It’s not really all that surprising that we both cite Jim Rohn as a mentor. Jim was a master at helping people understand the truths, the laws, and the practices that lead to real, lasting success. Jim taught us that achievement is not about luck; it’s really a science. (Location 208)
Tags: mentor, luck
The Compound Effect is based on a principle I’ve used in my own life and training; that is, your decisions shape your destiny. The future is what you make of it. Little, everyday decisions will either take you to the life you desire or to disaster by default. (Location 228)
Tags: compound, choices, favorite
Note: Your every day decisions shape your future
If all we needed was more information, everyone with an Internet connection would live in a mansion, have abs of steel, and be blissfully happy. New or more information is not what you need—a new plan of action is. It’s time to create new behaviors and habits that are oriented away from sabotage and toward success. It’s that simple. (Location 283)
Tags: habits, information overload
CHAPTER 1 THE COMPOUND EFFECT IN ACTION (Location 290)
“It doesn’t matter how smart you are or aren’t, you need to make up in hard work what you lack in experience, skill, intelligence, or innate ability. If your competitor is smarter, more talented, or experienced, you just need to work three or four times as hard. You can still beat them!” (Location 311)
Tags: work, competition
Note: Regardless of how smart you are you must work extremely hard
“Be the guy who says ‘no.’ It’s no great achievement to go along with the crowd. Be the unusual guy, the extraordinary guy.” (Location 323)
Tags: societal norms
The Compound Effect is the principle of reaping huge rewards from a series of small, smart choices. (Location 346)
Tags: choices, favorite
Small, Smart Choices + Consistency + Time = RADICAL DIFFERENCE (Location 355)
Tags: consistency, favorite, compound
The most challenging aspect of the Compound Effect is that we have to keep working away for a while, consistently and efficiently, before we can begin to see the payoff. (Location 445)
Tags: compound
It’s interesting that wealth tends to skip a generation. Overwhelming abundance often leads to a lackadaisical mentality, which brings about a sedentary lifestyle. Children of the wealthy are especially susceptible. They weren’t the ones who developed the discipline and character to create the wealth in the first place, so it makes sense that they may not have the same sense of value for wealth or understand what’s necessary to keep it. We frequently see this entitlement mentality in children of royalty, movie stars, and corporate executives—and to a lesser degree, in children and adults everywhere. (Location 449)
Tags: money
Note: Children of wealthy parents often have an entitled personality
nothing fails like success. Once-dominant empires have failed for this very reason. People get to a certain level of success and get too comfortable. (Location 459)
Tags: complacency, failure
Note: When people reach a certain level of success they frequently get complacent and fail
We become like the frog in the boiling water that doesn’t jump to his freedom because the warming is so incremental and insidious that he doesn’t notice he’s getting cooked! (Location 461)
Tags: anecdote
Note: Allowing a gradual decrease in standards can be disastrous over time
Harvard psychologist Daniel Gilbert, author of Stumbling on Happiness, says that if we gave lottery losers each thirty seconds on TV to announce not, “I won!” but “I lost,” it would take almost nine years to get through the losers of a single drawing! (Location 481)
Tags: lottery
By the end of this book, or even before, I want you to know in your bones that your only path to success is through a continuum of mundane, unsexy, unexciting, and sometimes difficult daily disciplines compounded over time. (Location 487)
Tags: hard work, compound
Put the Compound Effect to Work for You Summary Action Steps Write out a few excuses you might be clinging to (e.g., not smart enough, no experience, wrong upbringing, don’t have the education, etc.). Decide to make up in hard work and personal development to outcompete anyone—including your old self. Be Scott—Write out the half-dozen small, seemingly inconsequential steps you can take every day that can take your life in a completely new and positive direction. Don’t be Brad—Write down the small, seemingly inconsequential actions you can stop doing that might be compounding your results downward. List a few areas, skills, or outcomes where you have you been most successful in the past. Consider whether you could be taking those for granted and are not continuing to improve, and are therefore in jeopardy of having that complacency lead to future failure. (Location 498)
