A good friend recently asked to me speak at his business training event in Atlanta. The audience was business owners and real estate investors. The group was diverse but the common thread was that each business person had a desire to inject some growth into their business. And with growth they most likely wanted more profit. There are times when people get more than they bargained for. 

I always enjoy sharing with a group or audience. While I primarily consider myself a coach, I am also passionate about teaching, training and preaching. 

My process for preparing to speak or train is never the same. There are times where the topic is obvious and notes just begin to flow. There are other times when I can reach into my archives and pull something out to rework or combine with other items.

And then there are the incredibly beautiful situations where new ideas and creative topics are divinely inspired.  They just drop into my mind or spirit and all the points and words just flow.

This was one of those times.

I rarely wake up in the middle of the night. There have been times in my entrepreneurial journey where I have slept like a baby - waking up every two hours crying. But I have matured and can now sleep well most nights.

But shortly after my friend asked me to speak at his event, I awoke at 2 am one night and the entire 5 point talk flooded into my mind. Always a good idea to keep pen and paper by the bed.

As the event approached, I realized that I must share this information in articles and possibly a book. It looks different on paper and I am unable to share some of the stories and examples that emphasized the points, but the basics are still powerful.

Now that you have the background.....

Here are 5 foundational success principles that are absolutely without a doubt required to create AND maintain success. Bold statement I know. But as you read each one think about people you know or situations where you have achieved a high level of success and you will be nodding in agreement as you read the paragraphs below. Or, you may disagree and if so you can prove me wrong in the comments below.

Effort - Nothing happens without some effort being exerted. Some may have titled this work, but our society often confuses work with a job or just being busy. When combined with the other items in this article, focused and inspired effort can lead to productivity beyond anything that we can imagine. But when we are busy and "just putting our nose to the grindstone", we may see limited results that appear to be success that will be short lived or worse have negative consequences. My experience and observations have convinced me that the other 4 items in this article combined with steady and consistent impassioned effort will outproduce hair-on-fire mach-speed busyness every time. 

Expectation - Faith or fear? How do most people live? They live in fear with an expectation that something bad is going to happen. If your thoughts go unchecked and untrained the chances are very high that you will cultivate a negative outlook that attracts negative circumstances. Stop doing that! Start using your faith muscles and expect that great things will happen in every situation in your life. Positive expectation combined with inspired effort beats fear-based, calendar packed activity every single time.

Rest - Just like the word "work" can be confusing at times in our modern society, rest can also be used to describe laziness or sleep. That is not what I am referring to. Even though I do believe that physical rest and naps are not the enemy of success, I am talking about a mental and spiritual peace that everything is going to be OK. No worries, positive expectations and exerting effort knowing that you are focusing on those things that will be rewarded. If you have positive expectations and faith in your decisions, then measured effort will be peaceful and allow you to operate from a position of rest instead of being restless.

Micro Decisions - Life includes many small decisions that may seem insignificant. Things like what you eat for lunch, watching a 30 minute show on TV every week, and what you do with your spare time on a Saturday afternoon. But if micro or mini decisions begin to become habits, or if those decisions are haphazard and lack focus, they can be detrimental. For example,  eating an unhealthy fast food lunch once a month may not have a significant impact on one's health. But eating processed, junky fast food every day will most likely have a negative effect on a person's health and even life expectancy. Watching one TV show may not impact thought process. But watching 20 hours of mindless entertainment every week can deaden braincells and may even have other mental and physical side effects. On the flip side, a mini decision to read a book or attend a seminar or say hello to a stranger may be a small step that has larger implications over time.

Macro Decisions - If you guessed that these should be the big, life altering decisions that we make in life...or at times we are forced to make, then you would be correct. Most people will only have a few of these over the course of their life. For me I can only think of a few. The decision to marry my wife. A life altering spiritual decision. Starting a business a few years after being married and making the decision to start a new company 15 years ago. There are times that we make these big, macro decisions and we understand their significance. But then we may only realize the importance days, months or years later. One of life's great challenges is knowing when and how to quickly make decisions about the little, micro stuff and when to pause and ponder the big, macro stuff.

