177 Mental Toughness Secrets of the World Class by Steve Siebold

177 Mental Toughness Secrets of the World Class

Business, Leadership, Self-help
9.1/10143 min read

10/1/24

  • - The Thought Processes, Habits And Philosophies Of The Great Ones

  • - Foreword

  • - What you think controls how you perform -- pure cause and effect. Your thinking is the cause. Your performance is the effect. So think- ing the right thoughts (and acting on them) makes great sense.

  • - If you want to Be like a champion, you’ve got to Think like a champion.

  • 1. The World Class Operates From Objective Reality

  • - “Amateur performers operate from delusion, pros operate from objective reality. The great ones’ habits, actions, and behaviors are totally congruent with the size and scope of their ultimate vision. That’s why we call them champions.” - Steve Siebold

  • - Most people delude themselves into thinking they are working harder then they are, and that they are more competent than they actually are.

  • - Action Step for Today: Make a commitment to check delusion at the door. Be honest and ask this critical thinking question: “Are my habits, actions and behaviors congruent with the vision I have for my life?”

  • - Poverty-Class Consciousness = 5%. Working-Class Consciousness = 10%. Middle-Class Consciousness = 70%. Upper-Class Consciousness = 10%. World-Class Consciousness = 5%.

  • - Leadership and Self-Deception by Arbinger Institute #book

  • - The middle class competes, avoids risk, lives in delusion, loves to be comfortable, has a lottery mentality, hungers for security, sacrifices growth for safety, operates out of fear and scarcity, focuses on having, sees themselves as victims, slows down, is frustrated, has pipedreams, is ego-driven, is problem oriented, thinks they know enough, chooses fear, is boastful, trades time for money, denies their intuition, believes their vision only when they see it, coaches through logic, speaks the language of fear, believes problem solving stems from knowledge.

  • - World class creates, manages risk, lives in objective reality, is comfortable being uncomfortable, has an abundance mentality, doesn't believe security exists, sacrifices safety for growth, operates from love and abundance, focuses on being, sees themselves as responsible, calms down, is grateful, has vision, is spirit driven, is solution oriented, is eager to learn, chooses growth, is humble, trades ideas for money, embraces their intuition, seeks wealth, knows they will see their vision when they believe it, coaches through emotion, speaks the language of love, believes problem solving stems from will.

  • 2. World-Class Wealth Begins With World Class Thinking

  • - “Wealth is the product of a man's capacity to think.” - Ayn Rand

  • - The middle class believes formal education is the answer to acquiring wealth, yet very few academics are wealthy.

  • - The middle class trades time for money. The world class trades ideas that solve problems for money.

  • - Money flows like water from ideas.

  • - The poverty class talks about and regurgitates the past; the middle class talks about other people; and the world class talks about ideas.

  • - Action Step for Today: Ask this critical thinking question: “At what level of monetary success do I feel most comfortable? a) poverty class b) middle class c) world class.” Where you feel most comfortable reflects your self-image, and most likely, your current status. If you want to become wealthier, begin by rais- ing your self-image by upgrading the self-talk you use regard- ing money and finances. If all you do is chase more money, you are simply attacking the effect. The cause is how you think, and if you improve the cause, the effect will take care of itself.

  • - You Were Born Rich by Bob Proctor #book

  • 3. Champions Have An Immense Capacity For Sustained Concentration

  • - “Nothing can add more power to your life than concentrating all of your energies on a limited set of targets.” - Nido Qubein

  • - Champions are famous for concentrating their energy and efforts on what they want and blocking out anything or anyone who threatens that focus.

  • - When the goals are set, champions put mental blinders on and move forward with dogged persistence and ferocious tenacity.

  • - While average people see world-class performers’ successes as a matter of intelligence or luck, champions know sustained concentration of thought and action is usually the true key to their success.

  • - Action Step for Today: Write down the single most important goal you want to achieve in the next twelve months and make a commitment to concentrate on achieving it – no matter what it takes.

  • 4. Champions Are Driven By Emotional Motivators

  • - The masses are primarily motivated by extrinsic motivators, such as material possessions and money. The world class is motivated intrinsically, by their dreams, desires and passions.

  • - External motivation is short lived, while internal motivation is nearly impossible to exhaust until the goal is achieved.

  • - The process great leaders and coaches use is tedious, time consuming, and simple: ask questions, and don’t stop until you have landed on the emotional hot buttons. World- class coaches keep digging until they hit the vein of gold – when the performer begins answering in terms of how they feel, as opposed to what they think.

  • - Action Step for Today: Ask these five critical thinking questions:

  • 1) What am I willing to fight for?

  • 2) What values do I hold dearest to my heart?

  • 3) What values would I be willing to die for?

  • 4) If I could achieve a single thing, what would make

  • all my hard work worth the struggle?

  • 5) If I had thirty seconds left to live, what would I tell

  • my children are the three most important things I learned about how to live a happy life?

  • Your answers will tell you a lot about what drives you emotionally.

  • 5. The Great Ones Separate Truth From Fact

  • - Champions use their critical thinking skills to make a clear distinction between truth and fact. Fact is reality. Truth is our perception of reality, and perceptions are subjective.

  • - Champions make decisions based on facts, not feelings.

  • - The great ones know the conscious mind functions most effectively on fact, while the subconscious can be programmed with truth. Since the subconscious is unable to make the distinction between fact and truth, champions program their subconscious minds to believe their visions, dreams and ideas as truths. Because the subconscious doesn’t have the ability to reject an idea, it accepts it as truth and begins to create behaviors that are congruent with this new “truth.”

  • - Action Step for Today: Write down 10 things you know are fact, and rethink each by asking, “Is this really a fact, or a truth I’ve created from my own or others’ perceptions?” For example: is it a fact that the sky is blue? Is it a fact that you are a nice person? Is it a fact that the faithful will be rewarded in heaven? You’ll see how often we operate from truth, rather than fact.

  • 6. Champions Lead Through Facilitated Introspection

  • - Facilitating the introspective process in another person requires patience and time, and the great ones are willing to invest. The amateur wants instant results, but pros know this rarely occurs. The payoff for the pro comes not only in the form of increased productivity, but also in the connection created between manager and employee. Once an emotional creature is convinced that you care about what she thinks and how she feels, it sets the stage for emotional bonding to occur. Managers and leaders who lead this way lose very few of their people to rival companies because of this bond. In the age of the mind, facilitated introspection is the core process of leadership.

  • - “The great managers and leaders of the future will know more about their people than ever before. They’ll know their emotional hot buttons as well as the essence of what makes them tick. Through facilitated introspection, these leaders will create a competitive immunity for their companies by reigniting the flame of loyalty that burns within their people.” - Steve Siebold

  • - Action Step for Today: Invest 20 minutes today leading someone through the introspective process. Your first question should be: Tell me what you really want out of life more than anything else? Your goal should be to make the person comfortable enough to answer you in terms of how she feels, rather than how she thinks. Once she begins to explain her feelings, follow up with these questions:

  • 1) What exactly do you mean by that?

  • 2) What does that look like?

  • 3) Why do you feel that way?

  • 4) Tell me more about that.

  • 5) Why is that important to you?

  • 6) What does having that mean to you?

  • 7. The Great Ones Know They Are Unaware

  • - “Everyone is operating and running their lives at their current level of conscious awareness.” - Carlos Marin

  • - Average people have a world view that says being comfortable with who and where they are in life is the key to happiness. The great ones have a world view that says happiness is learning, growing and becoming.

  • - Action Step for Today: Ask yourself this critical thinking question: Am I growing or dying? If your answer is dying, make the decision today to become more aware and begin growing.

  • - The Handbook to Higher Consciousness by Ken Jeyes Jr. #book

  • 8. Champions Develop World-Class Beliefs Long Before They Become Champions

  • - “They can . . . because they think they can.” - Unknown

  • - People of influence, such as parents, teachers, coaches, religious leaders, and others were the primary builders and shapers of our early belief systems. In most cases, this programming is limiting because it comes from people who believe they are limited.

  • - Average people are saddled with a set of beliefs that are more about survival than success.

  • - Average people have been programmed to avoid pain at all costs, which promotes a ‘playing not to lose’ mentality.

  • - Reprogramming is a never-ending activity. Some people even consider this process ‘positive brainwashing.’

  • - Action Step for Today: Make a list of your most closely held beliefs, and begin the process of questioning whether they are serving you or holding you back. Question their validity. Are they relevant, or out of date? Knowing that behavior follows belief, give yourself an opportunity to discard or upgrade any beliefs that limit you.

  • 9. Champions Embrace Relativity

  • - “The great ones are highly aware of the fact that all perceptions are based on the experience and belief of the beholder. This is the reason they surround themselves with people who think much bigger than they do. Beliefs and expectations are contagious, and champions are eager to catch as much as they can.” - Steve Siebold

  • - Ask champions if their vision is big, and they are likely to respond, “Compared to what?” The great ones develop the unique ability to measure beyond their own perspective. This is one of the secrets which enables them to reach for goals and dreams far exceeding anything they have accomplished in the past.

  • - Action Step for Today: Listen to how people around you measure the size and scope of things. When you hear someone placing a value on something, using their own perspective as a reference point, challenge them. For example, if someone says, “This is a huge project, Bob,” reply, “Really. Compared to what?” Try this and see the reaction you get.

  • 10. The World Class Compartmentalizes Emotions

  • - “Nothing external to you has any power over you.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

  • - Professional performers compartmentalize each problem and create a mental/emotional separation between the person and the problem. Pros don’t engage in the emotional aspects of each problem; they focus on a logical solution and then put it aside so they can focus on the next challenge.

  • - While amateurs get tangled in emotions, professionals are grounded in logical problem solving. Compartmentalization allows champions to work on and solve one problem at a time, with- out the emotions of one problem bleeding into the solutions of the others.

  • - Action Step for Today:

  • Commit to compartmental- izing problems by focusing exclusively on one problem at a time. Imagine you are the President of the United States. You must keep a clear, unemotional mind during the problem-solving process. The masses multi-task. The great ones focus.

  • 11. The World Class Connects To The Source Through Gratitude

  • - “Gratitude is the aristocrat of all of the emotions.” - Bill Gove

  • - Champions know the ultimate creative force is located somewhere beyond our everyday consciousness, and they must tap this source to generate their best ideas. The secular sometimes refer to this source as the unconscious mind. The spiritual often call it God. Whatever label their belief warrants, few deny the power of the source, whatever its point of origin. Champions know the fastest way to connect to the source is through gratitude. Thoughts and feelings of gratitude seem to elevate the performers’ consciousness to a higher plane than is accessible through any other means.

  • - Action Step for Today: Make a list of the ten things you are most grateful for in your life, and review them every morning for the next seven days. Monitor how this activity impacts your emotions.

  • 12. Champions Know Adversity Is The Catalyst Of Mental Toughness

  • - “If it weren’t for the dark days, we wouldn’t know what it is to walk in the light.” - Earl Campbell

  • - Adversity is a challenge through which learning and growing occurs.

  • - Action Step for Today: List the three most difficult adversities you have faced and five good things that happened to you as a result of each one. Train yourself to see the good in adversity, and your fear of future challenges will dissipate.

  • - Man's Search For Meaning by Viktor Frakel #book

  • 13. The Great Ones Do It All With Class

  • - Great ones tend to project themselves in the same manner whether they are winning or losing. When they win, they love to share the credit with the team, and when they lose, they assume 100% responsibility.

  • - Action Step for Today:

  • Make a list of the five things you would like the following groups of people to say about your conduct:

  • 1) Your family

  • 2) Your friends

  • 3) Your customers

  • Now go to work and become this person.

  • 14. Champions Make 'Do or Die' Commitments

  • - “You cannot keep a committed person from success. Place stumbling blocks in his way, and he takes them for stepping-stones, and on them he will climb to greatness. Take away his money, and he makes spurs of his poverty to urge him on. The person who succeeds has a program; he fixes his course and adheres to it; he lays his plans and executes them; he goes straight to his goal. He is not pushed this side and that every time a difficulty is thrust in his way. If he can’t get over it, he goes through it.” – George Gilder

  • - When everyone else is tired, exhausted and burned out from the battle, the great ones are just getting warmed up.

  • - Champions don’t recognize pain, because they have made a commitment to do what it takes to win.

  • - Professional performers make a commitment and approach it like a war, knowing they will have to endure an unknown level of suffering along the road to victory.

  • - Commitment is more about making a decision to do whatever it takes to succeed than anything else, yet only the pros seem to be able to get themselves to make these decisions.

  • - Action Step for Today: Make a list of the five most important things you are committed to in your life, and ask this critical thinking question: “Are my habits, actions and behaviors congruent with my commitments?”

  • 15. The World Class Is Consistently Great

  • - “Plenty of men can do good work for a spurt with immediate promotion in mind, but for promotion, you want a man in whom good work has become a habit.” - Henry Doherty

  • - A lot of performers are capable of out- standing performance, but the great ones all have one thing in common: consistency.

  • - Erratic performance is the result of erratic thinking, so the first step in mental toughness training is gaining mental clarity.

  • - Consistency in performance is the direct result of knowing why it is necessary to perform well and the benefits that will accrue, especially when the going gets tough and the pain sets in.

  • - Champions are known to invest large blocks of time practicing their craft long after everyone else has gone home. Practice may not make perfect, but it does create consistency in performance.

  • - Action Step for Today: To gain mental clarity and focus, create a written vision for your life. Imagine your life five to ten years in the future and list all you have done, accumulated and become during this time. Use the letter to a friend format that we use in our corporate Mental Toughness University program. Write a letter to a friend – real or imaginary – and date it from five to ten years in the future. Let your creative mind freewheel, without any thought of how you will achieve any of these things. Be sure to include as many details and as much emotion as possible. When you have a world- class vision for your life, you’ve taken the first step to world-class performance.

  • 16. Champions Understand Logic vs. Emotion

  • - “The arena was so loud, the emo- tion so great. Everybody was going crazy. I remember thinking, ‘Stay with it. Don’t get swept up.’ The hotter it gets, the cooler you have to get. I remember thinking of one word in my mind--‘miraculous.’” - Al Michaels

  • - The sheer force of the collective emotion is so overwhelming that it mentally elevates the consciousness of the individual performers, which enables them to tap into a higher level of intelligence.

  • 17. Champions Are Willing To Suspend Their Disbelief

  • - “When presented with a new idea, check your ego at the door and suspend your disbelief. Your ability to open your mind and consider new ideas without fear will propel you to the top faster than anything else.” - Bill Gove

  • - While the masses are dying from mental stagnation, the pros grow healthier everyday by entertaining thoughts of abundance and keeping their fertile minds open to life and successful living.

  • - Action Step for Today: Think back to the last time someone approached you with a new idea that you were quick to dismiss, and give it a second chance. Suspend your disbelief, open your mind and give it careful consideration. What have you got to lose?

  • 18. The World Class Is Ferociously Cooperative

  • - “You can employ men and hire hands to work for you, but you must win their hearts to have them work with you.” - William Boetcker

  • - Professional performers are the most cooperative people in the world, because they know it takes a team to achieve anything worthwhile. Their cooperation stems from their desire to win. They know they cannot do it alone.

  • - Action Step for Today: Rate yourself on your level of cooperation. In your opinion, you are:

  • 1 - Very cooperative with others 2 - Somewhat cooperative

  • 3 - Not very cooperative

  • 4 - Not cooperative at all

  • If you rate a 2, 3, or 4, ask yourself if you are allowing your ego to get in the way. If the answer is yes, check your ego at the door and become a team player.

  • 19. Champions Are Curious

  • - “Curiosity is one of the most permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous intellect.” - Samuel Johnson

  • - Champions are masters at learning from other people’s experiences because they are always asking questions. Their curiosity accelerates their growth through lessons learned vicariously.

  • - Action Step for Today: The next time you are socializing with friends or associates, see how many questions you can ask each about what they do and why they do it. Get as many details as possible. Most people are full of great suggestions for solving problems, yet no one asks for their opinion. Your curiosity, combined with a beginner’s mindset, may yield unexpected solutions you can implement immediately. (2 likes)

  • 20. The Great Ones Possess Supreme Confidence

  • - The two fastest, most powerful ways to skyrocket self-confidence I’ve ever seen are:

  • 1. Changing the language you use when you talk to yourself and others. Positive self-talk can literally change your life in ninety days, if you really stick to it. You can reprogram your entire belief system just by changing the words you use when you talk to yourself.

  • - What to Say When You Talk to Yourself by Shad Helmstetter #book

  • 2. Learning to be a proficient and entertaining public speaker. When you can stand in front of a group of people and communicate effectively, it catapults your confidence into the stratosphere.

  • - Action Step for Today: Ask your three closest friends this question: On a scale of 1 to 7, 7 being most confident, how much confidence do I project? This will give you an idea of how the world is responding to you.

  • 21. Champions Evolve From Competing to Creating

  • - “Creative people rarely need to be motivated--they have their own inner drive that refuses to be bored. They refuse to be complacent. They live on the edge, which is precisely what is needed to be successful and remain successful.” - Donald Trump

  • - The highest level is Playing to Win, which occurs when the performer moves from competition to creation, where the primary goal is to be the best they can be.

