This is easier than being brilliant…

It is easier to avoid stupidity than to attain brilliance.

Some people make stupid mistakes a habit.

Some do pretty well most times, then make big mistakes that set them back a good distance.

Avoiding mistakes is not hard if you think before you act and exercise self-discipline.

If you are not sure if it is a good idea, don’t do it.

(Not to be confused with good ideas that make you uncomfortable.)

If you know it’s a bad idea but you can’t help yourself, you are being stupid.  Sometimes you will get away with it, and sometimes you will pay out of all proportion.

If you think you are about to say something that will put you in someone’s dog house, don’t say it. 

If it sounds too good to be true – it is.  Proceed accordingly.

If you are angry, keep your mouth shut.

Don’t drink and drive.  Best not to drink much anyway.

If it feels good and you do it often, you are probably being stupid.

Don’t cancel your gains.

Avoid stupidity.

Thoughts are seeds

What you plant in your mind will eventually grow into habits, actions and outcomes.

Thoughts are where what happens next starts.

Plant the future.

Go ahead – have a long great thought.

You can’t think bad and live good

Right thinking leads to right action, and a fulfilled life.

If you aren’t happy with your results and truly want better, you need to change the actions you took to produce them.

In order to do that, you have to change your thinking.

Usually, to do that, you have to learn something new, get some good and honest advice you trust, and/or do some honest reflecting about what you did and why, and what you need to do better.

Think good – live good.

Make each day your Masterpiece

Lives are built of years.

Years of months.

Months of weeks

Weeks of days.

Days of hours.

Each hour is a building block of your life.

Show up fully, do your best work, and leave no room for regret.

Life is now.

Make it count.

Consistency = winning

A consistent person will beat a brilliant one who is not consistent every time.

A consistent person shows up day in and day out and does their best to move toward a worthy ideal (goal, situation) that stretches them and makes them a better person.

Consistency kills procrastination, because showing up and doing the right things has become a habit.  

Consistency frees you from decision because you already know what you’re going to do.

Consistency frees you from emotion, because you don’t suffer over it – it’s who you are.

It’s cold – you show up and do it.

Don’t feel like it – you show up and do it.

Not inspired today – you show up and get after it.

You build character this way.  You come to trust yourself.

With consistency, you accumulate results.

Consistent at getting better all the time – that’s winning.

Be the cause of the effects you want.

You do this, you get that.

You are not responsible for your childhood, but you are responsible for your adulthood.

You are the cause of the results you get in your life.

What do you want?

Be the cause of it.

Learn the things, think the thoughts, and take the actions that produce the results you want.

What you become is up to you, and that’s amazing. 

If you want to be average do what everyone else does.

If you want to be better than average, you can’t do what everyone else does.

You have to pay attention to different things.

You have to spend your time differently.

You have to learn different things, and more things.

Others won’t understand you.  You may lose some friends, but you will gain others.

Break from the pack.  Be better than average.

Forging true strength

There is something about people who have gone through adversity – they have a sense of strength, calm, and confidence that people who have not been tested just don’t have.

Strength and faith are built in the dark – when no one is watching.

When you are by yourself and things aren’t going well, that is when your strength can be forged.

Don’t give up. 

Tell yourself the right story about your situation to avoid suffering.

Darkness is a gift, and the light beyond it is that much sweeter.

Move on your dream

Move toward your dream and your dream moves toward you.

Be patient, but keep moving.

Understand the steps to making it come true.

Control the inputs and what happens next.  

Favor actions that move you toward your dream, and never the things that take you away from it.

Keep it in your mind all the time.

Move toward your dream and your dream moves toward you.

Breakthrough you.

You created what you don’t like about you and your life.

It may have been from doing things you like in the now, at the expense of longer-term results.

A breakthrough requires a radical departure from your habits.

How difficult it will be to change is up to you – how you think about the old habits (do you even see them?), and how you think about the new and better ones.

There is nobody else in your way – just you….and that is good news.