Tag Archives: success

No excuses for missing class!

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Photo by igoghost

My friend Danielle and I have a mutual class this semester and we usually sit together. This past Friday she was scheduled to have her wisdom teeth removed and asked if I could take notes for her. I said I would.

A few minutes before class started I reminded myself to use my best handwriting that day. As soon as I finished this thought she walked into the room and sat down next to me. I looked at her and asked, surprised, “Didn’t you get your wisdom teeth out today?” She nodded. I said, “When?” She carefully said, “An hour ago.”

Wow! I was in awe. She had surgery an hour earlier and still came to class! Four wisdom teeth pulled…and she came to class! Maybe she needed the extra “wisdom” now that she lost some (hehe). Either way, that completely nullified every other excuse to miss class I’ve heard.

My philosophy is that class attendance in non-negotiable. There is no excuse to miss class, with a few rare exceptions (contagious illnesses, death, unavoidable schedule conflicts, meeting the President, discovering Atlantis, delivering the cure for cancer, etc.).

Wisdom teeth surgery an hour beforehand probably classifies as one of those exceptions. But “I’m tired” “It’s Monday” “It’s cold outside” “It’s Friday” “My tummy hurts” “8am is too early!” “My professor doesn’t like me” “I would, but I can’t” “It’s such a far walk” “It might rain” “But my favorite TV show is on!” are not valid in my book!

Paying $50-100,000 for an education? Show up! Or find Atlantis.

If excuses sometimes hold you back, watch this Nike commercial :)

Celebrate progress: anniversary edition!

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Rewarding a behavior tends to lead to more of that particular behavior. But we don’t always get rewards from others when we do something totally awesome (psht – it’s tough out here!). Furthermore, sometimes we are the only ones who know of our own feats!

Beach retreat to celebrate! Any takers? Photo by AlexaSky

Don’t let that discourage you from rewarding yourself, though. Each time you reach a new goal, pass a milestone, break a record, or just make a deliberate improvement, take out the party hats and kazoos – it’s time to C-E-L-E-B-R-A-T-E!

Acknowledgment of your efforts will come back to you tenfold. If positive results aren’t reinforced, the enthusiasm may slowly die. Without enthusiasm, without a reward, without something to look forward to, motivation dwindles and dissipates.

Ever wonder why video games are so loved and addicting? Many of them have scrupulously calculated reward ratios. The gamer tries and tries and then finds a box of magic coins. Then they try and try and find the golden sword. Then they defeat a level and unlock a hidden power. They are never allowed to go too long without a small celebration and reward for their progress! If they were, what would happen? They would stop playing because the game would be no fun.

It’s the same in life. Life is a game. Be enthralled by it! Love it! Be captivated! Be constantly progressing, playing, and achieving, and give yourself your own box of coins, magic sword, and hidden powers. Reward yourself. Celebrate your progress! Did you get a promotion? Have a nice dinner at your favorite restaurant. Did you get a great report card? Buy yourself some new clothes. Win a gold medal at the Olympics? Go to Disney World!

Celebration of progress is your way of saying to your brain: “Look, that was good. Give me more of that and I will give you more of this celebration stuff!” And your brain will likely say, “Can’t wait! More good stuff coming right up!”

As for me, this post marks exactly one year since my first blog post, “If you put bunny ears on somebody it means you love ‘em!”. It’s my first Blogiversary! I have not yet decided on the celebration for it (perhaps your suggestions/comments will help!), but best believe I’ll be celebrating somehow! I’m thinking ice cream, a nap, new Packer’s car seats, a book, or a round of golf :)

Oddly enough, it’s also fellow blogger and friend Bianca’s 21st birthday. Congratulations to her! By the way, aren’t birthdays just a celebration of the progress of life? Of course! And everyone loves birthdays! Take a lesson from that; celebrate your own progress, even if it’s not your birthday :)

Photo by jsnflo

The reward of self-discipline

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It’s hard to stick to a work-out plan. It’s hard to stick to a diet. It’s hard to say “no” when the cake is right in front of us. It’s hard to wake up early every day. It’s hard to spend time working on ourselves and developing our abilities.