Tags: compound, favorite
CHAPTER 2 CHOICES (Location 510)
We all come into this world the same: naked, scared, and ignorant. After that grand entrance, the life we end up with is simply an accumulation of all the choices we make. Our choices can be our best friend or our worst enemy. They can deliver us to our goals or send us orbiting into a galaxy far, far away. (Location 511)
Tags: favorite, choices
In essence, you make your choices, and then your choices make you. Every decision, no matter how slight, alters the trajectory of your life—whether or not to go to college, whom to marry, to have that last drink before you drive, to indulge in gossip or stay silent, to make one more prospecting call or call it a day, to say I love you or not. Every choice has an impact on the Compound Effect of your life. (Location 517)
Tags: choices
Your biggest challenge is that you’ve been sleepwalking through your choices. Half the time, you’re not even aware you’re making them! Our choices are often shaped by our culture and upbringing. They can be so entwined in our routine behaviors and habits that they seem beyond our control. (Location 528)
Tags: habits
One Thanksgiving, I decided to keep a Thanks Giving journal for my wife. Every day for an entire year I logged at least one thing I appreciated about her—the way she interacted with her friends, how she cared for our dogs, the fresh bed she prepared, a succulent meal she whipped up, or the beautiful way she styled her hair that day—whatever. I looked for the things my wife was doing that touched me, or revealed attributes, characteristics, or qualities I appreciated. I wrote them all down secretly for the entire year. By the end of that year, I’d filled an entire journal. (Location 559)
Tags: todo, idea, journal
“You have to be willing to give 100 percent with zero expectation of receiving anything in return,” he said. “Only when you’re willing to take 100 percent responsibility for making the relationship work will it work. Otherwise, a relationship left to chance will always be vulnerable to disaster.” (Location 589)
Tags: expectation, relationships, responsibility
If I always took 100 percent responsibility for everything I experienced—completely owning all of my choices and all the ways I responded to whatever happened to me—I held the power. Everything was up to me. I was responsible for everything I did, didn’t do, or how I responded to what was done to me. (Location 592)
Tags: parenting, responsibility
You alone are responsible for what you do, don’t do, or how you respond to what’s done to you. This empowering mindset revolutionized my life. Luck, circumstances, or the right situation wasn’t what mattered. If it was to be, it was up to me. I was free to fly. No matter who was elected president, how badly the economy tanked, or what anybody said, did, or didn’t do, I was still 100 percent in control of me. (Location 601)
Tags: favorite, responsibility
When I asked Richard Branson if he felt luck played a part in his success, he answered, “Yes, of course, we are all lucky. If you live in a free society, you are lucky. Luck surrounds us every day; we are constantly having lucky things happen to us, whether you recognize it or not. I have not been any more lucky or unlucky than anyone else. The difference is when luck came my way, I took advantage of it.” (Location 611)
Tags: execution, luck
Luck is when opportunity meets preparation”—isn’t (Location 615)
Tags: luck
The (Complete) Formula for Getting Lucky: Preparation (personal growth) + Attitude (belief/mindset) + Opportunity (a good thing coming your way) + Action (doing something about it) = (Location 616)
Tags: equation, favorite, execution, luck
Then, you can be like Arnold Palmer, who told SUCCESS magazine in February of 2009, “It’s a funny thing; the more I practice, the luckier I get.” (Location 621)
Tags: luck
Attitude: This is where luck evades most people, and where Sir Richard is spot-on with his belief that luck is all around us. It’s simply a matter of seeing situations, conversations, and circumstances as fortuitous. You cannot see what you don’t look for, and you cannot look for what you don’t believe in. (Location 623)
had I made the choice to start this relationship and business, but I’d also made many choices to ignore obvious red flags and warning signs. Because I chose to not be completely responsible for the business, in the end, I was responsible for the results. (Location 641)
No matter what has happened to you, take complete responsibility for it—good or bad, victory or defeat. Own it. My mentor Jim Rohn said, “The day you graduate from childhood to adulthood is the day you take full responsibility for your life.” (Location 644)
Tags: responsibility
