If you’ve read The 3 C’s of Succcess (and i’m sure you have : ) thank you…) you know one of the more controversial statements I make about achieving your goals is to KEEP YOUR GOALS (particularly your BIGGEST, HAIRIEST, SCARIEST, FREAKIEST goal, TO YOURSELF!)

I can’t tell you how many comments I received telling me that was “INCORRECT”. That “common wisdom” (of course) btw: always remember to question “Common Wisdom”, is that you should tell everyone you can — to use the LEVERAGE of a group to scare you / motivate you. My contention in the book AND (based upon MY EXPERIENCE achieving rather large goals) was to KEEP them QUITE. WHY!? Because if everything is ENERGY, you’re wasting a whole lot running around (at least i was) telling everyone what you are going to do. WHO CARES!?? They don’t care. Not because they don’t care. But, because they have their own goals to pursue AND UNTIL you ACTUALLY do anything (actually achieve it) it’s not going to mean much — it’s just the proverbial “hot air”.

Remember, i believe it was Henry Ford who said, “You can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do.” Get it?

The great thing is, the above video shares a SCIENTIFIC study based upon the psychology of what happens when you tell people. WATCH IT! You will become complacent in a sense — as though you’ve somehow achieved it, even slightly by talking about it. Strange but perhaps true. When I reflect all those big goals i only spoke of to people, it actually makes some sense as though i was trying to convince them and myself I could/would do that someday.

So, whether for psychological reasons or cosmic, metaphysical reasons (energy!). My advice remains consistent. Your best bet to achieve your goals is to keep them quite, bust your ass (work really hard), and keep them quite. (BTW: not to confuse you, but sharing your goal with and using a master mind certainly works. but that is very different then just blabbing about the goal to friends and family. ) Perhaps the master-mind will be another post.

Until then…. keep your fricken mouth shut! : )

Big love. i’m expecting that thank you email in a year after you’ve nailed a BIG GOAL!

~mws

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for the love of GOD, people, please stop looking for “secrets”… stop looking for shortcuts. I take that back. Go ahead look for shortcuts all you like. But the only secret is that you don’t realize you have the answers within.

watch this video – please. don’t do it for me, do it for you / your loved ones. ten minutes. that’s it. If you take the message to heart i GUARANTEE it will have a lifetime affect on you as it did on my over ten years ago. (of course, i’ve probably listened now a few hundred times since-i’m a slow learner) Then, I gave it to a number of friends (this is when it was on cassette tape!).

if you put in the ten minutes listening to this message you’ll see how timeless it is. You control ONLY ONE thing – your thoughts. How you think habitually and what you think about you ultimately become. Another gem… conformity rules. “the opposite of courage is not cowardice, it’s conformity.” Consider that for a minute, those we admire simply have found/developed the habit of COURAGE. And, like any other habit it’s developed over time.

what do you think about habitually?

what does your ideal future look like? (see The 3 C’s of Succcess)

what habits of (thought and action) have you developed to make your vision a reality?

enjoy. my prescription is to watch this about once a month for the next year.

until next time,

~mws

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“What we call the beginning is often the end. And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from.” ~T.S. Eliot

It was a beautiful spring day, the sun was out, the birds were singing, squirrels were playing in the yard, and I Brian Webb a recent college graduate was deciding my future. I was at home in Maysville, Kentucky discussing what I should do with my life and what endeavors I should partake. The decisions were made that I should move to Cincinnati and live with my father and work in the IT field with his company as a mentor/internship. With my education, it was believed that I can move up to management. With that decided, I drove back to Lexington content on my decision.

“Life tends to happen when you are making plans.” I arrived at my apartment in Lexington, Kentucky and decided to lay down on the couch to take a nap. However, I couldn’t sleep, I had a strange headache coming on stronger and stronger. Bam! Bam! BAM!!! Felt like a nail was being driven in the back of my skull. The pain was excruciating! So, painful in fact that I got sick and passed out.

My brother came rushing to my side and called 911. The ambulance delivers me to the ER in a coma. End of story.

Now, this is where the adventure really begins…. Twelve years later, I discovered that I suffered an intracranial hemorrhage. A blood vessel in the back of my brain ruptured destroying the life I once knew. Doctors said that I had an Arterio-Venous Malformation or A.V.M for short. I don’t care what the doctor’s call it, but I call it a dream killer.

Tragedies happen every day, just look at the news. Being a traumatic brain injury survivor has given me a new lease on life. What I am going to share are three lessons I believe it takes to succeed.

Vision: You must know where you want to go! You must have a dream. Nothing starts without a dream. I dare you to dream! For example, I heard I should be in California since there are many great programs available to me. With that vision, I saved my money working odd dead-end jobs. At one point I was working three different jobs at once. The vision is very important for success.

