Archive for August, 2011
Personal Success: Frequency and consistency
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Marathons are run one step at a time!
Success does not have to be complicated. When it comes right down to it, success in nearly every area of life is extremely simple. Simple thoughts and simple actions that require frequency and consistency is all that it takes for you to be, do and have everything that you could ever possibly desire.
Want a great physique? Everyone knows that the process of losing and/or maintaining your weight is a pretty simple concept. You must burn more calories than you take in. How do you do that? With diet and exercise. Everyone knows this, yet much of America is overweight. The missing ingredient? Frequency and consistency.
Most people can stick to a good diet or a good exercise program for a short period of time. But most people eventually get out of the habit of maintaining their diets and exercise programs, leading them back to the same out-of-shape and overweight bodies that they had when they began.
Is becoming wealthy complicated? Everyone knows that you should save a portion of every paycheck for the future. Yet most of America is broke and living paycheck to paycheck. The missing ingredient? Frequency and consistency. Most people will get excited about saving for a week or two and then stop the habit of setting aside part of the paycheck because the money doesn’t pile up as quickly as we would like.
As a health care provider, my own personal health is of utmost importance to me. I feel that I must not only provide a great service to my patients, but I must also be an example to them. I never want to ask my patients to do something that I am not willing to do myself.
With that in mind, I have actively participated in long-distance races over the past several years. I have run 7 marathons (26.2 miles) over the past few years and continue to plan new races for the future. If you were to ask any of my friends or family members about these races, they would all tell you that the most amazing part of my having completed these events is that I have never trained for a race. When they say that, they mean that I have never focused on running extremely long distances prior to the race like most people must do in order to finish.
In reality, what they don’t see is that I’m never NOT training. As part of my responsibility to remain a role model for my patients, I have decided to exercise every day. I will typically workout at least 5-6 times every week and have done so for as long as I can remember. So while it looks like I’m never training because I don’t change my exercise routine before running these races, the truth is that I don’t have to because I have chosen to always stay in decent shape. Frequency and consistency!
If you will just decide on your major goals and choose to take simple daily action towards their completion, there will be no stopping you. Take your most important goals, break them down into their most simplistic pieces and work to complete the simple pieces with frequency and consistency and you will soon find yourself moving much closer to your dreams.
You were put here for a purpose, you are greater than you realize and your future will be filled with unlimited opportunities when you decide to become unstoppable.
Be Unstoppable!
Mike
Mike Mason, author of Unstoppable Success, is the Founder of Unstoppable Business Consulting, The Elite Training Center and the Clinic Director of The Chiropractic Care Center. He is considered one of the nation’s premier experts on business and motivation and lectures on success to sports and business groups. He is reported to be the future of business consulting.
Personal Success: Your Reference Group
Posted by: | CommentsChange your point of reference and you will change your life.
When I say “reference”, I am referring to whom or to what you are comparing yourself.
Are you rich? Compared to whom?
Are you smart? Compared to whom?
Are you intelligent? Compared to whom?
Are you a hard worker? Compared to whom?
Are you a good parent? Compared to whom?
Each person has to define their own success in each individual area. The easiest way for us to define success and to get a clear picture of success is to use the picture or example of someone else that is already doing what we hope to do. But in order to avoid complacency, the simple task of changing your reference can change your life.
There’s a story about a group of businessmen that wanted to be successful in their businesses and in their finances. They began to all hang out together until eventually they were all millionaires. They continued in their normal ways, thinking they were big shots, until one day a billionaire joined their group. Suddenly, they realized that there was a whole level of success that they had not yet envisioned.
Hang around with losers and sooner or later, you too will become a loser. Hang around with winners and you can’t help but become a winner as well.
If you want to become a good parent, make friends with other good parents and do what they do. Once you become a good parent, begin to use great parents as your new point of reference and work to become a great parent.
If you want to become debt-free, hang out with others that have already worked their way to a debt-free life. And once you are debt-free, find a millionaire to emulate. If you think and do what the millionaires do, you too will soon find your own way to a million dollars.
The key is to remember that there is always another level of success that can be yours if you choose to continually update and revise your focus. Each time you reach a new level, strive for something even greater. And in attempting something greater, always update and change your reference group if you ever hope to achieve your full potential.
You were put here for a purpose, you are greater than you realize and your future will be filled with unlimited opportunities when you decide to become unstoppable.