The first step toward change is awareness. If you want to get from where you are to where you want to be, you have to start by becoming aware of the choices that lead you away from your desired destination. Become very conscious of every choice you make today so you can begin to make smarter choices moving forward. (Location 655)
Tags: change, awareness
Note: Awareness to key to personal change
To help you become aware of your choices, I want you to track every action that relates to the area of your life you want to improve. (Location 658)
Tags: choices
The magic is not in the complexity of the task; the magic is in the doing of simple things repeatedly and long enough to ignite the miracle of the Compound Effect. (Location 666)
Tags: favorite, compound
The biggest difference between successful people and unsuccessful people is that successful people are willing to do what unsuccessful people are not. (Location 668)
Tags: favorite
Tracking is my go-to transformation model for everything that ails me. Over the years I’ve tracked what I eat and drink, how much I exercise, how much time I spend improving a skill, my number of sales calls, even the improvement of my relationships with family, friends, or my spouse. The results have been no less profound than my money-tracking wake-up call. (Location 692)
Tags: tracking
Note: That which gets measured gets managed
All winners are trackers. Right now I want you to track your life with the same intention: to bring your goals within sight. (Location 702)
Tags: tracking
Tracking is a simple exercise. It works because it brings moment-to-moment awareness to the actions you take in the area of your life you want to improve. (Location 703)
Tags: tracking
You cannot manage or improve something until you measure it. (Location 704)
Tags: tracking
You’ve heard psychologists say that something doesn’t become a habit until you practice it for three weeks. It’s not an exact science, but it’s a good benchmark, and it has worked for me. So, ideally, I want you to stick with your choice to track your behaviors for twenty-one days. (Location 731)
Tags: habits
Note: It takes 3 weeks for a new behaviour to become a habit
asked Phil to track just one change: three times a week, he had to step outside of his office and walk around the building. His goal was to seek out at least three people whom he saw doing things right or had heard good things about and give them some personal acknowledgment of his appreciation. This one small change in his behavior took less than an hour a week, but had massive effects over time. (Location 789)
Tags: management, idea
“My son, you have just demonstrated the power that habits will have over your life!” the teacher exclaimed. “The older they are, the bigger they get, the deeper the roots grow, and the harder they are to uproot. Some get so big, with roots so deep, you might hesitate to even try.” (Location 910)
Tags: metaphor
Aristotle wrote, “We are what we repeatedly do.” Merriam-Webster defines habit this way: “An acquired mode of behavior that has become nearly or completely involuntary.” (Location 913)
Tags: quotes
Our habits and routines allow us to use minimal conscious energy for everyday tasks. They help keep us sane and enable us to handle most situations reasonably well. And because we don’t have to think about the mundane, we can focus our mental energy on more creative and enriching thoughts. Habits can be helpful—as long as they’re good habits, that is. (Location 925)
Tags: habits
Note: Habits help us to conserve energy
A daily routine built on good habits is the difference that separates the most successful amongst us from everyone else. (Location 932)
Tags: habits
And doesn’t that make sense? From what we’ve already discussed, you know successful people aren’t necessarily more intelligent or more talented than anyone else. But their habits take them in the direction of becoming more informed, more knowledgeable, more competent, better skilled, and better prepared. (Location 933)
becoming a creature of champion habits. (Location 944)
Tags: quotes
why are we so irrationally enslaved by so many bad habits? It’s because our need for immediate gratification can turn us into the most reactive, nonthinking animals around. (Location 953)
Tags: immediate gratification, reacting
It’s time to WAKE UP and realize that the habits you indulge in could be compounding your life into repeated disaster. The slightest adjustments to your daily routines can dramatically alter the outcomes in your life. Again, I’m not talking about quantum leaps of change or a complete overhaul of your personality, character, and life. Supersmall, seemingly inconsequential adjustments can and will revolutionize everything. (Location 962)
Tags: habits