Belief in yourself: You must have an innate belief in yourself. Believe in yourself and mountains will move. Always bet on the long shot and if you are the long shot then bet the farm on yourself. It is hard to go it alone, to believe that you are right. But, understand that where it MUST START (yourself). Take pride in yourself and all your successes whether small or great.

Don’t give up don’t ever give up: Babe Ruth once said, “It is hard to beat a person who never gives up.” Keep striving, keep pushing. There was a time when I could not use my legs for three months. I had to force myself out of bed and try to get my legs moving. I vividly remember waking up each morning to get in my wheelchair, wheel myself to the cafeteria for breakfast and wheeling myself back to my room where my therapist were waiting. The therapists got me out of my chair and had me walk the length of the hallway in the hospital and back. I took a step, step, step….BAM! I fell flat on my face. Step, step then BAM! I fell down again. Step, and BAM I fell down a third time. When the world tells you to give up, hope whispers try one more time. I got up and eventually made it down the length of the hallway and back. This led to me walking the perimeter of the hospital and then going back home to walk around the perimeter of the local lake. I am happy to report that I ran my 5th marathon this past spring in San Diego! It has taken twelve years to discover the new me. But never giving up has always been consistent. The idea of never quitting when the going gets tough has helped me accomplish these goals.

I have presented my own three key mindsets to accomplish any goal! The process is vision, belief, and never giving up. This experiment that I call life has been a twelve year process for me and I continue to learn more every day. I successfully moved to San Diego, CA during one of the worst recessions this country has faced. I intend to go to grad school because I have discovered what I want to do with my life which is to serve other individuals like myself by teaching them about rehabilitation and counseling programs.

Choose life, learn to live, the miracle is inside you. Stay strong, don’t quit and never, ever give up. Thank you.

~Brian Webb

—-COMMENT:

Brian, greatly appreciate your submission. Your story is truly inspiring and reminds me that when “we” think we have “problems” stories like this help snap us into a more realistic and responsible perspective! Great job!

~mws

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Brilliant. astounding, outstanding and remarkable

There aren’t enough superlatives for MAN ON WIRE!

Things have been a little busy lately – and wanting to get to this “review’ / post since I saw this movie well over a month ago! Man on Wire is incredibly entertaining movie and not just for the never-to-be-repeated, remarkable feat itself (tight-rope, in this case wire-walking from one World Trade Center tower to the other) but, also, for its direction, production, and original footage.

I happened to see this movie (wifee’s recommendation) just before the Academy Awards (no surprise it won for best documentary).  The story features Phillipe Petit and his mission to realize his life’s dream of walking a tight rope between the two world trade towers. The brilliance from a production standpoint is the reenactment is interspersed with some fantastic original footage.  But, what makes the movie truly so powerful and riveting is the UNDERLYING THEME.

We are all walking a tight rope.

The difference is easy to see though isn’t it? Some people embrace the ‘experience’ and go out of their way to, as Phillipe says, “live on the edge” and then, there is the majority – the vast majority, that cower from the edge. They seek the center, they seek “security”.

If you’ve seen my prior post on SECURITY and CERTAINTY you know my thoughts on the topic. So having said that, I wanted to call out the 9 significant take-aways, essentially, reaffirming the techniques and lessons of Philipe’s brilliant story. Reverse engineering, once again, to the rescue.

1: Desire, Dream & Visualize: Phillipe actually realized his goal the day he was in his doctor’s office waiting for his appointment. While there, he was flipping through a magazine and noticed a feature story on the world trade center – it was still the early 70’s, the towers where not even completely built! However, he knew upon seeing the vision of the towers this was his destiny. He was sucked into the event at that moment several years earlier by the VISION – the dream and his desire quickly compelled him to tear a page right out of the magazine featuring the towers.

2: Practice: Phillipe was the consummate pro – addicted to practicing his craft.There is original footage showing how often he practiced and under what circumstances – blindfolded, with people shaking the cable, etc. His daily ritual involved practice. His tight rope walking skills were masterful because of fundamental practice.

3: Plan and Strategize: To pull of something of this magnitude required considerable planning which involved a schedule; scoping the job, gaining access to the towers. A plan to get the cable from one tower to the next and of course a strategy for  “game day”.
3.a – Flexibility: With every plan you must remain FLEXIBLE. Literally, the man was a cat. One flexible dude. but this refers to his flexibility in planning, of bending but not braking. More things went wrong than right — before the plan came together.

4:  TEAMWORK: Phillipe had to enlist nearly a dozen accomplices to this “CRIME”. A few friends pulled out at the last minute – fearful they may be held accountable for the death of a friend! Without the other brave and willing friends his dream isn’t realized. TEAMWORK.

5: BELIEVE: In the man’s own words… “Impossible! Great, let’s get to work!”