  • - Knowing that creativity and fear cannot co-exist, these people are competing only with themselves with the objective of being better today than they were yesterday. The Playing to Win philosophy is rooted in a spirit-based consciousness operating from thoughts of love and abundance. Fear and scarcity have no place at this level of thinking.

  • - These performers are fearlessly seeking what Dr. Abraham Maslow referred to as Self-Actualization, or becoming all that one has the potential to become. The most powerful belief performers operating at this level possess is that they cannot fail; they can only learn and grow. With their potential in front and their fear behind them, champions are able to move beyond the boundaries of competition and create what the masses believe is impossible.

  • - Action Step for Today: Examine the 5 Levels of Mental Toughness and identify the level you inhabit most often in performance situations. Make a commitment to spend as much time at the Playing To Win level as possible.

  • - 5 levels of mental toughness

  • 1. PLAYING NOT TO LOSE - “I better perform or I’ll be in trouble.”

  • 2. PLAYING TO CRUISE - “As long as I continue to perform, I can cruise.”

  • 3. PLAYING TO IMPROVE - “Maybe I can accomplish more than I thought. Maybe I’m better than I think I am.”

  • - Belief-altering event occurs triggering a new thought process.

  • 4. PLAYING TO COMPETE - “I think I can be the best!”

  • - New success expands the belief system.

  • - Performer is powerful, but still driven by ego gratification.

  • 5. PLAYING TO WIN - “I cannot fail, I can only learn and grow. The only person I’m competing with is myself. I no longer feel fear, because it’s impossible for me to lose. I feel so grateful just to have an opportunity to be the best I can be. I see my performance as the primary catalyst of my self-actualization. I don’t have to be who I’ve always been. I learn and I grow; that’s how I win.

  • - An event awakens the performer and triggers inner wisdom. Performer starts to see his/her performance as a game in which there is no way to lose.

  • - Performer is driven by spirit instead of ego, devoid of pretense, and totally focused. Fear does not exist at this level, only love.

  • 22. Champions Remember Their Roots

  • - “We usually think of advice as something that someone tells us, but I learned my most valuable les- sons in life by example, by watch- ing people around me both when I was growing up and when I was trying to stay true, in my business career, to the values they taught me. Yet, if there is one piece of advice that has been important to me, it is “Always remember where you came from.” - John J. Mack

  • - The world class is always reaching for the stars while keeping their feet on the ground.

  • - You’ll hear them speak about the gratitude they feel for all of the people who contributed to their success and fulfillment.

  • - The great ones know success is a self-fulfilling prophecy, and remembering their roots reminds them of not only where they came from, but also what it took to get them where they are now.

  • - Action Step for Today: Invest ten minutes today remembering your roots and what it took to get you where you are now. Write a note or place a call to someone who helped you along the way and thank him or her for what they did for you. Pay special attention to how taking these actions makes you feel.

  • 23. The World Class Never Bows To Criticism

  • - “You can't let praise or criticism get to you. It's a weakness to get caught up in either one.” - John Wooden

  • - Mental toughness, broken down to its root, is really about becoming a master of your emotions in performance situations, especially under pressure.

  • - Amateurs are shocked when they are criticized, and many are emotionally wounded. Professional performers expect criticism as a part of being a champion and are rarely rattled by it.

  • - Professional performers rarely criticize other people – they’re too busy working and practicing to get wrapped up in other people’s business. They don’t deal in personalities; they deal in ideas. Professional performers aren’t surprised by criticism from average people.

  • - Champions ignore the criticism and go back to work.

  • - Action Step for Today:

  • Decide to separate your emotions from other people’s criticism of you. Refuse to talk about other people or gossip about their behavior. Focus only on ideas that can help you fulfill your vision.

  • 24. Champions Believe In Choice

  • - “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” - Viktor Frankel

  • - Amateurs feel they are at the mercy of the gods; professionals carefully construct a life based on a series of choices they make. This sense of control increases the professionals’ ambitious drive. It’s also one of the reasons champions appear to be so much happier than average people. They know their choices really control their destiny. They believe they can be

  • anyone they want to be, do anything they want to do, and have anything they want to have. Their belief in this concept becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, which builds psychological momentum and makes the belief stronger every day.

  • - Action Step for Today: Make a list of the things you feel you have no choice about doing, and revisit each one. Do you really have to do them, or are you choosing to do them? Could some of the less desirable things be omitted simply by making a choice? Delusion says you must do these things. Objective reality says you always have a choice, because you are always in control.

  • - Choice Theory by Dr. William Glasser #book

  • 25. The World Class Embraces Metacognition

  • - The better you are at controlling your thoughts, the better the results will be.

  • - “Of course we become what we think about. The real question is, “Do we know what we are thinking about?” - Steve Siebold

  • - Action Step for Today: Take your emo- tional temperature today and assess your mood. Ask this critical thinking question: “How did I end up in this mood?” What thoughts did you process that put you in this mood?

  • 26. Professional Performers Don't Require Immediate Compensation

  • - Champions believe every effort performed with good intention yields some form of compensation at some point.

  • - People become champions by perfecting their competencies until other people label them ‘champion.’ In most cases, this label took years of hard work and sacrifice to achieve, with little or no apparent compensation along the way. Many of the great ones were ridiculed and criticized for investing so many hours in the development of their core competency. Not swayed by amateur opinion, they pushed forward aggressively. This delayed gratification set the stage for all future battle plans for achievement in the minds of champions.

  • - Action Step for Today: Ask this critical thinking question: “Am I more interested in pleasure, or gratification?” Amateurs focus on plea- sure-based activities that deliver short and sweet payoffs. Professionals focus on gratification-based activities that take longer to achieve but deliver long and deep payoffs. Into which category do you fall?

  • 27. Champions Embrace Conflict For Growth

  • - The great ones see conflict not as a threat, but as an opportunity to gain a three-dimensional perspective on a problem.

  • - The pros operate at a higher level of consciousness and don’t care who gets the credit for solving the problem.

  • - Organizations which welcome or embrace conflict are destined to evolve exponentially from the combined brainpower of the group.

  • - “A good manager doesn't try to eliminate conflict, he tries to keep it from wasting the energies of his people. If you're the boss and your people fight you openly when they think you're wrong - that's healthy.” - Robert Townsend

  • - Action Step for Today: Ask this critical thinking question: “Am I emotionally addicted to the approval of others?” If your answer is yes, make a commitment to break this addiction immediately.

  • 28. Champions Are Comeback Artists

  • - “I'm going to the top of the mountain. You're either going to see me waving from the top or dead on the side. Buy you know what? I'm not coming down.” - Eric Worre

  • - There’s an old saying among the world class: “A bet against a champion is a bad bet.”

  • - The great ones never sacrifice people for success. The upper class is so ego-driven they often run over anyone who gets in their way. The world class, guided by their spirit-based consciousness, will only proceed toward their visions if their actions are fair to all parties concerned. Once this has been established, the champions fail again and again; yet continue coming back for more. On the physical plane, we call it perseverance. On the mental plane, we call it toughness. On the spiritual plane, we call it artistry.

  • - Action Step for Today: Identify a goal or dream in your life that you have given up on, and ask this critical thinking question: “Is it possible to make a comeback in this area, and breathe new life into this old dream?” You’re a tougher, more competent performer than you were back when you abandoned this dream. Are you good enough to make a comeback now? (Hint: YES!)

  • 29. The Great Ones Are Masters Of Their Work/Rest Cycles

  • - “Recovery is an important word and a vital concept. It means renewal of life and energy. Knowing how and when to recover may prove to be the most important skill in your life.” - James Loehr

  • - The great ones know (or are trained to know) when to exert maximum effort and when to let their mind and body rest.

  • - Action Step for Today: Give yourself a life balance checkup. Are you investing the necessary time and energy in the important areas of your life? What areas are you over-stressing? What areas are you under-stressing? Think about your current stress and recovery cycles and make any adjustments you think are necessary for peak performance and maximum happiness.

  • - Stress for Success by James Loehr #book

  • 30. The World Class Is Coachable

  • - “Great coaching is helping people discover what they already know.” - Bill Gove

  • - Champions are well known for being the most open to world-class coaching. The bigger the champion, the more open-minded they are. The great ones couldn’t care less about ego satisfaction when it comes to improving their results – all they’re looking for is an edge, no matter how slight.

  • - Action Step for Today: Invest 15 minutes to consider hiring a coach to help you get better results. Be coachable and open-minded. You may be surprised at what you will learn.

  • 31. Champions Are Mentally Engaged In The Creative Process

  • - “The creative person wants to know about all kinds of things: ancient his- tory, nineteenth-century mathematics, current manufacturing techniques, flower arranging, and hog futures, because he never knows when these ideas might come together to form a new idea.” - Carl Ally

  • - There is a level of relativity and relationship to the order of all things, and the great ones know it.

  • - Champions are being mentally reborn daily as a result of making new distinctions, interpretations and discoveries . . . and then they use these ideas to solve their problems.

  • - Action Step for Today: Rate yourself on a scale of 1 to 7, 7 being most creative. Be honest. How creative are you?

  • - The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron #book

  • 32. Champions Operate With a Clear Conscience

  • - “Reason often makes mistakes, but conscience never does.” - Josh Billings

  • - While average people are more concerned with what other people think of their actions, professional performers answer to a jury of one: their conscience.

  • - One reason they’re able to maintain such high levels of concentration and intensity in their field of expertise is because they rarely carry mental baggage.

  • - The four-way test from Rotary International:

  • 1. Is it the truth?

  • 2. Is it fair to all concerned?

  • 3. Will it build goodwill and better friendships?

  • 4. Will it be beneficial to all concerned?

  • - Champions know they can often fool other people, but they can never fool themselves.

  • - “Self-esteem is the reputation we acquire with ourselves.” - Nathaniel Branden

  • - Action Step for Today: Ask this critical thinking question: “Are all of my dealings congruent with my conscience?” If the answer is yes, you empower yourself to success. If not, consider abandoning these deals or behaviors. Universal law dictates that whatever you sow, you shall reap.

  • 33. Common Sense Is The Foundation Of High Performance

  • - Champions solve more complex challenges by looking at the situation as an outsider viewing it for the first time.

  • - The great ones get out of their own way by viewing the problem from ten thousand feet in order to gain a new perspective.

  • - The law of indirect effort is one of the most powerful problem-solving processes known to man. Champions realize the secret to tapping their true genius is sometimes hidden in the act of not trying so hard.

  • - “Common sense is the knack of seeing things as they are, and doing things as they ought to be done.” - Harriet Beecher Stowe

  • - Action Step for Today: Write down your five most pressing problems and ask: “Is there a kindergarten answer to this seemingly complex problem?” Let your mind revert to childlike thinking and write down the first answers that come to mind.

  • 34. Champions Always Strive For Greater Competence

  • - “Information is the booby prize. The real prize is competence.” - Larry Wilson

  • - Champions are focused on becoming competent at what they do, and leave the information gathering to someone else.

  • - While amateurs stay up at night worrying about job security, the pros are quietly creating it through competence. The future belongs to the competent, both in their field and in terms of controlling and directing their emotions. But then again, it always has.

  • - Action Step for Today: List the three most important activities in which you must continue to develop competence. Make a commitment to invest a set number of hours per week (beyond your normal working hours) to study. One hour of extra study per day in your chosen field will make you a national expert in five years or less.

  • - Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill #book

  • 35. Champions Develop Bravery In The Battle For Their Dream

  • - “The world has a way of giving what is demanded of it. If you are frightened and look for failure and poverty, you will get them, no matter how hard you may try to succeed. Lack of faith in yourself, in what life will do for you, cuts you off from the good things of the world. Expect victory and you make victory. Nowhere is this truer than in business life, where bravery and faith bring both material and spiritual rewards.” – Preston Bradley

  • - World-class performers know facing their biggest doubts, fears and worries are the ultimate challenges for champions, and therefore exercise a substantial amount of bravery in their lives.

  • - Champions accept the fact that the end result to life is the same for everyone, and since no one will survive in the end, there is no point in playing it safe.

  • - Action Step for Today: Make a list of ten things you’re afraid to do, and decide to push past your fear and do one of them. The sense of exhilaration you’ll feel will only be exceeded by the confidence you’ll gain.

  • 36. Champions Hold Strong Convictions

  • - “What convinces is conviction. You must believe in the argument you are advancing.” -Lyndon Johnson

  • - One hallmark of world-class performers is their level of conviction in who they are and what they do. Champion’s beliefs and convictions are so strong that it’s contagious. Professional performers who passionately believe in their convictions have the power to influence people and change the world.

  • - It’s far easier to boo and cheer a million-dollar athlete than it is to become one. Generally speaking, amateurs are spectators in the game of life. And it all begins with their lack of desire to discover their convictions.

  • - Action Step for Today: On a scale of 1 to 7, 7 being the most, how much conviction do you possess about the importance of your work? If you answered less than 7, what can you do to boost your level of conviction?

  • 37. The Great Ones Know The Power Of Conversation

  • - “A conversation is a dialogue, not a monologue. That’s why there are so few good conversations: due to scarcity, two intelligent talkers seldom meet.” – Truman Capote

  • - Networks usually begin and develop through a series of conversations. World-class performers are charismatic conversationalists. They achieve this by focusing their conversation on the other people, getting them to talk about their lives. Professional performers are usually the people asking the questions and paying rapt attention to the answers.

  • - Champions focus their part of the conversation on ideas, concepts, and things of a positive nature. They refuse to discuss other people in a way that discredits them or adversely affects their reputation.

  • - Action Step for Today: Commit to becoming a student of interpersonal communication. This single skill will do more to help you move toward world-class results than any other.

  • - How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie #book

  • 38. Champions Are Decisive

  • - “If I had to sum up in one word what makes a good manager, I’d say decisiveness. You can use the fanciest computers to gather the numbers, but in the end you have to set a timetable and act.” – Lee Iacocca

  • - Even the best leaders are uncertain about their decisions in an environment of unprecedented change. The difference is their willingness to make a decision and take full responsibility for the outcome.

  • - The great ones know mistakes will be made and can be corrected.

  • - Their willingness to assume full responsibility for their decisions eliminates the need to gather more input than is absolutely necessary.

  • - Developing a sound decision-making process, while understanding every decision is somewhat a gamble, is the foundation of superior leadership.

  • - Action Step for Today: Take a decision you have been putting off for a while and decide on a course of action within the next 24 hours. Decision-making skills are like muscles: they can only be built through use.

  • - Grow Up! By Dr. Frank Pittman #book

  • 39. The Great Ones Choose Discipline Over Pleasure

  • - “With self-discipline anything is possible. I believe discipline is the ultimate key to success as it determines your approach toward every day. Discipline keeps you focused and keeps you performing at a world-class level.” – Roger D. Graham Jr.

  • - The great ones will tell you discipline is more of a decision than it is an active skill. It’s the ability to stay the course and complete promises you’ve made. The fulfillment of these promises builds confidence and self-esteem, which eventually leads the champions to believe almost anything is possible.

  • - Discipline is a logic-based decision that performers adhere to, regardless of whether they feel like it or not.

  • - “It’s easier to act yourself into good thinking than it is to think yourself into good action.” - Bill Gove

  • - The great ones, like Bill Gove, don’t let feelings interfere with their performance. Instead, they harness the power of their emotional motivators to propel them past the competition.

  • - Action Step for Today: On a scale of 1 to 7, 7 being most disciplined, how disciplined are you in the different areas of your life? Categories include business/ career; family/friends; money/finances; recreation/fun; health/diet/exercise; faith/spiritual; social/cultural; and personal development.

  • 40. The World Class Is Determined To Win

  • - “Winning isn’t everything, but wanting to win is.” – Vince Lombardi

  • - Amateurs seem to have an endless tape looping through their minds, asking, “Is the effort worth the reward for winning?” Meanwhile, champions focus on winning. Their attitude is, “Whatever it takes.”

  • - Action Step for Today:

  • On a scale of 1 to 7, 7 being most determined, how determined are you to accomplish your goals and dreams? An assessment of the results you have achieved so far is an accurate measure of how determined you have been in the past.

  • - Rocky #movie

  • - Rudy #movie

  • - The Matrix #movie

  • 41. Champions Dedicate Their Lives To Greatness

  • - While amateurs are dedicated when things are going well, champions are always dedicated. In other words, it’s not what they do, it’s who they are.

  • - While the masses seek perpetual pleasure, the great ones focus on achievement. The irony is that professional performers tend to experience great pleasure as a result of their achievements. Such feelings of accomplishment and fulfillment are an additional benefit only the great ones enjoy.

  • - “To succeed in life, one must have determination and must be prepared to suffer during the process. If one isn’t prepared to suffer during adversities, I don’t really see how he can be successful.” – Gary Player

  • - Action Step for Today: Ask this critical thinking question: “How much am I willing to struggle and suffer to make my vision a reality?” Is it a little, a fair amount, a lot, or whatever it takes?

