Daily Boost — Motivation and Personal Growth

What? The Best Death Ever?

You are a goal-setting machine.

That’s not to say you are setting, working toward, and accomplishing more goals than anybody else. It’s the way your brain is wired. If that’s the case, why is it that reaching your goal can leave you feeling lost?

In 2006, I had a life-changing moment that happened in the middle of the night. My wife, Sheryl, was diagnosed with terminal cancer, and my world crashed. Even worse, they told me there wasn’t anything I could do about it. 

In my world, those are fighting words.

The following six weeks were a whirlwind of miracle-searching activity, including a trip to Costa Rica for alternative treatment. As the weeks passed, the reality of what was coming became real. Sheryl would not survive. We called Hospice.

In the coming days, we settled into a routine that no family ever wants to go through, and that gave me the idea to call a meeting.

I proposed a new goal with my kids around my wife’s bed. 

“If this is going to happen, why don’t we make it the best death ever?”

The initial response was silence - until my wife said,

“Well, if I’m going through this, we should enjoy the experience - right?”

From that point forward, even in the most challenging moments, we all lived life to the fullest. Family, friends, and everybody in our circle knew the goal and did their part to help us reach it. 

Exactly 100 days after diagnosis, Sheryl passed away. 

It hurt like nothing any of us had ever experienced. Still, we found ourselves with a warm feeling about how we had handled things. In time, our conversations turned to our goal of making it the best death ever. We realized we had achieved it. 

That's the thing about goals…

All the excitement of setting a goal happens while you’re in the middle of your journey - and you are always in the middle. 

Easy or difficult. When you choose to pursue a plan, the destination doesn’t matter except that it serves as a starting point for your next journey.

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Knowing Your Why AND Why Not

Getting what you want in life will be two things…

It will be easier than you can imagine or harder than you ever thought possible.

The journey will be exciting and scary.

Looking back, you will be glad you did it, yet wonder if you will ever do it again.

That's why WHY is so important.

You must know WHY you are doing anything to sustain your efforts.

And it must be YOUR why, not somebody else's.

You must own your WHY, understand your WHY, and live your WHY.

Many folks are not clear on WHY, or they do it for others or other reasons.

Sometimes, you might put up with one thing, hoping you'll get something else. I’m sure that you’ve found that's not the way it works.

Remember, what you focus on expands. That means you’ll get more of putting up with stuff if that's what you focus on.

It's true. Knowing WHY you don't want to do something is as essential as knowing WHY you want something.

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Leveraging Life Cycles

My friend Louis Gates introduced me to his Life Cycle theory years ago. I’m in an inspiring year. 

Where are you?

Cycles begin at birth and advances every nine years like this:

Year 1: You decide what you want and start asking for it.  

Year 2: As the pieces come together, you narrow your focus.

Year 3: The resources you need begin to arrive.  

Year 4: You find yourself moving toward your purpose in life.

Year 5: Re-evaluation begins. Toss out what you don’t need and keep what works.

Year 6: Your focus intensifies, and you work with the resources you’ve decided will benefit you.

Year 7: You take stock of things that no longer serve you.

Year 8: Clearing the clutter begins. It’s almost time to start the next cycle.

Year 9: You explore and decide what you want to do in the next cycle.

Look back on your life and notice how your Life Lifecycle is always in play.

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Life-Changing Success Habits

Whatever results you want in your life will be produced by your thoughts, actions, and daily habits.

Most people work hard every day to make their world better. But, no matter how hard you work, life will get in the way. That’s life. That’s life’s job. That will always be life’s job.

No matter how much you try, life will get in the way - and you may have noticed - you can’t think your way out of it.  

But what if you didn’t have to?

What if you could stop life from getting in the way of what you want?

In a survey of 233 self-made millionaires, there was a huge difference in what they do daily vs lower-income earners - and they do it automatically.  

They use the power of habit—figure out what they want and how to get it, and keep repeating until they get what you want. Set it and forget it.

Right now, you might be sleeping in, reading occasionally, and going with the flow instead of focusing on your flow.

Successful folks get up early, read a lot, and spend 15-30 minutes daily on focused thinking.

Today, you may let yourself get out of shape, spend too much time in your head, and never seem to reach your goals.

Successful people prioritize exercise, spend time with people who inspire them, and pursue their goals.

Do you struggle to get enough sleep, don’t have enough money, and hang out with folks who are doing the same?

Successful people get enough sleep, have multiple incomes, and avoid time-wasters.

The success you want is is hiding in the distractions of your life. To get it, you only need to create your thoughts, design your actions, and establish a habit.

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Focusing ON Focus 

Here we are, entering the most distraction-filled time of the year.  

How can you keep moving toward your goals when everything else is in the way?

With Singular Focus.

Singular means extraordinary, remarkable, and exceptional.

Focus is a central point of attraction, attention, or activity.

It’s time to focus on one activity that will move you forward. You simply won’t have time for everything else.

How do you get Singular Focus?

1) Reduce your things-to-do Universe. Choose an essential item and get it done during the upcoming busy season.

2) Remember. You can have everything, but not at the same time.  

3) Reduce as much interference as possible. With all the buzz coming, plan small amounts of time to work on your goal.

It’s a simple truth -

When you are busy with life, too many extras will bog you down. Apply Singular Focus to your most important goal. Save the others until next year.

