Be the best you can be: Commit to Excellence

I believe that whoever you are and whatever you do - you can become the best!

When i say this, some people take it negatively, as if i'm encouraging them to trounce their peers and suddenly compete with everyone around them. But i do not mean that at all, in fact, people who take that approach clearly aren't the best!

By being the best, i mean that you should commit to excellence. Why would you commit to anything else? Commit to failure? Commit to mediocrity? Commit to normality? I believe by committing to excellence - we are doing something deeply spiritual. We are saying:

'I am going to serve this universe at the highest possible level.'

Think of all the stunning works of art that have been created as a commitment of excellence to god. Think of the beauty of nature, or the wonder of a newborn baby. Did some higher power not commit to excellence to create all of this! Therefore, should we not follow this lead?

... and guess what? The universe always commits back! Commit to excellence, give it time and you will be rewarded for your efforts. Not only will you feel great for being excellent, you will start a Mexican wave of excellence around you - people will be inspired to do the same! There is always a market for the best, so watch your pack packet too! Every company on earth is crying out for great people!

Quotes about excellence
"Be so good at what you do - they cannot ignore you." - Steve Martin

"Excellence is the best deterrent to racism or sexism." - Oprah

"Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

The hard road....

Success is very straight forward: have a great plan, build a great team, work hard, cry a bit and then achieve goals.

Yet, so many people know this formula but aren't a raging success. I'm also interested in the nuances that people have which prevent their success. So here is another:

Our life is a product of whether we have taken the hard road or the easy road at key decision points. You see, not only do we have these two choices (easy or hard)- but it's the wisdom to know when to take each one. I really think that it all comes down to emotion.

Everyday, i encounter people who take impossibly hard routes to get a simple result. I find that people often end up taking the hard road whenever they attach too much emotion to the task at hand. Everything suddenly becomes a matter of the soul - rather than something on the to-do list. Getting a date is so damn simple - ask 100 people out... and surely you'll get a date with one of them. But seriously! Have you ever done that? No!

But that's when a simple formula breaks down - because we add in all sort of self-esteem issues and procrastinate. They take the hard road by not acting - and ultimately not getting what they want!

Other times, i see people take the easy road, because they are impatient for a result, or can't be bothered, or don't understand why they should go out of their way to achieve something, when they could just cut a corner here or there! These people don't want to attach emotion to the task at hand. They want to be blinkered to consequences, they don't want to think too hard about their overall plan.

Knowing what is right... easy or hard!
Once again - there's no magic bullet here. But, I try and analyze myself and my actions - and the action of people around me. Be critical, be objective and follow the patterns of successful people.

MMXI 2011 - Making the best New year's resolutions ever

I am writing this weblog as someone who had consistently failed on my new year's resolutions, i gave up making resolutions entirely for a few years. But now i think that i've mastered the art and i'm hungry for the new year. Let me share my lessons with you...

1. GET SOME: The first important thing about new year's resolutions is: make some! Dare to dream, permit yourself to aim a little higher in any area you choose. Get creative - what in your life needs some work? What would you like more of?

2. DON'T OVERLOAD THE WAGON: People confuse New Year's resolutions with 'concoct a list of the most amazing things that could ever happen to you, in the near impossible time frame of a year'. New year's resolutions are about achieving aims and growing your world in some way that means something to you. The resolutions that are easiest to stick with tend to be incremental. I'm not trying to dampen your big plans, i'm just saying that you're probably not going to get to do a spacewalk, scale Annapurna, break the 100m world record and invent a perpetual energy machine within the 12 months. (And if you do - i'll sure as hell be subscribing to your weblog! Sign me up!)

3. SO WHAT ABOUT THE MEGA GOALS? For your major, life-defining, 'this is my calling' type goals (which will probably take more than a year to achieve) make your MMXI new year's resolutions some of the milestones en route to the summit. Chunk your dream into bite size pieces that you can celebrate every single one of them when you achieve them. This prevents you from getting totally demotivated by waiting for the huge celebration at the completion of your elusive mega project. So, if you want to be an internet entrepreneur but don't yet have any products to sell, a website or a registered company - then get to it one by one! Don't wait until you secure your first million dollar contract before you fizz open a bottle of Vintage Krug Clos D'Ambonnay.

4. GET SPECIFIC: Make your goals bold, alive and colorful - but actually build in some quantitative specifications. Obviously this is very easy for financial goals. Rather than 'pay off some of your mortgage' - make that 'pay of $10,000 of my mortgage before July 31st'. Make sure you hammer down the small print, otherwise, if you're anything like me - you'll look for the easy option when the going gets tough. Be clear with your goal: Does this include your usual repayments or are you going to make this $10k additional to what you're already coughing up.

If your resolution is to 'generate a passive income stream' inject some further clarity and say 'by the end of December 2011, my aim is to generate $200 a month through a new passive income stream'.

If you wanted to get back on the dating scene and you've been single for some time, you may want to take it slow and set a goal like: 'go on 6 dates' or 'ask out one girl/guy'. This would be a BIG step if you haven't done it for 10 years.

5. ARE YOU COMMITTED TO YOU MMXI GOAL? You have to be really committed to a new years resolution for it to come into fruition. In hindsight, i don't actually care about having slightly nibbled nails... it's not important to my life's work. Long nails just get in my way - rather than providing me with any kind of Samson-equse super strength.

6. KEEP REVIEWING YOUR PROGRESS: Revisit your goals at LEAST every month. We all have some monthly cycles. For the last year or so, i've looked at my goals every time i submit my monthly consulting invoices. It's a 30 day cycle which is always in the diary. It is a particularly synergistic time for me, since a lot of my recent goals have been in the business domain. Therefore, actually reviewing my plans when i'm calculating how much money i have made - works a treat. I also review the progress on my personal and spiritual goals during this time. I meditate and ask myself 'how has this month been compared to last month? Am i calmer, happier, more confident? Am i growing every month?'