Forget about willpower. It’s time for why-power. Your choices are only meaningful when you connect them to your desires and dreams. The wisest and most motivating choices are the ones aligned with that which you identify as your purpose, your core self, and your highest values. You’ve got to want something, and know why you want it, or you’ll end up giving up too easily. (Location 987)
Tags: power of why
The power of your why is what gets you to stick through the grueling, mundane, and laborious. All of the hows will be meaningless until your whys are powerful enough. Until you’ve set your desire and motivation in place, you’ll abandon any new path you seek to better your life. If your why-power—your desire—isn’t great enough, if the fortitude of your commitment isn’t powerful enough, you’ll end up like every other person who makes a New Year’s resolution and gives up too quickly and reverts to sleepwalking through poor choices. Let me give you an analogy to help bring it home: (Location 997)
Tags: motivation, power of why
“I have seen business moguls achieve their ultimate goals, but still live in frustration, worry, and fear. What’s preventing these successful people from being happy? The answer is they have focused only on achievement and not fulfillment. Extraordinary accomplishment does not guarantee extraordinary joy, happiness, love, and a sense of meaning. These two skill sets feed off each other, and makes me believe that success without fulfillment is failure.” (Location 1016)
Tags: fulfillment, success
Note: Accomplishment does not guarantee happiness
Core Motivation The access point to your why-power is through your core values, which define both who you are and what you stand for. Your core values are your internal compass, your guiding beacon, your personal GPS. They act as the filter through which you run all of life’s demands, requests, and temptations, making sure they’re leading you toward your intended destination. Getting your core values defined and properly calibrated is one of the most important steps in redirecting your life toward your grandest vision. (Location 1021)
Tags: power of why
When your actions conflict with your values, you’ll end up unhappy, frustrated, and despondent. In fact, psychologists tell us that nothing creates more stress than when our actions and behaviors aren’t congruent with our values. (Location 1028)
Enemies give us a reason to stand tall with courage. Having to fight challenges your skills, your character, and your resolve. It forces you to assess and exercise your talents and abilities. Without a motivating fight, we can become fat and lazy; we lose our strength and purpose. (Location 1042)
Tags: competition
One of Paul’s most memorable quotes reminds us of the importance of goals: “Whatever you vividly imagine, ardently desire, sincerely believe, and enthusiastically act upon... must inevitably come to pass!” (Location 1073)
Tags: visualisation
When you define your goals, you give your brain something new to look for and focus on. It’s as if you’re giving your mind a new set of eyes from which to see all the people, circumstances, conversations, resources, ideas, and creativity surrounding you. With this new perspective (an inner itinerary), your mind proceeds to match up on the outside what you want most on the inside—your goal. It’s that simple. The difference in how you experience the world and draw ideas, people, and opportunities into your life after you have clearly defined your goals is profound. (Location 1099)
Tags: goals
Note: Defining your goals primes your mind for success
Go for whole-life success—balance in all the aspects of life that are important to you: Business, finances, health and well-being, spirituality, family and relationships, and lifestyle. (Location 1109)
Tags: life, balance, favorite
This man wasn’t an economist or a commodities trader, or in any profession that lived or died by the latest news. The time he spent with the paper and news programs on radio and TV greatly exceeded what he needed to be a knowledgeable voter and contributing member of society, or even to enhance his own personal interests. In fact, he was getting very little valuable information through his programming choices—or, rather, his lack of choices. So why did he spend nearly four hours a day consuming it? It was a habit. (Location 1155)
Tags: news, tv
Note: Very few professions live and die on having the latest news. Do not waste time consuming more news than is necessary
The key is to make your why-power so strong that it overwhelms your urges for instant gratification. (Location 1179)
Tags: power of why
Identify Your Triggers - Look at your list of bad habits. For each one you’ve written down, identify what triggers it.
Figure out what I call “The Big 4’s”—the “who,” the “what,” the “where,” and the “when” underlying each bad behavior.
