art and become a better speaker, a better communicator. I have to become more confident. I have to become a person capable of doing these things. I have to change myself to get there. I can’t wait for circumstances to change so I can have my dream. If that was the case, our dreams would never happen.

We have to get to the point of maturity in our lives where we say two things are going to change my life:
<ol>
 	<li>Something new is going to come into my life and make me lucky and blessed. But maybe I can’t count on that forever.</li>
 	<li>So maybe now, instead, <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/blog/how-to-redesign-your-life-with-just-3-questions">I have to consciously design my life</a>. If I want to change and want my dream, then something new has to come from me. I’m going to become a better person. I’m going to become a person who is more optimistic, more confident and more driven, not because I am that now, but because I can grow.</li>
</ol>
You can become the type of person who you need to be to achieve your ideal life. You can start today, living from your highest ideals, your highest and strongest sense of self.

At some point in your life, you have to give yourself permission to become your best self. And by becoming your best self, you start to achieve your best things. You start to contribute better things. You start to become a better human being. You can do that now, today.
<h3 class="rtecenter">At some point in your life, you have to give yourself permission to become your best self.</h3>
The next time you’re thinking about a big dream, stop and think, I don’t know how, and then set it up on your calendar to go learn those things. I don’t have that. Then set it up to build that. I’m not like that. Then set it up step by step to develop the skillsets and competencies you need so you can become that and ultimately <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/17-motivational-quotes-to-help-you-achieve-your-dreams">achieve your dream</a>.

It’s there and waiting for you; don’t stop!
Related: <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/5-things-you-can-do-to-improve-your-mindset-in-20-minutes">5 Things You Can Do to Improve Your Mindset in 20 Minutes</a>

There’s a huge difference in the way successful people and unsuccessful people think. And I believe that success isn't some big mystery, its a mindset game...

There’s a huge difference in the way successful people and unsuccessful people think. And I believe that success isn't some big mystery, its a mindset game... | SUCCESS

How Incredibly Successful People Think

How Incredibly Successful People Think | SUCCESS

https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Successful_People_Think.jpg