But please don't forget about your new year's resolutions by January 5th or discard your aims the nanosecond you hit an obstacle - because they just won't come to life that way. You gotta let them cook! Write all your goals down, put them on a list on your bedside table and incorporate them into your morning routine. Or set regular reminders on your cellphone. These are small steps and you owe it to yourself to follow through.

If you're not already a member of 43things - then take 5 minutes of your life to sign up to the website. I know that i owe a lot personally to this website, as really helped me when i hit a few hard times and my dreams looked unobtainable.

7. PUT PAST FAILURES ASIDE: I guarantee, you are not the same person you were when you failed before. So, don't be put off if you couldn't deliver on previous attempts. However, just like i did, you probably need to review where you went off the tracks before. My problem was that I was setting myself either unimportant goals or crazy goals that were so far out of my orbit, i could never have reached them. Plus, i didn't put in place a framework to review progress.

Also, if you slip a little - don't beat yourself up - just dust yourself off and carry onwards and upwards. You're a better person for taking a fall now and then!

8. TIME TO PAAAARTAAAY: Celebrate! when you reach your goal, treat yourself! I once threw a party when i reached a very important goal. It was mid-September and I told all invitees why we were having a party. All my friends were extremely inspired and positive. Many of them said that it encouraged them to put a little more energy into their plans. When you succeed - you've gotta spread that around! You have to inspire others - there are so many people falling on their face right now and you need to help them gain the strength to get the hell up. The Law of Reciprocity says if you give a gift, your gift will be returned. When my friend managed to achieve an important goal - i knew that she wouldn't have anyone else in her life to congratulate her in the way that i could - so, in the absence of proud parents or an thrilled mentor. I made a huge fuss of her and bought her a gucci clutch bag.

Whilst i'm quoting universal laws, i will add that the Law of Abundance states that there is more than enough 'good stuff' for everyone, in improving our lives and making ourselves more happy - we're not chasing a scarce resource. So pleeeeeeease share with others and help others on their goals.

The Three Lenses

A recent conversation:

Me: "Have you ever heard of term pronoia?"

Cynthia: "No... oh... wait a minute.... is that when kids look really old when they're actually really young?"

Me: "No?!.... Ah... .... that's progeria!"

Cynthia: "Oh yeah! Progeria... then what's the other one?"

I find it amazing that everyone uses the word 'paranoia' on a daily basis - whereas its positive nemesis 'pronoia' is all but redundant from the English language.

Pronoia is the flip side of paranoia. Instead of everyone being out to get you, with pronoia you believe that everyone is secretly conspiring to contribute to your success. You believe that everyone is working behind the scenes to make your dreams come true, pulling your plans together and working to make your day! You shake off any setbacks and shrug off any problems - because the world is working in your favor and you realize that whatever challenge you have is just a temporary glitch in the matrix!

We have a chance of viewing all we see, hear and feel through 3 lenses: The Paranoia Lens, The Neutral Lens and The Pronoia Lens. Of course we actually NEED all three!

But the quality of our life comes from where we choose to use each lens. The paranoid lens always imagines the worst possible scenario. When looking through it we feel that people are out to ruin you, they are conspiring against you and basically we're all doomed. But, a little paranoia when planning for a big event or some adventure travel actually gets us thinking about contingencies and makes our plans a little more bullet proof.

When Donald Trump sized up a business deal, he'd ask himself: 'What's the worst that can happen?' He'd look through his paranoid lens and see the most awful outcome possible. If he felt that he could handle the worst and the deal was good - then the risk was worth taking. Use your paranoid lens as a thought process to manage and prepare yourself for life's surprises! But don't 'live' there.

The neutral lens sees life in black and white - objectively and pragmatically, without either positive or negative emotion attached to it. This is how you should view your bank statement, how you consider an offer, how you step on the scales or how you fire an wayward employee. Getting emotionally involved in these situations will not help you get to the right conclusions. So throw all emotion out of the equation and look through the crystal clear lens.

Pronoia - you should habitually live in a state of pronoia. This is where you should be on a day-to-day, hour-to-hour basis. The other two lenses are like reading glasses... pull them out when you have a special use for them! But pronoia is where you should train your brain to be. Why? Well... life as a pronoia-ist is pretty amazing: you wake up in the morning and you say 'i'm going to have a great, fabulous day and things are just going to go perfectly.' You bounce out of bed. You get up pumped and excited about your life. You go about your day with an energy and a vibe that others just thrive off.

And.... most importantly - you give permission for others to do the same. People see you and feel your energy. You give them the green light to cast off their cloak of doubt, throw aside their anxious negativity and become more than they were. Pronoia is infectious and it truly adheres to the saying: 'be the change you want to see in the world'. Would there be wars if everyone lived in a state of pronoia?

Where to start:

If you're not a natural Pollyanna - you're going to need to train your brain. The first step is to start changing the way we feel about negative material - you need to find out where/who/what is feeding your negativity. It can be the news, partners, friends, sad music, tv, choice of magazines/ website, etc. If pictures of supermodels in fashion magazines you buy make you feel ugly and inferior, you need to say 'thank god i'm not a supermodel, working 18 hours a day living on lettuce leaves and only known for being a stick insect is not the kind of life for me. I'm so glad life decided i shouldn't look like them'. Flip your lens and remember it's all a conspiracy! IN YOUR FAVOR! :-D yay!!

Awesome talk

This guy is amazingly awesome. I'm just bowled over by his energy... and you know he lives his life full-out!

Go Here

If you do good stuff, that you love - success will just flow to you! So true!

Raise a glass to Sir Gary Vaynerchuk! You rock!