For example: • Are you more likely to drink too much when you’re with certain people? • Is there a particular time of day when you just have to have something sweet? • What emotions tend to provoke your worst habits—stress, fatigue, anger, nervousness, boredom? • When do you experience those emotions? Who are you with, where are you, or what are you doing? • What situations prompt your bad habits to surface—getting in your car, the time before performance reviews, visits with your in-laws? Conferences? Social settings? Feeling physically insecure? Deadlines? • Take a closer look at your routines. What do you typically say when you wake up? When you’re on a coffee or lunch break? When you’ve gotten home from a long day? (Location 1181)
Tags: habits, favorite
About every three months, I pick one vice and abstain for thirty days (this probably stems from my Catholic Lent upbringing). I love proving to myself that I’m still in charge. (Location 1261)
Tags: abstaining
Note: Give up a vice every 3 months to show you are in control
Eliminating a bad habit means removing something from your routine. Installing a new, more productive habit requires an entirely different skill set. You’re planting the tree, watering it, fertilizing it, and making sure it’s properly rooted. Doing so takes effort, time, and practice. Here are my favorite techniques for putting good habits in place. (Location 1267)
Tags: metaphor, change, habits
Leadership expert John C. Maxwell said, “You will never change your life until you change something you do daily. The secret of your success is found in your daily routine.” (Location 1270)
Tags: routine, change
Note: The secret of your success is found in your daily routine
Set Yourself Up to Succeed (Location 1279)
Any new habit has to work inside your life and lifestyle. If you join a gym that’s thirty miles away, you won’t go. If you’re a night owl but the gym closes at 6 p.m., it won’t work for you. Your gym must be close and convenient, and fit into your schedule. (Location 1280)
Tags: remove friction
Think Addition, Not Subtraction (Location 1289)
“The Add-in Principle,” and I think it’s a wildly effective tool for anyone with any goal. “It’s not so much what you attempt to take out of your diet,” he explained to me. “It’s what you put in instead.” (Location 1292)
Go for a PDA: Public Display of Accountability (Location 1306)
Tags: habits, goals
Find a Success Buddy (Location 1319)
Tags: habits, favorite
There are few things as powerful as two people locked arm and arm marching toward the same goal. To up your chances of success, get a success buddy, someone who’ll keep you accountable as you cement your new habit while you return the favor. (Location 1320)
Tags: habits, favorite
Competition & Camaraderie (Location 1325)
There’s nothing like a friendly contest to whet your competitive spirit and immerse yourself in a new habit with a bang. (Location 1326)
Tags: competition
Note: Friendly competition helps you pick cement a habit
Celebrate! All work and no play make Jack a dull boy, and it’s a recipe for backsliding. There should be a time to celebrate, to enjoy some of the fruits of your victories along the way. You can’t go through this thing sacrificing yourself with no benefit. (Location 1338)
Personally, I’m always happy when something is hard. Why? Because I know that most people won’t do what it takes; therefore, it will be easier for me to step in front of the pack and take the lead. I love what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said so eloquently: “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge.” When you press on despite difficulty, tedium, and hardship, that’s when you earn your improvement and gain strides on the competition. If it’s hard, awkward, or tedious, so be it. Just do it. And keep doing it, and the magic of the Compound Effect will reward you handsomely. (Location 1349)
Tags: challenges, favorite, hard work
Note: It's good when things are hard, this means that most people won't do what it takes
CHAPTER 4 MOMENTUM (Location 1381)
Objects in motion tend to stay in motion, unless something stops their momentum. Put another way, couch potatoes tend to stay couch potatoes. Achievers—people who get into a successful rhythm—continue busting their butts and end up achieving more and more. (Location 1391)
Tags: hard work
Their habits, disciplines, routines, and consistency were the keys that unlocked momentum for each. And they became unstoppable when Big Mo showed up to their party. Routine (Location 1451)
Some of our best intentions fail because we don’t have a system of execution. When it comes down to it, your new attitudes and behaviors must be incorporated into your monthly, weekly, and daily routines to affect any real, positive change. A routine is something you do every day without fail, so that eventually, like brushing your teeth or putting on your seatbelt, you do it without conscious thought. Similar to our discussion in the Habits section, if you look at anything you do that’s successful, you’ll see that you’ve probably developed a routine for it. (Location 1453)
Tags: habits, execution
The key to becoming world-class in your endeavors is to build your performance around world-class routines. It can be difficult, even futile, to predict or control what will show up in the middle of your workday. But you can almost always control how your day starts and ends. (Location 1492)
Tags: favorite, routine, daily schedule, habits
Note: The middle of your day can be unpredictable, but the start and end are usually predictable.
Right now I’m working on adding more adventure into my life. I set weekly, monthly, and yearly goals to do something I wouldn’t normally do. Most of the time it’s nothing earth-shattering, but things such as eating different kinds of foods, taking a class, visiting a new destination, or joining a club to meet new people. This change of pace makes me feel alive, helps recapture my passion, and offers me opportunities for fresh perspectives. (Location 1536)
Tags: goals
Note: Set adventure goals!