It’s hard to stay up late working when we could’ve stopped hours ago. It’s hard to go to class every day. It’s hard to sit down and work on that novel. It’s hard to stay in and study when our friends are going out partying. It’s hard to refrain from “snoozing” three or four more times. It’s hard to work when our favorite TV show is on. It’s hard to stick to our self-imposed deadlines. It’s hard to do work that we don’t absolutely have to do.

Nobody said discipline was easy! But is it worth it?

Here’s the answer: Picture your goal in your head. Now let me ask you a better question. Is your goal worth it? Is your future worth it? Are your dreams worth it? You have to want your goal more than you don’t want to practice self-discipline. You can’t have both! Success takes discipline.

“Without self-discipline, success is impossible. Period.” ~Lou Holtz. As long as it is properly directed and focused, the reward of self-discipline is success. You can’t cut down a tree with a tissue, no matter how disciplined you are. But if you are disciplined with the right tools and techniques, the deck is heavily stacked in favor of your success.

How many people say they want to get ahead in life? A lot. But it’s hard to get ahead in life. After all, if it were easy, everyone would be ahead! It’s hard, and because it is hard, many people will not do it. But when you get ahead, then it’s easy! Then you can enjoy being ahead! But you have to get there first. In other words, to enjoy the fruits of your labor, first you must labor!

Photo by kraker

“The man on top of the mountain didn’t fall there.” ~Vince Lombardi. If you want the view from the top, you have to stick with the climb until you get there. The gorgeous view that awaits is reserved for those willing to put in the effort.

Now, some people will say they just simply can’t discipline themselves. “It’s impossible, I’ve tried.” For example, too many times I’ve heard people say, “I can’t wake up early if my life depends on it. I just can’t, it won’t work.”

That’s not true, and here’s why: Imagine that right now you were offered $1 million in cash to wake up at 5 a.m. tomorrow. It would be directly deposited into your bank account for immediate use or given to you in $100 bills. No questions asked…it would be your money, tax free. Now could you wake up early? Of course! What changed? Only your reasons for doing so. It was never impossible. Here’s the point: if you want to be disciplined, give yourself big enough reasons to do so.

Anything can be accomplished if you make it important enough. Focus on outcomes, not effort. Usually, the effort required to achieve something is miniscule in proportion to the excitement and thrill of achieving it.

Lastly, here is a beautiful verse from the Bible that powerfully illustrates this: “No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.” ~Hebrews 12:15

Train yourself in the way of success. To the victor go the spoils. Be the victor!

Photo by Genkaku

How to get what you want!

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There are countless ways to achieve any result. But there are also countless ways not to achieve any result.

Here’s the key: focus on the activities that propel you toward your goal. What is it that you really want? Define that first. Then, anything that holds you back, creates noise in your life, or leads to unwanted results, stop doing!

For example, there are many different ways to drive from New York to California. Some are quick, some are slow, some are safe, some are risky, some have tolls, and some are free. But there are a million different ways to do it. As long as you’re in a car and moving West you’re doing okay. But going East isn’t going to help. Going too far North or South isn’t going to help.

If your goal is to be an Olympic sprinter, there are hundreds of training techniques that will help get you there. But there are also an equal number of things that can hold you back: eating donuts every day for breakfast, skipping workouts, and spending more time on Twitter than at the track.

If you want to be a millionaire, great! There are countless ways to acquire $1,000,000. Any combination of smart investments, smart choices, smart habits, smart techniques, smart ideas, and smart advice from smart people will likely lead to $1,000,000. Propel yourself in that direction and you will get there. But there are also a countless number of ways not to acquire a $1,000,000. Poor habits, gambling, wasteful spending, living outside your means (overspending), faulty bookkeeping, poor budgeting, and little financial acuity will not produce a millionaire.

