Category Archives: Mindset

“You Miss 100% of the Shots You Never Take.”

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If you watch hockey as much as I do, and I don’t, then you would probably have no clue that it was Wayne Gretzky who said this quote.  The interpretation of this quote is more than simple: if you don’t take the shot, then obviously you wont score.  It is physically impossible to make a shot that you never took.  To incorporate this outside of hockey and into your personal development, we intertwine this quote in the sense of wanting to take action, but not. No action, no reaction.

Not Even Trying

Has there ever been a time you wanted to do something, but got very nervous and didn’t go through with it? Maybe something like not taking an open shot during a basketball game and instead passing it to your teammate. How about picking up the phone to make a sales call, but rather thinking about what else you can do right now so you wouldn’t have to dial the number. Has anything like this every happened to you? If you aren’t willing to admit, I sure am.

I used to be the type of person who would pass the ball to my team mate even though I was wide open to take the shot only so I wouldn’t feel embarrassed if I missed it. I would also be the type of person who would rather not speak up because I was afraid to be rejected by the response I get. This made my life very mediocre, boring, and unfulfilled.

Who Cares?

Finally, I reached a breaking point and decided that if I don’t make a change, I will continue to be unhappy.  I started doing sales and overcame my fear of getting “no’s”, failing, embarrassment, rejection, and almost everything else that gave me a negative mindset.  And ever year after I turned 18 (no significance to that particular number) I decided I would change myself and adapt to how I need to be to become successful. My new mindset had the “who cares” motto attached to it.

  • Who cares if someone doesn’t like me?
  • Who cares if people think I am not good at something?
  • Who cares if I get embarrassed?
  • Who cares if I miss a shot?
  • Who cares if someone tells me no?
  • Who cares if I make a mistake?

Many things in life are uncertain, but one thing that is for certain is that you will fail over and over again. Sometimes you will fail only once before you succeed and other times you will fail 9,999 times before you succeed. In the words of Thomas Edison, “I didn’t fail, I learned 9999 ways that wouldn’t work”. Talk about a powerful mindset. If you were to gain control of your mindset in that way, would you see better results?

What You Can Do Right Now!

Success depends on the results you are able to get. No results, no success. If you already know that most of the time you must fail in order to see results, shouldn’t you fail forward as fast as you can? Are you still scared? If you are, why? Rejection and embarrassment are all in the same category as failure. If you are scared to fail like how I was when I was younger, your mindset will remain undeveloped and you will find yourself missing out on a lot of what the world has to offer. I know I did.  Luckily, I was able to turn myself around when I did so that I can finally begin to set myself up for a healthy and successful future.

Here is how you should start:

1. If you notice an opportunity, go with your first thought and move forward with it.

With this type of mindset, I could of scored a lot of points when I was playing basketball. Sure I might of missed some, but 3/10 is much better than 0/0. Have you ever passed up on an opportunity that ended up going mainstream or big time? Life in general is a risk. If you play it safe the rest of your life, I assure you that most of your dreams or wishes will never come true.

2. Fail forward fast.

I’ll probably get a lot of heat for this one, but you must fail in order to learn, grow, and gain experience. Everyone fails at something in their life and that’s perfectly normal. It will only make you stronger. Sometimes people fail over and over again i.e Thomas Edison, and it’s their persistence which finally leads them to some success.

3. Be comfortable being uncomfortable

I’ve said this several times before in my previous blog posts, and I will continue saying it future blog posts. Do things your uncomfortable with to radically change your mindset. If you find yourself taking a step back from something, take one leap forward.

4. Talent

If you want to be good at something, it takes practice and many years of it. This also means many years of loosing, failing, embarrassment, etc.  Look at any successful person’s track record and you will find yourself in a pool of failure

This entire article was to show you that if you don’t try something, you won’t ever know whether you can do something or not.

Not taking the shot is the same as missing the shot, so instead, how about you just take it?

Have You Seen My Swag?