  • 42. Champions Are Driven By A World-Class Belief System

  • - “In the second grade, they asked us what we wanted to be. I said I wanted to be a ball player, and they laughed. In eighth grade, they asked the same question, and I said a ball player, and they laughed a little more. By the eleventh grade, no one was laughing.” – Johnny Bench

  • - Champions are driven to win, in most cases, because they believe they can.

  • - Action Step for Today: Generally speaking, is your belief system poverty class, middle class, or world class? Ask this critical thinking question: “Do my drive and ambition mirror my beliefs?” If you’re not sure of the answer, check your results in the areas of your life where you exhibit the most ambition.

  • 43. The World Class Has Great Expectations

  • - World-class performers are driven by positive expectations.

  • - “As your consciousness expands, your level of expectation will grow. Keep asking yourself, am I selling myself short? Most of us are.” – John R. Spannuth

  • - Action Step for Today: Outline your expectations in every area of your life, and then ask the ultimate critical thinking question: “Should I expect more?” If your answer is yes, raise your expectations and upgrade how you talk to yourself and others about your heightened aspirations.

  • 44. The Great Ones Are The Most Enthusiastic People Alive

  • - “All we really need to make us happy is something to be enthusiastic about.” – Charles Kingsley

  • - Champions are driven by an enthusiasm that fires their soul and keeps them on the practice field long after everyone else has gone home.

  • - Action Step for Today:

  • Make a list of the five activities in your life for which you have the most enthusiasm. Next, ask this critical thinking question: “Does anyone make a living doing this?”

  • - Do What You Love and the Money Will Follow by Marsha Sinetar #book

  • 45. Champions Love What They Do

  • - Champions are successful because they enjoy their work. As a result, they put their heart and soul into the activity, so much so that they surpass their competitors.

  • - “I’d rather be a failure at something I love than a success at something I don’t.” – George Burns

  • - Action Step for Today:

  • On a scale of 1 to 7, 7 being the most enjoyment, how much do you enjoy your job? If you answered less than a 7, the odds of fulfilling your full potential are slim. If you answered a 7, then you will almost assuredly ascend to the world-class level.

  • - Work Happy Live Healthy by Tom Welch #book

  • 46. Champions Create A Winning Environment

  • - “The first step toward success is taken when you refuse to be a captive of the environment in which you first find yourself.” – Mark Caine

  • - Champions know the only true comfort comes from becoming the people they were meant to be by learning and growing each day.

  • - Professional performers realize the people who programmed them did the best they could, based on their level of awareness, and then take the necessary steps to reprogram themselves and create the world-class environment they deserve.

  • - Action Step for Today: Make a commitment to upgrade your environment, beginning with the people around you. Limit your exposure to neutral and negative people, remembering that consciousness is contagious. Befriend a champion and spend as much time with this person as possible. I promise this will raise your level of expectation.

  • 47. The World Class Makes Exercise A Priority

  • - “Exercise is king. Nutrition is queen. Put the two of them together and you have a kingdom.” – Jack Lalane

  • - Amateurs see exercise as a chore; pros see it as a necessity for world-class performance.

  • - Action Step for Today: Make a commitment to exercise for at least one hour per day, five days a week. The excuse that you don’t have time is a delusion. Exercise is necessary for a long and healthy life. Get your calendar out and move things around to make room for exercise, no matter what it takes. Your life literally depends on it.

  • 48. The Great Ones Are Professional Failures

  • - “There can be no failure to a man who has not lost his courage, his character, his self- respect, or his self-confidence. He is still a king.” – Orison Swett Marden

  • - Successful people are professional failures, who have failed their way to success.

  • - Champions aren’t in the business of protecting their egos; they’re in the business of learning, growing and becoming.

  • - A focus on failure prevention creates an awareness of fear, lack and poverty.

  • - Action Step for Today: Ask this critical thinking question: “Have I been playing it safe to avoid failure?” On a scale of 1 to 7, 7 being the highest, how many risks have you taken in an effort to make your vision a reality?

  • - How I Raise Myself from Failure to Success in Selling by Frank Bettger #book

  • 49. Champions Have Tremendous Faith

  • - The great ones have an extremely high level of self-trust, even when they are failing.

  • - Muhammad Ali admits he told the world he was the greatest before he truly was as a way to bolster his faith in his own skills.

  • - Champions also have faith in their goals and dreams becoming reality, while amateurs are often deathly afraid of believing in something that may or may not happen.

  • - “We do not need more intellectual power; we need more spiritual power . . . . We do not need more of the things that are seen, we need more of the things that are unseen.” – Calvin Coolidge

  • - Action Step for Today: Take inventory of the ten people closest to you. On a scale of 1 to 7, 7 being the highest, how much faith do these people have in them- selves? How much faith do they have in a higher power? Odds are that your level of faith is the average of these ten people. Ask this critical thinking question: “Is this helping me or hurting me?”

  • 50. Champions Handle Fear Like A Snake Charmer

  • - Champions have learned emotional strength and power lies on the other side of fear.

  • - Action Step for Today: Take inventory of your fears: are they adult fears, or adolescent fears? An adult fear is being afraid of a truck about to run over you. It’s the kind of fear that can save your life. Adolescent fear is being afraid of the bogeyman under the bed, or of being rejected by a prospect or embarrassed in front of a group. The threat is literally made up in our minds. When we allow adolescent fear to hold us back, we are behaving like children.

  • - Conquer Fear by Lisa Jimenez #book

  • 51. The Great Ones Evolve From Fear To Love Based Motivation

  • - “Everyone has two choices. We’re either full of love. . .or full of fear.” – Albert Einstein

  • - Operating out of a fear and scarcity based consciousness is a playing not to lose strategy, and through the law of attraction acts as a magnet for additional thoughts of fear and scarcity to enter the performers mind.

  • - The world class transcends this lower vibration by focusing their thoughts, language, and mental pictures on love and abundance. The great ones are playing to win, and winning to them simply means learning and growing. They literally transcend the addiction to feel- ing superior to anyone else, and for being afraid to lose what they have. Their dominant thoughts are on their vision for the future, and they pursue it fearlessly.

  • - Action Step for Today: Ask these critical thinking questions: Am I more motivated by my fear of failure or by the excitement of my vision? Am I out to prove myself or express myself?

  • 52. Champions Understand The Limits Of Money

  • - In pursuit of happiness, amateurs tend to seek riches, while pros seek fulfillment. The irony is that champions create so much value in their quest for fulfillment that they often develop substantial riches.

  • - “When you’re doing something you love to do, the only reward you need is the experience of doing it.” – Bill Gove

  • - Professional performers gravitate toward things that create a sense of satisfaction in and of themselves. Fulfillment is a mental state champions experience as a result of their elevated aware- ness. In essence, champions invest the necessary time and resources to discover what they love to do and then focus on doing it to the best of their ability. Their fulfillment doesn’t come from the results of their actions, but from the actions themselves.

  • - Action Step for Today: Do a cause-and-effect analysis. Ask this critical thinking question: “Am I focused on the cause of my fulfillment, or the effect of my fulfillment?” For example, do you exercise for the health benefits you gain, or because you love the sport or exercise activity?

  • 53. Champions Are Future-Oriented

  • - This future orientation allows them to dream of grand visions and unlimited possibilities. It also keeps them motivated and moving forward by keeping the proverbial carrot out in front.

  • - The great ones make their own circumstances and respond with a higher level of awareness to negative events in their lives. Their execution-based focus and future orientation keeps them on track. It all begins with taking full responsibility for their lives and their futures.

  • - “All great leaders have vision and idealization in which they can continually imagine the perfect outcome to all situations.” – Brian Tracy

  • - Action Step for Today: Program yourself by repeating this statement until you believe it: “The past is only important as it relates to the present and the future, and any mistakes in my past have been for the purpose of helping me create a bountiful future.” This affirmation harnesses the power of the past and directs it to the only place it can serve you: in the future.

  • - Create the Future: How to Think Big, Act Bold, and Be a Visionary by Bill Gove, Larry Wilson, Bob Proctor and Steve Siebold

  • 54. The Great Ones Challenge The Facts

  • - The great ones derive incredible pleasure from ongoing growth and development, while amateurs quietly fear change will create more demanding or less pleasurable conditions.

  • - Action Step for Today: Begin to question the so-called ‘facts’ governing your life. Ask these critical thinking questions: “Is it a fact that it’s going to take me 20 years to retire? Is it a fact that I will gain weight as I get older or after having children? Is it a fact that the only religious beliefs I should follow are the ones handed down from my parents?”

  • 55. Champions Are Driven By Fun

  • - “When you have confidence, you can have a lot of fun, and when you have fun, you can do amazing things.” – Joe Namath

  • - Action Step for Today: How much fun are you having in your life? On a scale of 1 to 7, 7 being the most fun, give yourself a rating in each area of your life. Next, ask this critical thinking question: “Can I eliminate doing things that aren’t fun?” Really think about your answer. Life is short and unpredictable. Why do things you don’t enjoy unless it is impossible to escape them?

  • 56. The Great Ones Learn To Forgive

  • - “The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attitude of the strong.” – Mahatma Ghandi

  • - Human beings, however, are primarily emotional creatures who often operate in irrational ways. Champions know this, which is the reason they’re able to forgive. Emotional creatures who operate at a lower level of conscious awareness tend to say ignorant things and behave in thoughtless ways.

  • - Expecting human beings to behave logically all the time is like expecting machines to feel emotion. The great ones operate from a love-based consciousness that recognizes the emotion-based irrational behavior of people. Champions are much more forgiving than average people because of this knowledge.

  • - Action Step for Today: Make a list of all of the people you feel have slighted you to some degree, and give yourself the gift of a life- time by forgiving them. You don’t have to tell them you forgive them; simply forgive them in your heart by coming to terms with the fact that we are fallible human beings doing the best we can.

  • - Forgiveness: How to Make Peace with Your Past and Get on with Your Life by Dr. Sidney Simon #book

  • 57. Champions Know Why They Are Fighting

  • - “One of the hallmarks of the great ones is their level of awareness as to what they are willing to fight for. They’re willing to suffer and sacrifice to make their visions reality.” – Steve Siebold

  • - Action Step for Today:

  • Make a list of the ten reasons you will do whatever it takes to breathe life into your vision. Review this list every day, especially when the going gets tough.

  • - It's Not About the Bike By Lance Armstrong #book

  • 58. Champions Know Very Good Is Bad

  • - “The mental toughness process is not about going from good to very good--it’s about going from good to great. Anyone who settles for very good is destined to spend their golden years bathed in a sea of regret, wondering why.” – Steve Siebold

  • - Action Step for Today:

  • Ask this critical thinking question: Are you a good performer, a very good performer, or a great performer? For the correct answer, check the results you’ve been getting in each area of your life up until this point. Your self-assessment represents the truth. Your results represent the fact.

  • 59. The World Class Embraces Free Enterprise

  • - “That some should be rich shows that others may become rich, and hence is just encouragement to industry and enterprise.” – Abraham Lincoln

  • - The great ones are aware that their performance and work ethic are about them, not the company. World-class performers are always reinforcing the habit of excellence – one of the reasons they will always be in demand in any economy.

  • - Action Step for Today: Commit to seeing yourself as self-employed, regardless of who signs your paycheck. Employment status is unimportant in the Age of the Mind. All of us are the presidents of our own professional services corporations, and lease our time and efforts to employers or customers. This mindset should motivate you to perform to the best of your ability every single day.

  • - How to Get Rich by Donald Trump #book

  • 60. Champions Believe in Global Citizenship

  • - “Without a global revolution in the sphere of human consciousness, a more humane society will not emerge.” - Vaclav Havel

  • - Action Step for Today: Ask these critical think- ing questions: “Am I a global citizen? Am I actively contributing to people and places outside where I work and live?” Set a goal to elevate your participation in global problem solving by helping some- one in need in another country in some way.

  • 61. The Great Ones Don't Give Back... They Just Give

  • - Professional performers tend to have a world view that there is, and always will be, more than enough of everything to go around.

  • - Action Step for Today: Give money to someone who needs a few bucks, without any expectation of receiving anything in return. Maybe it’s the guy begging for money on the street, or possibly a friend in need of some fast cash. This habit manifests a prosperity consciousness that will attract more abundance into your life.

  • 62. The World Class Is Obsessed With Their Goals

  • - “There is one quality which one must possess to win, and that is definiteness of purpose, the knowledge of what one wants, and a burning desire to possess it.” - Napoleon Hill

  • - Only 3% of Americans have clearly defined written goals, and less than 1% can identify their primary goal and objective in life.

  • - Action Step for Today: List your ten major goals for this year every morning when you wake up. This habit will ingrain your major goals into your psyche. This is one of the most important habits you can develop enroute to a world-class mindset.

  • - Goals! How to Get Everything You Want – Faster Than You Ever Thought Possible by Brian Tracy #book

  • 63. The Great Ones Believe They Cannot Fail... They Can Only Learn And Grow

  • - Average performers believe learning and growing begins and ends in school. The world-class ranks realize graduation is the beginning of the road, not the end.

  • - “I cannot fail . . . I can only learn and grow.” - Larry Wilson

  • - “Growth itself contains the germ of happiness.” – Pearl S. Buck

  • - Action Step for Today: Begin telling yourself you cannot fail; you can only learn and grow. Keep repeating these words to yourself at every opportunity for the next 30 days, and see what happens. You will create a new world-class belief that may transform your life.

  • 64. Champions Are World-Class Communicators

  • - “When dealing with people, remember that you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but with creatures of emotion.” – Dale Carnegie

  • - The crown jewel of champion-level success with other people is knowing a critical factor in human relations – helping people fulfill their insatiable desire to feel important.

  • - Action Step for Today: Go out of your way to make everyone you speak to feel important. A good start is remembering names in conversation. Make this a daily habit and watch how people begin to respond to you.

  • 65. Champions Are Products Of Their Habits

  • - “We first make our habits, and then our habits make us.” – John Dryden

  • - Each and every day, the great ones reinforce their success habits, such as exercise, proper diet, showing up early/staying late, and studying their field.

  • - The great ones know it’s more difficult to develop a championship habit than to lose it. They understand the magnificent force of momentum can work for or against them.

  • - Action Step for Today: Make a list of five habits that could lift you to higher levels of success and fulfillment. Now, select the single habit that would have the most impact and make a commitment to make it a part of your life. Remember, it takes an average of three to four weeks to form a new habit, whether it is positive or negative.

  • - The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey #book

  • 66. The Great Ones Understand The Power Of Humility

  • - “If anything goes bad, I did it. If anything goes semi-good, we did it. If anything goes really good, then you did it. That’s all it takes to get people to win football games for you.” – Paul ‘Bear’ Bryant

  • - This supreme confidence is necessary to compete at the world-class level, but pros know how to conceal this well-earned, positive sense of self.

  • - Action Step for Today: Ask this critical thinking question: “On a scale of 1 to 7, 7 being most humble, how humble do you appear to other people?” If you scored less than 7, make a commitment to raise your score by at least one point right now by becoming more aware of how you appear to others. Start by moving from an ego-based consciousness to a spirit-based consciousness. Begin this process by making a list of ten things for which you are most grateful. Next, express gratitude to people in your life who have helped you succeed. Notice how this humble, spirit-based consciousness begins to attract and positively impact the people around you . . . not to mention the impact it will have on you.

  • - Attitudes of Gratitude by M.J. Ryan #book

  • 67. The World Class Achieves Happiness From Being And Becoming, Not Acquiring And Possessing

  • - “The human spirit needs to accomplish, to achieve, to triumph, to be happy.” – Ben Stein

  • - The great ones know happiness is a byproduct of living life to the fullest. The pros forget chasing happiness and turn their attention to fulfilling the vision they have carefully constructed.

  • - The world class invests a substantial amount of time insuring their future happiness by creating congruency between who they are, what they’re doing, and where they’re going. Champions are masters at doing such things as marrying the right person, selecting jobs they love and building friendships with people they admire and respect. As a result, they indirectly develop an incredible sense of gratitude and happiness.

  • - Action Step for Today: Ask this critical thinking question: “If you could be, have and do anything you wanted, what would that look like?” Write or type a one-page essay describing your answer. Forget any self-imposed or perceived limits. Write this essay as if anything were possible.

  • - The 100 Simple Secrets of Happy People by David Niven #book

  • 68. Champions Believe In Honesty

  • - “It is possible that the scrupulously honest man may not grow rich so fast as the unscrupulous and dishonest one; but the success will be of a truer kind, earned without fraud or injustice. And even though a man should, for a time, be unsuccessful, still he must be honest: better to lose all and save character. For character is itself a fortune.” – Samuel Smiles

  • - While some people acquire wealth dishonestly, professional performers know real success lies in who you become, as opposed to what you acquire.

  • - Average people have a lottery-like mentality, which explains why the lottery is so popular. The lottery mentality is not dishonest, but it carries the premise that more money and material possessions automatically lead to being happier and more fulfilled.

  • - The great ones have learned the real victory is what they become as a result of the struggle. Removing the struggle removes the victory. If honesty is removed, the richness of the achievement is diminished.