The question is, then, “Am I heading in the direction that I want to go? If not, how can I point myself in that direction? What can I do to move toward my goal and away from things holding me back?” Make sure you are not sabotaging your own success!

Do the things that get you closer to your goals. Find out how to get there: read books, do research, talk to experts, develop an action plan, and stop doing the things that slow you down! This might require some adjustment in our current patterns and habits. After all, “If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading.” ~Lao Tzu

Remember, there’s not enough time to do everything. Success in any endeavor comes from clear focus and prioritization. If it’s not helping you, it may be hurting you! Constantly evaluate your progress to make sure you’re on track.

Photo by lusi

Demanding excellence

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The world’s greatest projects did not end with someone saying “good enough”. In fact, “good enough” rarely produces anything of value. Yet many people are still drawn to this concept of doing just the minimum to get by, and we all pay a price for it.

There is far too much mediocrity in the world, and we’ve all witnessed it. I’m not talking about mistakes, either. We all make mistakes. I’m talking about the people who just don’t care enough to actually want to excel, to be the best, to help others, to go above and beyond, to break boundaries, to be of great value to society, to push themselves, and to grow.

I know that many people don’t want those things. They just want to get their paycheck, or go to class, or go home, and not be bothered. I can respect that, but only, and this is a big only, if they are not hypocrites about it. Why? Because, in my opinion, too many people are quick to expect a lot from others before they give a lot from themselves. I think that before we even think about demanding excellence from others, we need to be demanding it from ourselves. If we’re not, we have no right to complain, grumble, or correct others.

For example, if we slack off at work, show up late, and don’t do our job, when our plumber messes up, we shouldn’t chastise him. When the mechanic can’t fix our car, we shouldn’t fret. When the teacher shows up late, we shouldn’t panic. After all, if we were in his/her position, we would do a poor job, too, if not demanding excellence from ourselves.

Mediocrity is even common in college. Nearly every single class has someone on Facebook, twitter, texting, playing games, or sleeping. Many students spend more time watching Jersey Shore, partying, sleeping, and wasting time than they do studying, reading, learning, or working toward a goal. Some students even get upset at those who ask questions in class. Once again, I don’t agree with it, but they can do whatever they want. But what aggravates me more than nails on a chalkboard is that these same people complain and whine when they do poorly on tests, don’t get jobs, or fail to meet deadlines. Really? Listen, you get out what you put in. Do not be surprised that poor work ethic and mediocrity leads to minimal or no success. Of course it does! If success could be achieved by mediocrity then we’d all have it! We must do more than the average person if we want more than the average person. Frankly, some people don’t get this because they are too busy complaining.

Here is the biggest problem, the reason why many people don’t consistently manifest excellence: they trick themselves into believing that excellence is only needed on certain occasions. For example, some athletes completely blow off school and say “Hey, I try really hard when I play basketball, I don’t have to try hard for anything else.” False, and here is why: basketball, or any other individual pursuit, is just one thing that we do. Our habits shape us. So if we do fifty things (school, homework, exercise, jobs, projects, service, favors, etc.) and only try to excel at one of them (basketball), that means only 2% of the time we’re doing our best. In other words, 98% of our activities get done half-heartedly. No matter how hard we work during that 2%, it can never overshadow the 98%. Accordingly, we must strive to do our best in every single thing that we do. “Doing our best” ought to be a habit and and way of life. In the words of Aristotle, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.”

Our best should be expected, not just a “once in a while” thing. Even if the task is small, it doesn’t matter. If we’re raking leaves, let’s rake them like a boss. After all, every act of ours should represent the best of what we can offer.

I’ve been made fun of and even hated at times for working hard on school projects. I’ve been known to go “all-out”, even if it’s just worth five points. People constantly ask me why I bother to do so, and I just simply tell them, “I want every single thing I do to be amazing”. With that expectation, I’m seldom disappointed in the result. If you want to be great at what you do, you must demand excellence from yourself.