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The obvious question is what the hell is swag? Urban Dictionary defines swag or swagger as: appearance, style, or the way he or she presents themselves. From pop icons to public figures, swag is what will allow one to have a magnetic effect on the people around them. Regardless of how the word was coined, it denotes a meaningful concept. Swag is simply having more than enough confidence in yourself, but not too much that it becomes arrogance.

Swag in Your Business

Have you ever met a person who you thought was really, for a lack of a better word, cool? A person so cool that in your mind you could not help but to say, “wow!” Now imagine that person making business deals, negotiating with clients, speaking in front of large groups. Do you think they can have a more profound effect on the people they speak to then you? Yes! The obvious question: why? People want to do business with people who feel confident about themselves.

If you do not believe in yourself, why should other people, right?

Has there ever been a time when you were not feeling at the top of your game and you instantly noticed the wrong people being attracted to you? By ‘attracted to you’ I do not mean in a sexual connotation, I mean as far as business, friendship, or just as a human being. Trust me, it happens to everyone several times throughout their life.

It is very similar to having charisma and that magnetic attraction, people are automatically drawn to be around you.

The more the people that want to be around you the less resistance you will get from potential prospects. Having swag in others helps you close deals with less effort and energy on your part.

Swag in Your Relationships (small excerpt)

Women dig guys who have swag. Regardless of money, if you can carry yourself with swag, then you can have almost any women out there. Take a guy like Tom Leykis who is clearly not a good looking guy, but he does have swag. Even if he was dead broke, he can still get almost any women he wants.

Swag is not only for men, women with swag also prosper. Women who have swag tend to attract much better quality guys. Too many women unfortunately end up with losers am I right ladies? Some of you women could care less, but I can easily bet a majority of women want the good quality guys. Carry yourself well with confidence (swag) and you will start to notice that your subconsciously weeding through most of the jerks.

How do you get “Swag”?

The simple solution is: be an actor. No I do not mean being an actor like on TV or in the movies, I mean ‘act as if’:

  • you are successful
  • you always get what you want
  • you love yourself
  • you feel secure
  • you can do anything you set your mind to
  • it is never too late
  • anything is possible
  • people like you

Even if you do not believe in the above said, pretend that you do. It does not matter if your swag is fake because you will sooner or later subconsciously believe it to be true, which is what counts. Fake it till you make it.

A few more techniques to portray swag:

  • Posture – Simply standing up tall and straight does a lot to a person’s swag. Who knew that all your mom’s nagging about standing up straight was true. Then continue using a strong posture as you move or walk around.

“Well, you can tell by the way I use my walk,
I’m a woman’s man: no time to talk…”

  • Speaking – speak with confidence and believe everything you say to be true. Too many “ums”, “ers,” and any other 2 letter word you use when speak can decrease your swag tremendously. Act as if you are a cop and speak with conviction.
  • Dress – invest in yourself by buying clothes that actually fit. “You look good you feel good” goes a long way. Tailors are your new friend!

Swag is really just a new word of being confident, powerful, and charismatic.  If you can convince yourself to have swag right now, you will almost instantly see a difference in your personal and business life.

Do you have swag? If you do not, then act as if you do for a few days and tell me the difference of how life begins to revolve around you.

Take a Few Steps Back for Every Giant Leap Forward

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It is quite apparent to almost everyone: times are tough. This may not be the case for some, but it is definitely the case for most people, especially here in the United States. So what does all this mean? This not so good economy can be perceived in 2 ways. You can view our current economic situation as ‘the worst thing that can ever happen’ or you can also view it as ‘your chance to make it big’.

The Worse Thing That Can Ever Happen

Unfortunately, most people will begin or have already began to perceive our current economic situation in this negative way. People who have this perception usually say things like:

  • “There aren’t any opportunities…”
  • “The US economy is terrible right now…”
  • “Everyone is having a hard time…”
  • “Who knows when this thing will turn around…”

You get the point…

These are people who do not understand that regardless of whether the economy is good or bad, it is still a pretty equal playing field. What I mean by that is most people face the same challenges you face with no advantage in particular. The economy has not slowed down for just you, it slowed down for everyone.