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9 Success Principles You Need

You may have heard that you will elevate your station in life to the degree that you elevate yourself.

Since you are reading this today, consider yourself elevated.

Even more so if you do these:

1) Acknowledge that all emotions come from within you.

2) Seek out someone you respect. Let them keep you honest.

3) Recognize there is life after failure.

4) Read purposefully. Apply your knowledge.

5) Challenge yourself to be brutally honest in everything you do.

6) Reflect on what you spend the most time on.

7) Remind yourself that you weren’t meant to procrastinate.

8) Put the phone away. Be present.

9) Time is your most precious resource. Fact.

Can you imagine how much you can change in your life when you live by those principles?

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Waking Up With Gratitude

I woke up this morning with an incredible zest to expand my feeling of gratefulness. Well, there is not so much to expand as to recognize all the things I am grateful for but haven’t thought about lately.

That’s the thing about living in a fast-paced world where our daily activities, big and small, fly by and are quickly forgotten. It’s always been that way. There is nothing new in the world. That got me thinking about one of my favorite quotes —

“Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.” —Robert Brault

As a no-regrets guy, I admit to sometimes not living in gratitude. Thankfully, the wisdom of others is always making sure I remember what is important—

Here are a few of my favorites.

“If a fellow isn’t thankful for what he’s got, he isn’t likely to be thankful for what he’s going to get.”—Frank A. Clark

“Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance.” —Eckhart Tolle

“Who does not thank for little will not thank for much.” —Estonian Proverb

“Gratitude is a quality similar to electricity: It must be produced and discharged and used up in order to exist at all.”—William Faulkner

“Enough is a feast.”—Buddhist Proverb

“When you are grateful, fear disappears, and abundance appears.”—Anthony Robbins

“When eating fruit, remember the one who planted the tree.”—Vietnamese Proverb

“Gratitude can transform common days into thanksgivings, turn routine jobs into joy, and change ordinary opportunities into blessings.”—William Arthur Ward

“A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue, but the parent of all the other virtues.”—Cicero

“Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.”—Robert Brault

I’m grateful for YOU!

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You Will Change When You Wear Yourself Out

Many have said, "Life is a marathon, not a sprint." 

But what happens when you find yourself doing both at the same time? 

If you've been living on this planet for any time, you've figured out life is a long game made of day-to-day sprints. 

You make small deposits over time if you want a big bank balance.

If you want to lose weight, you make small reductions over time.

If you want to get a promotion at your job, you do well every day. 

The challenge happens when you have not defined the marathon you are running. A lack of a specific goal can only lead to daily activity that may or may not get you to your destination. If that happens to you, you may feel worn out, frustrated, and wondering when things will turn around. 

There's good news. That kind of thinking means you are on the right track to success.

Certain stamina is required to reach any goal. And society today celebrates your ability to put in the hard work no matter what. 

There's only one problem. 

If it's not working for you, it's not sustainable behavior. Sooner or later, you will decide to make a change - usually abruptly.

Here's the truth: you will change when you wear yourself out. 

Reluctant, fearful, or hard-headed, you will only put up with a less-than-satisfying path in life for so long. Eventually, you will wear yourself out.

When you've had enough, even if the timing is not perfect, you will change when you wear yourself out. 

Everybody knows it. 

The marathon we call life will continue until it doesn’t.

Why wear yourself out? 

You may as well skip the bad stuff and get to the good stuff right now. 

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Why You Should Set Impossible Goals

I recently attended a conference where I enjoyed a presentation by Psychologist Dr. Benjamin Hardy. Honestly, I’ve been a fan of his work for a couple of years and am familiar with most of his working concepts. 

This time… one stood out.

In my day-to-day work, it’s not uncommon for clients to struggle with narrowing a goal to one with enough meaning to propel them into action.

In most cases, it’s a struggle between the important and the impossible.

A goal must be important enough to excite you, but that can also make it seem impossible and scare you. But that’s what you want and need.

According to Dr. Hardy, when you limit your goals to only the most important and almost impossible from where you are today, you are forced to use a very tight filter to figure out how to make it happen. 

In other words, taking random action will not help you reach an impossible goal. 

Only a highly filtered, very disciplined, and nearly surgical approach will make it happen. If you are doing anything else, your goal isn’t big enough.

Instead of go big or go home, go big and figure it out is the way to success.

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How Purpose and Passion Make a Better Life

From the time I was very young, I've been drawn to living a passionate life - no matter what gets in the way. 

I've also had a solid purpose to impact people's lives while living a passionate life positively. Something can be challenging to archive 100% of the time. But isn't that the point of Passion and Purpose? Isn't it something that you just DO?

Amazingly, for all the focus on living a purposeful and passion-filled life, there has been very little research. A solid definition has only been agreed upon in the last few years - and it says a lot. I'll let it speak for itself.

Passion is defined as a strong inclination toward an activity that people like, find important, and in which they invest time and energy. 

Purpose is defined as a stable and generalized intention to accomplish something personally meaningful and, at the same time, leads to productive engagement with some aspect of the world beyond the self.

As I've always said, "If you don't know your purpose, your purpose is to find your purpose."

And the best way to do that is to follow your passion. (Read the above description again for more impact)

Purpose and Passion. It's like Chocolate and Peanut Butter.

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