Be Unstoppable!
Mike
Mike Mason, author of Unstoppable Success, is the Founder of Unstoppable Business Consulting, The Elite Training Center and the Clinic Director of The Chiropractic Care Center. He is considered one of the nation’s premier experts on business and motivation and lectures on success to sports and business groups. He is reported to be the future of business consulting.
Business Success: Enjoy The Climb
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The sky's the limit in the climbing world
Everyone at the top was once at the bottom.
Modeling is one of the easiest and most effective ways to reach your goals. By modeling, I mean finding someone that has already done or is currently doing what you want to achieve. And once you find them, do what they did to get where they are and you too will get the same results.
However, it’s easy to overlook the fact that even the ultra-successful in every individual business were once at the bottom. Nobody is born at the top. Everyone, and I mean everyone, starts out at the bottom. I don’t care who they are, who their parents were or where they were born, everyone starts out at the bottom. These things can make it easier for some people to climb the business mountain faster than others, but no one begins at the top.
So, if someone else has already climbed the mountain that you want to climb, then so can you. Learn to think the way they think, do what they did to make it to the top and you too will soon find yourself moving up the mountain. Just remember that there is suppose to be joy in the climb.
Ask anyone at the top which part of their journey was the most fun and they will all tell you that the climb itself was the best. Being at the top is awesome, but for those who are actually willing to attempt to climb the mountain in the first place will inevitably reach what they believe is the top, only to find out that there is always another larger mountain to come. This means that the rare few in the world that are willing to dedicate themselves to reaching the top of any business or organization will spend less than 2% of their time actually resting at the top and 98% of their time climbing.
The view from the top will be nice, but if you can’t find a way to enjoy the climb, your life will pass you by. Find joy in the process of achieving your potential and the mountain becomes much easier to conquer.
It’s easy to look at successful people and forget that they too had to make the climb. It’s easy to envy someone else’s position or status without realizing what they had to do to get there. We all have to make the climb. Some of us have learned to find joy in the climb. Others are so focused on the empty destination that they waste their lives struggling to get to the top of something that is not going to make them happy.
Have large dreams. Have inspired goals. Climb big mountains. But remember, the real joy is in the climb, not in the destination.
You were put here for a purpose, you are greater than you realize and your future will be filled with unlimited opportunities when you decide to become unstoppable.
Be Unstoppable!
Mike
Mike Mason, author of Unstoppable Success, is the Founder of Unstoppable Business Consulting, The Elite Training Center and the Clinic Director of The Chiropractic Care Center. He is considered one of the nation’s premier experts on business and motivation and lectures on success to sports and business groups. He is reported to be the future of business consulting.
Business Success: Lessons from the Kitchen
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The Mason Family Ice Cream Maker
I may not be the best cook in the world, but I can make some pretty good homemade ice cream. I learned the recipe from my father years ago and have continued the tradition of making it for nearly every occasion of any significance. Really, I am always looking for an excuse to make it.
One day, years ago, I had committed to making it for my friends for a birthday party. I had bragged it up and told everyone to expect the best ice cream of their lives, which I’m sure was a drastic overestimate. Nonetheless, I got held up and was going to be arriving to the party late. When I called my friend to tell him that I would be running late, he reminded me that people were expecting the ice cream and he would be happy to get it started for me if I could just give him the recipe.
My first thought was, “You can’t make MY ice cream.” No one could possibly make it like me! But since we had no other options, I agreed and gave him the recipe. When I got to the party, the ice cream was finished and everyone was enjoying it. And to my surprise, it tasted EXACTLY the same as when I made it myself.
Success is the same way. If you do what the ultra-successful do, you will get the same results. Life doesn’t care who follows the recipe for success, life only cares that you apply the right ingredients. When you take a closer look at those that are successful in sports, academics, business, finances, parenting, etc. you will find that there is really nothing special about the people themselves. If any person thought the way they thought and did the same things that they do, they would have the same results. The key is to apply the same level of commitment and to do exactly what the ultra-successful do to be successful.
This is where my own strength comes in. I have been quite possibly the biggest copycat of all times. In sports, I found successful people, did what they did, and became successful myself. In the classroom, I asked the straight A students what they did differently from everyone else, I did what they did, and I jumped to one of the top in the class. In business and finances, I found successful people, I read their books, listened to their audios, went to their conferences, and finally, followed their recipe and I got the same successful results.