  • - Action Step for Today: Commit to purge your life of dishonesty. The external effects of dishonesty are crippling to your reputation; the internal effects are deadly to your soul.

  • 69. The World Class Knows Great Ideas Are The Solution To Success

  • - “The ideas I stand for are not mine; I borrowed them from Socrates. I swiped them from Chesterfield. I stole them from Jesus. And I put them in a book. If you don’t like their rules, whose would you use?” – Dale Carnegie

  • - Professional per- formers know money will flow from any idea that solves a problem, and the bigger the problem, the richer the payoff.

  • - When things get tough, the masses turn to others for help. When times get tough for champions, they turn their attention to the inner workings of their minds so they can capture and cultivate great ideas that can help turn things around.

  • - Action Step for Today: Commit to treat your ideas as if they were the children of your soul . . . because they are.

  • 70. The Great Ones Are Products Of Their Own Imagination

  • - “The great, successful men of the world have used their imaginations . . . they think ahead and create their mental picture, and then go to work materializing that picture in all its details, filling in here, adding a little there, altering this a bit, but steadily building, steadily building.” – Robert Collier

  • - Before champions make a move, they have lived out the scenario through imagination. The great ones know imagination is the first step in the design of the perfect house or the perfect life.

  • - Champions combine the power of imagination with their penchant for action, and the results are the stuff of which dreams are made.

  • - Action Step for Today: Commit to investing three minutes each day reviewing the essay you wrote in Action Step 67. Allow your imagination to run wild with ideas of your perfect life. Remember to ask this daily question: “If there were no limits, what would I be, have, and do?” Forget about the ‘how-to’ part of the equation during this exercise, and suspend any disbelief you may have. This three- minute daily habit has the power to transform your life forever.

  • 71. Champions Don't Let Feelings Get In Their Way

  • - “It’s easier to act your way into good thinking than it is to think your way into good action.” – Bill Gove

  • - The great ones operate with a keen sense of urgency, dreaming of the future while firmly rooted in the present.

  • - While the masses are waiting for the mood to strike them to act, the great ones start acting, regardless of whether they feel like it or not.

  • - Action Step for Today: Decide to develop the habit of not letting your feelings get in your way. Make a commitment to get started today, and continue the commitment for the next thirty days, regardless of whether you feel like it or not. Remember, habits start out as cobwebs and turn into cables.

  • 72. The World Class Operates From Love And Abundance

  • - “Life in abundance comes only through great love.” – Elbert Hubbard

  • - Professional performers know we can only operate from one of two frames of consciousness at any given time – ego or spirit.

  • - While the amateur egotistically believes he is responsible for his great success, the pros know that the abundance of life comes from a far greater source.

  • - Action Step for Today: Monitor your mental state of mind. Ask this critical thinking question every couple of hours: “Am I operating from a consciousness of ego, or a consciousness of spirit?” The answer is the blueprint of your behavior. Your approach to problems, people and life is greatly influenced by your operating state of mind. The world looks very different through the spirit than through the ego.

  • - The Science of Mind by Ernest Holmes #book

  • - The Spirit is non-judgmental, loving, accepting, tolerant, devoid of pretension, calm, abundant, friendly, win/win, forgiving, self-less, creative

  • - The Ego is judgmental, fear driven, afraid of risk, competitive, pretentious, rushed, scarce, friend-less, win/lost, unforgiving, selfish, frustrated

  • 73. World-Class Leaders Are Willing To Get Fired Everyday

  • - Great sales leaders have only two objectives: drive sales and develop people. Sometimes that means being unpopular and pushing people beyond their comfort zones, and other times it means being there for a team member who has hit rock bottom.

  • - World-class leaders are chameleons who are able to change and adapt to any situation, always with the same goal in mind: bringing out the best in the people they lead.

  • - Action Step for Today: If you’re a leader, manager or coach, ask these critical thinking questions:

  • 1) Am I leading, managing, or coaching out of love or fear? 2) Am I more concerned about being liked or leading people? 3) Do I have the courage to be a strong, progressive leader who brings out the best in people?

  • 74. Champions Don't Care Who Gets The Credit

  • - “Knowledge is power, which is why people who had it in the past often tried to make a secret of it. In post-capitalism, power comes from transmitting information to make it productive, not from having it.” – Peter Drucker

  • - Champions know that information is everywhere. The secret is taking action on the information and developing competence.

  • - Action Step for Today: Rate your willingness to share information for the good of the organization on a scale of 1 to 7, 7 being most willing. If you score less than a 5, you may be operating primarily from an ego-based consciousness rooted in fear. Make a commitment to shift your thinking more toward your spirit self.

  • 75. Champions Are Zealots For Change

  • - “The people who get into trouble in our company are those who carry around the anchor of the past.” – Jack Welch

  • - Champions know business and technology are changing so rapidly that constant innovation is the only way to thrive and survive.

  • - Professional performers see all of this as a game in which the individual who can be the most open, flexible and innovative wins.

  • - Making Change Happen One Person at a Time by Charles H. Bishop Jr.

  • 76. The Great Ones Operate With Integrity

  • - “In looking for people to hire, you look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence, and energy. If they don’t have the first, the other two will kill you.” – Warren Buffet

  • - Integrity is a habit of the pros, not because it succeeds, but because it’s the right thing to do. When a champion tells you he will do something, you can take it to the bank. Their handshake is a binding contract. Contrary to what they teach in business school, handshake deals are still very common among the world class. The great ones play by different rules, and rule number one is total integrity.

  • - Action Step for Today: Just for today, operate with complete integrity. Do every single thing you promise yourself and others. Experience what it’s like to operate like one of the great ones. A word of caution: you may become addicted to the results you achieve through this experience!

  • 77. The Great Ones Are Bold

  • - “Only the bold get to the top.” – Publilius Syrus

  • - Champions are so laser-focused on their targets and objectives that they can push too hard at times. This is when their mentor teams become the eyes and ears of the performers and get them back on track. The great ones are always pushing.

  • - Boldness is so prevalent in champions because their belief system keeps telling them they’re getting close to victory, and a little more effort will do the trick.

  • - Action Step for Today: Just for today, be bolder than you’ve ever been, and see how it feels. Give your fears a day off and pretend it’s impossible to fail. At the end of the day, record your thoughts and feelings about this exercise for future reference.

  • - The Art of the Deal by Donald Trump #book

  • 78. Champions Are Interdependent

  • - “If we are to compete effectively in today’s world, we must begin to celebrate collective entrepreneurship – endeavors in which the whole of the effort is greater than the sum of the individual contributions. We need to honor our teams more, our leaders and maverick geniuses less.” – Robert Reich

  • - The pros embrace and celebrate the contributions of all team members.

  • - The great ones want to insure individual team members receive enough credit for their contributions without being overshadowed by people in more visible roles. The difference creates a phenomenon known as “ferocious cooperation.”

  • - Action Step for Today: Ask this critical thinking question: “Am I an independent leader looking for recognition, or an interdependent leader looking for achievement without being concerned about who gets the credit?”

  • 79. The World Class Knowns The Leader's Primary Role

  • - Champions embrace leadership for what it is: the facilitation, guidance, and influence necessary to bring about change.

  • - Leadership is bringing out the best in people for the common good of the organization, and placing the credit where it honestly belongs: with the team.

  • - Champions are grateful for the opportunity to bring about change and evolve as individuals at the same time.

  • - Action Step for Today: On a scale of 1 to 7, 7 being the highest, how would you rate yourself as a leader? Ask three people who know you well to rate you on the same scale. With brutal honesty, ask them to explain why they rated you as they did.

  • - Leading Change by John P. Kotter #book

  • 80. A World-Class Attitude Leads To World-Class Happiness

  • - “I have a one-word definition of attitude: life. Attitude is the difference maker in life. It’s the treasure that lies within you. A positive attitude is the key that jump starts your life. Attitude dictates whether you’re living life or life is living you. Attitude determines whether you are on the way or in the way.” – Keith Harrell

  • - While the masses try not to have a bad attitude in their struggle to survive, champions have a positive attitude and always try to improve their mental approach to life.

  • - The better the attitude toward life, the happier people seemed to be.

  • - Action Step for Today: Do a quick test: On a scale of 1 to 7, 7 being best, how good is your attitude toward life? Use critical thinking and be honest. If you score less than a 7, remember that attitude is a decision, and you can upgrade your world view at any time. Attitude is a perception, created in our minds, that has little or nothing to do with circumstances, events or other people. It is the foundation of all of our habits, actions and behaviors.

  • 81. Champions Seek Balance

  • - “There is more to life than increasing its speed.” – Mahatma Ghandi

  • - Some of the great ones have mastered balance, but most walk a thin line between over-achievement and under-relaxation.

  • - The masses err on the side of too much leisure, while the world class errs on the side of too much work.

  • - Action Step for Today: On a scale of 1 to 7, 7 being most balanced, how balanced has your life been during the past six months? Make a commitment to add or subtract one activity that would increase your score by at least one point.

  • 82. Champions Are Professional Listeners

  • - “Listen to everyone in your company, and figure out ways to get them talking. The folks on the front line — the ones who actually talk to the customers — are the only ones who really know what's going on out there. You'd better find out what they know.” - Sam Walton

  • - Human beings are emotional creatures, with a driving need to be understood, yet 95% of us aren’t listening.

  • - Action Step for Today: Strike up a conversation with someone and see how long you can keep that person talking. Practice listening at a higher level. Ask for clarification and for repetition of information. Try to get a sense of what this person is really feeling. Make a game out of getting good at listening.

  • - Deep Listening by Robert Haskell #book

  • 83. The Great Ones Are Masters Of Momentum

  • - “Momentum producers under- stand an important law of physics: ‘Objects at rest have no momentum.’ They know the power of their thinking, plan- ning and acting. Bottom line -- momentum producers are hard to stop.” – David Pollay

  • - Professional performers learn to control their emotions and create the perception of momentum before it technically exists.

  • - The great ones know if the perception of momentum is present, confidence and power will continue to increase.

  • - Momentum is a subjective emotional perception, and therefore can be manufactured in the mind.

  • - The major distinction: average people wait for momentum to strike. The great ones create it on demand.

  • - Action Step for Today: Keep repeating this: “I have massive momentum.” Find different ways to program yourself with this message until you begin to believe it. Remember, the subconscious mind cannot make the distinction between what is real and what is vividly imagined. Use the power of language to talk yourself into an emotional state of momentum toward your goals.

  • 84. World-Class Achievement Requires Teamwork

  • - “What is the recipe for successful achievement? To my mind, there are just four major essential ingredients: Choose a career you love . . . Give it the best you have in you. Seize your opportunities . . . And be a member of the team.”

  • – Benjamin Fairless

  • - In some cases, champions are the team leaders, yet they are willing to be subordinates if it serves the best interests of the project and/or makes the most sense strategically.

  • - In the minds of champions, hard work and achievement are the building blocks of a successful and happy life.

  • - Action Step for Today: Create a dream list of the ten people you would most like to serve on your team. Next to each name, list the reasons you selected that person. Make this list even if you don’t have a major project in mind. The simple act of identifying these people will set off a series of thought processes that will lead you to the perfect project for this team.

  • 85. Champions Evolve From Proving Themselves To Expressing Themselves

  • - “The ego-driven middle class and upper class are out to prove themselves. The spirit-driven world class wishes only to express themselves. One struggles against the current while the other floats peacefully down the river.” – Steve Siebold

  • - The great ones are often motivated through self-expression, by the need to share their unique talents and abilities with the world.

  • - “In order for human beings to reach self-actualization, they must become all they can be. The writer must write. The painter must paint. The salesperson must sell.” - Abraham Maslow

  • - Champions learn who they are in the act of self-expression, and often choose to share themselves with the world. The act of proving oneself is based in ego and rooted in the fear of not being good enough. The act of expressing oneself is based in spirit and rooted in the love of wanting to share and celebrate a person is uniqueness and inner beauty.

  • - Expressing oneself creates feelings of fulfillment in the act itself, regardless of any outcome. It’s one of the reasons the great ones are more mentally tough than their amateur counterparts.

  • - Action Step for Today: Ask this critical thinking question: Are you out to prove yourself or express yourself?

  • 86. World-Class Managers See Themselves As Change Agents

  • - “Good management consists of showing average people how to do the work of superior people.” – John D. Rockefeller

  • - The great ones are part motivator, coach, counselor, parent, planner, negotiator and psychologist.

  • - Most of all, the best ones lead by example with their attitudes and actions. Their actions are mirrored by their team, and they set the tone.

  • - Action Step for Today: If you manage or lead, ask this critical thinking question: “Do my actions reflect a manager or a leader? Am I more interested in bringing about change or in maintaining the status quo?”

  • - Maslow on Management by Abraham Maslow #book

  • 87. Champions See Mistakes As Intellectual Capital

  • - “The trouble in America is not that we are making too many mistakes, but that we are making too few.” – Phil Knight

  • - The real cost is not the mistake itself, but in the lack of reporting and recording the mistake so it could be avoided in the future.

  • - Action Step for Today: Encourage your subordinates to share mistakes with you and your team. Reward them for being forthcoming. On a scale of 1 to 7, 7 being most progressive, how progressive are you when it comes to mistake management? If you scored less than 5, make a commitment to drive the fear of reprisal out of your organization. It’s most likely costing you a fortune.

  • 88. The Great Ones Only Negotiate Win-Win Deals

  • - The unspoken rules of negotiation are simple: be fair, and make it a win-win deal.

  • - A champion knows every symbiotic negotiation opens the door to more business. More importantly, a champion lives and does business according to one major philosophy: do the right thing.

  • - “My father said, ‘You must never try to make all the money that’s in a deal. Let the other fellow make some money, too, because if you have a reputation for always making all of the money, you won’t have many deals.’” – J. Paul Getty

  • - Action Step for Today: Ask these critical thinking questions: “Do I negotiate to get as much as I can, or do I look for the win-win deal? Do my business colleagues see me as a smart and shrewd negotiator, or as a smart negotiator who does the right thing?” In the age of an interdependent, seamless, global economy, the future belongs to the smart and compassionate negotiator.

  • - The Secrets of Power Negotiating by Roger Dawson #book

  • 89. The World Class Builds And Nurtures An International Network Of Contacts

  • - “If I had to name the single characteristic shared by all truly successful people I’ve met over a lifetime, I’d say it is the ability to create and nurture a network of contacts.” – Harvey Mackay

  • - Champions know the most valuable assets they have are their personal and professional networks. In business, you can measure the power of a player by the size of the Rolodex.

  • - Action Step for Today: Make two separate lists of contacts. The first list is your Top 100. This list consists of the 100 most powerful people you know, who will return your phone calls. The second list is called the Dream 100. This list consists of the 100 most powerful people who you would love to have on your Top 100. Set a goal to convert as many people from your Dream 100 to your Top 100 as possible over the next 12 months. Remember that (most likely) the only thing standing between you and your ultimate vision is the help and support of enough other people. One contact can literally change your life.

  • - How to Build a Network of Power Relationships by Harvey Mackay #book

  • 90. The Great Ones Never Hesitate To Seize Opportunity

  • - “The lack of opportunity is ever the excuse of the weak, vacillating mind. Opportunities! Every life is full of them . . . every newspaper article is an opportunity. Every client is an opportunity. Every sermon is an opportunity. Every business transaction is an opportunity – an opportunity to be polite, an opportunity to be manly, and opportunity to be honest – an opportunity to make friends.” – Orison Swett Marden

  • - The great ones are unafraid to fail at a new opportunity. They see opportunity as a game that must be played now, while there is still time left on the clock. If they fail at that game, they move on to a new game. They just keep playing until they win.

  • - Security is an illusion created by the masses to justify not taking risks and fulfilling their potential.

  • - Action Step for Today: Make a list of the five biggest opportunities you are considering taking advantage of, and make a deci- sion to move forward on at least one of them in the next 24 hours. Suspend any fear you may feel during the decision-making process and take a calculated risk. Building this habit is a necessary prerequisite to ascending to the throne of the world class, and the only way to develop this skill is by doing it.

  • 91. Champions Are Masters Of Mental Organization

  • - “In organization there is always strength. Especially is this true in regard to a well-organized human being. He doesn’t waste his substance, but is forever improving his mind and giving and radiating confidence.” – George Matthew Adams

  • - Action Step for Today: On a scale of 1 to 7, 7 being most organized, rate your mental organizational skills. In other words, rate your level of mental clarity, starting with the vision for your life all the way down to scheduling your daily activities. If you score less than a 5, it’s time to revisit the vision you have for your life. After you establish a clear vision for where you want to go, your daily organizational skills and priorities will become self-evident.

  • 92. The World Class Catapults Their Consciousness By Overcoming Obstacles

  • - “The block of granite which was an obstacle in the path of the weak, becomes a stepping-stone in the path of the strong.” – Thomas Carlyle

  • - If you remove the obstacles, you remove the opportunity to grow.

