Daily Boost — Motivation and Personal Growth

4 Steps to Change Your Life

Creating a difference in your life is a non-stop process that requires simple actions to help you get what you want. And it is, after all, about getting what you want and keeping what you love.

You’ll always go through these steps:

1) Decide. Everything begins with your decision to head off in a new direction. While sometimes you may feel like you’ve made a decision, if you’re not moving, you haven’t.

2) Define. Aimless wandering is fun when that’s what you’ve decided to do. Otherwise, it’s frustrating, exhausting, and takes place more than you think. When you define your path, you get to walk your path.

3) Deploy. As dull as the advice may be, putting your plan into action is the only way for you to get what you want. If you don’t deploy, you don’t get it.

4) Defend. After working so hard to get what you want, you can guarantee that something or somebody will try to take away your results. That’s not good or bad. That’s life. When you find what you love, be sure to defend it so you never lose it.

Simple. I like simple Simple works!

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Questions To Ask Before You Begin

Everybody has dreams. Daydreams, dreams while you sleep, and dreams of what you wish for the future.

I’ve always believed that dreams are goals you have nurtured to become real in your life. 

But how do you know if the voice speaking to your heart will lead you in the right direction?

Brant Pinvidic’s book, The 3-Minute Rule, has four questions that will help:

1) What is it? Do you understand exactly what you want? 

2) How does it work? How will you go about reaching your goal? What will likely be the outcome?

3) Can you do it? Is your plan reasonable? Do you have the time, skills, money? 

4) Are you sure? If you are willing to put in the effort, are you confident you can achieve your goal?

Use these when something is holding you back. I promise. The clarity you are seeking is around the corner.

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Morning Routines That Work For You

You hear a lot about using morning rituals to get more done. But what if you could use your mornings to get more done for YOU?

In the fast-face world, we live in today; there seem to be two groups when it comes to how to use mornings—personal and productive. Once folks remove themselves from the craziness of jumping out of bed, taking care of the kids, and hitting the drive-through, they choose one of the two. 

But what if there was a third group that was more satisfying?

Before I go on, I need to admit that I didn't use to be a morning person and didn't like getting up early at all. I even quit my first couple of jobs as a morning radio host so I could sleep. 

Later in my career, I would hit my desk at 5 AM and pound through my to-do list as fast as possible. I must have been saying, "I…MUST… GET… IT… DONE!" That didn't work well because I didn't see the purpose of getting out of bed early if it was only to work.

For a few years, I spent my mornings reading and meditating before heading off to the gym. I got in better shape, but my bank balance was less, and my future goals were seemingly unreachable.

Then, one day out of pure frustration and sporting a brand-new I don't give a heck attitude, I asked myself a question that changed everything -

"What's the first thing I should do tomorrow morning that, if I do, will allow me to live a life of my design?"

Notice that I didn't ask about work or what was on my to-do list. It didn't have anything to do with getting more done or getting in better shape. I focused on the lifestyle I wanted to live - and it was life-changing.

In the years since I made that decision, I've started my days doing the most important thing I deem required to live the life of my choosing, and I've been happier for it.

I've also come across dozens of morning do-gooders who are getting everything done, except what they dream of doing, and when they realize it's not their fault, everything changes. They got caught up in the buzz of life, and everyone does. But, the minute you choose to focus on YOU before anything else is when you start making real progress.

When you focus on what is important to you, you get what is important to you.

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Don’t Break Your Success Chain

I’ll never forget the day a friend called and made me an offer I couldn’t refuse - and I didn’t.

Rob was an event promotor who had snagged the chance to book an up-and-coming comedian named Jerry Seinfeld into a local venue. He needed somebody to warm up the audience and introduce Jerry. I was all in when he agreed to cover my drink tab and let me hang out with Jerry before the show.

It was 1986, and Jerry’s television series about nothing was still in development. I know that because it’s what we talked about before the show. As he munched on veggies and sipped sparkling water, I’ll never forget how focused he was on getting what he wanted. Tired and worn out from living on the road, I asked how he managed to keep going. He said —

“I know exactly what I want. I’m a comedian, so I have to be funny. The only way to be funny is to write funny jokes. The only way to write funny jokes is to write every day. So, I write every day and put a big red “X” on the calendar. Eventually, there is a chain of X’s on the calendar. My goal is not to break the chain.” 