People with this perception also have a tendency to become lazy, frustrated, angry, and depressed. All negative feelings that not only prevent you from personal growth, but they also prevent you from achieving success.

Let me tell you that these negative feelings do happen to the best of us, but the difference between the two types is that your chance to make it big’ people are able to better communicate positivity and action to their minds.

Your Chance to Make it Big

Luckily, some people have more control over their thoughts than others which allows them to have a much more positive and in some cases profitable perspective than others. Even though the economy is challenging, this group tends to view it as their chance to make it big. These people say things like:

  • “I’m going to work my butt off…”
  • “It’s my time to shine…”
  • “While everyone is wallowing in their misery, I’m going to make it happen…”

Big difference in the way they speak huh?

The reality of our current situation is that during times likes these, people put their creativity on ‘high’ allowing them to create more and more ways of becoming successful and prosperous.

Take a Few Steps Back for Every Giant Leap Forward

I originally re-reminded of this idea when I read Tom Gorecki’s Blog on “Are your parents doing more harm than good” Now given the topic is a bit different, but the message most definitely applies. To those who are suffered with the challenges of moving back in with mom and dad, I say do it.  This is something I define as taking a few steps backward. For those who can, it is totally worth moving back in with your parents to save a thousands of dollars a month.  That money you save can be used to help you make more money. Once you have more money to play with, you can learn the ideology of using your money to make you more money. My friend Neil Patel is a Internet mogul and is proud to live with his parents!

The time for you to work hard is right now. By you working hard and taking those few steps backwards will help you take some giant leaps forward as the economy starts to turn around. I always say that if you can become successful in or during this economic situation, you will able to succeed anywhere no matter what. That is a pretty bold statement and should not be taken lightly.

How to Take a few steps back

  • moving in with someone
  • stop spending money on ‘wants’
  • cut out traveling
  • start studying and learning (investing time)
  • limit taking days off
  • taking on a part time job
  • taking a pay cut

It is usually hard for people to take a few steps back because they automatically begin to think each step backwards is negative. If you take a look at almost all of the successful people in this world, most of them had to take several steps backwards various times throughout their life in order for them to get where they are at today.

Work While Others Sleep

Now you do not have to take this in literal terminology, but it would be in your best benefit to spend more of your time working both on your business AND in your business. Working in your business means that you are developing new business while working on your business is honing in on your skills. For example, working on your persuasive communication to learn the language of persuasion. Being able to communicate effectively is working on your business.

I cannot tell you enough that if you are spending your time moping about why all this is happening to you, why you got laid off, why you are not getting paid as much, why are you getting all these bills that you cannot afford, you are heading down the wrong path.

First

Change the questions you ask yourself.

Second

Write a 90 day plan of action and follow

Third

If you have extra time, and even if you do not, make extra time and work on your business

Giant Leaps

You want to take giant leaps, then be comfortable with setbacks. Imagine yourself as a slingshot. In order for the slingshot to work, you must pull it as back as you can. After you let it go, it can launch something 100x the distance you pulled back.

Decide right now to be comfortable taking a few steps back because it can help you go 100 steps forward.

Which direction are you stepping towards right now?

What is the Answer to 99 Out of 100 Questions?

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I finally decided watch the movie Vanilla Sky, starring Tom Cruise and Penelope Cruz. If you are some of the few who have yet to see that movie – A successful publisher finds his life taking a turn for the surreal after a car accident with a jaded lover. Besides being a great movie, Tom Cruise’s character said, “My father wrote about this in his book. Chapter 1… Page 1… Paragraph 1: What is the answer to 99 out of 100 questions?…Money” It could not be worded better than that.  Before I get a lot of people telling me that life is not all about money, let me make a few clarifications:

  • Contribution is more important than money
  • Money does not measure one’s success or buy happiness
  • Money make the world go round and round

Money

Almost everyone everywhere at one point or another has money on their mind. Whether or not they have enough, how they can get more, and what they can use it on. People who say that money is not important are just putting up a facade. You cannot tell me that money is not important to you. The clothes on your back, the reason you get up early in the morning to go to work, the mortgage payment, and car payment, all have to deal with you having and making money.