You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Find someone who has already done what you are looking to do and copy their habits and their recipe for success. Do what they do and you will get the exact same results. Again, life doesn’t care who is putting in the necessary ingredients for success, life only cares that you follow the recipe.
You were put here for a purpose, you are greater than you realize and your future will be filled with unlimited opportunities when you decide to become unstoppable.
Be Unstoppable!
Mike
Mike Mason, author of Unstoppable Success, is the Founder of Unstoppable Business Consulting, The Elite Training Center and the Clinic Director of The Chiropractic Care Center. He is considered one of the nation’s premier experts on business and motivation and lectures on success to sports and business groups. He is reported to be the future of business consulting.
Financial Success: The biggest challenge to wealth
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Your wallet SHOULD look like this!
What is the biggest challenge to wealth?
In my opinion, the one aspect that holds people back from achieving financial freedom is the failure to start. Beginning the habit of saving and investing is very easy, yet most people put it off until the reach retirement age. By then, it’s too late.
The hardest part is taking the first step. And the great thing about taking the first step is that you can take that step today. If you just get in the habit of saving 10% of what you make for investment purposes, you will be financially independent in no time at all. The first thing to do is to make the decision to stop wasting money and start saving/investing instead. My daughter is currently 6 years old. We recently bought her a learning device called The Zillionaire (which I highly recommend picking up if you have children.) The device is very simple. It has 3 canisters to hold money. The 3 canisters are titled “Spending”, “Saving” and “Investing.” Each week when she earns her commission (as explained inthe book Financial Peace Jr.), she puts a portion of her money into the spending account, a portion into the saving account and a portion into the investing account (plus she is putting 10% of her total commission towards her tithing at Sunday School.)
If she keeps this going, which will be much easier since she is starting young and already in the habit of allocating her money this way, she will be financially independent herself well before 98% of the population. My 6-year-old daughter can do this, but every study done on finances in America shows that over 90% of the general adult population does not have this habit.
Is this a very complex habit to develop? No
Is it unreasonable for you to live on 90% of what you are currently making? No
Is there anyone that doesn’t believe that 10% of their income saved and invested over time would lead to financial security? No
Do most people follow this easy system? No
Are most people financially independent and able to live the life that they want? No
And why is the answer to all of these question No? Because people fail to begin. You can start right now to move towards financial independence and security. Decide right now that you will cut out your unnecessary expenditures and start saving/investing at least 10% of your income. Then, very simply, make it automatic on each payday.
You’ve already waited this long. You can’t afford to wait any longer to start this simple process. Today is the day that can change your life and the lives of your family forever. All you have to do is start!
You were put here for a purpose, you are greater than you realize and your future will be filled with unlimited opportunities when you decide to become unstoppable.
Be Unstoppable!
Mike
Mike Mason, author of Unstoppable Success, is the Founder of Unstoppable Business Consulting, The Elite Training Center and the Clinic Director of The Chiropractic Care Center. He is considered one of the nation’s premier experts on business and motivation and lectures on success to sports and business groups. He is reported to be the future of business consulting.
Personal Success: Step out of your comfort zone
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Stepping out of your comfort zone can be fun
Can you remember a time when you tried something new, just for fun?
Kids do it all of the time. I am constantly amazed at how children plan virtually every minute of their day
around whether or not something will be fun. Every plan they make involves doing something new just for the fun of it. Their inability to do something, or potential failure while doing it, is very rarely, if ever, contemplated.
Somewhere along the journey to adulthood, too many of us lose our desire to step out of our comfort zone. We lose the desire to try something new just for the fun of it. Whether it’s a new career, a new job, a new talent, a new trip, or anything else new that could have a positive impact on our lives, we over-analyze things and give ourselves 50 different reasons why we shouldn’t do something. All the while, what we needed was just one good reason to do it.
Successful people know that they need to consistently take themselves out of their comfort zone. Only then will you truly experience growth.
There have been times in my own life that I have fought change. And though I feared it, every time I decided to accept change, it turned out to be the best thing for me.
Don’t be afraid to try something new. Don’t be afraid to step out of your comfort zone and go after that new job. Don’t be afraid to change career paths. Don’t be afraid to make today the first day of saving money to change your financial future. Don’t be afraid to learn a new skill. Don’t be afraid to attempt something new just for the fun of it. Life is too short to wait!