The effects of mediocrity and excellence reach everyone. Sometimes we have to deal with the problems others create, but sometimes we get to piggyback on their progress. It works both ways, but I like progress a lot more than problems. I like achievement more than failure and I like being happy over being uneasy. However, unless we raise the bar, for ourselves as individuals and as a society, we will continue to have more of what we don’t want. We will continue to have unnecessary problems, failures, and uneasiness. The best way to improve the future is to decide now that we will aim higher, work harder, and demand more from ourselves than we are currently doing. If we all did that, or even if just some of us did that, imagine how much positive change we could see in the world.

Going forth, let excellence be the standard in your life. Always try your hardest, no matter the task, and keep this in mind: if it’s not worth your best effort, it’s not worth your effort at all.

“Excellence can be obtained if you:
care more than others think is wise,
risk more than others think is safe,
dream more than others think is practical,
and expect more than others think is possible.”
~Unknown

Photo by kikashi

Motivation mindset

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“Being motivated” isn’t very different from being happy or being sad – it’s just a state. Like all states, we can induce them as we wish. But some people will say, “I can’t make myself happy or sad, all I could do is fake it…and that wouldn’t help.” This is a strong argument for people who believe it is true. But what if somebody offered you one million dollars in cash to be genuinely happy for two minutes? Could you do it? Of course! What if the same million dollars were offered if you could be genuinely sad for two minutes, could you do that? Of course! How would you do it? Well, you might think sad thoughts, perhaps about injustice in the world, or maybe recall sad memories as vividly as you can. But you would find a way. I’m confident this would work with any emotion so long as the million dollar reward was offered. The point is, you could do it if you really wanted to. Therefore, if you want to be motivated, craft your thoughts in a manner that elicits this sensation. How? Here are some tips:

1: Motivations are reasons. If you don’t have a reason for doing something, you will undoubtedly lack energy and enthusiasm. Accordingly, find your reasons! If you are studying for finals, here are some reasons to do well: better grades, approval of parents, higher GPA, confidence, self-satisfaction, mastery of subject, less stress, guilt-free holiday vacation, resume boost, potential jobs down the road, grad school preparation, transcript helper, favor with professors, and so on. Which ones apply to you? Find them and mediate on them.

2: Replenish your motivation! “People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily.” ~Zig Ziglar. I love this analogy and here are some more to consider: After we eat food, no matter how full we are, we still have to eat again later. We aren’t full forever! The same thing applies for thirst and drinking water. The same thing applies for sleep. When we are tired – we sleep. When we are tired again, we sleep again! Make sure that when your motivation dwindles you replenish! How? First, think of all the reasons you came up with in step one. Next, find sources of inspiration/motivation you can look to (quotes, videos on YouTube, pictures, and so on). You could also think of your past successes. Either way, have go-to sources of motivation ready and at your disposal.

3: Baby steps! A common reason for procrastination is intimidation by the task at hand. Nobody wants to study for three hours…that would be torture! But what about three separate one hour sessions with a ten minute Facebook break in-between? If not Facebook, fill your breaks with something you love to do! This leads to the final tip…

4: Reward yourself! To get work done efficiently, work on a task without interruption until it is complete. This can be extremely dull sometimes but it works! However, it is ten times harder if there isn’t a prize waiting at the end. Sometimes I will vow to read 50 pages before I get up from my seat or do anything else. I find that it goes much quicker if I know that when I’m done I’ll get to eat ice cream, watch football, take a nap, etc. The point is, have rewards waiting for you on all your breaks and feel free to vary them. This will provide a constant incentive to work efficiently and get things done.

I hope these tips will be useful as you seek motivation. The last thing I’d like to offer is one of my favorite “go-to” videos…it always motivates me :) Enjoy!

