Anyone who took the time to study success closely would come to the conclusion that a thin line separates the winners from the losers in any field. Allen Iverson was one of the greatest basketball players on the planet back, and while he achieved incredible individual success he was never able to take home a championship. His story is not unique. There are talented people in every field who had the talent, but something prevented them from achieving greatness.
Tony Robbins in his excellent Ted Talk “Why We Do What We Do” talks about resourcefulness, not resources, being the defining factor in people’s success. He nailed it. Specifically, he’s referring to the two excuses I heard over and over again over my career as a teacher. They are all that separated those who went on to learn English and those that fizzled out. When I started consulting for businesses, I found it to be more of the same. The excuses I’m talking about are:
- I don’t have the time.
- I don’t have the money.
It’s time for some tough love. We can find answers to everything we want, but will we? Studies have shown that an incredible 51% of people won’t. For the other 49% that go looking, what percent will actually put they learn into action? Answer, very few.
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In this day and age, neither is an excuse we should accept. And yet we do. Parents do, teachers do, bosses do, clients do, friends do, but worst of all we often deceive ourselves with them. The truth is if you are reading this article, you have everything you need to change your life financially, emotionally, physically or spiritually.
Want a better body? Exercise! What a nicer car? Save more money. Want a promotion? Find a way to make more money for the company. Don’t have the relationship you want with your kids? Go read a book. Can’t find an answer? Google it. It’s time for some tough love. We can find answers to everything we want, but will we? Studies have shown that an incredible 51% of people won’t. For the other 49% that go looking, what percent will actually put they learn into action? Answer, very few.
Here’s an interesting discovery I made early on – we don’t have 24 hours a day to do with as we like, it’s far less. I remember sitting down and running the numbers years ago and I came away stunned. Sleep, 8 hours. Work, 8 hours. Shower, 20 minutes. Driving, 101 minutes. Eating, 70 minutes. Shopping, 20 minutes. TV and Internet, 3.5 hours. That leaves us with a whopping one hour and 40 minutes a day. And how we choose to use that time determines just how successful we’ll be.
Thanks to studying time management and applying the concepts into my life I was able to double it with a few more tweaks, I was able to squeeze it to almost three times that. That’s what allowed me to write my first book, iSucceed, write over 800 articles, create the One-Bite Time Management Program endorsed by Brian Tracy, become a best-selling author as well as the co-author of Profitable Joint Ventures with Sohail Khan. Not too shabby. The best news, anyone can do what I did.
Bill Gates got it right when he said that “Most people overestimate what they can do in a year and underestimate what they can do in ten years.” One day won’t change our bank account, our waist, our cholesterol levels, our blood pressure, our self-esteem, but it can be a step in the right direction. That step is those 100 minutes. And here’s what’s exciting, one can become two. Over ten years that’s 3650 steps. One step won’t get you where you want to go, but 3650 could.
If you are reading this article, you have everything you need to change your life financially, emotionally, physically or spiritually.
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Late at night when my son’s gone to bed, my wife and I often talk about just how incredible our son is. A bit much maybe, but at the age of 10 my son’s bilingual, attended the Junior Olympics, has a black belt in Karate and a green belt in Aikido. His grandfathers were sportsmen, but neither of them reached the success my son’s had. It just goes to show you, with the right input (love, teachers, food, etc) kids can do incredible things.
Tony Robbins was driven by a desire to learn what makes the difference in the quality of people’s lives. I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s this – Our choices. The books we read, the courses we take, the mentors we have, the people we hang out with, the food we eat. We are all limited by how many steps we have and the directions they take us. Make sure they take you the right way.
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Ps. Busy? Ted Talks is one of the best places to go in search of ideas, answers and inspiration. Be sure to check out my article over on Thrive Global for some of my favorites.
Photo by Karabo Diseko on Unsplash