Contribution is More Important Than Money

I agree with this completely so let’s go into further detail. There are two ways you can contribute:

Contribute Your Time

You can contribute your time in several different ways. You can give people advice on how to live a better life based upon your knowledge and your personal life experiences.  Many people who write autobiographies talk about their challenges and how they were able to overcome them. Some of these people share knowledge they have gained from over 30+ years of experience.  Imagine reading 1 book like this every month for 12 months, that equals learning about 360 years of life experiences in just 1 year! Mother Teresa is a great example of a person who dedicated most of her life to helping others. Her efforts was so highly respected, she impacted the whole world. A smaller scale example would be me, believe it or not, it takes me several hours of my time to write about knowledge and experiences I have gone through in my life. Or how about a vague example of a high school student who spends their time after school helping out at the senior center.

Contribute Your Money

I was having small debate about Donald Trump with a reader of mine on my article about losers. Even though many people portray “The Donald” to be a self-centered egomaniac that is only interested in himself and money, he is still able to contribute more money to charities than most people do in an entire life time. In his show, The Celebrity Apprentice, they were able to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for needy charity’s around the world. You cannot donate money to charities by being poor. Contributing your time helps, but your able to do so much more with money. Being wealthy not only allows you to contribute more money to those who need it (food, shelter, clothing, etc.), but being wealthy also means that you are able to provide jobs (employees) and help other people around them (investors) make money.

Money Does Not Measure One’s Success or Buy Happiness

Success and happiness, like beauty is determined by the eye of the beholder. To some success might be having a big house with fancy cars while to others it may be a white picket fence style house with a car the works. Happiness to some might be having $1,000,000 in the bank while to others it might be spending your life with the one you love. Filling your empty with void with materialistic objects will eventually drain out and become empty again. Buying a brand new luxury car will keep you happy for until you get the urge to want something else.

Money Makes the World Go Round

“A man with a briefcase can steal more money than 100 men with handguns.”

– Don Corleone, The Godfather

Like most ideologies, money is a double edged sward capable of doing both good and evil. Money can help a poor man live an average life. Money can help a sick man become healthy again. Money can help a student with journey of a prestige and impeccable education. Money can take a non-astronaut into space! Whether you like it or not, money has the power to do almost anything.

“Life is miserable, no matter what. It is better to be miserable with money than without it.”

-Siva Baba

You have two choices: You can either work hard make enough money so you can live comfortly, enjoy your family, loved ones, and travel or you can continue to tell yourself that money is not a necessity in your life and live paycheck to paycheck. Money is what will pay for those guitar lessons, to donate to your favorite charity, to feed your children, to shelter you from the rain, and almost everything else you do in life. Money truely is the answer to most of the questions you have in life.

How say you?

Do you Believe in the Law of Attraction? Stop!

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law of attraction

Ever since the movie The Secrete went mainstream, people started debating about whether the Law of Attraction really works or not.

I thought it was a fascinating movie that had a good intention, but it left out crucial elements that are necessary for the Law of Attraction to actually work.

The Law of Attraction simply states that if you focus on something (long enough) you will get it. Whether it be money, power, fame, the Law of Attraction will provide it for you.

I’ve been behind the scenes of the Personal Development industry, and when you’re behind the scenes of any industry, you begin to see a whole other side of things.

The Law of Attraction was packaged up nicely and presented to the public in a way that had them believe that the concept is so simple and required no work what so ever.