  • - Action Step for Today: Make a list of the three biggest obstacles you currently face. Next, determine the worst thing that could possibly happen if you decided to mount an all-out assault to overcome them. If you can live with the worst-case scenario, suspend your fear and attack your obstacles as if it is impossible to fail. If you succeed, your self-confidence will soar. If you fail, you will live to fight another day.

  • - Unstoppable by Cynthia Kersey #book

  • 93. The Great Ones Are At Peace With Themselves

  • - “The foundation of mental toughness is to always be at peace with yourself.” – Jerry Zimmerman

  • - Professional performers know chasing after peace guarantees it will elude them.

  • - The peace of mind experienced is an indirect result of knowing that all possible physical and mental resources have been exhausted in the process.

  • - Average performers are all too aware they are not giving it 100%, so peace of mind continues to elude them.

  • - Action Step for Today: Ask these critical thinking questions: “Am I at peace with myself? Am I satisfied with who I am as a human being? Do I feel I am enough just being who I am, or do I define myself by my successes and failures?” Be honest with yourself, and then make a commitment to bring more peace into your life. Remind yourself that you already have everything you need to be at peace with yourself. You were born with it, and your greatest successes and worst failures can’t ever change this universal truth.

  • - Notes to Myself by Hugh Prather #book

  • 94. Champions Know The Power Of Persistence

  • - “If I had to select one quality, one personal characteristic that I regard as being most highly correlated with success, what- ever the field, I would pick the trait of persistence. Determination. The will to endure to the end, to get knocked down seventy times and get off the floor saying, “Here goes number seventy-one!” – Richard M. DeVos

  • - What looks like Herculean persistence to the outside world is really just the manifestation of world-class mental clarity in action.

  • - This winning expectation is the fuel that drives the champion to persist until they succeed, no matter how much pain they have to endure.

  • - Action Step for Today: Make a list of the times you exhibited iron-clad persistence. Go back to your childhood, if necessary. Next, ask this critical thinking question: “If I applied that same world-class persistence to my current challenges, would it change my life?” If the answer is yes, you know what to do!

  • - The Go-Getter by Peter Kyne #book

  • 95. The World Class Pursues Power To Manifest Their Dreams

  • - Champions use power to help themselves and to help other people, without becoming attached or addicted. The great ones know all power is temporary; the only purpose it serves is to help and liberate people. Only the great can possess power and not abuse it.

  • - “You all have powers you’ve never dreamed of. You can do things you never thought you could do. There are no limitations in what you can do, except the limitations in your own mind as to what you cannot do. Don’t think you cannot. Think you can.” – Darwin P. Kingsley

  • - Action Step for Today: Ask this critical thinking question: “Do I wield my power from an ego- or spirit- based consciousness?” Make a conscious effort not to abuse people with your power. Remember, the abuse of power is a manifestation of the ego in action. If you make the shift to a spirit-based consciousness, this elevated level of vibration will keep you focused on using your power for the greater good of all. This habit of operating from a spirit-based conscious- ness also creates feelings of love and abundance that lead you to believe in your limitless potential, as well as the limitless potential of others. This phenomenon occurs when your spirit is vibrating at the same frequency as the force that created the universe. It’s like tuning into a radio station: the sound only gets clear when you tune into the frequency of the radio signal.

  • 96. The Great Ones Always Push For Progress

  • - “Progress consists largely of learning to apply laws and truths that have always existed.” – John Allan May

  • - The great ones think progressively and talk almost exclusively about the future. Their philosophy seems to be, “Onward and upward.”

  • - While most people are complaining about how things are never going to be the same, champions are applauding the same concept. They know things are not supposed to be the same; that progress is the natural order of a healthy, growing society.

  • - Action Step for Today: What is your attitude toward progress? Do you react to progress with fear or do you respond to progress with love? Just for today, adopt an attitude of love and abundance toward progress of any kind, even if you have to fake it. Tell yourself and others how thrilled you are about the progress that’s taking place. Become aware of how this makes you feel. Remember, you can always go back to a fear-based consciousness. The masses are afraid of almost everything, and they would prefer that you feel the same way. After a day of thinking and speaking thoughts of love and abundance, it will be up to you whether to go back and join them, or to forge ahead with a new or upgraded world-class attitude toward progress.

  • 97. Champions Praise People Lavishly And Often

  • - “Appreciative words are the most powerful force for good on earth.” – George W. Crane

  • - Emotional creatures have a high need, and some even a mild addiction, to the sweet-sounding words of encouragement and recognition.

  • - Professional performers are careful not to praise the same person too often for fear of diminishing the power of their words.

  • - Champions know a little praise goes a long way in making people happy. An honest compliment might be remembered for years to come. Kind words cost nothing, yet accomplish so much.

  • - The great ones know most people are lonely, afraid or suffering through some kind of painful situation that’s invisible to the rest of the world. Champions are a beacon of light in a cloudy, stormy, unpredictable world. Armed with praise, they are the ultimate force for good.

  • - Action Step for Today: Make a commitment to become a ‘Praise Finder,’ always looking for praiseworthy behavior to reward with words. Once this world-class habit becomes a part of your everyday consciousness, be aware of the impact it has on your relationships with others. When dealing and communicating with other people, remember most of us are starved for praise, no matter how high a position we occupy.

  • 98. The World Class Is Always Willing To Pay The Price

  • - The average person would be flabbergasted at the amount of time and effort that professional performers invest on their way to the top.

  • - There never has been a shortcut to success, nor is there a glamorous method of paying the price. There is only the blood, sweat and tears of delayed gratification. There is only the pain and suffering of practice. There is no escape from it, and the winners know it. You either pay the price for success or pay the price in regret. Only champions know the price of success is a much lighter burden to bear than the ongoing torture of regret.

  • - “Paying the price weighs ounces . . . but regret weighs tons.” - Jim Rohn

  • - “I am wondering what would have happened to me if some fluent talker had converted me to the theory of the eight-hour day and convinced me that it was not fair to my fellow workers to put forth my best efforts in my work. I am glad that the eight-hour day had not been invented when I was a young man. If my life had been made up of eight-hour days, I don’t believe I could have accomplished a great deal. This country would not amount to as much as it has if the young men of fifty years ago had been afraid that they might earn more than they were paid for.” – Thomas Edison

  • - Action Step for Today: Ask this critical thinking question: “Do my current habits, actions and behaviors suggest I am more interested in instant pleasure or delayed gratification?” If the answer is instant pleasure, don’t feel bad. 95% of the population falls into this category. If you’re ready to break free of the pleasure loop that leads to regret, decide today to begin pursuing the path of delayed gratification. This doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy pleasure. Just focus on tasks, activities and goals that will give you gratification for a lifetime, instead of just a few minutes.

  • 99. The Great Ones Are Aware Of Their Limitless Potential

  • - The most common regret mentioned by residents in nursing homes is, “I should have tried more things and taken more risks.”

  • - Most people fall by the wayside because they simply want too many things half-heartedly. The great ones make a decision, build a team and shake the world.

  • - Action Step for Today: Ask five people who really know and care about you to give you a list of your five greatest attributes and talents, and why they believe you are so gifted in these areas. You may be surprised at how others perceive you, and these lists may inspire you to tap some of the talents that you didn’t even realize you had. Be sure to make a copy of these lists and put the originals in a safe deposit box or some other safe place. These lists will be a source of motivation and inspiration for you for the rest of your life, especially during times of doubt and despair.

  • 100. Champions Prepare To Win

  • - “The flinch factor...when not prepared to win we will flinch when the customer poses a question we cannot handle.” – Lou Wood

  • - The great ones don’t limit their plans to their own scope of knowledge and experience. They know someone, somewhere, knows how to do it better and is willing to help.

  • - Champions have learned to delay their gratification as long as necessary in order to breathe life into their goals and dreams.

  • - Action Step for Today:

  • Commit to creating a ninety-day action plan to carry you closer toward your ultimate vision for your life. Ninety days is long enough to build momentum and short enough to keep your attention. Toward the end of this time, create another ninety-day action plan. This habit is one of the best practices of Fortune 500 sales and management teams.

  • 101. The World Class Is Committed To Personal Development

  • - “I’ve spent the last forty years trying to convince corporate America that the fastest way to improve the bottom line was in the personal development of their employees.” – Larry Wilson

  • - Personal development, by definition, is about discovering the unique talents, abilities and potentials that lie dormant within us. The great ones are always looking for that one little adjustment, strategy, distinction or technique that will give them an edge over the competition, and that’s exactly what personal development offers

  • - “All of us already have everything we need inside of us to make our lives work. Personal development is not about self-improvement . . . it’s about self-discovery. It’s about rediscovering what we already know.” - Bill Gove

  • - Action Step for Today: Make a commitment to attend two seminars and/or workshops in the next twelve months for your own personal growth and development. Set a goal to listen to one of your favorite nonfiction authors/ speakers every day when you’re in the car. Set another goal to read one positive/inspirational book a month for the next twelve months. Map out a personal development plan of action and you’ll be amazed at the results.

  • 102. The Great Ones Are Problem Solvers

  • - “We teach collaborative problem-solving. In school, it’s called cheating.” – Edward Bales

  • - The world class understands increased compensation is the effect; problem solving and adding value is the cause. Instead of wishing and begging for more money, the great ones attack the cause, and the effect eventually takes care of itself.

  • - Action Step for Today: Ask this critical thinking question: “Am I willing to solve larger, more complex problems in exchange for increased compensation?” If the answer is yes, go to your boss today and ask for more responsibility. There is never a lack of money in any organization for a person who can solve major problems. The next time you are daydreaming about making more money, stop daydreaming and ask for a bigger problem to solve.

  • 103. Champions Are Obsessed With Productivity And Results

  • - “We know where most of the creativity, the innovation, the stuff that drives productivity lies – in the minds of those closest to the work. It’s been there, in front of our noses, all along while we’ve been running around chasing robots and reading books on how to become Japanese –- or at least manage like them.” – Jack Welch

  • - Average performers think of work in terms of time invested on the job. World-class performers think of work in terms of overall productivity, output and results.

  • - The world class has an open ticket anywhere they want to go because they are obsessed with increasing productivity and achieving results.

  • - Action Step for Today: Rate your professional productivity on a scale of 1 to 7, 7 being highest. If you scored less than a 6, make a list of three things you could do to increase your overall productivity. After you make your list, go to your boss and ask for additional suggestions. This one exercise may double or even triple your productivity and results.

  • 104. The World Class Is Profit Driven

  • - “Profitability is a necessary condition for existence and a means to more important ends, but it is not the end in itself for many of the visionary companies. Profit is like oxygen, food, water, and blood for the body; they are not the point of life, but without them, there is no life.” – James Collins

  • - Professional performers understand that profit is what keeps the doors open, and what supports the ongoing innovation a company needs to compete.

  • - While middle-class thinkers are worrying about who’s going to win the Super Bowl or the World Series, the great ones are working to do their part as leaders to ensure the world is better off tomorrow than it is today.

  • - Action Step for Today: Reinvest a small amount of your profit or extra money back into your community. It’s not the amount that’s important; it’s the habit. See how it makes you feel to circulate your abundance.

  • 105. The Great Ones Take Responsibility

  • - “Success on any major scale requires you to accept responsibility . . . In the final analysis, the one quality that all successful people have . . . is the ability to take on responsibility.” – Michael Korda

  • - People operating at the upper-class level of awareness tend to be unafraid, aggressive, ultra-competitive warriors who approach life like a battle. They know there is abundance and they are out to get it.

  • - The upper class tends to operate primarily from their ego. People at the world-class level are a step ahead of the upper class, simply because they operate from their spirit-self rather than their ego-self.

  • - The world class realizes they are completely responsible for their success or failure, as well as responsible for giving back some of the blessings bestowed upon them as a result of their tremendous success.

  • - Operating from a world-class level of awareness almost always precedes their success. The great ones keep marching forward, making a difference in themselves and the world.

  • - Action Step for Today: Commit to taking total responsibility for everything that happens to you. This one change in thinking has the power to launch you to the world-class level faster than any other single idea.

  • 106. Champions Take Risks

  • - “I don’t want to find myself in a nursing home someday, thinking that all I did was play it safe.” – Charlie Eitel

  • - The pros take risks – not because they are necessarily more courageous – but because they believe they can get back anything they lose.

  • - Champions have always been risk takers, because they have come to understand that business and life are about learning and growing. How can you learn and grow when you never step out and try something new and exciting?

  • - Without risk, there can be no progress. All of us only have so much sand left in the hourglass, and one day our sand will run out. The time to risk is now and the great ones know it.

  • - Action Step for Today: Learning to be comfortable when taking calculated risks is an acquired skill. The only way to develop it is to begin to take risks. Decide today to take a small risk on something you’ve been thinking about doing. Feel the fear, and do it anyway. If this process is new to you, rest assured – you will feel less fear with every risk you take.

  • 107. The World Class Has Tremendous Self-Respect

  • - “A flippant, frivolous man may ridicule others, may controvert them, scorn them; but he who has any respect for himself seems to have renounced the right of thinking meanly of others.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  • - Respecting others is directly related to respecting yourself.

  • - “You cannot give what you do not have.”

  • - Action Step for Today: Ask this critical thinking question: “What single habit, action or behavior could I upgrade or change that would increase my level of self-respect?” Next, make a commitment, in writing, to make this upgrade or change in the next thirty days. Do the same thing every month for the next twelve months, and watch your life transform.

  • 108. Champions Know Revenge Is For Amateurs

  • - “The middle class broods and vows revenge when they feel cheated. The upper class attacks their abusers, intent on inflicting pain. The world class forgives their enemies and sends them love, because the emotional pro knows that the emotional amateur knows not.” – Steve Siebold

  • - The world class, operating out of love and abundance, dismisses revenge as a strategy for people operating at lower-level awareness. The great ones know you can’t fight hate with hate. The only power in the universe worth projecting is the power of love.

  • - The pros know if they are cheated by an amateur, it’s to be expected, because amateurs act out of fear. Their fear-based consciousness thinks irrationally, so their improper or unethical acts are to be expected. Champions feel empathy for amateurs, because all of the great ones are former amateurs themselves.

  • - Action Step for Today: Decide today to abandon any thoughts or plans of revenge. Don’t confuse forgiveness with weakness; anyone can hold a grudge. It takes a person operating at a higher level of awareness to forgive. Be reminded that 95% of the population is operating out of a consciousness of fear and scarcity, which is probably the reason this individual cheated you.

  • 109. Champions Keep Things In Perspective

  • - “In most situations, we don’t need to slow down, we need to calm down.” – Bob Proctor

  • - Physiologically speaking, the performer believes he is literally fighting for his life. Meanwhile, the pro has convinced herself that this situation is just a game, and that nobody dies from losing a game.

  • - This championship self-talk can be learned and implemented by anyone, but is rarely picked up on by amateurs. The world class has learned that developing and maintaining a crystal-clear perspective on the relative significance of their performance lives is critical to their success.

  • - Action Step for Today: List the three events that cause you the most stress on a regular basis. Now ask this critical thinking question: “What would I need to say to myself on a daily basis to put these events in proper perspective to reduce or eliminate the stress they have caused me in the past?”

  • - Don't Sweat the Small Stuff by Richard Carlson #book

  • 110. The World Class Raises Their Rate Of Vibration At Will

  • - “Ladies, do you want to know how to take a one-carat diamond and turn it into a two-and-a-half- carat diamond? Learn how to raise your ROV.” – Polly Bauer

  • - The five components of ROV are energy, enthusiasm, confidence, belief and clarity.

  • - Action Step for Today: Develop the habit of tracking your ROV during presentations and other times you are attempting to persuade people to your point of view. On a scale of 1 to 1,000, the average salesperson scores around 250. Top salespeople score around 750. The goal is to get as close to the 1,000 mark as possible. All scores are subjective, but the purpose of the exercise is to recognize the impact raising your ROV has on your ability to influence and persuade other people.

  • - The Power of Your Subconscious Mind by Joseph Murphy

  • 111. The Pros Reward Themselves For Execution

  • ☆ “The goals, targets and rewards system is the wave of the future. Goals are execution-based; targets are results-based; and rewards are based on the successful completion of the goals, not the targets. This subtle shift in performance philosophy has the power to launch a performer from middle-class to world-class results.” – Steve Siebold

  • - Professional performers use rewards to create ongoing motivation for themselves and others.

  • - Champions set execution-based goals over which they have total control. The results they are aiming for, but don’t have complete control over, are known as Targets. The great ones aim for their Targets but focus on their goals.

  • - The philosophy is simple: reward people for

  • activities they can control.

  • - Reward performers for keeping their word and you build a success cycle of confidence and enthusiasm.

  • - Action Step for Today: Take your number one goal for the next ninety days and convert it to a target. Next, make a list of every activity you must complete to attain your target. Lastly, think of a reward for yourself upon successful completion of the goal. I would strongly suggest converting all your current goals to targets over the next thirty days. After you get in the habit of this innovative approach, you’ll be amazed at how much more motivated you will be to succeed.

  • 112. Great Leaders Understand Recognition

  • - “I have discovered a fascinating thing: men will die for ribbons.” – Napoleon

  • - World-class performers know themselves, and they know what drives them.