Take a moment and think to yourself, “If I had to do one new thing, and failure was not an option, what would I do?” The answer to that question will take you closer to where you are supposed to be.
Think about it and commit to doing it today.
You were put here for a purpose, you are greater than you realize and your future will be filled with unlimited opportunities when you decide to become unstoppable.
Be Unstoppable!
Mike
Mike Mason, author of Unstoppable Success, is the Founder of Unstoppable Business Consulting, The Elite Training Center and the Clinic Director of The Chiropractic Care Center. He is considered one of the nation’s premier experts on business and motivation and lectures on success to sports and business groups. He is reported to be the future of business consulting.
Financial Success: One word to change your future
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Your future is Unlimited
Could you be sabotaging your own financial success and security?
Do the words you say really make a difference in your life? Absolutely!
What do you think would happen if you said to yourself “I feel sick”? What if you said it over and over and over throughout the day? If you literally said aloud “I feel sick”, how long do you think it would be before you actually talked yourself into being sick? I don’t think that there’s anyone alive that doesn’t believe that they could talk themselves into physically feeling horrible if they tried.
The same is true for your finances. How many times per week do you say “I can’t afford that”? How many times do you think it? How many times per week do you say “that’s too expensive”? How many times do you think it? How many times per week do you say “I don’t have the money to … “? How many times do you think it? How many times per week do you say “if I only had more money, I would …”? How many times do you think it?
These things may all be true right now, but the real question is do they have to stay that way? And the answer is a resounding NO!
I’m sure that there really are things you can’t afford and things that are too expensive right now. I’m sure that you don’t currently have the money to buy everything you want to have and do everything you want to do. But the one word that can change your future financial situation is the word “yet.”
You can’t afford that YET. You don’t have the money to buy that YET. You don’t have money to do that YET. If you truly want to shape your own financial forecast, you have to begin by putting the right thoughts and words into your effort to improve it. Either remove the words “can’t”, “won’t”, “too expensive”, etc. from your vocabulary all together, or simply add the word “yet” to every negative thought that pops in your head.
As I look back on my own finances over the years, beginning with the time that I was covered in debt, I always added hope to my financial situation by thinking and speaking about the things that I would have and be able to do someday. And when the negative thoughts would creep into my mind at times, just like they do everyone’s minds, I always added the word “yet”. I know that I will have that someday, I just can’t buy it YET. I know that I will be able to do that someday, I just can’t afford to do it YET.
The word “yet” in no way guaranteed a better financial future, but it certainly set the stage for success. It worked for me and will work for you too!
Starting today, anytime you think or speak of something you can’t do, can’t buy or can’t afford, make sure to add the word ”yet” and immediately begin to envision in great detail exactly what it is that you WILL have someday, WILL buy someday and WILL be able to afford someday.
Be Unstoppable!
Mike
Business Success: Inspiration
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Inspiration is all around us
Are you looking for inspiration or are you being an inspiration?
Here’s something that the ultra-successful know that others don’t.
Inspiration comes from within.
Most people go through life looking and waiting for others to inspire them. They think that the right job, more money, the perfect friend, the perfect marriage, etc. will bring inspiration to their lives.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with any of these things and I encourage you to have all of these things in your life. However, what the ultra-successful know is that your own inspiration must precede all of these things or you will never achieve any of them.
No job is going to inspire you unless you bring inspiration to your job. No amount of money will inspire you unless you do, or plan to do, something inspiring with your money. No marriage will inspire you unless you bring your own inspiration to the marriage. No friend or partner will inspire you unless you bring inspiration of your own to the relationship.
The best way to become inspired is to become an inspiration!
Take any ultra-successful person and place them in a new position and watch their position change. Again, don’t watch the person change, watch them change their position. The energy, positivity, vision and inspiration that the person will inevitably bring to the position will change the position for the better.
Don’t let life pass you by thinking that you will one day randomly find the right job, the right friend, the right partner or the right business to inspire you to be your best. Become an inspiration and bring your internal inspiration to every facet of your life and watch your life instantly begin to change for the better.
You were put here for a purpose, you are greater than you realize and your future will be filled with unlimited opportunities when you decide to become unstoppable.
Be Unstoppable!
Mike
Mike Mason, author of Unstoppable Success, is the Founder of Unstoppable Business Consulting, The Elite Training Center and the Clinic Director of The Chiropractic Care Center. He is considered one of the nation’s premier experts on business and motivation and lectures on success to sports and business groups. He is reported to be the future of business consulting.