Now, do you really believe that you can sit on a couch, eat pizza, focus on pictures you cut out from Forbes magazine, and attract them in your life?

I will never say it’s impossible, but c’mon.

Newtons Third Law, the Law of Action. If you have no action, you have no reaction.

If the golf club doesn’t hit the golf ball, the ball isn’t going anywhere. No matter how hard you attract a hole in one.

The Law of Attraction works

There were several examples from my personal life that I use to explain the success I had with the Law of Attraction. I use to work for an amazing company called The Mike Ferry Organization where I would sell contracts for their coaching programs over the phone. I believed in their services 100% which is why I became so good at selling it. After learning about the Law of Attraction, I decided to take it out for a test run.

I was at the mall on day and saw these amazing Prada sunglasses. I’not one to usually binge on sunglasses since I lose them so easily, but hey, they were pretty sweet. So I found a picture, printed it out and started focusing on those glasses every single day for about 1 month. Now I didn’t just focus on it and hoped for it to happen, I was focusing on it, got excited and inspired every single day and took action by selling more contracts. That month turned out to be one of my better months because I made well over what I expected.

Everything I focused on wouldn’t have come true, if it wasn’t for me taking action on it. No action, no reaction. 

What’s your take on the Law of Attraction?

Do You Have a Friend Who is a Loser? Get Rid of Em!

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Loser

It is easy for me to say that a lot of people surround themselves with losers. If you want to become successful, rich, or happy, you should do whatever it takes to grow, right?

As human beings, we must grow, because like a business, if we don’t grow, we die.  I don’t mean literally die, but I mean mentally and socially.

How Can You Classify One as Being a Loser?

  • No job (not looking hard enough)
  • No money (lack of motivation to make it)
  • Lazy
  • Party all the time (unless it’s related to your job)
  • Too much drugs
  • Too much focus on girls (for guys, mainly 18-25)
  • Willingness to NOT step out of your comfort zone

I agree that the term “loser” sounds bad, but it is the best way for me to get your attention. If you are surrounding yourself with people who fit the criteria listed above, you will be brought down to their level. I believe I read this in a book, please do correct me if I’m wrong, but if you take the income of 10 of your closest friends, or people you hang around the most, take the average, your income will equal close to that amount. If you hang around people who make no money, then chances are, you are making little to no money.

LAY DOWN WITH DOGS, AND YOU WILL COME UP WITH FLEAS

Surround Yourself With Successful People

What should you do? My good friend Neil Patel has told me that this year, he wants to befriend 5 billionaires. WOW, what a goal! I personally know of maybe 1 or 2 millionaires and that’s probably on no more than a first name basis. It’s hard for me to even fathom befriending 1 billionaire.

The idea is so simple though so pay close attention: Imagine being able to spend one hour with a successful business tycoon like Donald Trump. Do you think you’ll learn something that will help you make money? Of course!

Setup a goal to meet someone who makes 10x the income you do. Don’t get smart with me and say 10 x zero is =zero :). If your goal is not about money, then find someone who does what you want to do at a measurable 10x higher level.

Where Do You Find These People?

This is the question I usually get right after I tell someone to find new friends. The answer is: network like crazy! Out of everyone you know, I will bet that they know someone who is successful or they might know someone who knows someone that is at the level you are looking for.

Read my blog on building rapport and learn to  sell yourself. There is always a way to find successful people, you just have to make the effort.

Go to a seminar in an industry you have interest in and you will come across many like-minded individuals. If you decide not to go through with making an effort, then you should transform your mindset and change. 

Nothing is Wrong With Not Wanting to be Rich

Let me clarify, not being a loser, doesn’t mean you have to be someone who is interested in making a tons of money. What I mean is that you should surround yourself with people who are interested in growing mentally,physically, financially, or even spiritually.

The more people you have around you that put genuine interest in growing, the easier it will be for you to transform your mind to win.

Do You Have Losers in Your Life?

Chances are that after you read this, you will begin to nod your head and say, “Yes AJ I totally agree with you.”