Now, there are a few additional points that must be made. 

First, the items above are not steps or standalone principals. There is no defined order because they are interconnected and woven together. Plus one or more without all combined could be ineffective.

Second, these principals do not follow a linear and clean timeline.  And there is not a definitive formula. They are more like a bubbling witches brew that requires all the ingredients to be effective. There are times when one ingredient will be required more than the others. And some people may require a heavier brew to be effective. Mix them all together and drink down the potion until you see the results your desire.

Finally, don't stress over the 5 points. Just get started if you feel as if you are off track. Make some positive micro decisions, have faith in yourself and what you are doing, expect great results and be prepared for those big, life altering, macro decisions.

You are not as busy as you think you are. So stop bragging/whining/telling everyone that you are busier than a one-legged man in a butt-kicking convention. Pardon the Southern USA humor.

I can hear the whine in your voice now. "But you don’t understand, I am so busy doing (insert multiple items here), that I do not have time to (insert the thing you know you should be doing here).”

I know all the excuses because I have made them myself at times. And I have heard the same excuses from coaching and business clients for over 25 years. I even taught time management in corporate America back in the mid 90’s when time management was still popular and the same excuses existed then.

Time Is The Great Equalizer

Everyone starts each day with exactly 24 hours or 1,440 minutes. But everyone you know, including yourself, claims and brags that they are busier and have more to do than everyone else. As if they are the only person in the world that is married, with children, with a job or a business, with household duties, with family, with hobbies, with goals and dreams and not enough minutes in the day to get it all done.

Stop lying to yourself. You do exactly what you want to do every day. And everyone around you does the same thing. People fill their hours with stuff. Some of the stuff is productive. Some of the stuff is not productive. But everyone has 24 hours of stuff during their day.

We can make the case that our so-called busyness has forced us to be less productive, less effective and worst of all, less happy. 

Everyone Has More Available Time In Their Life

The limiting belief that a person cannot achieve success or move forward in life or business due to lack of time is typically the number one issue that must be addressed with our coaching clients.

Implement these 7 steps to reset your time challenges and possibly reclaim your life: 

1. Stop telling everyone how busy you are - Even if you are the rare winner of the “busiest person in the world” contest, there is no reason to tell everyone. You probably are not as busy as you think and other people really do not want to hear how busy you think you are. And you are probably using up your valuable time trying to convince people how important you are because your time is so limited and critical.
  
2. Be honest with yourself - Analyze where you spend your time. I can almost guarantee that you have a minimum of 10 hours per week spent doing non-essential items. And if you still disagree, I challenge you to do an incremental time study. Can you tell that I studied Industrial Engineering at Georgia Tech? Every client I have coached is shocked with where their time is actually spent after reviewing the results of a simple time analysis.

3. Relax and enjoy the non-essential time - I am not against down time and do-nothing time. I just get a bit irritated when people talk about being busy or use time as an excuse to fail but still spend time in front of the television every night. Or surf the internet for endless hours at a time. There is not a person that exists that is 100% productive at all times. Thinking about your business issues does not count as productive time when you are out on a date with your wife. Or playing with your children. Relax and enjoy every moment of your day.

4. Control your time - This is a challenge for many people. They allow someone else to control their time. And because they have relinquished control to someone else, they feel trapped and out of control 24/7.  If you do not control your time, someone else will. And that includes spouses, children, family, friends, employees and bosses.

5. Learn to say NO - Demands and opportunities come at us all the time. It is easy to say yes to every invite and request. It can be difficult to say no to spouses, children, family and friends. And it may be even more challenging to say no in your business environment. But if you never show respect for the limits of time, then other people (including your spouse and family) will never respect your time and schedule.

6. Remove scheduled items - My guess is that like most people you have multiple items on your daily, weekly and monthly calendar that are discretionary. Don’t get mad at me for pointing that out. And if you have convinced yourself that it is non-negotiable I am OK with that. But as I said earlier, do not complain about being busy and never having enough time. A few examples: multiple daily and weekly children’s activities, adult male sports like softball and basketball leagues, female romance novels, and civic and church activities.
 
