Do you know how to be successful in life?

Success is what you make of it and what you decide it is.

You define what success is. My kid keeps telling me we should be billionaires. I’m not going to be that successful. It’s not what I’m shooting for. Maybe I just don’t have an imagination.

I am trying to be and become more successful in many areas of my life.

Last week I started reading “The Official Guide to Success” by Tom Hopkins. It’s an oldie but a goody. The first chapter gives the secret I’m working on right now.

It’s very simple. Decide how you want to be successful in life and then trick your mind into doing the things that will bring that about. It’s about changing your identity in your mind towards that thing so you will do the things to become that in your mind.

One of the areas I’m working on in my life is being more physically fit. It want to be in fighting shape again. To do that, I must become an athlete again.

I’m tricking myself into thinking I’m an athlete so I do what athletes do. Athletes don’t miss workouts. They don’t eat food that is bad for them, and they are always being active. These things will get me back into fighting shape.

To trick yourself into a different Identity you have to tell yourself every day, multiple times a day, that you are that thing. And as that thing, you do these things and not those.

Tom Hopkins says to make flashcards and carry them around with you. I’ve been doing this and it feels like it is working.

My diet has been better this week and I haven’t missed a workout.

Many gurus and self-help people have said this for years. Zig Ziglar had a self-talk card that you can still get from his organization. It didn’t work for me because most of what he defines on the card, I either already do, or don’t care about.

Tom Hopkin says make 10 to 20 cards of things you want to accomplish. Then every morning, at lunch, and before you go to bed review them.

Make the cards so they are in your voice and have you with the identity that you want already. Talk about how it will feel, what you will do, and do not do as that person that has accomplished that thing.

My Athlete card says “I am an athlete. I work out and eat like one to lift more weight in the gym and ride my bike faster.” Right now bike riding and gym time are what I’m doing. When I change workouts, I’ll change my card.

The card-making me write this post says “I am a podcaster and record multiple per week to grow an audience and help more people.” It’s part of my plan to make the world a better place… Just help people be better, and they will help the people around them be better, and sooner or later, the world will be a better place.

So what will you put on your cards? What do you want to be? What do you want to be good at? What do you want to be better at? Say “I am blank, because I do this, this and this. By being good at blank, I will have/feel/get/help this.”

Make yourself 10 to 20 of these cards. Write it down, no computer crap. Something about writing it on paper and then seeing it in your own writing makes it more real.

Then get about doing it. If you review these every day, three or four times, you will find it hard to lie to yourself and you will change for the better.

Now get out there and be better.

Ben Branam

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