Losers mess up your entire mindset and hold you back from success.

And then the rest of you will be very confrontational and write a nasty comment about my outlandish blog post below.

Look, many of you have these losers in your life that you still care for and maybe even people you’ve been friends with for 10+ years. However, the bottom line is, if they are unwilling to change their poor habits, are you willing to sacrifice your own success?

How to Get Rid of Losers

At this point, I assume that you have tried to help these losers out, but they still wouldn’t budge. Now it’s time to get rid of em’:

  • Get out a sheet of paper and write on one side “Up-lifters” and the other side “Losers”
  • Take everyone from the “Losers” side and clear their contact info from your phone, email, computer, phone book etc.
  • If they call you to hang out or whatever, no need to be rude, just say you are busy working or something. Again, don’t be rude, let them know that you are busy working on growing your life.
  • If you are interested in doing it in an extreme way like how I did it when I was 17, change your phone number and only give your new number to the “Up-lifters”.

So now my question to you is, are you going to do it? Are you going to get rid of the losers in your life?

More of the Same Gives You More of the Same

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Almost anyone who’s been in some type of sales has heard of or used Albert Einstein’s quote: “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.”  So where do you stand as far as what Einstein said?  Well you’re definitely on the right track by choosing to read my blog every time I post new articles.  Unfortunately, if you’re not applying it, discussing it (write comments below), or teaching it, you’ll go back to your original ways instantly or after a few weeks.

Has there ever been a time when you reluctantly tried something new and then discovered it to be amazing? My personal example was my experience with sushi. I was entirely an “inside the box” type of guy so when it came to something new like sushi, I would keep pushing it off.  I gave it a shot one time and introduced my taste buds to an array of new amazing sensations. Not only was I introduced to something new and delicious but I was also conditioned to believe that trying something new is a good thing, which I still go by to this day. There are also times when we try something which impacts us the opposite way. Hopefully you have more positive experiences than negative. However, something like trying new food is just the small picture.

Look at the Bigger Picture

For some and maybe even most of you, a consistent daily routine is nothing out of the ordinary. You go to work, you do your job, you go back home, watch TV, and go to sleep. Now don’t get me wrong, if you’re completely satisfied with doing the same, by all means keep doing the same, because that’s what you’ll get. I interestingly enough run into people every day who find themselves just stuck in that rut hoping and wishing something would automatically change so their entire life style would too. But, how would one expect to create something out of nothing? Start by stopping. Stop what you’re doing right now and pay attention to which direction you’re heading. Are you heading down the path you want to head down? Do you find yourself in a position where you can’t go toward that path because of your financial situation, family situation or whatever situation that’s getting in your way? It starts with taking a chance. Change what you’re doing and you’ll get a different result. Since you have the control, keep changing until your happy with the results you get.

Repetition is Key, so be Persistent

So you’re probably confused considering that I just told you that doing the same thing gives you the same results. When you’re focused on acquiring a skill or talent, you should always be persistent. However, you don’t have to change what you’re doing entirely for something to work, but you do have to add to it.

For example

a person who’s prospecting for business over the phone.You should be persistent in the sense that you’re calling people like crazy and continuously moving from one person to the next, but you should also change your approach each time.

That same person who prospects for business but decides they don’t want to change anything will keep getting the same results: no business. Yes it is a numbers game and this person will get a deal here and there but the unpredictability percentage is too high. Be persistent with changing.

Next Level

Choosing not to change what you’re doing will also prevent you from going to the next level. Tiger Woods has over 5 different coaches who constantly work on changing his techniques and style. If he was stuck on the same techniques he used during the beginning of his career, he wouldn’t have advanced or grown to be where he’s at today.  So a person like Tiger can keep doing what he’s doing and get great results.  He will continue doing well of course up until someone else comes in and outshines him. This is why you must continuously grow, even if you change it up little by little. The Tiger Woods example would apply more so to people who ARE doing well and aren’t willing to change. Even if your good, someone will catch up so you either continue changing, evolving, and growing to keep your lead, or you let people catch up and exert more energy in getting back your lead.