Here’s how it works. Every Friday night is “date night,” and Georgia and I go out or do something special together. At 6 p.m., an alarm goes off on both our iPhones, and no matter what we’re doing, date night is on! Every Saturday is FD (Family Day)—which means NO working. Essentially sundown on Friday night until sunup on Sunday morning is time we devote to the marriage and family. If you don’t create these boundaries, one day has a tendency to flow into the next. Unfortunately, the people who get shoved aside are often the most important. (Location 1556)
Tags: relationships
Every Sunday night, also at 6 p.m., we have our RR (Relationship Review). This is a practice I picked up from relationship experts Linda and Richard Eyre during an interview I did with them for our October 2009 SUCCESS Audio Series. During this time, we discuss the previous week’s wins, losses, as well as the adjustments we need to make in our relationship. We start the conversation by telling each other a few things we have appreciated about the other during the previous week—it’s helpful to start with the good stuff. Then, using an idea I picked up from my interview with Jack Canfield, we ask each other, “On a scale of one to ten (ten being the best), how would you rate our relationship this week?” This gets the discussion of wins and losses flowing—oh, boy! Then we discuss the adjustments that need to be made through this follow-up question: “What would it take to make your experience a ten?” (Location 1560)
Tags: relationships, favorite
Note: Discuss relationship that previous week. Wins & Losses. What can be improved
When people get started in a new endeavor, they almost always overdo it. (Location 1588)
Note: Don't overdo it when starting something new!
I don’t want you thinking of the rhythms you can do for this week, month, or even the next ninety days; I want you to think about what you can do for the rest of your life. The Compound Effect—the positive results you want to experience in your life—will be the result of smart choices (and actions) repeated consistently over time. You win when you take the right steps day in and day out. But you set yourself up for failure by doing too much too soon. (Location 1590)
The Power of Consistency I’ve mentioned that if there’s one discipline that gives me a competitive advantage, it’s my ability to be consistent. Nothing kills Big Mo quicker and with more certainty than a lack of consistency. Even good, passionate, and ambitious people with good intentions can fall short when it comes to consistency. But it’s a powerful tool you can use to launch the flight toward your goals. (Location 1618)
CHAPTER 5 INFLUENCES (Location 1674)
We’ve also discussed the fact that you are 100 percent responsible for your life. You alone are responsible for the choices you make and the actions you take. (Location 1676)
Tags: responsibility
Everyone is affected by three kinds of influences: input (what you feed your mind), associations (the people with whom you spend time), and environment (your surroundings). (Location 1680)
Tags: influence
I. Input: Garbage In, Garbage Out (Location 1682)
Tags: news
If you want your brain to perform at its peak, you’ve got to be even more vigilant about what you feed it. Are you feeding it news summaries or mind-numbing sitcoms? (Location 1684)
Tags: news
Note: Do not feed your brain rubbish like news and TV
You put in sensational news, salacious headlines, talk-show rants, and you’re pouring dirty water into your glass. If you’ve got dark, dismal, worrisome water in your glass, everything you create will be filtered through that muddy mess, because that’s what you’ll be thinking about. Garbage in, garbage out. All that drive-time radio yak about murders, conspiracy, deaths, economy, and political battles drives your thinking process, which drives your expectations, which drives your creative output. That IS bad news. But just like a dirty glass, if you flush it with clean, clear water under the faucet long enough, eventually you’ll end up with a glass of pure, clear water. What is that clear water? Positive, inspirational, and supportive input and ideas. Stories of aspiration, people who, despite challenges, are overcoming obstacles and achieving great things. Strategies of success, prosperity, health, love, and joy. Ideas to create more abundance, to grow, expand, and become more. Examples and stories of what’s good, right, and possible in the world. (Location 1706)
Tags: news
Even if we’re adept at avoiding negativity, and have trained ourselves to be relentlessly positive, when it comes to sensationalism, our basic nature can’t resist. Media masters understand that. They know your nature, in many ways better than you. The media has always used shocking and sensational headlines to draw attention. But today, instead of three news TV and radio networks, there are hundreds, running 24/7. Instead of a few newspapers, there are endless portals reaching us from our computers to our phones. The competition for your attention has never been bloodier, and the media jockeys continually up the ante in shock value. (Location 1744)
Tags: tv, news