7. Eliminate distractions - As someone that has recently embraced a minimalist mindset, I am amazed at how much life slows down when you have less stuff to maintain and watch over. I have not performed scientific studies, but my guesstimate is that I have recaptured almost 4 weeks per year. That means we have gained almost 1 month per year. I have no doubt that everyone has something that they can eliminate from their life.

You are designed for success and you have all the tools and the talent that you need to achieve your goals. You also have plenty of time to be super successful. Don't run out of time. Use all that you have.

Relax, enjoy, achieve, repeat.

How long have you been sitting in the same place? Not just physically. But mentally, spiritually, financially and geographically.

It is easy to go though life without ever changing or making major adjustments. The “path of least resistance” is the way most people live their lives without even thinking about it.

Life and circumstances around you will change whether you want them to or not. The difference is whether or not the individual is initiating the change or if the change is being forced on them. It can be very stressful for the person that allows external change to be forced upon their life. But it can be exhilarating and exciting for the individual that is pushing for growth in their life and controlling that process.

It is very rare that someone would admit that it has been years since they have read a book or learned a new skill. But one can just look around and it becomes obvious that most people never learn and grow beyond where they are in their mid 20’s. Don’t be that person.

Most people claim to love adventure and travel and they want to see the world. But years go by and they may never leave the comfort of their own home.  It is too simple to say that people that travel are adventurous and those that do not travel are boring and stuck in a rut.

This article is not written to encourage everyone to parachute out of an airplane, learn Chinese or even road trip and hike across the country. I just happen to believe that everyone should embrace change in at least one area of their life. Even if you are content and successful and growing in the areas you desire growth. Find something new to shake up your world and experience new things.

Do something fun. Do something new. Do something crazy.

Living organisms can never remain static. Plants are either growing or dying. Animals are the same way. And humans are no different. We can attempt to keep everything the same in our lives but we are always in the process of living and growing or shrinking and dying.

The task of embracing change may sound daunting. but it can be a simple as doing one of the following:

Drive a different route to/from work
Meet someone new
Reconnect with an old friend or acquaintance
Schedule a trip
Clean out your closet 
Change your morning/evening/daily routine
Eat some new types of food
Sign up for a training class
Visit a new church even if you attend one on a regular basis
Volunteer in your community

Just a small, incremental change can build momentum so that you can begin making larger, positive changes in relationships, business and other areas of your personal growth.

Don’t get stuck in one place and a year from now be the same person that you are today. Do something different… do anything different. And start today.

Photo Credit - La Dulce Vita

The silent, stillness of the early morning is pierced by the shrill sound of the alarm clock. The clock says 5:30 AM. The pillow is fluffed perfectly. The covers are just right. It is still dark outside but I am forced to leave this perfect environment.

I stumble to the bathroom. With only one eye open, I scrape a metal blade across my face so that I am presentable. A starchy white shirt that feels like sandpaper against my skin goes on before the tie is tightened to the point of blood restriction to the brain. I give my feet the last breath of air that they will have for 12 hours as I cover them with socks and lace up leather dress shoes.

As I pull the car out of the garage, I turn on the headlights because it is still dark outside. If I do not leave the house before 6:30 am, then my stress level begins to rise because I would never make it to work on time because of the infamous Atlanta traffic. I still get cold sweats thinking about watching the sun rise while staring at red taillights and sucking exhaust fumes from the cars in front of me. My finely tuned Honda screams to go more than 3 miles per hour.  I scream because I know I will do this again in 10 hours.

After walking by the boss’s office just to make sure he knows that I had made it to work, I make my way to the rows of cubicles always breathing a sigh of relief when my nametag with the Velcro on the back has not been removed. There is something very temporary about a nametag attached to a cloth cubicle wall with Velcro. A real unsettling feeling.