  • - The single most popular motivator for performers of all classes is recognition, even though many people won’t admit it.

  • - Recognition is the master motivator because it validates us to ourselves, and reminds us that we really are good enough, smart enough and competent enough. Most people are walking around with an inferiority complex of one kind or another from years of negative programming from parents, teachers, coaches and other amateurs of great influence. This programming can be overcome, but recognition will always be a mental massage for a bruised psyche.

  • - Action Step for Today: Set a goal to recognize the important people in your life for the things they do. Words of recognition are long remembered and highly treasured. Developing this habit may do more to solidify and grow your key relationships than anything else.

  • - 1001 Ways to Reward Employees by Bob Nelson #book

  • 113. Champions Know The Power Of Programming

  • - “The programming that you accept from others, and the conscious and unconscious directives, pictures, feelings and thoughts that you transmit to yourself, will find a place in your own internal control center. Together, those thoughts and images will continue to create in advance, or influence on the spot, every response, attitude, and action that will be a part of you and your future.” – Dr. Shad Helmstetter

  • - Champions want to take control of their own reprogramming process and install the habits, philosophies, traits and beliefs that empower, rather than limit them.

  • - The pros use two primary methods of reprogramming. First and foremost, they alter the language they use when they talk to themselves and others. They adjust their language from the middle-class to the world-class level. They create self-talk scripts and repeat them daily until the change takes place. The second thing they do is use the power of mental pictures, or visualization training, to adjust how they experience events.

  • - Action Step for Today: Make the decision today to take responsibility for old programming that does not serve you. Practice reprogramming your old programs by altering your language and using visualization training.

  • - The Self-Talk Solution by Dr. Shad Helmstetter #book

  • 114. Champions Are Of Good Cheer

  • - “If you want to live a long, healthy, and prosperous life, make a commitment to yourself to always be of good cheer. It will affect everything and everyone around you.” – Bill Gove

  • - The great ones are acutely aware their thoughts create their circumstances, while the masses continue to reverse the equation.

  • - Champions know that their inner world determines their outer world. Knowing this, they act the part of the successful, fulfilled and happy person until the part becomes them.

  • - The great ones have a saying about this: “Whatever you are looking for is looking for you.” It’s a well-known law of the universe that like attracts like, success breeds success, and happiness manifests happiness.

  • - We don’t attract what we want; we attract what we are. This is why the world class chooses to be of good cheer.

  • - Action Step for Today: Make the decision every morning to have a sunny disposition. Watch carefully and study how many others you attract with the same good cheer.

  • - An Attitude of Gratitude: 21 Life Lessons by Keith Harrell #book

  • 115. The Great Ones Are Learning Machines

  • - “An organization’s ability to learn, and translate that learning into action rapidly, is the ultimate competitive business advantage.” – Jack Welch

  • - “Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.” - Jim Rohn

  • - World-class performers know the more they learn, the greater the level of awareness they reach; and the greater the level of awareness, the more they realize how much more there is left to learn. The great ones know learn- ing, like love, is infinite. There is no end until their hearts stop beating.

  • - Action Step for Today: Make a commitment to develop your own self- education program. Read, listen, and attend seminars and workshops. Set a goal to read a certain number of books and listen to a set number of CDs each month. This shift in lifestyle will catapult your career and your consciousness.

  • - Lead the Field by Earl Nightingale

  • 116. Champions Change Their Emotional Responses

  • - Through the Ten-Step Change Process, the performer writes down the activating event (the disrespectful customer). Next, he writes down his response. Then he decides if that response is helping or hurting. The next step is to decide whether his response was rational or irrational. Next, he examines his thought process thoroughly, and identifies his ultimate response if this were to happen again. He then mentally rehearses implementing the new response. Next, he creates a written script of the new response, and rehearses the new response twice a day, visually and verbally. He examines his response the next time the event occurs. If he is satisfied with the result, he has successfully transformed his response to this event. If he’s not yet satisfied, he continues the process until the desired behavior change takes place.

  • - “It’s not the event itself that does us in, it’s how we perceive it.” – Dr. Karl Menninger

  • - Action Step for Today: Select one event that triggers a negative emotional response and put it through the Ten-Step Change Process. For example, do you get angry when someone cuts you off in traffic, or when people treat you disrespectfully, or when your son or daughter gets a poor grade on a report card? Our habitual responses are based on our perceptions of what these events mean and our perceptions can be altered or even totally changed in a very short period of time through reprogramming. Give yourself twenty-one to thirty days to make the transformation.

  • - The 10 Steps to Positive Change

  • 1. You respond to your perception of an event.

  • 2. Decide if your response is helping or hurting you.

  • 3. Decide if your response is rational or irrational.

  • 4. Examine your response in detail through metacognition. (Think about what you think about)

  • 5. Identify your ultimate response if this situation were to occur again.

  • 6. Create a mental rehearsal of your ideal response.

  • 7. Write a script that supports your ideal response.

  • 8. Rehearse your ideal visual and verbal responses twice a day.

  • 9. Examine your response the next time this or a similar event occurs.

  • 10. If you are satisfied with your new perception/response, you have successfully constructed a new neural pathway and created a positive change in your life. If you’re not satisfied, continue visualizing and verbalizing your new perception/response and test until positive change occurs.

  • 117. The Great Ones Have A Sense Of Urgency

  • - “One realizes the full importance of time only when there is little of it left. Every man’s greatest capital asset is his unexpired years of productive life.” – P.W. Litchfield

  • - The great ones have a sense of urgency because they are operating at a level of awareness that constantly reminds them the present moment is all any of us really have.

  • - Make it your mission to discover the embers that burn within your soul and focus that passion on what you really want. Don’t stop until you find it. When you do, create a sense of urgency to act on it now. Don’t hesitate. Pursue your dream boldly and fearlessly. It may be later than you think.

  • - Action Step for Today: To heighten your sense of urgency, do a little mathematical calculation. Based on statistics, the average man living in 21st century America will live seventy-three years. The average woman will live seventy-nine years. Based on your current age and these statistics, how many days do you have left to live? Keep this number in front of you as a reminder the clock is ticking and there is no time to lose.

  • 118. The World Class Believes In Servant Leadership

  • - “The measure of a man is . . . in the number of people who he serves.” – Paul D. Moody

  • - Whatever their chosen field, the great ones know the essence of success and fulfillment can be found in the service of others.

  • - In order to embrace this mindset and become a conduit for positive change, a person must be operating from spirit, as opposed to ego. Champions serve without asking or expecting anything in return.

  • - “The more you give, the more you get.”

  • - The world class is humbly serving society and being handsomely rewarded.

  • - Action Step for Today: Examine your beliefs about serving others, and ask this critical thinking question: “What do my habits, actions and behaviors say about my belief in the law of cause and effect?” On a scale of 1 to 7, 7 being the highest, how much do you really give to others?

  • - Leadership: The Inner Side of Greatness by Peter Koestenbaum #book

  • 119. The Great Ones Make The Complicated Simple

  • - “Genius is the ability to reduce the complicated to the simple.” – C.W. Ceram

  • - “Have you ever spent time with a pretty girl and the time just flew by? Have you ever spent time with someone you didn’t like and the time seemed to drag on forever? That’s relativity.” - Albert Einstein

  • - Mental clarity is the cornerstone of everything they do, and simplifying things promotes greater clarity.

  • - Action Step for Today: Do a breakdown to discover the essence of what motivates, inspires and drives you, and most importantly, what makes you happy. Reduce these ideas to as few words as possible, so a fourth grader could understand what you’re saying. This exercise will elevate your level of mental clarity.

  • 120. Champions Understand Success

  • - “If a man has done his best, what else is there?” – Gen. George S. Patton

  • - Champions tend to believe success is giving your family, work and life your very best effort, and that’s it.

  • - The great ones simply select their chosen field, write out their plan, create their vision, and go to work making it a reality. The simple day-by-day progression toward their vision spells success. When their outcome is achieved, they celebrate, all the while knowing their real measure of success was in doing, not having. The world class understands that to have, you must do, and to do, you must be. They focus on becoming the person they wish to become, and everything else falls into place.

  • - Action Step for Today: Take inventory of your beliefs surrounding success. What does success really mean to you? Have you adopted the amateur or the professional definition of success? How are these beliefs impacting your everyday life and happiness?

  • 121. Champions Thrive On World Class Self-Talk

  • - “Repeat anything long enough and it will start to become you.” – Tom Hopkins

  • - Self-talk is what we say to ourselves all day long, yet it's also how we say it.

  • - Up to 77% of the average person’s self-talk is negative.

  • - “Repetition is a convincing argument.” - Dr. Shad Helmstetter

  • - The great ones create ideas out of thin air, convince themselves achievement is possible, and then go out and make it happen.

  • - Action Step for Today: Begin monitoring everything you say to yourself and others. Ask this critical thinking question: “Is the way I use the language programming me for success or failure?” Next, begin listening to the way people around you use the language. Ask yourself the same question about them. This is an eye-opening experience.

  • 122. The Great Ones Know Salespeople Drive All Business

  • - The world class knows we are all salespeople. All of us are trying to sell our ideas, ourselves and our passions to other people. Selling is the natural order of human existence, and mentally tough performers hold the highest respect for professional salespeople. Salespeople are in the line of fire daily, making things happen and keeping the economy rolling along. They don’t get the public accolades of the doctor, accountant, lawyer or banker,

  • except from the champions. There’s a kinship between them that can be explained by one word: respect.

  • - “We are all salespeople, every day of our lives. We are selling our ideas, our plans, our enthusiasms to those with whom we come in contact.” – Charles Schwab

  • - Action Step for Today: Take stock of your attitude toward salespeople and the sales profession in general, whether you’re in sales or something else. In reality, we are all salespeople, and your beliefs surrounding this critical skill will determine how successful you will be.

  • - Changing the Game, The New Way To Sell by Larry Wilson #book

  • 123. Champions Know Security Is A Perception

  • - The world class knows there are only two facts in which you can be secure: all of us were born, and all of us will die.

  • - Champions are motivated by the idea that their security is in their ability to perform. The great ones live for challenge, and often they love the battle for the prize more than the prize itself. They love the battle because they expect to win, and their positive expectation continues to grow with each subsequent victory.

  • - The world class knows that, if any form of security exists in the universe, it is within their thoughts.

  • - “When you know you’re capable of dealing with whatever comes, you have the only security that the world has to offer.” – Harry Browne

  • - Extrinsic things like money will never make you feel secure unless you are secure on the inside; unless you believe you have the ability to deal with whatever happens between your birthday and your death day.

  • - Action Step for Today:

  • Rate yourself on a scale of 1 to 7, 7 being highest: How confident are you in your ability to successfully handle anything that happens in your life? If you scored less than a 6, begin to build your confidence by upgrading your self-talk in this area. Thirty days of telling yourself that you have the ability to handle anything life throws you will start you on the path to world-class feelings of security.

  • 124. The World Class Believes In Self-Reliance

  • - “Follow your own path, no matter what people say.” – Karl Marx

  • - The philosophy of the world class is to take full responsibility for their successes and failures.

  • - Champions don’t look to other people to make them happy. The great ones know happiness is not something you get, it’s something you are. While champions enjoy the company of others, they are just as happy to be alone. Their core level of contentment begins with them.

  • - Action Step for Today: Identify an area of your life in which you rely on someone else. Next, make a commitment to take full responsibility for the results or outcomes you experience in this area, regardless of whether you are directly responsible. Start with your finances. Who is responsible for your accumulation of wealth? Your accountant? Banker? Broker? Financial planner? You are ultimately responsible. If you adopt this philosophy in every major area of your life, you will never slip into the blame game again.

  • - Self-Reliance and Other Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson

  • 125. The Great Ones Manufacture Their Own Self-Image

  • - “Self-esteem – high or low – tends to be a generator of self-fulfilling prophecies.” – Dr. Nathaniel Branden

  • - It’s been said that self-image is the reputation we have with ourselves. It’s also been said that most of us suffer from some type of inferiority complex. The world class has overcome this problem by realizing everyone on the planet is inferior and superior to everyone in some way.

  • - Champions believe almost anything is within their reach, based on the power of their own self-image. The primary strategies the great ones use to develop a powerful self-image are self-talk and mental imagery.

  • - Action Step for Today: Ask this critical think- ing question: “Do I have the self-image necessary to manifest my ultimate vision for my life?” If the answer is no, write down three world-class affirmations about your vision that will help you develop a world-class self-image.

  • ☆ The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem by Dr. Nathaniel Branden #book

  • 126. Champions Are Bold And Daring Visionaries

  • - “Vision . . . it reaches beyond the thing that is, into the conception of what can be. Imagination gives you the picture. Vision gives you the impulse to make the picture your own.” – Robert Collier

  • - The world-class consciousness is so powerful it needs little, if any, outside support to maintain motivation and direction toward its vision. The great ones have the confidence and clarity to go it alone, if necessary.

  • - The great ones create their vision, and then their vision creates them.

  • - Action Step for Today: Make a commitment to create the ultimate vision for your life in the next thirty days. Use these eight life components as a guide: business/career; family/ friends, money/finances, recreation/fun, health/ diet/exercise, faith/spiritual, social/cultural, and personal development. You can write these visions as independent components, or include all of them in one long vision. Use as much detail as possible to define what you want to be, have and do in your life. The last step is the most important: write about why you want these things to manifest. Include as much emotion as possible. Describe the feelings you are trying to create through the achievement of your vision.

  • - Visioning: The Ten Steps To Designing the Life of Your Dreams by Lucia Capacchione #book

  • 127. Champions Never Say Die

  • - Champions don’t even begin to pay attention until they feel pain, which they expect to feel on a regular basis.

  • - Champion cyclist Lance Armstrong says racing doesn’t even get interesting until it becomes what he calls a “suffer-fest.”

  • - Failure to manifest the vision is not an option; champions will do it or die trying.

  • - “Whatever it takes.”

  • - The great ones are masters of self-denial, suffering and sacrifice. They do it all to live their vision.

  • - Action Step for Today: Ask this critical thinking question: “How committed am I to achieving my ultimate vision?” Are you really willing to do whatever it takes? If so, know you are on the right track. If not, chances are you have settled for second best in your vision. It doesn’t have sufficient emotional energy to motivate you through the tough times that will undoubtedly occur. If the latter is the case, do some soul searching and rewrite your vision. Odds are that you will need world-class emotional energy to bring your dream into reality.

  • - Never Die Easy by Walter Payton #book

  • 128. Champions Define Winning As Personal Progress

  • - “The most evolved among us understand that winning is an inside job. It’s not about beating or besting someone else, but rather getting the best from ourselves. Winning is about being better tomorrow than you were today.” – Bill Gove

  • - To the world class, winning usually means besting their previous performance.

  • - Professional performers are Zen-like in their approach to winning, and tend to focus on execution-based performance

  • goals they can completely control. This keeps them in line with the reality that the only parts of winning they can control are their personal effort and attitude. The great ones know the most accurate indicators of winning are their ongoing growth and evolution as performers, and more importantly, as human beings.

  • - Action Step for Today: Just for today, make a commitment to transcend your ego-based desire to be better than anyone else. Focus all of your competitive efforts inward and see how much better you can be today than you were yesterday. Monitor how this elevated level of consciousness makes you feel. You may decide to adopt this thought process as a habit, and eventually, a belief that transcends the need to beat anyone at anything.

  • - Permission to Win by Ray Pelletier #book

  • 129. Champions Know Abundant Health Begins With Body Weight

  • - “A significant step you can take on the road to world- class success and fulfillment is to get your body weight under control. The confidence you will gain as a result will carry over into every other area of your life.” – Steve Siebold

  • - Professional performers know the foundation of good health is weight control. They know dis- ease often begins when body weight is disproportionate. Champions focus on diet and exercise to manage their weight and overall health. They also know the real secret to weight control is commitment and mental toughness.

  • - The great ones realize the best diet in the world is worthless without decision and commitment. They also know they are in total control of what they eat and how they exercise, and if they slip out of balance in this area they are quick to get back on track.

  • - Taking control of weight through conscious choice is a fast track to ascending to world-class levels in other areas of your life. For those who wish to ascend to greatness, this is great place to begin. The confidence and power being thin and healthy will give you cannot be overestimated.

  • - Action Step for Today: Give yourself a mental toughness reality check: Remove all your clothes, stand in front of a full-length mirror, and write a paragraph on what you see. Next, ask this critical thinking question: “What level of consciousness does my body reflect?” Is it: poverty class, working class, middle class, upper class or world class?

  • 130. The World Class Seeks The WisdomOf The Ages

  • - “I find television very educational. Every time someone turns it on, I go in the other room and read a book.” - Groucho Marx

  • - The great ones are the busiest people in the marketplace. They always search for the most effective and efficient methods of learning. One favorite is reading and studying positive quotation with wisdom from the most highly evolved thinkers and performers.

  • - Human beings cannot remain stagnant – we are either growing or dying. We are either getting better or getting worse. The pros use quotation books as a method of ensuring they are on the path of learning and growth.