They find a dozen or so of the most heinous, scandalous, criminal, murderous, bleak, and horrid things that happen in the world each day, and parade them through our papers, news channels, and the Web over and over. Meanwhile, during that same twenty-four-hour period, millions of wonderful, beautiful, incredible things have happened. Yet we hear very little about them. In being wired to seek out the negative, we create the demand for more and more. How could the positive news stories ever hope to compete with those ratings or advertising dollars? (Location 1748)
Tags: news
The great danger of the media is that it gives us a very perverted view of the world. Because the focus and the repetition of messaging is on the negative, that’s what our minds start believing. This warped and narrow view of what’s not working has a severe influence on your creative potential. It can be crippling. (Location 1754)
Tags: favorite, news
As you might guess, I don’t watch or listen to any news and I don’t read any newspapers or news magazines. Ninety-nine percent of all news has no bearing on my personal life or my personal goals, dreams, and ambitions anyway. (Location 1759)
Tags: news
II. Associations: Who’s Influencing You? (Location 1773)
Who do you spend the most time with? Who are the people you most admire? Are those two groups of people exactly the same? If not, why not? Jim Rohn taught that we become the combined average of the five people we hang around the most. (Location 1776)
Tags: favorite, friendship
The people with whom we spend our time determine what conversations dominate our attention, and to which attitudes and opinions we are regularly exposed. Eventually, we start to eat what they eat, talk like they talk, read what they read, think like they think, watch what they watch, treat people how they treat them, even dress like they dress. The funny thing is, more often than not, we are completely unaware of the similarities between us and our circle of five. (Location 1778)
Tags: friendship
I’ve got a neighbor who’s a three-minute friend. For three minutes, we have a great chit-chat, but we wouldn’t mesh for three hours. I can hang out with an old high-school friend for three hours, but he’s not a three-day guy. And, then there are some people I can hang around for a few days, but wouldn’t go on an extended vacation with. Take a look at your relationships and make sure you’re not spending three hours with a three-minute person. (Location 1827)
Tags: favorite, friendship
We’ve just talked about weeding out negative influencers. While you’re doing that, you’ll also want to reach out. Identify people who have positive qualities in the areas of life where you want to improve—people with the financial and business success you desire, the parenting skills you want, the relationships you yearn for, the lifestyle you love. (Location 1831)
Tags: friendship
you. Befriend the person you think is the biggest, baddest, most successful person in your field. What do they read? Where do they go for lunch? How can that association influence you? (Location 1845)
Find a Peak-Performance Partner (Location 1848)
My current “accountability partner” is my good friend Landon Taylor. As I mentioned before, we have a thirty-minute call every Friday to discuss our weekly wins, losses, fixes, “ah-has,” and where we are on our growth plans. The anticipation of the call and knowing I have to be accountable to Landon keeps me extra committed throughout the week. (Location 1853)
Tags: public accountability, favorite
I make a record of Landon’s losses or any feedback he needs and make sure to ask him about it the next week. He does the same for me. That way we hold each other accountable. He might say, “Okay, you screwed up here last week and admitted it and committed to change. What did you do about that this week?” Life is life. We’re both busy executives, but it’s amazing to me that we actually end up doing this every week without fail. It’s not easy. Sometimes I’ll be flying through my day and think, “Oh, crud! I have to do this.” (Location 1855)
Tags: favorite
I have a serious challenge for you if you’re up for it. Want real feedback? Find people who care enough about you to be brutally honest with you. Ask them these questions: “How do I show up to you? What do you think my strengths are? In what areas do you think I can improve? Where do you think I sabotage myself? What’s one thing I can stop doing that would benefit me the most? What’s the one thing I should start doing?” (Location 1864)
I have always found it interesting that the most successful people, the truly top performers, are the ones willing to hire and pay for the best coaches and trainers there are. It pays to invest in your improved performance. (Location 1876)
“Mentoring is your true legacy. It is the greatest inheritance you can give to others. And it should never end. It is why you get up every day. To teach and be taught.” (Location 1883)
Tags: mentor
Environment: Changing Your View Changes Your Perspective (Location 1895)
Each and every incomplete thing in your life exerts a draining force on you, sucking the energy of accomplishment and success out of you as surely as a vampire stealing your blood. Every incomplete promise, commitment, and agreement saps your strength because it blocks your momentum and inhibits your ability to move forward. Incomplete tasks keep calling you back to the past to take care of them. So think about what you can complete today. (Location 1920)