Personal Success: What is Success?
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Recently I was asked by a friend if a mutual acquaintence of ours was successful.
My response: What’s your definition of success?
In this particular case, I knew what my friend was asking… Does he make a lot of money? The answer to that question is yes. However, I would hardly consider this person “successful”.
The person has continual marital problems due to his unwillingness to compromise, continual family problems because of his unwillingness to keep from being selfish and has very few friends because he is so unhappy to be around.
In his case, he has put money at the forefront of his personal success, but at the expense of alienating everyone around him.
Personally, I would not consider this success. At the same time, I’m not him and my opinion doesn’t really matter.
The same holds true for you.
How do you define success?
Is it being a good mother or father?
Being wealthy?
Being a good friend?
Being great at your job?
If you can’t define what success means to you, then how will you know if and when you are successful?
Whatever it is, the way that you define success will determine how you handle the daily decisions in your life.
What I’d like for you to remember as you determine your own definition of success is that you can have more than just one version of success.
For instance, being wealthy doesn’t mean that you can’t be a good mother or father. Wanting to be a good mother or father doesn’t mean that you can’t want to have a successful career. These desires are not mutually exclusive.
You can have as much success in as many areas as you choose to have. The key is defining your own success and prioritizing your life so that you keep first things first. Success in one area should never come at the expense of success in a higher priority area. But again, if you don’t establish you priorities and if you don’t define success, you will never know where you are going.
If you don’t already have it figured out, today would be a great day to start. Define your priorities in life, then explain in great detail what “success” would mean to you in each of these categories. And lastly, write it all down and review it daily.
You were put here for a purpose, you are greater than you realize and your future will be filled with unlimited opportunities when you decide to become unstoppable.
Be Unstoppable!
Mike
Mike Mason, author of Unstoppable Success, is the Founder of Unstoppable Business Consulting, The Elite Training Center and the Clinic Director of The Chiropractic Care Center. He is considered one of the nation’s premier experts on business and motivation and lectures on success to sports and business groups. He is reported to be the future of business consulting.
Personal Success: Set Aside Time
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As you already know, life moves pretty fast. Before you know it, the months begin to pass like days.
Too many people let time pass them by without ever stepping out of their comfort zone and attempting to achieve what they really want in life. In my observation, there are a few different reasons why.
The first is fear of failure. Most people give up before they ever begin. Successful people still have fear, they have just chosen not to give in to it and to press on inspite of their fear. To be successful, so must you!
The second reason is that they have never actually taken the time to determine what it is that they actually want.
Look, if you don’t know what it is that you want, how do you ever expect to actually get what you want? If you don’t determine what it is that you want, and delineate it in crystal clear details, then life is going to just randomly “happen” to you.
With this approach, you lose all control over the direction of your life. The ultra-successful are no better than anyone else, they just have just taken the time to determine what they want out of life, what they will have to give in order to achieve it and focused on giving everything they have until they made it a reality.
The key is that you must set aside the time to think. Think about what you want to achieve. Think about the kind of person you want to be. Think of the kind of person you will need to be in order to achieve your goals. Think about how you can tie your success to helping others. Think about what you want for your family, your future, your friends, your coworkers, your employer or your employees. Think about why God has created you. Think about how you can utilize your unique talents and gifts.
Just set aside time to think. No tv, no phone, no computer… just you and your thoughts until you have decided what you want. And remember, you can always change your mind as time goes on, but you must have a plan and you must set aside the time to develop your plan.
Don’t let time pass you by. There is more than enough time in the day for you to sit quietly in a room to determine what you want in life. Once you know what you want, your life will start moving in that direction.
Set aside the time for success today. Lock yourself in a room by yourself if you have to, but don’t come out until you know what you want. Even if your plan is only temporary, any plan is better than no plan.
You were put here for a purpose, you are greater than you realize and your future will be filled with unlimited opportunities when you decide to become unstoppable.
Be Unstoppable!
Mike
Mike Mason, author of Unstoppable Success, is the Founder of Unstoppable Business Consulting, The Elite Training Center and the Clinic Director of The Chiropractic Care Center. He is considered one of the nation’s premier experts on business and motivation and lectures on success to sports and business groups. He is reported to be the future of business consulting.