6: Passion: Passion powers people through obstacles. It’s stated in The 3 C’s of Succcess a few times. Nothing worth pursuing is going to be easy. What differentiates those who succeed more often than not is passion! Passion gets you to COMPLETION (the 3rd C). Lack of passion gets you somewhere else.

7: “Death is very Close”: Often times far closer than any of us want to imagine. So, this can either terrify you or MOTIVATE you. Phillipe was motivated by death on the front (of the event) and back end (during the event).  And, his point is you are never more  ALIVE then “when death is very close” . There are many who will attest to that.

8: FOCUS: To execute such an act took laser-like focus. Guess how many times he looked down? What are you focusing on? Right now, quick question, are you focusing on the opportunities before you or the obstacles? Can you craft the obstacles to become opportunities?

9: Fun & Flare: Perhaps this is why the cops waited around to drag his ass to the looney bin. He didn’t just tight rope walk between the towers – he turned it into a PERFORMANCE. Phillipe bowed, saluted, SMILED and then decided to take a CAT nap (gives new meaning to the term) on the wire! He danced on the wire for over 40 minutes. Seriously, he executed the impossible with remarkable poise. He enjoyed the process and put on a show nearly 2000 feet above crowds and a lot of cement! Yes, I said he LAID DOWN on the wire!!?

Now that is beautiful. Scoreboard.

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1. Steve Jobs, Synchronicity, Connecting the Dots & Trust

“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago.
The second best time is now.” ~Chinese Proverb

There are so many young adults today completely lost. Totally disillusioned and frustrated. So many fine young men and women in their 20s, 30s, and even 40’s who’ve lost touch with the natural maturation process of personal development and personal success. These individuals seek instant gratification. They want success, and they want it now! The phrase, “paying your dues” unfortunately, doesn’t register or doesn’t apply to them . . . or so they think.

Why? I’m thinking you can go ahead and blame it on the microwave oven. Yes, the microwave oven. Think about it, these same “kids” are now adults and they’ve only known one thing — instant gratification! Need a quick meal? Pop it in the microwave. How about some leftovers – throw it in the microwave. The trusty microwave has now made the concept of “waiting” obsolete.

Consider that on some Freudian Esque level, one of our most basic needs – food (warm food) has been relegated to a 30 second episode. There are now multiple generations programmed for instant gratification.

For the last 30 years, the microwave has subconsciously programmed millions of youth to think that they can have anything right away. Whether it’s a piece of pizza or, I humbly submit to you, success!

So what happens to these poor souls? Well, so many of these individuals become frustrated when they realize that life doesn’t work like their favorite kitchen appliance. They expect that they’ll get what they want out of life when they want it. The house, the car, the fabulous career will be theirs in a few years (max). Sure, their parents’ careers may have taken 20 or even 30 years, but they knew they could do it faster and better.

Stephen Covey has a marvelous phrase for this. He calls it “The Law of the Farm.” Life is much like a farm controlled by timeless principles. You plant your ideals and your goals and then watch them grow. You just can’t rush certain things. No farmer ever “crammed” to get a crop to grow. No matter what you do, you can’t get corn to grow any faster than nature intended it to.

Yes, farming takes time. The farmer works diligently in the off months preparing the soil. He then carefully sows the seeds. The next step could then be not only the most frustrating, but also the most nerve-wracking. He must patiently allow the natural laws to take effect. Wait for the seeds to mature. But does he worry that the seeds won’t mature or bring forth the crop? No. He diligently works on the crop, day after day, and knows the fruit of his labor is assured—in due course.

And so it is with our lives and our goals. It’s not easy, and there are no shortcuts. We work for years preparing the soil for our success, and then we sow the seeds. Then comes the gestation period. We wait for those seeds to grow and our success to ripen.

The “microwave generation,” however, expects—without even recognizing it—success to be instant. They really expect instant development. They haven’t yet grasped the idea that “overnight” success—in both business and personal development—actually translates into, far more often than not, a 20-year process!

Consider what the American talk show host Monty Hall said: “Actually, I’m an overnight success. It just took 20 years.” This is why Confucius said nearly 3,000 years ago, “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago—the second best time is now.”

Does this mean that you won’t experience immediate improvements by following and practicing the three C’s?

Absolutely not! As soon as you start employing the ideas of the three C’s and working the exercises, you’ll discover a whole new world. You are likely to gain a greater sense of clarity about your world and your life. You’ll gain insight beyond your years. What’s more, you’ll have a working “recipe” to create immediate, positive changes throughout your life.

Will your business flourish and thrive overnight? Will your career take off overnight? Will your relationships be model relationships overnight? Probably not. Will your business, career or relationships see a dramatic change for the better within a year? Absolutely.

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