What have you been doing that’s gotten you the same results over and over that you’ve been reluctant to change?

Size Matters, Small is the New Big

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In NASA, the smallest miscalculation can cause a fatal disaster. Being a slight degree off, 1/100 of inch, can lead a space shuttle in a completely different direction. The power of small is a phrase I use that means the smallest adjustment can make an enormous of change. This is obviously the negative side of it. However, since we already understand the power of perception, we know that with every negative, there is always a positive. If you haven’t already, you are about to realize that a small change can also impact you in a tremendously positive way.

I had a friend in college who had the potential of being a fantastic golfer, except he lacked direction. He had a powerful swing that can launch a ball into outer space ;). Unfortunately, outer space wasn’t the hole, therefore his talent was being wasted. His coach started to spend some extra time working on the way he held his golf club before and during his swing. Turns out that he cocked his wrist slightly on his way down to hit the ball. The slight change sent the ball in the complete wrong direction. His coach made him realize his the answer to becoming a better golfer was a small shift in his grip. Finally, he learned to slightly shift the club in the right direction, allowing him to control where the ball goes.

Right now, you are probably in a position where you are trying to make money in your career or business, mastering a skill, or just improving your overall personal development. Most of you are not happy with where you’re at right now or else you wouldn’t be browsing the internet to find blogs like mine for a solution. Some of you may say, “AJ you’re wrong, I’m happy with where I’m at right now and I just want to do better.” Well, the fact that you’re looking to do or be better than you currently are says to me that you’re not happy and you want to make a positive change. THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT. It’s absolutely amazing that you want to grow, especially considering that most people are just too lazy to search for an answer in the first place.

Wait a second…
Here is what I don’t want to do: I don’t want to change your entire way of being and doing, especially if what you’re doing is working. Some great advice that I’ve gotten once is that you should never change what you’re doing if it’s working for you, just add to it.

What I want you to do: I want to you to read my blog and create small incremental add-ons in your life that will allow big and major changes to occur over time. A great example would be for someone who goes to the gym; You don’t go from benching 135lbs to 225lbs after 1 set, you go through everything in between.

Here are some examples of you small incremental changes can become tremendously positive changes over time.

Dieting

Eliminate soda

1 can of soda is roughly 140 calories. Over the course of a year, if you drink 1 a day, that’s over 51,000 calories! That’s about 14 pounds!

Hold the Mayo!

When you eat a sandwich, avoid the mayo and you’ll save around 100 calories and 10 grams of fat. Stick with mustard instead.

Agua

Having a glass of water in the morning and before you go to bed can easily help you shed off a few pounds

Business/ Career

Prospect

If you need business, if you want to make money, then it is up to you to go get it. Start talking to people, making cold calls, door knock, etc. Calling 100 people a day will give you 10-15 contacts you can speak to. Out of the 10-15 contacts, 3-5 will be interested, and out of the 3-5, 0-1 might be. Now take this over the course of 1 year. And you’ll get hundreds of sales. Calling is just a few hours worth of work!

Learn and apply

Apply 1 new technique you learn from personal development into your career each day. This can lead to insightful achievements toward your success.

Read 1 book a month

I’ve written about this before: usually books on personal development contain experiences of someone’s life over the course of 10+ years. That means you’ll gain over 120+years of knowledge in just 1 year.
A good idea would be for you to ask a friend to hold you accountable and examine something your trying to do. You will more than likely not be able to see some of the small changes you probably need to make. Do the same with them!

Now that you’re consciously aware of the Power of Small, how will you take advantage of this type of mindset?

Do You Practice What You Preach?