Tags: open tasks, commitments
Note: Incomplete tasks in your life hold you back
Additionally, when you’re creating an environment to support your goals, remember that you get in life what you tolerate. This is true in every area of your life—particularly within your relationships with family, friends, and colleagues. What you have decided to tolerate is also reflected in the situations and circumstances of your life right now. Put another way, you will get in life what you accept and expect you are worthy of. (Location 1923)
Tags: environment
Pick a peak-performance partner. Decide when, how regularly, and what you will hold each other accountable to, and what ideas you will expect the other to bring to each conversation. (Location 1945)
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CHAPTER 6 ACCELERATION (Location 1950)
“Don’t wish it were easier; wish you were better.” (Location 2007)
Tags: newsletter, push limits, quotes, favorite
But I didn’t stop there. On the way back, and over the next couple of days, I called each one of her FIVE brothers and also asked for their blessing to join the family. Some were easy to convince, others proceeded to have me “earn it.” The point is, she told me later that one of the most special aspects about how I proposed was how I had honored her dad and how I had called every one of her brothers (and had her sister teach me Portuguese). That made the act extra special. The result of that extra effort paid off exponentially. (Location 2051)
Tags: relationships
Where in life can you do more than expected when you hit the wall? Or where can you go for “WOW”? It doesn’t take a lot more effort, but the little extra multiplies your results many times over. Whether you’re making calls, serving customers, recognizing your team, acknowledging your spouse, going for a run, bench pressing, planning a date night, sharing time with your kids, whatever… what’s the little extra you can do that exceeds expectations and accelerates your results? (Location 2069)
Tags: push limits
Consume those “popular” things, and you’ll be part of the common, average pack. But that’s ordinary. There’s nothing wrong with ordinary. I just prefer to shoot for extraordinary. (Location 2077)
Tags: societal norms
Find the line of expectation and then exceed it. Even when it comes to the small stuff—or maybe especially then. Whatever I think the dress standard is going to be for any event, for example, I always choose to go at least one step above it. When I am unsure of the attire, I always err on the side of dressing better than I suppose the occasion calls for. Simple, I know, but it’s just one way I try to meet my standard to always do and be better than expected. (Location 2136)
Tags: push limits
“I say no idea is worthwhile if it doesn’t start with ‘Wow!’ (Location 2151)
Giving a little more time, energy, or thought to your efforts won’t just improve your results; it will multiply them. It takes very little extra to be EXTRAordinary. In all areas of your life, look for the multiplier opportunities where you can go a little further, push yourself a little harder, last a little longer, prepare a little better, and deliver a little bit more. Where can you do better and more than expected? When can you do the totally unexpected? Find as many opportunities for “WOW,” and the level and speed of your accomplishments will astonish you… and everyone else around you. (Location 2157)
Learning without execution is useless. (Location 2172)
Tags: pres, learning, execution
I have one more valuable success principle to pass along to you. Whatever I want in life, I’ve found that the best way to get it is to focus my energy on giving to others. If I want to boost my confidence, I look for ways to help someone else feel more confident. If I want to feel more hopeful, positive, and inspired, I try to infuse that in someone else’s day. If I want more success for myself, the fastest way to get it is to go about helping someone else obtain it. (Location 2203)
Tags: give to others
GOAL: Earn an extra $100,000 in income in 2010 General description of WHO I NEED TO BECOME: • I am a disciplined master of time efficiency. • I focus solely on high-payoff and high-productivity actions. • I wake up an hour earlier and review my priority objectives each morning. • I fuel my body properly and exercise four days a week so I am energetic and highly effective each work hour. • I feed my mind ideas and inspiration that will support and bolster my passion. (Location 2285)
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surround myself with peers and mentors who elevate my expectations and prod me to rise to greater levels of discipline, commitment and achievement. • I am a smart, confident and effective leader. • I seek and cultivate the strength and greatness in everyone around me. • I deliver excellence to my clients and continually find ways to ‛wow’ them, encouraging repeat transactions and abundant referrals. (Location 2291)
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