Then, in a very Seinfeld way, he screamed, “Don’t break the chain! That’s how you get what.”

Over the years, I’ve read that others have had the same conversation with Jerry. I’m guessing it was a rule of success that he practiced and shared often. I’m happy he shared it with me.

As we begin 2023, pick an action and do it every day until you get so good people notice. And, whatever you do, “Don’t break the chain!”

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Are Smart Goals The Secret?

I'm a big fan of setting big-ass goals. Dreaming BIG is my natural state - which is why S.M.A.R.T. goals are not all that smart.

S.M.A.R.T. stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-Bound.

While it may seem like a good plan, I can't wrap my head around not setting goals because they don't seem achievable or realistic.

Excuse me?

Since when did big- goals seem achievable and realistic?  

If that were true, you would already be doing them. Anytime you are moving from dreaming into doing, you will be living in the land of crazy and scary.

If you hold yourself to what is achievable and realistic, you might as well keep doing what you're doing.

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Your Rules of Success

If you study people who have had success in any area of their life, you will find they have much in common. 

Not only do they follow a set of rules, but they also follow those rules no matter how much life gets in the way.

What are those rules?

The person who has the strongest "Why" wins.

The person who shows up wins.

The person who shows up on time wins.

The person who is most persistent wins.

The person show never assumes wins.

The person who is the best at what they do wins.

The person who plans and documents their journey and interactions wins.

The person who never gives up total control to others wins.

The person who acceptances responsibility for themselves wins.

The person who serves the most wins.

The person who is grateful for everything wins.

The actions you take automatically become the life you experience. It's essential to be mindful of where you are heading. 

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Are You Choosing a Word For The Year?

Around this time every year, people begin to declare to me the WORD they have chosen to guide their life for the following year. 

I like words - especially when combined with wisdom and a few wisecracks - but that might be just me. 

Still, I'm always amazed at how excited people get and how much they believe their WORD will guide them into the next year.

I'm jealous. I need a WORD, too - and that's where the trouble begins.

I can't imagine choosing a single word to represent 365 days of getting after it. However, having a WORD is an emotional trigger and fires neurons in your brain to keep you moving, so why can't my WORD be several WORDS?

Just like magic - they arrived…

Simple. Sophisticated. Focused. Automated. Delegated. Deleted. Ritualistic. 

It's a little Stoic, a little Tao, and a lot of Scott LOGIC - it works for me.

If you could use an emotional supercharger, choose a WORD… or WORDS for the year… and see how the next year ROCKS!

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Rules For a Happy Life

300 BC, political life was driving people crazy. To calm the masses, several schools of philosophy popped up. Stoicism still resonates powerfully today.

1. Don't enslave yourself to annoying people.

2. Choose reasonable expectations.

3. Pre-meditate those expectations.

4. You are a mind that is operating a bag of chemicals you call a body.

5. Stop pretending you know that things are bad.

6. You were put here to reason, so use it already.

7. Life is NOT too short.

8. Feel your emotions like a Stoic would. They are your power.

9. Anger is a choice.

10. When it comes down to it, we are dogs tied to the back of a cart.

Sound wisdom never goes out of style.

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The Strangest Secret

Earl Nightingale created one of the great motivational works of history. “The Strangest Secret” began as a tool to motivate his insurance company sales force. It is now a motivational standard.

What is the Strangest Secret?

1) You become what you think.

2) You must pay the price.

3) We must control our thoughts.

4) Cut away all limitations of the mind.

5) Set a clearly defined goal. 

6) Act promptly when your path is clear.

7) Save at least 10% of every dollar.

What do you want more than anything else? Commit today to do more than you must to get it.

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Giving Up What You Are Not

Are you striving for something different and confused about where to begin?

I have a client who, after years of poor eating habits, had become over 100 pounds overweight. She decided to get healthy. She also had no idea how.

My advice was simple.

If your mind is telling you something you are doing is NOT who you are - just give up what you are NOT.

In her case, she knew lousy food because she had been eating it for years. She gave it up. 

She didn’t have time to go to the gym. She gave up what was stopping her.

Too many activities were stealing the time she needed to heal herself. She gave them up.

The small things that you DON'T DO make ALL the difference to your life. 

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