As lunch time approaches my coworkers and I begin the power negotiations to decide which of the 8 restaurant choices we will choose to wait in line to eat at that day. And of course every lunch excursion includes a trip to the ATM so that we can pull out enough money to make it one more day.

Afternoon in a cubicle was brutal. My eyes fought to stay open. I would prop my elbows in front of my computer screen in an attempt to create equilibrium for my head to rest on my hands and take a quick power nap. However, drool on a keyboard is not a good thing.   

Officially, we were supposed to finish the day at 5:00, but it was an unwritten rule that no one could leave until the boss left. And, of course the boss did not want to be the first to leave. So we played the game of attrition to see who could wait each other out the longest. Kind of a warped, sick Mexican standoff with grown men and women in business attire. It was very scary to peek over your cubicle wall and see 50 sets of eyeballs doing the same thing. When someone finally cracked under the pressure it was like a wave sweeping through the cubicles in an effort to get out the door.  

The sun was usually setting as I pointed my luxury Honda CRX toward home on the Atlanta freeways with 1.5 million of my traveling buddies. Brake lights as far as the eye could see. The drive home gave me time to reflect on how productive I had been that day. Or not. I soon came to realize that I was doing things that I did not want to do so that I could impress people that I did not even like. Definitely worse than a Chinese torture chamber.  

I would pull in my driveway after dark, walk in the house, grunt a weak hello to my beautiful wife and start getting knots in my stomach in preparation for going through the same grinding routine the next day.   

I mean one day like this might be tolerable, but the thought of doing this the rest of my life was pure torture. The really scary part is that millions of people live just like that and they think that life can never be better, or worse they are content to live a life of quiet desperation like all of their neighbors.

Power of a Decision

As you can tell, I still have a crystal clear vision of the way life used to be. What a nightmare! How can anyone do that day after day, week after week for 40 plus years? I know that some people enjoy that environment and function well within a large corporate structure. But I also know that many people are designed and created to achieve great things in business or ministry or other fields but they allow themselves to get stuck working in a daily grind.

I believe a true nightmare is never living to the potential that God intends for you to live up to.

There have been many times over the last 30 years when I did not know exactly what I wanted to do with my life, but I knew I did not want to live the nightmare that I described above. Every fiber of my body desires to never live that type of life again. I made a decision that I would do whatever it took to be free. To never work for anyone else, ever again. 

When decision time comes there are three things that you must do:

1. Determine what you want. Or in my situation it was much clearer to me what I did not want.
2. Determine what you are willing to give up to get what you want. I realized I needed time and money to break free from my nightmare. So, I quit playing in the washed up athletes church basketball league. I disconnected CATV so that I could save a few bucks. I started a part-time business on the side so I could eventually break away from the corporate grind.
3. Develop an action plan and implement the plan. Or if you can't come up with a plan, just do something. Move forward, pray for guidance, hire a coach, find a mentor. Just do something and your effort will be blessed.

I am thankful that I decided to get rid of my nightmares!

I love to read books about history. I usually have at least one book that I am reading that relates to history in some way. Either a work of fiction based on historical facts (Jeff Shaara and his father Michael have written some great books) or a biography or a factual book about a certain topic. Wars and elections seem to be some of my favorites.  

I recently completed reading one of the most interesting books I have ever read. The title of the book is What If? and it is written by a collection of historians and edited by Robert Cowley. Don’t run out and get it unless you have about two months to read it.  It is over 800 pages and not a quick read. The subtitle of the book states “eminent historians wonder what might have been.”   

The historians take over 45 significant events in history and speculate what would have happened if only a few minor items were changed. It is amazing how significant outcomes hung on very minor issues that could have easily changed the course of history.  