  • - Action Step for Today: Make a commitment today to read at least five positive quotations every day for the rest of this year. The wisdom in these quotes will motivate, inspire and enlighten you.

  • - The Best of Success by Wynn Davis #book

  • 131. The World-Class Employees See Themselves As Self-Employed

  • - “In a study done in New York some years ago, researchers found that people who ranked in the top three percent in every field had a special attitude that set them apart from average performers in their industries. It was this: they viewed themselves as self-employed throughout their careers, no matter who signed their paychecks. They saw themselves as responsible for their companies, exactly as if they owned the companies personally.” – Brian Tracy

  • - World-class employees see themselves as professional performers who lease their services to the company which employs them.

  • - Amateurs feel enslaved; pros feel empowered. Amateurs feel trapped; pros feel free.

  • - Everyone who works in a free-market economy has the choice of where and to whom they want to lease their services. The companies are also free to hire or reject any free agent who applies.

  • - Action Step for Today: Decide to adopt the mindset of self-employment. No matter what title you hold, you are now CEO and president of your own personal services corporation. Next, ask this critical thinking question: “Would I hire me?”

  • 132. The Great Ones Aren’t Afraid To Suffer

  • - “What makes a great endurance athlete is the ability to absorb potential embarrassment, and to suffer without complaint. I was discovering that, if it was a matter of gritting my teeth, not caring how it looked, and outlasting everybody else, I won. It didn’t seem to matter what the sport was – in a straight- ahead, long-distance race, I could beat anybody. If it was a suffer-fest, I was good at it.” – Lance Armstrong

  • - The world class knows success always comes with a price tag. While the middle class wastes their time searching for short cuts, the great ones get in the game and endure the pain and suffering every champion must endure. There is no escape. The road to victory is paved with blood, sweat and tears.

  • - Action Step for Today: On a scale of 1 to 7, 7 being highest, how much are you willing to suffer to make your ultimate vision a reality?

  • 133. Champions Learn From Role Models

  • - The world class has supreme self-confidence only expressed in words to themselves. This inner arrogance is rarely expressed outside their own self- talk. The great ones are able to maintain a spirit of humility and gratitude that spills over from the inside out and covers them with a warm, loving glow. This phenomenon rockets their Rate of Vibration (ROV) to the world-class level. This creates a magnetic attraction others find hard to resist. Role models and mentors love to help performers with this mindset, and their guidance and advice catapult performers years ahead of their ego-driven competition.

  • - Action Step for Today: Identify the most important thing you are trying to accomplish in the next ninety days, and select a role model who has already done it. Learn everything you can about this person, but most of all, their thought processes. When you have this information, pretend you are your role model – with all the confidence and self-assurance of someone who has already succeeded at the task you want to achieve. This technique is the mental equivalent of Clark Kent going into the phone booth and changing into Superman, and it’s a fairly common practice of the world class when they’re searching for a strategic advantage – especially under pressure.

  • 134. The World Class Believes In The Power Of Self-Understanding

  • - “Ninety percent of the world’s woe comes from people not knowing themselves, their abilities, their frailties, and even their real virtues. Most of us go almost all the way through life as complete strangers to ourselves – so how can we know anyone else?” – Sidney J. Harris

  • - The pros often see themselves as performance machines with the goal of figuring out what makes the machine run.

  • - While average people are seeking a mate who stimulates and excites their emotions, the world class is looking for a partner who communicates and connects with their spirit. Many champions describe their spouse as their “soul mate.” These are marriages that usually last through thick and thin.

  • - People who have the same core values and see themselves as soul mates have a difficult time being apart.

  • - Action Step for Today: Make a list of your five most important values and write down why they are so important to you. This simple exercise will get you started down the road of self-understanding, or accelerate the introspective journey you have already begun.

  • 135. The Great Ones Evolve From Success to Significance

  • - “I never wanted to be a successful person. I wanted to be a significant person.” – Nido Qubein

  • - The upper class focuses on success; the world class focuses on significance. The great ones discover what fulfills them first and end up with success as a byproduct. Their secret to a fulfilling life is often through servant leadership to a large group of people who need their help. There is a direct correlation between their level of fulfillment and the magnitude of impact they have on the people they serve. In other words, the more significant the champions become in the lives of others, the more fulfillment they experience, and the more fulfillment they experience, the more energy and effort they invest in other people. The success formula is similar, but requires that the performer help large numbers of people in order to reap large rewards. The irony is that many great performers become successful without ever chasing success. Their journey to fulfillment through helping other people creates success by natural law. By focusing on becoming a significant person in the lives of others, they automatically gain the success that the masses so desperately seek. Their world-class success and fulfillment creates world-class happiness. That’s why we call them the great ones.

  • - Action Step for Today: Ask this critical thinking question: “Am I focusing my energy on becoming successful or significant?”

  • 136. Champions Know Humor Is No Joke

  • - “Comedy makes the human spirit soar.” – Mel Brooks

  • - Champions know the most potent antidote for stress is levity.

  • - The impact of a simple laugh can make the difference between choking under pressure and breaking a world record. Champions understand the power that humor has on their mind, body and spirit.

  • - Action Step for Today: Make a commitment to develop a Top 10 Jokes List. Research jokes on the internet, browse for joke books in bookstores, and attend a comedy show. Develop this list as a mental toughness strategy to help you reduce pressure in your everyday life.

  • - Good Clean Jokes by Bob Philips #book

  • 137. The World Class Is Character Conscious

  • - “Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.” – John Wooden

  • - will push only to the limits their character will allow. When their ambitions and drives begin to adversely affect other people, champions pull back. Character is what separates ambitious champions from ambitious criminals.

  • - Action Step for Today: Make a commitment to always do what you say you will do, no matter what it takes. Put your commitment in writing. This philosophy separates you from 95% of the population, and will enhance all of your relation- ships.

  • 138. The World Class Builds On Support

  • - Even the toughest performers in the world need emotional support from time to time, and they tap this resource on a regular basis to avoid the worst enemy of any great performer: burnout. Burnout is the brain’s way of telling you it’s stressed and strained for the time being, and its way of shutting you down is to rob you of any measure of enthusiasm you ever had for the activity involved. The only way to fully recover from mental burnout is by getting away from the activity for an extended period of time. In order to avoid burnout, the great ones spend time with their families, friends and other support team members that help them recover before it occurs. The support team serves as the champion’s physical, mental and spiritual oasis on their way to the top.

  • - “Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down.” – Oprah Winfrey

  • - Action Step for Today: Make a list of the people who love you unconditionally, and make a commitment to speak with or visit them on a regular basis.

  • 139. Champions Have A World Class Work Ethic

  • - “Amateurs hope; professionals work.” – Garson Kanin

  • - Immigrants are four times as likely to become millionaires as American-born citizens. This startling statistic boils down to one thing: a world-class work ethic.

  • - Action Step for Today:

  • On a scale of 1 to 7, 7 being highest, rate your work ethic. If you score less than a 5, upgrade your commitment to work.

  • - Stairway to Success by Nido Qubein #book

  • 140. The World Class Dreams Of The Future, Yet Lives In The Present

  • - “Your experience of yesterday should never set our foundation of expectation for what you can accomplish in the future. Yesterdays lessons are the most effective fertilizer for tomorrow's victories.

  • - Action Step for Today:

  • Let go of your past and focus exclusively on the present and the future.

  • 141. The Great Ones Know How To Say “No”

  • - World-class performers are ruthless with their time. This behavior stems from their awareness of their limited time on the planet. They view time as their most valuable resource. As pros become more successful, they have to say “no” more often.

  • - The world class is generous, yet highly selective, with their time. They seldom feel guilty about saying “no,” even when they are criticized by amateurs for being uncaring and selfish. Champions operate from an internal frame of reference and tend to value their own opinion above that of others’.

  • - The middle class is highly vulnerable to the opinions of others, and tend to say “yes” to anything they are asked. This behavior suggests a generous spirit, but is more likely the manifestation of the amateur addiction to love and acceptance from others.

  • - “Do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of.” – Benjamin Franklin

  • - Action Step for Today: Identify an activity that is not giving you the results or satisfaction you thought it would. Make a commitment to discontinue it. Get in the habit of saying “no” more often in order to protect your precious time.

  • 142. Champions Are Not Addicted To The Approval Of Others

  • - “I am responsible to my employees, customers, and business associates; to be honest, sincere, and to act with integrity . . . but I am not responsible for their attitudes or behavior towards me. I hope they like me. It’s more pleasant that way, but if not, it’s not my problem.” – Bill Gove

  • - Action Step for Today: On a scale of 1 to 7, 7 being highest, how high is your need to be approved and validated by other people? Next, ask your spouse or best friend to rate you on the same scale, and then compare answers.

  • 143. The World Class Loves Liberty

  • - “Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.” – George Bernard Shaw

  • - Liberty: the right to act, believe, or express yourself in the manner of your choosing.

  • - Action Step for Today: Ask this critical thinking question: “Am I taking full advantage of the liberty that so many of my fellow countrymen fought and died for?”

  • 144. The Great Ones Seek Solitude

  • - “Periods of wholesome laziness, after days of energetic effort, will wonderfully tone up the mind and body. It does not involve loss of time, since after a day of complete rest and quietness, you will return to your regular occupation with renewed interest and vigor.” - Grenville Kleiser

  • - The great ones know the power of a quiet mind, and many invest time in solitude on a regular basis. They recognize the performance value of a rested mind, body and spirit.

  • - Action Step for Today: Just for today, carve out at least 20 minutes of your workday to get away from everyone and get quiet. This simple recovery strategy will do wonders for you if you make it a habit.

  • 145. Champions Are Happily Dissatisfied

  • - “Show me a thoroughly satisfied man – and I will show you a failure.” – Thomas Edison

  • - Champions believe, “The only way I’ll be disappointed is if I don’t take risks and give it my all.”

  • - The middle class ends up playing it safe in order to gain comfort and security; the world class becomes the movers and shakers.

  • - The great ones are in the habit of playing the game of life without a net, and it all begins with the pain of being dissatisfied with their current results.

  • - Action Step for Today:

  • If you’re satisfied in every area of your life, ask why. Are you content because you are truly content, or are you content because you don’t believe you are capable of accomplishing or becoming more?

  • 146. The World Class Masters Time Management

  • - “Even as we speak, jealous time flees--seize this day, and put little faith in tomorrow.” – Horace

  • - The great ones know that no one can truly manage time, yet everyone can manage activities. With that in mind, the great ones surround themselves with activities they love so they are sure to get the most fulfillment out of the time they have.

  • - Action Step for Today: Ask yourself how much time you are wishing away in anticipation of a more pleasurable or fulfilling time. Look at your life with honesty: is it possible to stop investing time in activities you like and exchange them for activities you love?

  • 147. Champions Follow The Results Matrix

  • - “Sales results say more about the salesperson’s belief system than it does about her sales skills. What the salesperson believes about her product, company, herself and her prospect has a greater impact on her results than anything she learned in sales training. Beliefs control behavior, and behavior creates results. The real secret to increasing sales is upgrading the salespersons belief system, and it all begins with programming.” – Steve Siebold

  • - The great ones believe the ultimate prize is happiness, and that happiness is the result of success and fulfillment. They further believe success and fulfillment are created by the appropriate habits, actions and behaviors, which are dictated by a performer’s level of consciousness. The performer’s level of consciousness is created by their beliefs, and their beliefs are created by their own programming, which is the manifestation of the language and mental pictures they use with themselves and others.

  • - Action Step for Today: Review the Results Matrix and decide what level of happiness you wish to attain. Your choices are Poverty class, Working class, Middle class, Upper class, and World class. Next, begin the process of upgrading your language and mental pictures that you use with yourself and others.

  • - Results matrix: Language and visualization creates programming, programming creates beliefs, beliefs create consciousness, consciousness creates habits, actions, and behaviors, habits, actions, and behaviors create success and fulfillment, success and fulfillment creates happiness

  • 148. Champions Avoid Delusion

  • - “The wise men of antiquity, when they wished to make the whole world peaceful and happy, first put their own States into proper order. Before putting their States into proper order, they regulated their own families. Before regulating their families, they regulated themselves. Before regulating themselves, they tried to be sincere in their thoughts. Before being sincere in their thoughts, they tried to see things exactly as they really were.” – Confucius

  • - Millions of marriages project the illusion of happiness when, in truth, they are held together only by economic necessity.

  • - The world class operates from objective reality. They start with the facts and build on them.

  • - The great ones tend to stay on top of their key relationships and keep close tabs on problems or issues as they occur. The world class has superior problem-solving skills because they have the courage to build their lives on a solid foundation of objective reality.

  • - Action Step for Today: Take stock of your life. Look at the critical areas of your life through the eyes of objective reality and determine where you stand. Look at your health, finances, relationships, career or business, spiritual development, recreational activities, and any other area that’s important to you. On a scale of 1 to 7, 7 being outstanding and 1 being lousy, how are you doing? Rate yourself and then create a written plan to improve in the next ninety days.

  • 149. Champions Feed Their Vision And Starve Their Fear

  • - All great philosophers seem to agree that human beings become what they think about most of the time.

  • - The world class creates compelling visions written with great attention to detail and fueled by emotion, and then they think about their vision all the time.

  • - The great ones seem to go through four stages of mental evolution after creating a world-class vision: The first stage brings them increased mental clarity, which occurs as a result of putting their dreams on paper. The second stage is an intensified focus on the vision, which occurs as a result of the performer thinking about the vision morning, noon and night. The third stage turns their intensified focus into a burning desire, which is often fueled by the frustration of seeing and believing the vision is reality on the mental plane but not yet on the physical plane. This creates what psychologists call ‘cognitive dissonance’, or two thoughts (cognitions) that are inconsistent. Since the human mind hates to be inconsistent, it drives the performer to take action and make the vision a reality. This success-driven behavior creates the final stage, which occurs when the vision turns into an obsession. Most of the time it’s a healthy obsession, which means the performer is thinking, strategizing and moving closer to her vision every day. When stage four kicks in, failure is no longer an option. The champion will do whatever it takes to manifest the vision.

  • - The great ones fuel their obsession by only thinking positive thoughts about their vision, and these thoughts create psychological, physiological and spiritual energy.

  • - Action Step for Today: Just for today, decide that you will only think thoughts of love and abundance, especially as they relate to your vision. Refuse to entertain any thoughts of fear or scarcity, and shelter yourself from anything or anyone that brings you negative energy.

  • - 4 levels of vision:

  • 1. Increased mental clarity

  • 2. Intensified focus

  • 3. Burning desire fueled by frustration and vision

  • 4. Healthy obsession

  • 150. The Great Ones Are Powerful Public Speakers

  • - “If I went back to college again, I’d concentrate on two areas: learning to write and learning to speak before an audience. Nothing in life is more important than the ability to communicate effectively.” – Gerald R. Ford

  • - Action Step for Today: Decide to become an excel- lent public speaker. Get training and coaching. Visit www.speechworkshop.com and enroll in the Bill Gove Speech Workshop. Join a Toastmasters club in your area. Visit www.toastmasters.org

  • 151. The World Class Develops Emotional Intelligence

  • - Champions are always studying emotional intelligence topics such as psychology, sociology, philosophy, self-help, spirituality and etiquette.

  • - “The secret of success is not what they taught you in school. What matters most is not I.Q., not a business-school degree, not even technical know-how or years of expertise. The single most important factor in job performance and advancement is emotional intelligence.” - Daniel Goleman

  • - Action Step for Today: Develop your emotional intelligence. Start by rating yourself on a scale of 1 to 7, 7 being the highest, of how emotionally intelligent you are right now.

  • - Emotional and logic have an inverse relationship, as emotion goes up, logic goes down

  • - Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman #book

  • 152. The World Class Forms Brain Trusts

  • - “I use not only all of the brains I have, but all I can borrow.” – Woodrow Wilson

  • - The great ones are smart enough to engage other people to assist them in accomplishing their goals.

  • - Action Step for Today:

  • Create or join a mastermind group of intelligent, engaged and powerful people who can help you get what you want.

  • 153. The Great Ones Are Obsessed With Strategic Advantages

  • - “The ultimate strategic advantage in business is surrounding yourself with a team of world-class performers who are committed to the cause. If you’re looking for an unfair advantage over your competition, look no farther than your people.” – George Madiou

  • - While the masses dream of winning the lottery, champions dream of the one little add-on detail that takes them to a whole new level of success.

  • - Action Step for Today:

  • Write down one strategic advantage you can implement in your job/business immediately that will make a difference. It doesn’t have to be anything big, because when you get in the habit of doing this everyday, the little things add up to a make a significant difference.

  • 154. The World Class Reframes Painful Past Experiences

  • - The great ones know that, without the trouble and turbulence they experienced in the past, they would not be where they are today.

  • - The great ones share the philosophy that everything happens for a reason. This allows them to reframe events they originally perceived as negative.

  • - “It’s never too late to have a wonderful childhood.” – Larry Wilson

  • - Action Step for Today: Review the 3 most difficult adversities you listed in Action Step 12, and ask yourself how these events contributed to your future success or fulfillment. Reframe each event into a memory with the potential to serve you in the future.

