The one you listen to the most is…

The one you listen to the most is YOU.  Your brain hears every word you say.  

If you say “I am bad at that”, or “I am tired today”, or “I hate this”, your brain is listening and does not argue.

They are not just statements; they are instructions.  You brian goes to work to make it true.

Repetition creates stronger and stronger neural pathways for acceptance and instruction of these statements.

Be careful how you talk, even when nobody else is around to hear it.

Someone very important is listening, and will make your speech come true.

You should want to be something you are not.

Did that get your attention?

“What the heck kind of advice is that?” you ask.  

Shouldn’t I be happy with who I am?  Isn’t disliking who I am a cause for a lot of psychological trouble?

Yes. It is.

But I did not say that you should dislike who you are.

I said we should want to be something we aren’t. Yet.

I see people with no goals, and they are literally “aimless”.

We need to have goals.  Goals we really want AND believe are possible for us.  Goals that are not attained yet.

Those goals will take us out of our comfort zones.  

Those goals will give us a reason to get up in the morning.  

Those goals will get us out of our comfort zones.

Those goals will have us learning new things, stretching, being creative and courageous.

Those goals will chase away boredom and depression, get us excited and bring out the best in us.

At age 62, after accomplishing much, I have more of these goals.  I need these goals. 

And because I set out to accomplish goals in the past and did not give up, I am a more capable and better equipped person to achieve new ones today.

What do you want to be/do or have that you are not/do not now?

Can you write it down?

There is no excitement inside your comfort zone

I knew a couple who seemed to do well, but they always said no to invitations.  They had their routine, and they didn’t want to get out of it.

“Do you want to come to the party?”  “Well, we’ll see what we have going on.”   

“Do you want to try riding this thing?  It’s easy.  My daughter is riding it, see?”  “No, no, that’s not my thing.”

“Do you want to shoot this bow, or play cornhole, or go camping with us?”  “No, I’m good.”

But there was something sad inside of them.  There was no spice in life, no excitement.

Habits make life easier.  Good habits will get good results that compound.  But don’t forget to break the routine.

They say that at the end of life, people regret the things they did NOT do more than the things they did.

When you have a weekend where you do something new and out of your box, isn’t that exciting?  Aren’t you talking about it for a long time?

A few years ago, we scheduled a day where my wife, Marie, and I would go skydiving.  We actually accepted an invitation to go with another couple.  Well, Marie was so nervous, she didn’t speak for a couple days beforehand.  We drove there, and she was silent with fear.

The place ascended.  She almost threw up.  When she landed, she yelled, “That was the greatest thing I’ve ever done!”

This is life, everyone!  This is our chance.  

All growth and a lot of excitement live outside your comfort zone.

Go get it!  Try new things!

Do you need to do well, or want to?

What is your primary driver, need or want?

Four differences between needers and wanters – 

1) Needing is extrinsically motivated, where wanting is internally motivated.

2) Needing is security driven.  Wanting is freedom driven.

3) Needing is scarcity minded.  Wanting is abundance minded.

4) Needing is reactive.  Wanting is creative.

What drives you?  Need?  Or want?

What would you do to kick your own ass?

If you were your competitor, knowing what you know about your company’s vulnerabilities, what would you do to kick your ass?

Fix that.  

Do that.

Treat people as good as you are

Don’t treat people as bad as they are.  They may live up to your assessment in dealing with you.

Treat people as good as you are.  (I am assuming you are damn good!)  They will elevate themselves when they are with you.

You can’t change other people

Some people think that they will be happy if they could just change a few other people to be more like they want them to be.

Maybe it’s their coworkers, their friends, their spouse or their kids.

They spend their life trying to make this happen.  But it is futile.

People don’t change.  And if they do, it won’t be because you wanted them to.

The only person you can change is yourself.  That is cool because it is in your direct control.  And by changing yourself, other people and situations will look very different.

Listen to this audio track from my Blueprint album – 

Blueprint – “Something Different”

Move up by solving problems and making decisions

Some people do not understand how to grow in importance and salary at work.

Problems?  Many people stand around waiting for someone else to solve the problem.  Maybe they don’t know how to solve the problems, or they don’t see it as their job, or they don’t have the courage to speak up.

If YOU solve problems and make decisions, that makes you more valuable and harder to replace.

When you take responsibility for the solutions to those problems, that is really good.

You will also earn the right to solve more problems.

Some problems are easy to solve and don’t move big needles too much.  Still, they need to be solved. 

Some problems are complex.  Some are more important when it comes to the results they get with customers, with sales, or with profits.

The more valuable the problems you solve, the more valuable the results are.

This is how you move up and do higher-value work.

If you change, everything will change for you.

Jim Rohn – what a guy.  He’s gone now but his counsel is timeless. 

You can listen to him on YouTube.  AI is amazing – bringing people back to life.

The core of his teaching – 

If you get better, everything will get better for you.

People who complain and people who are angry at the world because it is not easier….Jim would give them this advice.

By blaming anything but yourself, you give your power away to them/it.  You are saying they are responsible for your situation and not you.  This gives you a convenient way to avoid responsibility and for doing the work to get better.  You are off the hook – it is someone else’s fault.

But when you take responsibility for everything in your life, it is at the same time sobering and empowering.  Now you have the power to change it.  You still need the will and resolve, the courage, the knowledge, and the self-discipline, but you have taken the important first step.  You have taken responsibility.

The world is your reflection.

If you change, everything will change for you.

We discount free information.

People value advice more if they have paid for it, even if it is the same as advice they got or can get for free somewhere else.

Do you really need to pay for weight loss advice?

Do you really need to pay for, let’s say, “adult education”?

The answer is no.  Of course, if what you want is a support system and someone holding you accountable because you don’t have self-discipline, then that is a “value-added service” that comes with the advice.

Consider Think Daily.  It’s free.  How many of you have your teen or older kids signed up?  How many of your kids would even want to be signed up and read it every day?

I have kids, I know!  Some do, some don’t.  Why?  As Jim Rohn would say, “We don’t know why.  That’s just the way it is.”

How many of you have spent your life savings sending them to college?

Good information and advice is still good regardless of where it is from, whether it is from your grandmother, your Dad, your pastor, your professor, in a book, or in a YouTube video.

You’ll get better at recognizing good from bad quickly as you learn more and try things.  That’s called wisdom.