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Have you ever told someone to do something that you would never do yourself? Gandhi hasn’t:

A woman once came to Gandhi and asked him to please tell her son to give up eating sugar. Gandhi asked the woman to bring the boy back in a week. Exactly one week later the woman returned, and Gandhi said to the boy, “Please give up eating sugar.” The woman thanked the Mahatma, and, as she turned to go, asked him why he had not said those words a week ago.”Gandhi replied, “Because a week ago, I had not given up eating sugar.”

-Catherine Ingram

The message from this story is quite simple, practice what you preach. What’s interesting to know is that there are thousands of blogs out there that teach personal development, yet only a select few that actually give sound advice. The reason behind that is that it’s simple to read information and rewrite it. I can study everything there is to know about being a doctor, but if I don’t actually work at a doctor’s office, would you let me operate on you? I know I wouldn’t :).

You, like almost everyone reading this probably has an interest in becoming a better person, being successful, or just t0 learn to do more good faster. Whatever the reason is for you visiting this site, it has to do with communicating with other people. The closer you are to mirroring whatever the message is that your communicating, the more powerful the message will come across. Like Gandhi, he wasn’t able to tell the woman’s son because he didn’t give up sugar himself. After he did it himself, he was able to tell the boy with more conviction and power. His message had a ‘backbone’ to it.

Practice what you preach

All of the strategies that I teach, share, and explain to you have been something I’ve done before or am currently doing right now.  If you’ve ever met me in person, I can talk for hours on end on almost everything related to personal development and self-help. I am TRULY interested in becoming an overall powerful human being capable of understanding fellow human beings with the ability to uplift them to also become powerful.

So, if you’re on the web searching for ideas, like right now being on persuasive.net, here’s the trick to practice what you preach:

Learn something, read it, get it taught to you, or do whatever to get it in your head and then instantly APPLY IT! DO IT! Yes it’s that simple 😉 Gandhi decided to cut sugar that same day the woman asked for him to give her son the message.

Do you practice what you preach? What exactly do you preach, and how do you practice it?

Are You Unique?

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Recently, I decided to pursue a passion that I’ve been interested in for many years now.  An industry where odds are almost never in your favor. An industry where there are people who are more than likely better than you. But then again, this probably sounds a lot like many of the industries out there, doesn’t it?

Other people are better than you

There will ALWAYS be someone better than you, if not now, then later. If you’d like to argue this point, I’d suggest you take a look at the Guinness Book of World Records. They release a new book every year because records are continuously broken. Advancements in equipment, psychology, training, or any thing can help us humans excel in various ways. Take a look at this past year’s Olympics in China, they created new suites for the swimmers which allowed them to break practically every world record for that category.

Being the best

Many people can argue that you must be the best in order to be successful which I believe to be untrue. Being the best doesn’t guarantee you anything. Take a look at actors. How many actors have you seen who are terrible. You’re probably a better then some of the actors out there, but they are the ones who are getting paid the millions…why?

Unique

Have you seen the movie Madagascar 2?  Let me explain: There is a zebra played by Chris Rock who thinks he’s the only one of his kind. The main animals crash their airplane in Africa where the zebra comes to realize that he isn’t the only zebra on the planet. Chris Rock’s character immediately becomes upset and angry because he feels as if he lost his uniqueness. Long story short, in the end, he realizes that he is indeed unique, not because of his looks but because of his weird and kooky personality. Being unique doesn’t automatically make you a superstar, but it does give you that slight advantage. That slight advantage can easily make or break your career.

Irreplaceable

Uniqueness then brings me to being irreplaceable.  In this economy, people are getting laid off faster than ever and it’s mainly because they are replaceable. Let’s say you made your company 10k a month. If you left and you were replaced by someone else who can make them 10k a month, obviously you were replaceable. However, if the company lost 10k by you not working there, then that means you carry that uniqueness quality and the ability to be irreplaceable.

Not only does being unique help in giving you some job security, but it can also help you make further advancements in your life and career.

We all say we are unique in our own ways, but how do you use your uniqueness to get further in your life or career?