What You Have To Do

Reactive language puts the control outside of you and gives it to someone or something else. Using proactive language puts you in control. You select the consequences you desire, then choose the actions that you believe lead to those consequences.

“Have To” or “Choose To”?

“I have to stay up till I finish this paper,” my daughter said to me. She was in middle school and I had gone in to remind her that it was close to bed time.

“Have to?” I asked. “Or choose to?”

“Oh, I have to finish it,” she replied.

“What happens if you don’t finish it?”

She gave me a look that said, “Can you really be that dumb!?” Out loud, she said, “I’ll get an F on the paper!”

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Two Questions

If you are not progressing toward your BIG goal, or you don’t have a BIG goal, two questions can help get you back on track and hit the target. Ask and answer these two questions from time to time to keep embracing the Excelerated Life™.

How To Hit The Target

Here is something about me — I never make the same mistake twice. I make the same mistakes 10, 15, sometimes dozens of times. And because the Universe rewards action, I get feedback from each mistake and learn from it.

Imagine you are throwing a ball at a target that is 100 yards away. Are you going to hit the target on your first try? Well, that isn’t likely. But you toss the ball and let’s say it goes about 30 feet. Now, you get to go stand where the ball fell. Throw again. This time, it goes 40 feet but to the right. The Universe rewards your action and you move to where the ball is. You can see that if you keep doing this, eventually you’ll hit the target. Each throw is rewarded. Your target doesn’t move . . . but you do.

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The 4 Rules of Time

“The purpose of time management and getting more done in less time is to enable you to spend more face time with the people you care about and doing the things that give you the greatest amount of joy in life.” ~ Brian Tracy

From Brian Tracy, motivational speaker, author, and expert in human potential and achievement, we learn that there are 4 rules of time [Tracy]:

  1. Time is perishable.
  2. Time is indispensable.
  3. Time is irreplaceable.
  4. Time is essential for accomplishment.
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Castaway

To reach any BIG goal, you must grow to the person who can achieve it. You grow by taking one small action after another. In this way you prepare for the opportunity when it appears.

Do you remember the movie, Cast Away, where Tom Hanks is stranded for several years on an island in the South Pacific? In the movie, Hanks is a time-obsessed trouble shooter for FedEx. At a Christmas dinner with family, he is called to resolve a problem in one of their foreign offices and leaves the dinner to catch a flight on a FedEx plane.

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Small / Simple Daily Disciplines

Self-discipline is essential to growth and development. Establish small acts of discipline, practice them daily, and build on them as your sense of self-discipline gets stronger.

“Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest.” ~ Proverbs 6: 6 – 11 (NIV)

The Ant And The Grasshopper

Summertime, and the Grasshopper spent his days singing and hopping about, lazing away the hot days. One day the Grasshopper saw an Ant, toiling hard to drag a piece of grain to her nest.

“Why do you work so hard?” asked the Grasshopper. “Come, sing and dance with me. We can do as we please. It’s too hot to work so hard!”

“I’m storing up food for the Winter,” replied the Ant. “You should be doing the same. Summer won’t last forever.”

“Phuh!” said the Grasshopper. “Who cares about Winter? We have plenty of food right now.” And he went on singing and dancing, doing as he pleased.

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Make Productivity A Habit

To achieve any worthy goal, you must decide what is vital to the project, then structure your days so you can devote large chunks of time to those vital activities.

A Tale Of Two Workers

“It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.” ~ Charles Dickens, A Tale Of Two Cities

Andrew and Angela worked for the same company. They were hired at about the same time to join the company’s sales team. And there the similarities end.

Angela developed a habit of coming in to work at 7:00 AM, about an hour before most of the sales team arrived. She always had a list of tasks which she had prepared the night before. She came in, sat down, and went to work on the first task on her list.

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The Little Things ARE The Big Things

“Yard by yard it’s hard but inch by inch it’s a cinch.” Small actions made consistently over time add up to big achievements.

A Lesson From The Ants

As a boy, I became fascinated by ants. I read everything about them I could get my hands on. One thing I learned from my reading was how to construct an ant farm and how to capture the workers and the queen from an existing nest. I used this knowledge to build several ant farms using quart jars.

When I was about 9 or 10, I made my first farm. I flooded the nest, captured the queen and some of the workers and carefully put them in the jar full of dirt. I covered the jar with black construction paper to keep out the light. And I waited. Continue reading “The Little Things ARE The Big Things”

Make Success A Habit

“When we try to change our behavior, we strategize about our motivation and self-control. But what we should be thinking about instead is how to set up new habits. Habits persist even when we’re tired and don’t have the energy to exert self-control.” ~ Wendy Wood [Life: Wellness]

The Parable Of The Threads

A father gave his young child a thread and directed her to break it. This she did easily.

The next day, the father wound two threads together and asked the child to break the pair. Again, she easily broke them. Continue reading “Make Success A Habit”

Do It Now!

“’Someday’, you said you’d do it yesterday; Yesterday, you said you’ll do it today. Today, if you push it to tomorrow, it’s likely tomorrow, you’ll shift it to ‘Someday’! Do it now!” ~ Israelmore Ayivor

Filling The Backpack

A mountain climber was ascending a high peak, where he had been told the views were amazing. He began his climb in high anticipation of reaching the top.

The climber hadn’t gone far when he came upon an unusual rock that attracted his attention. He decided he wanted to study the rock more later, so he picked it up and put it in his backpack. He climbed a bit higher and saw another rock, even more interesting than the first. So he picked that one up too and put it in his backpack to examine later. This same thing happened again and again. The climber found more and more rocks and other objects he wanted to inspect later and stuffed them in his backpack. Continue reading “Do It Now!”

Don’t Feel Like It? Do It Anyway.

“The mature human being goes about doing what needs to be done regardless of whether that person feels great or terrible. Knowing that you are the kind of person with that kind of self-control brings all the satisfaction and confidence you will ever need. Even on days when the satisfaction and confidence just aren’t there, you can get the job done anyway.” ~ David Reynolds

“He didn’t feel like it.”

Once upon a time, there were two friends, Sue and Stan. One day, Sue and Stan decided they needed to get in better physical shape. They joined a gym and made plans to work out.

The next morning, Sue saw that she was scheduled to work out, so that’s what she did. She got dressed and went to the gym. She had a good work out and left feeling energized.

Stan woke up and saw he was scheduled to meet Sue at the gym. But he hadn’t slept that well and decided he didn’t feel like working out. So he didn’t.

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