Things such as:

• What if the British army had destroyed Washington’s army early in the Revolutionary War 
  
• What if Napoleon had won at Waterloo 
  
• What if Alexander the Great had not died at such a young age 
  
• What if Robert E. Lee’s secret plans for a march north were not lost by a Confederate courier and discovered by a Union army scout 
  
• What if Hitler had been more aggressive in the Middle East campaign and captured much needed oilfields to fuel his tanks 
  
• What if the D Day invasion of northern Europe in 1944 had failed 
  
• What if Pontius Pilate had spared Jesus life 
  
• What if the Chinese had discovered the American continent in the 15th century 
  
• What if Theodore Roosevelt had won the election of 1912 
  
• What if Pope Pious XII had protested the holocaust instead of remaining silent 
  
• What if our troops had beaten the Russians to Berlin at the close of WWII 
  
• What if we had made the decision not to drop atomic weapons on Japan to end the Pacific side of WWII.

Those of you that do not really care about history are saying so what at this point. The rest of you are at least a little curious at how our world would look today if even one of those what ifs had occurred.  

The funny thing is that we are faced with what ifs every day of our lives. Some people live with regrets and blame past events on their position in life. 

• What if I had finished high school
  
• What if I had a better education 
  
• What if I had a different degree 
  
• What if I had money when I was growing up 
  
• What if I had started my business at a younger age
  
• What if I had married someone different 
  
• What if my health were better
  
• What if I did not have young children 
  
• What if I had more hair 
  
• What if I had less hair 
  
• What if I were taller 
  
• What if I were a man 
  
• What if I were a woman 
  
• What if I were a different race 
  
• What if I lived somewhere else 
  
• What if I were a marketing genius 
  
• What if I had 36 hours in a day, blah, blah, blah blah!!  
  

Excuses all start sounding the same when you put them all together. And we have all entertained thoughts like this at some point. The key is not to dwell on them long and play the what if game for current events instead of the past.

Some people also play in the dream world by asking silly questions such as what if I won the lottery or what if I found a million dollars in a paper bag on the sidewalk. I will not even waste time talking about people that live in a fantasy world. 

Successful people ask what if on a regular day to day basis. Some people call it faith but it is basically taking action now instead of waiting and wishing that something good is going to happen.

Ask yourself the following simple questions as you go though your day:

• What if I got up a little earlier in the morning
  
• What if I did a few pushups or sit-ups today
  
• What if I spent some quiet time in prayer or reflection today
  
• What if I feed my brain by reading at least 15 minutes in a positive attitude book today
  
• What if I skip watching TV today
  
• What if I smile a little more today
  
• What if only positive words came out of my mouth today
  
• What if I tell my spouse how special she is to me today
  
• What if I encourage my children today
  
• What if I spent some time talking and listening to my spouse today
  
• What if I eat less junk food today
  
• What if I planned my day instead of just reacting to emergencies
  
• What if I spent some focused time working on strategic projects instead of answering the phone or emails
  
• What if I invested more time in my business today
  
• What if I spent 30 minutes thinking about my business strategy
  
• What if I spent 1 hour working on marketing for my business today
  
• What if I called 5 potential clients today
  
• What if I took some time to educate myself on a new topic today
  
• What if I did just a little bit more today
  

This list may seem long but that is the process that we go through every minute of every day.  Life is not about luck or chance.  Life is about small decisions that we make on a minute by minute and day to day basis.  We are where we are in life today because of decisions and actions from our past.  You can make your own history today by making small but powerful decisions. 

I have always been fascinated with time travel.  

I read “A Wrinkle in Time” when I was younger.  I even read the book again just a few years ago when I was well into my 40’s.

We all loved the Back to the Future movies.

And popular television shows like Lost that incorporate time travel fascinate and intrigue us.

Time travel aficionados fall in to 2 camps - those that want to travel to the past and those that want to travel to the future.

I never thought about the past.  Always focused on the future.  Probably to a fault.  But we all know people that are too focused on the past.

I have recently come to realize that the most important moment in time is Now.  

Some people spend much too much energy concerning themselves with events from their past.  There is nothing in our past that we can change.

People like me can be too occupied with future events that may or may not occur.  And while some planning and preparation can impact our future, I found myself planning for tomorrow instead of living today.

I decided to change.  I will live for today.  Now is the most important increment of time.  And I will enjoy and rejoice in every Now for the rest of my life.