People often ask this question, “what are the building blocks to achievement?”
The entire personal development, professional development, continuing education market is all about that simple question: What can we do to have more success and achievement in our lives?
Personally, I’ve been extremely blessed to learn from so many great people throughout my life, and I live to share my knowledge, skills and experiences with you and others.
So, what does it take to ACHIEVE success in life and business? Here are four foundation keys of achievement:
1. DESIRE
The first thing you have to have to achieve anything is desire. You have to want it.
You have to be hungry to succeed. You have to have a deep desire to move the needle of your life forward.
You have to have a desire for a dream, for a mission, for a cause, for something you believe in that’s pulling you forward because you care about it so much.
One of the things I always tell those I coach, “Your capacity to increase/grow is based on your hunger to pursue.”
A lot of people say, “But, I don’t really care about anything.” Well, here’s my question then … Is there a worse place to be in life when you just have a desire for nothing? Isn’t that where a person falls into mediocrity, suffering, depression, and loneliness?
Some people even play the victim card. They act like it’s not their fault, but it’s the fault of the world around them, and they say “nobody gave me the desire for anything.”
But here’s what we all must eventually face and decide:
Who do I want to be in life?
What is it I want my life to stand for?
What is it I desire to go after?
Some people say, “I just don’t know, I don’t have any vision for my life, so I don’t have any desire.” You’re never going to have any vision for your life unless you go see the world and what’s going on around you. You have to get outside of your house, get away from the computer, away from your “comfort zone” and go into the world and say, What’s this about? What are people doing today?
To have vision for yourself, sometimes you have to experience a bunch of different things to know what you really care about. So you have to sample different things and say, This is what I like, this is what I want.
This is actually one of my seven keys to expanding your capacity called, The Principle of EXPOSURE. Exposing yourself to things and people you haven’t seen, done or understood before. No one wakes up one morning knowing their purpose. Desire is built on experience. Desire is built on exposure to people and things. So explore the world, read books, ask people what they do and see what’s out there.
We have to have desire. We have to be hungry for achievement and success, not just hope we will achieve something in life.
It’s not about having a desire to gain wealth. Sure, that might be a by-product. But keep in mind that the desire for wealth doesn’t necessarily mean greed, because those are two different things. I desire the wealth of health. I desire the wealth of meaningful relationships. I desire all the riches of the more tender sides of life … love, compassion, kindness, connection, contribution. I desire those things.
Once you have a desire for something, you will work for it—you want it, you desire it, you’re excited about it. If you have no enthusiasm, it’s because you haven’t TARGETED something and said, I’m going to work toward that thing. I’m going to work toward not only achieving that thing, but also becoming a better person along the way. I think that’s what gives us great desire.
I desire to develop greater knowledge, skills, ability and talents in my life, so I can not only feel that sense of mastery, but that sense of contribution also. By developing my knowledge, skills, tools and talents, I know I can serve and make a bigger difference. By becoming a better person in my own life, I know I’m a better man for my wife. I know I’m a better man for my family. I’m a better leader. I’m a better contributor, for you. I desire that and that what gets me going every morning and all day long.
2. DIRECTION
You might have a desire like many other people do. It might be to lose weight or quit smoking, or to learn a new skill set, build a business or make money. Whatever the desire is, that ultimate ambition or purpose, goal or mission, you have to have a direction. How do you get there?
A lot of people have a lot of desire, but they won’t do the hard work that demands learning to stretch their competency, to get direction from other people. To chase down how other people have done something, to model others, to mimic their steps and the strategies they followed, to learn from others so that we know the path. To say, “Hey guys, this is what I want to achieve. How can I do it? Is there a class I can take or a book I can read? Is there a webinar I can attend? Is there a course I can take online? Is there somebody here who can mentor me? Is there somebody who has achieved this so I can read their biography?”
There’s an old saying that goes like this: “The time to have the map is before you enter the woods.” A lot of people feel lost, restless, and frustrated, and often it’s because they never got direction at the beginning of the journey. They just wandered into some big field of opportunity and kept wandering around, and now they’re struggling. They’re upset and frustrated, and don’t know where to go because they never said, “Hey everybody, does anyone have a map for achieving this thing?”
They just do what our culture celebrates, which is this: They had an idea and desire and they did what? They threw stuff at the wall to see if it stuck. They just tried without any knowledge, information or wisdom gathering. If you have a desire, go out and interview people on how to have that, to achieve that or to accomplish that. Ask a lot of questions. Be a student of life. Even experts are always students first.
I’m so unbelievably happy with where my career is, what I get to do and how I get to serve people. All around the world, I’m asked to speak on motivation, high performance, leadership, marketing and strategy in business. I’m honored and thrilled by it. I’m seen as one of the leaders in what I do. I appreciate and love that, but I always say, “I’m just a student…let me share all the lessons I’ve learned. Have you read this book? Have you done this course? Go follow this person over there.” I’m always reviewing the content in my arena, not just so I know what’s going on, but to continually provide me fresh new direction, new ideas, new strategies to continue moving me toward my desires.