Push-up a day challenge

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I read a quote the other day by Nido Quebin, “Success comes to most truly successful people as a series of little successes, rather than as one big break”. And then I remembered a video I watched by Brian Tracy (watch it here), who asks if we could improve our productivity of tomorrow by .001% from that of today. The answer is: of course we can, because .001% is such a small increment. And if we improve .001% every day, in one year we will be 26% more productive than we were when we started. This is called the law of incremental improvement.

Using both these examples, and since I had recently started working out, I wondered if I could demonstrate this with an exercise, specifically: push-ups. I thought, certainly I can do one more tomorrow that I did today, and the day after should that be no different. And what if I did this everyday? Starting at 25, in two months I’d be at 75! Not many people can do 75 pushups without breaking the stance and resting, but what if it’s as easy to achieve as adding one a day? If people saw this work, maybe they’d try it! So I’m going to try it, and track my progress. I started unintentionally 2 days ago when I did 25 as part of my workout, and when I thought of this idea yesterday I did 26. Today I already did my 27 :) Just to clarify, when doing the push-ups, I will allow myself to stop and hold the position at the top with arms locked out and back straight, but will not allow myself to break the stance or rest my body on the ground. Also, some days I will intentionally skip to rest. I’m excited!

*I will keep track of 2 numbers. The first one is the number I can do continuously without having to hold myself at the top of the stance. The second one is the total number, which should be one more than the day before.

*Starting on 8/10, after the last push-up I hold the top of the stance as long as I can.

8/5/11 25/25     8/6/11 25/26     8/7/11 25/27     8/8/11 28/28     8/9/11 Rest     8/10/11 25/29     8/11/11 26/30     8/12/11 29/31     8/13/11 32/32     8/14/11 33/33     8/15/11 29/34     8/16/11 Rest     8/17/11 35/35     8/18/11 36/36     8/19/11 34/37     8/20/11 38/38     8/21/11 39/39     8/22/11 35/40     8/23/11 Rest     8/24/11 34/41     8/25/11 39/42     8/26/11 43/43     8/27/11 44/44     8/28/11 45/45     8/29/11 34/46     8/30/11 40/47     8/31/11 Rest     9/1/11 47/48     9/2/11 49/49     9/3/11 44/50     9/4/11 51/51     9/5/11 48/52     9/6/11 42/53     9/7/11 Rest     9/8/11 39/54     9/9/11 48/55     9/10/11 51/56     9/11/11 47/57     9/12/11 48/58     9/13/11 46/59     9/14/11 47/60     9/15/11 Rest     9/16/11 51/61     9/17/11 47/62     9/18/11 48/63     9/19/11 46/64     9/20/11 47/65     9/21/11 48/66     9/22/11 49/67     9/23/11 48/68     9/24/11 Rest     9/25/11 49/69     9/26/11 47/70     9/27/11 52/71     9/28/11 52/72     9/29/11 53/73     9/30/11 49/74     10/1/11 Rest     10/2/11 41/75     10/3/11 45/76     10/4/11 49/77     10/5/11 43/78     10/6/11 51/79     10/7/11 46/80     10/8/11 Rest     10/9/11 45/81     10/10/11 45/82     10/11/11 46/83     10/12/11 44/84     10/13/11 48/85     10/14/11 49/86     10/15/11 Rest     10/16/11 50/87     10/17/11 48/88     10/18/11 49/89     10/19/11 53/90     10/20/11 51/91     10/21/11 Rest     10/22/11 48/92     10/23/11 49/93     10/24/11 48/94     10/25/11 51/95     10/26/11 52/96     10/27/11 52/97     10/28/11 Rest     10/29/11 53/98     10/30/11 53/99     10/31/11 50/99     11/1/11 Rest     11/2/11 50/117

I’m done!! I was supposed to finish on the 31st, but miscounted and only did 99, so I took a day off and then did it again.  Since it was the last day, I figured I’d go until muscle failure, which came at 117 push-ups! Video below! :)