Archive - February, 2012

How Bad Do You Want It?

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Commitment

That's commitment

“I’m here to tell you, number one, that most of you say you want to be successful, but you don’t want it bad. You just kinda want it. You don’t want it as much as you want to party.”

“Some of you love sleep more than you love success! If you want to be successful, you’ve got to be willing to give up sleep. How bad do you want it?”

“When you want to succeed as bad as you want to breathe, then you’ll be successful”

Some of my favorite quotes by the narrator in the video “How bad do you want it”.

Whatever your bigger goals are in life, what are you willing to do achieve it? Are you willing to make sacrifices? Work when others are sleeping? Eat only ramen noodles? Breakup with a girlfriend/boyfriend who is holding you back?

You may think you want it so bad, but do you really?

Any area of life where you want success isn’t going to happen overnight. If you think it’s going to be easy, this post will be a waste of time for you.

If you’re trying to run your first marathon, or build a thriving business, both will take commitment. There’s no quick fix. No pill. No secret in a $29.95 infomercial at 2am.

In the book The Element, author Ken Robinson recalls a story that put into perspective his level of commitment. After listening to his brother perform in a band one night, Ken complimented the extremely talented keyboard player named Charles.

Then I said that I’d love to be able to play keyboards that well. “No, you wouldn’t,” he responded. Taken aback, I insisted that I really would. “No,” he said. “You mean you like the idea of playing keyboards. If you’d love to play them, you’d be doing it.”

Charles practiced every day for three or four hours in addition to performing. He’d been doing that since he was seven. That’s why he played so well. Suddenly, Ken felt that playing the keyboards that well didn’t seem so appealing.

Liking the idea and being committed are two completely different things.

People who like the idea of blogging, just read about blogging. Committed ones put what they learn into action. The idea of a business sounds good to many. Committed ones live and breath their business. The idea of losing 20 sounds great. The committed ones actually do it. Continue Reading…

18 Achievers Talk the Power of Goal Setting

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Bambi vs Godzilla

Goals might seem big and scary, but they can be beaten.

If you don’t set goals in life, what is the reason?

Is it because you don’t know how, don’t believe in it, or are anti-goals?

We were never taught this in school, so you may not know how. If you don’t believe in it, it’s probably because you’ve tried and failed many times.

Some are anti-goals. Leo Babauta at Zen Habits says he doesn’t set goals anymore. He feels more liberated. He lets his passion guide him.

Is this a growing trend?

Just as there’s countless ways to exercise, and different ways to get to your destination, there’s different ways to live your life. If you don’t want to set goals, that’s up to you. It’s your life.

But I believe you feel stuck or want to achieve more in life, goal setting can benefit you. It’ll give you something to aim for instead of wandering through life. It’ll weed out the not so important goals with the ones that really matter.

I’m a on Team Goal Setting. My 2011 would not be the same if I didn’t have a system to start and finish my goals.

I knew what it had done for me, but I wanted to find other people who are Team Goal Setting. Where could I find them?

I went to HARO (Help a Reporter Out) and posted my question. This is what I wrote.

I’m working on a post on the power of goal setting. There seems to be a movement where people don’t believe in goal setting. However, I believe in it and want to find others who have consistently used goal setting to achieve their personal and professional goals. How long have you been using goal setting? Why do you believe goal setting works? What are some accomplishments you’ve achieved because of goal setting? If I use your story, I’ll be happy to mention a link to your business or product if you’d like.

I got nearly 50 replies! Way more than I expected. It took so long to sort though them. I couldn’t list every single answer, so I’m sharing eighteen of them.

I really enjoyed reading what they were able to accomplish. Goal setting has helped people start their own business, become a CEO, author books, quit their corporate jobs, travel, work for Playboy and more.

After reading their stories, it convinced me goal setting is a powerful tool for life.

If you want advice on how to do it properly, learn from those who’ve done it with success.

Let’s get started.

Continue Reading…

Jeremy Lin: An Underdog Story You Will Love

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Jeremy Lin aka "Linsanity"

We love a great underdog story. Who doesn’t? Someone comes from against all odds and defies everything logical.

Many don’t give them hope, but they know something that we don’t.

We read those stories and it inspires us to the bone. It doesn’t matter what you’re trying to do, I truly believe reading stories of the underdogs gives you that push when you need it.

I love sports and the underdog stories that come out of it. Sports are still the best reality show on television. Hollywood couldn’t write it some of the unbelievable stories.

Last football season, there was Tim Tebow. Though he succeeded and won championships in high school, and college, many experts doubted he could succeed in the NFL. He couldn’t throw. He wasn’t a typical NFL quarterback.

Last season he took a 1-4 Denver team and took them to the playoffs. He was THE story in the NFL last season. Even Tebowing became a worlwide sensation.

Now in the NBA there is someone doing things no one could have imagined. You may not follow the NBA, but his story will definitely inspire you.

Jeremy Lin has taken the NBA by surprise in just one week. He went from sleeping on couches to having NBA players, celebrities, the media all talking about him. His story has truly been that insane. He’s gone from 70,000 to 199,314  Twitter followers in three days.

If you follow sports, then you know he’s the best story to come out of sports this year. If not, you’ll appreciate his story.

He’s the first American born Chinese player in the NBA. As a Chinese-American, I’m so excited for his success, but his story is inspiring for any race.

Before February 4th, he was sleeping on couches. His status as a professional basketball player was up in the air. Now? There’s one word to describe it: Linsanity.

Continue Reading…

Don’t Follow This Lesson and See What Will Happen

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Baby steps

Think about taking small but consistent action

Did you start this year with big ambitions? Did you set big goals for yourself? This is going to be your year right?

That’s great and I hope you achieve what you are looking for. I just hope you’re not taking the wrong approach.

You may think that your life needs to take massive steps every once in awhile for everything to be better. You try really hard for a month, but don’t see results. You think what you’re doing isn’t working. However that’s the wrong attitude.

It’s the small choices done repeatedly over time that will have the biggest factor in your outcome. 

These small choices result in unnoticeable changes by your or others. Reading ten pages of a business book a day isn’t going to make a big change, right? How about saying no to a can of Coke?

Making small gradual changes goes again the instant result culture we’re accustomed to. Just as we microwave our meals to be ready quickly, we want to lose 20 pounds in just a week, and make thousands of dollars after a month of trying.

Many don’t contribute to their IRA because they’d rather use the money now. Plus it doesn’t seem like it makes much money anyways.

So these small choices don’t offer a huge difference and obvious change so why even bother?

Because one day those small choices are going to lead to massive results.

Continue Reading…