  • 155. Champions Know Their Brains’ Primary Purpose

  • - “What a thing means is to an unknowable extent determined by what we think it means.” – Joseph Chilton Pearce

  • - If you change the perception of the event, you automatically change the brain’s response to it.

  • - Action Step for Today: Identify the three most important events that are currently happening in your life, and ask this critical think- ing question: “What do I think they mean, and is my perception of these events helping or hurting me?”

  • 156. The World Class Focuses On ‘The Why’

  • - World-class thinkers know that when it comes to manifesting their ultimate visions, the real question that must be answered is not the how-to, but the why.

  • - We will do anything if the stakes are high enough, if we have a big enough reason why.

  • - Champions know the secret to world-class motivation lies in emotion. The great ones decide what they want, and more importantly, why they want it. They know all benefits come down to an emotion that we are trying to create though our goals and dreams, so they invest a lot of mental energy attempting to identify what emotion they are really after. Once they discover it, the fight to make their vision a reality is over before it begins. Obstacles and setbacks are no match for a visionary driven by raw emotion.

  • - “Send the harmony of a great desire vibrating through every fiber of your being. Find a task that will call forth your faith, your courage, your perseverance, and your spirit of sacrifice. Keep your hands and your soul clean, and your conquering current will flow freely.” - Thomas Dreier

  • - Action Step for Today: Make a commitment to clearly identify what is driving you to achieve your life’s vision. The five most popular emotional motivators in our Mental Toughness University Program are:

  • 1) Religious/Spiritual Beliefs

  • 2) Children/Family

  • 3) Desire to prove oneself to oneself

  • 4) Desire to prove oneself to others

  • 5) General recognition/validation

  • 157. The Great Ones Are Critical Thinkers

  • - “Critical thinkers do not just drift through life, subject to every message they hear; they think through their choices and make conscious decisions.” – Sherry Diestler

  • - There are five basic levels of thinking we engage in at any given time: The lowest level is unengaged – going through the motions without really thinking about what we’re doing. The next level up is negative thinking, which is rooted in a fear- and scarcity-based consciousness. We look for the negative in every situation. Next is neutral thinking, which is neither positive nor negative. Neutral thinking implies a lack of energy at best, indifference at worst. The next level is positive thinking, which often manifests positive results. This mindset is rooted in love and abundance, but is sometimes blinded by emotion. The mantra of the positive thinker is “look for the good in everything.” Positive thinking is a good foundation, yet it’s no match for the world- class philosophy of critical thinking. Critical thinkers use specific criteria to evaluate their reasoning and make decisions, unclouded by emotion.Critical thinking has been called the most difficult work in the age in which we now live: the Age of the Mind.

  • - Action Step for Today: When you care about something, what type of thinker are you? How is your level of thinking impacting your current results?

  • - Becoming a Critical Thinker by Sherry Diestler #book

  • 158. Champions Live By The Law Of Attraction

  • - “We attract into our lives whatever we give our energy, focus, and attention to, whether wanted or unwanted.” – Michael J. Losier

  • - One of the most significant secrets of the world class is their thorough understanding that we attract into our lives what we are, not what we want.

  • - Secular wisdom defines it as the power of the subconscious, directed by our dominant thoughts, that attracts people, events and circumstances into our lives to fulfill our visions.

  • - The great ones know what they think about or give energy to will grow. It doesn’t matter if it’s negative, positive or neutral. The law operates without judgment.

  • - Thoughts are simply a series of vibrations that grow when supplied with energy.

  • - Action Step for Today: Examine the major areas of your life and identify your dominant thoughts in each area. If you’re unsure what you’re thinking in these areas, check your results. Your results are the manifestation of your dominant thoughts over a period of time. If you wish to change your results, change your dominant thoughts. Just for today, select one area of your life and write down three new thoughts you are going to condition yourself to hold in your mind. Do this for thirty days and monitor your results.

  • - Law of Attraction by Michael J. Losier #book

  • 159. The Great Ones Use Mentors

  • - “The ultimate source of information, and the whole world's living wisdom, lies in the minds of others... all you have to do is ask.” - Walter Hailey

  • - The overall task of mentors is to help performers raise their level of awareness and expectation. Mentors are continually prodding and pushing champions beyond their comfort zone. The major advantage of the mentor team is the speed with which it accelerates the performer’s growth. While average people expand their consciousness at a steady rate, the mentor team demands rocket-like acceleration from their charges.

  • - Action Step for Today: Make a list of the five most successful people you know and make a commitment to use the ‘copy genius’ philosophy with them.

  • - Breaking the No Barrier by Walter Hailey #book

  • 160. Champions Are Congruent

  • - “Congruency between your vision and your action will determine whether you are a visionary or a daydreamer.” - Steve Siebold

  • - Champions know that the road to uncommon success and emotional fulfillment is paved with all-out, massive action.

  • - To determine the size of the champion, check for congruency between their vision and their habits, actions and behaviors. If they are incongruent, performers have one of two choices: upgrade their habits, actions and behaviors or reduce the size and scope of their vision.

  • - Action Step for Today: Give yourself a reality check to see if your habits, actions and behaviors are congruent with the size and scope of your vision. If they are congruent, move forward knowing that you have a legitimate shot at making your vision a reality. If they are not congruent, make the choice today: Upgrade your habits, actions and behaviors or reduce the size and scope of your vision. The choice is yours.

  • 161. The Great Ones Seek Fulfillment

  • - “People want riches; they need fulfillment.” – Bob Conklin

  • - Loving what you do and how you live your life is the foundation of fulfillment. It’s a lot easier to be successful when you are leading a deeply fulfilling life. Fulfillment is a magnet for success. It creates an extremely high level of vibration, because it’s rooted in a love-based consciousness. This is why the rich get richer. It’s the law of attraction. Success breeds success. Fulfillment breeds fulfillment and attracts success. You can be rich and miserable, but you can’t be fulfilled and miserable.

  • - Action Step for Today: Ask this critical thinking question: “Am I chasing success or seeking fulfillment?” If you’re chasing success, can you shift your strategy to seeking fulfillment, knowing success will follow? Do you love what you do for a living so much you would do it for free? If not, what would you do if you had your choice? (Hint: you do!)

  • 162. Champions Escape Excessive Cognition

  • - “Expert believe each of us can tap into our own islands of savant intelligence that are simply overwhelmed by everyday cognition.” - Scientific American Mind magazine

  • - The enemy of creativity and clarity is excessive

  • cognition, or having too many thoughts to process at the same time.

  • - “You can’t see the forest for the trees”

  • - Champions know we are living in the age of the mind, where operating with optimal clarity is critical. This is the reason they schedule time to get away and be alone with their thoughts.

  • - The great ones know their single greatest asset is their ability to think.

  • - Action Step for Today: Schedule time to isolate yourself for twenty to thirty minutes every day for the next week, and take note of how it impacts your ability to think clearly.

  • - The Book of Floating by Michael Hutchison #book

  • 163. The Great Ones Are Masters Of Follow Up

  • - “The average person makes lofty promises to people and is rarely heard from again. The leader makes those same promises and over delivers.” – Bill Gove

  • - Average people over promise and under deliver. The world class makes big promises and delivers equal or greater results. When a champion tells you they will do something, count on it getting done.

  • - Action Step for Today: Ask this critical thinking question: “How often do I do what I say I am going to do?” Do you follow through every time, or only when you feel like it? Make a commitment to only make promises you can deliver.

  • 164. Champions Do What’s Right

  • - “Start with what’s right, rather than what is acceptable.” – Peter Drucker

  • - Champions are operating from a love- and abundance-based consciousness. They believe there is an unlimited source of supply, and they have access to the source.

  • - It has been said the greatest among us answer to a higher calling, and that personifies the champion. The higher calling may come from inside them, or from a higher power, depending on their belief structure. Wherever it comes from, it guides the great ones to do what’s right, even if it’s unpopular.

  • - Action Step for Today: When you’re making decisions that demand ethical consideration, ask this question: “What is the right thing to do?” Follow your higher self and do it, even if it’s unusual or unpopular.

  • 165. The Great Ones Think Big

  • - “The life each of us lives is the life within the limits of our own thinking. To have life more abundant, we must think in limitless terms of abundance.” - Thomas Dreier

  • - “If you’re going to be thinking, you may as well think big.”

  • - Action Step for Today: Review your vision for your life, and think about your greatest dreams. Are you selling yourself short? Are you thinking too small? Are you letting fear hold you back from the abundance of life? Do you really have what it takes to hit it big? (Hint: yes!) Rewrite your vision today and go bigger than ever. Trust in your ability to find a way to make your dream come true. You can do it!

  • - The Magic of Thinking Big by David J. Schwartz #book

  • 166. Champions Build Cocoons

  • - “Champions isolate themselves from the masses, not out of pretension, but out of practicality. They know consciousness is contagious.” – Steve Siebold

  • - Champions believe consciousness is contagious, and know they will become the average of their closest friends and associates.

  • - Action Step for Today: Keeping in mind that consciousness is contagious, and that the people around you can either help you expand your thinking or inject fear and scarcity into your soul, list the people in your inner circle. Is it time to upgrade your cocoon?

  • - The Dynamic Laws of Prosperity by Catherine Ponder #book

  • 167. The World Class Chooses Repentance Over Blame

  • - “It is important to admit your mistakes, and do so before you are charged with them. I seize the earliest opportunity to assume the blame.” – David Ogilvy

  • - The heart of the champion’s consciousness is the belief that all of us are responsible for our own successes, failures and errors in judgment. With this level of conviction, the great ones usually choose to repent, as opposed to making excuses or blaming others.

  • - While most champions possess a very healthy ego, they use it to fuel their ambitions, not govern their behavior. In other words, when it comes to interacting with people and problem solving, they bypass their egos and tap their spirits.

  • - Action Step for Today: Think of an event, circumstance, or behavior for which you were responsible, yet chose not to admit fault and repent. As an experiment, go to the other people involved and apologize. See what happens. Notice how their attitude shifts from ego to spirit, and the level of connection you create as a result. Is this spirit coming from inside the person, or from outside, by way of a higher power? Wherever you believe this spirit originates, the power of repentance cannot be overstated.

  • 168. The Great Ones Grow Up

  • - The great ones still feel fear, but choose to confront their fears and ask themselves if the threat is real or imagined.

  • - Professional performers grow up and discover that nothing good comes easy, and if it did, we probably wouldn’t appreciate its true value. The great ones expect to fight for what they want, so when they hit the inevitable obstacles along the way, they are neither surprised nor intimidated. It all begins with their decision to grow up.

  • - “People mired in adolescence have no way of know- ing that the best is yet to come; it is just past the point where you take responsibility for yourself and your relationships, and leave your self-pity behind. Adulthood has been vastly underrated.” – Dr. Frank Pittman

  • - Action Step for Today: Examine the areas of your life and ask yourself this question: “ Am I behaving like an adult in this area...or like a child?”

  • 169. Champions Embrace Diversity

  • - “Diversity is a competitive advantage. Different people approach similar problems in different ways.” – Rich McGinn

  • - Since fear breeds fear, the only way the problem can be solved is to abandon this consciousness altogether and ascend to thoughts of love and abundance.

  • - They embrace diversity, because they are filled with a spirit-based thought process that is devoid of ego, pretense and fear. Simply stated, the world looks very different when viewed though the eyes of love.

  • - Action Step for Today: Set a goal to make a new friend or business contact of a different race, political affiliation, sexual preference, culture, religion or philosophy. Make a commitment to do this at least once a quarter, and you’ll be delighted at the insights you’ll gain from a group you may have previously misunderstood.

  • 170. The Great Ones Use World-Class Language

  • - “Language is the picture and counterpart of thought.” – Mark Hopkins

  • - A champion is optimistic, future-oriented and confident, and their words and enthusiasm reflect this thought process.

  • - Action Step for Today: Become hyper-aware of how people around you talk. Listen to the words they use to describe their experiences. Based on this, evaluate their level of consciousness. Begin to monitor your language, and ask yourself the same question. You’re going to be shocked by how easy it is to recognize middle-class consciousness, and how simple it is to upgrade to the world class. The secret is becoming more aware.

  • - Power Linguistics by Dave Yoho

  • 171. Champions Understand Cause And Effect

  • - “Society constantly expends its efforts to correct effects rather than causes, which is one reason why the development of human conscious- ness proceeds so slowly.” – Dr. David Hawkins

  • - The cause is the way people think about food and exercise, and the solution is to change those thoughts. When those thoughts are upgraded from middle class to world class, the weight problem gently fades and never returns. The internal problem is solved with an internal solution. Our level of health and fitness, like everything else in our lives, is the direct manifestation of how we think. It’s the outward appearance of our internal thoughts.

  • - Action Step for Today: Look at the major areas of your life and ask what’s holding you back from getting better. Next, identify the causes that are creating the effects, and set a goal to attack the cause and solve the problem.

  • 172. The World Class Relies On Infinite Intelligence

  • - “Religion is about obedience. Spirituality is about self-discovery.” – Bill Gove

  • - Champions know the secret to connecting to a higher plane is tuning into the vibrational frequency of the source. This begins by quieting the mind. The secularists seek out a quiet place; the spiritual often go to church or a chapel. The goal is to create sufficient space between their thoughts in order to gain perspective and begin thinking on a higher frequency.

  • - Action Step for Today: Ask this critical thinking question: “Do I use meditation or prayer as a means of gaining wisdom?” If yes, the next question is, “Am I meditating or praying out of love or fear?”

  • - There's a Spiritual Solution to Every Problem by Dr. Wayne Dyer #book

  • 173. The Great Ones Manifest Energy

  • - “The real difference between men is energy. A strong will, a settled purpose, an invincible determination, can accomplish almost anything; and in this lies the distinction between great men and little men.” – Thomas Fuller

  • - The engine behind every great champion’s success is energy in three forms: physical, mental and spiritual. Because the world class operates from a love- and abundance-based consciousness, they appear to have almost boundless energy.

  • - Champions create energy through their thoughts, and their thoughts produce feelings that reinforce their belief that everything happens for a reason.

  • - The great ones believe they are destiny’s darlings; that they were born to win.

  • - Action Step for Today: Be aware of the thoughts you have and ask yourself if they are creating or consuming energy. Just for today, allow only energy-generating thoughts to occupy your mind. Notice the physical, mental and spiritual impact it has on you.

  • - Power vs. Force by David R. Hawkins, M.D., Ph.D #book

  • 174. Champions Embrace Nonlinear Thinking

  • - “Nonlinear thinking is the manifestation of a performer’s flaming desire to breathe life into his or her ultimate vision.” – Steve Siebold

  • - The great ones believe it stems from will. Once they have established the will to succeed, there is no turning back. Their incredible determination creates the need for nonlinear thinking, combined with boundless energy.

  • - Action Step for Today: Examine your problem-solving thought processes. Notice whether you’re thinking in linear or nonlinear terms. Take a second look at your biggest problems. Is it possible to take a nonlinear approach to solving them?

  • 175. The World Class Gets Paid To Think

  • - The days of using physical strength to prosper are over. From this point forward, the world belongs to the men and women of the mind.

  • - “Creative thinking is today’s most prized, profit-producing possession for any individual, corporation or country. It has the capacity to change you, your business and the world.” – Robert P. Crawford

  • - Action Step for Today: List five ways you can increase your value to your business or career by creating new ideas.

  • - Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand #book

  • 176. The Good And Great Are Separated By A Razor’s Edge

  • - “Desire plus sacrifice plus discipline equals preparation. Preparation plus success equals confidence. Mental toughness plus pride equals perseverance. If you have confidence and persevere, you will always have the edge. If you have the edge, you will succeed. Eventually.” – Howard Ferguson

  • - How do you go pro? It’s simple. You decide to do it. Period.

  • - Action Step for Today: Conduct a critical analysis of yourself as a performer. Rate yourself on a scale of 1 to 7, 7 being highest, in terms of the following habits: sacrifice, discipline, confidence, pride, and mental toughness. If you scored less than 7 in any area, make a commitment to do further study on this habit. Any change or improvement in any of these habits has the power to rocket your results.

  • - The Edge: The Guide to Fulfilling Dreams, Maximizing Success and Enjoying a Lifetime of Achievement by Howard Ferguson #book

  • 177. School Is Never Out For The Great Ones

  • - The great ones become great because they are more mentally tough. Through time and effort, they have learned to take control of their thoughts, feelings and attitudes in the game of life and in turn, life has rewarded them handsomely.

  • - Champions invest time in getting better. School is never out for the great ones.

  • - A never-ending cycle of self-education is the centerpiece of world-class consciousness. All it takes to get started is a decision to do it.

  • - “The A students work for the B students, the B students work for the C students, and the D students dedicate the buildings. The most successful among us are not always the class valedictorians, but they are the best self-educated people on the planet.” – Unknown

  • - Action Step for Today: Ask yourself these critical thinking questions: 1) Am I really committed to going pro?

  • 2) Am I willing to do whatever it takes to fulfill my vision?

  • 3) Am I willing to put a plan together to implement the suggestions in ....this book?

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