I’m never complete. None of us are; we’re always learning. So if you really desire something, you need a map. You need to get direction.
3. DISCIPLINE
You will have to work and be more consistent than you’ve ever imagined possible if you’re going to make your ultimate desires come true.
How easy is it not to be disciplined?
Over the years I’ve heard this and it’s true, “When you knock on the door of opportunity, it is work that answers.”
You need a high level of discipline each and every single day. You need to set up repeated habits, repeated methods and practices in your life that you do over and over again to move you toward your desire. You need to check in on them to make sure you have the right direction, because if you’re disciplined toward the wrong direction, you’re distracted.
If you want to master any area of your life, you need to work at it consistently. If you’re just doing it occasionally, not only do you risk becoming just a dabbler in life, but you absolutely ensure your inability to accomplish mastery and long-term growth and success and achievement in your life.
Discipline is required. You don’t see any high-level achieving person in any area who doesn’t have an extraordinary amount of self-discipline. They are absolutely committed to their habits and practices that positively support them on the path to their desires.
Sit down tonight with a pen and paper and say, OK, what discipline could I set up in my life that I’m going to do consistently?
Every day I’m going to study these things.
Every day I’m going to try these things.
Every day I’m going to ask these types of questions.
Every day I’m going to try to be this type of person.
Whatever it is for you, set it up as a discipline and try to meet that every single day. That’s where a lot of achievement comes from.
A lot of achievement looks easy, and people will sometimes say to me, “Your so lucky.” What they don’t see is that I may have I’ve tried this many, many times. And I’m able to do that now because I’ve trained myself with discipline, to be able to speak confidently and knowledgeably. In high school and again in college, when I spoke in front of people, I felt like throwing up up because I was so nervous. I was terrified to talk. However, I finally had an awakening thought, If I’m going to make a difference in the world, then I’m going to have to learn to become a master communicator. I’m going to have to be dedicated toward that goal.
So, today I have discipline to get present for the people around me. As soon as I see someone’s eyes, I remind myself, Be present. But I’ll be honest, it’s a constant challenge and discipline for me to remind myself to be present, to be engaged, to be connected, to be interested in other people, to learn from them, to respect them and love them.
Discipline is not a negative thing; it’s an awesome habit of pursuing your dreams. That’s why I’ve gotten good at the things I care about, and continue to do so.
4. DISTRACTION RADAR
This last key requires a lot of discipline, too. The last component, and this is critical to predicting if you will succeed or even others will succeed, and it’s so simple, but yet so powerful: You must have a distraction radar.
You must be a fanatic about managing distraction, because everything is going to get in your way at some point. Other people will give you their agenda, emergencies and needs. The world will throw this emergency, this challenge, this problem. The world will toss in front of you 300 new emails or 1,000 new posts to read.
There’s so much to be consumed by, but your job is to have that desire and direction on how to get there. Your job is about discipline and working toward it and so much of that commitment today means minimizing and removing distraction. Get rid of it.
Most of us are distracted three to five hours a day. The average American watches four hours of TV a day, and that time, over the course of the average adult American life span, is somewhere around 13 years of their life, 24/7 in front of a TV. They lose more than a decade of their life. At an average salary, they’ve lost nearly $1 million of potential earning power. But even if it’s not about money, think about the reality that they lost 13 years of life, of exploring new places, learning new languages, talents and skills, of giving, of creating, of being with their loved ones or mentoring their children. For what? For four hours of distraction.
Maybe TV isn’t your drug. For many people, their drug is the computer. It’s called “browser blackout,” where they start watching this thing and that thing … and I know it’s dangerous to tell you that, because maybe this is your distraction. I get it.
But I hope it becomes an intentional habit to grow your mind, to refuel your motivation and keep yourself on the right path in life. I want you to stay disciplined on your path of learning. I don’t want to be a distraction, but to be somebody who’s empowering you with better direction, to refuel your desire, to re-aim who you are and what your about. Guiding you to be the “best version of yourself you can possibly be.”
So you have to choose to consume the right things, the things that are going to support you on your path to success. If you’ll do that, you’ll get that decade of your life back. Just by removing four hours of distraction.
How do you do that? You wake up in the morning and say…
What do I desire today?
What is my direction, what am I going to do today?
How am I going to be disciplined today?
What distractions can I remove from my life?
That’s when you start feeling as if you’re making progress in your life. That’s when you start feeling like, Wow, I’m knocking off these steps to get toward my goal!
That’s when you start to feel like you’re really moving forward in life.
Life becomes more energized and engaged. You’re more enthusiastic for tomorrow because you know you control your destiny. You know what you’re after, and internally you feel such a magnificent spark and fire each and every day.
That’s living what I call THE INSPIRED LIFE!