Game ON indicates that there is something to work for, something to play hard at…something to have a winning mentality about. Game ON is your life…and the way to win it is to understand that it is a constant work in progress, stop looking at adversity as something ‘bad’…look at it as a challenge and then see the possibility that exists to turn it around. No game worth playing is easy to win; the best games are the ones that keep issuing challenging new situations, just like your life. There is no plateau to get to here, every time you master a challenge God sends you a new one, a harder one…the happier you are to see the challenges the faster you turn them into a win. When you whine and cry “poor me” over circumstances you lose your power and your ability to overcome.

This life wasn’t meant to be comfortable, it was meant for you to grow and to become something different than what you started out as—in the words of George Bernard Shaw you should strive to be all “used up” when you die…running at life full speed ahead calling out to the shitty circumstances, “is this the best you can do??? is this all you’ve got??? Well it isn’t good enough…you won’t stop me!!!”

God favors WARRIORS —warriors run at adversity full steam, swords in hand, screaming at the top of their lungs. Wimpy, simpy people have small lives—WARRIORS live life OUT LOUD knowing that no adverse circumstances will conquer them, warriors help other people to live better lives, to be better people.

I encourage you to live life as a Warrior, in business, in your personal life—everywhere. STOP letting fear stop you and wear you down, no circumstance is permanent— not poverty, not sickness, not homelessness—NOTHING…everything condition can be transformed and Warriors understand that, they do not accept what is told to them—they make their own reality…you can do that too.

BE A WARRIOR!!!!

Today’s business news touts the fact that we are headed toward a Bear market and that the economy continues to be challenged…anyone solely using this news to focus their day would, most likely, be depressed. It all depends on what you choose to believe there are plenty of places right now that you can look to find news and information that will inspire you…possibility exists everywhere, you just have to SEE it. If you choose only to focus on mass media, you will get sucked into all the doom and gloom stories.

You can choose something different, you can choose to create something new, you can choose to revitalize your business by filling a need, you can choose to serve people and you can choose to INSPIRE. Simply choose to have the wisdom to spot opportunity and choose not to fill your mind with thoughts and media that isn’t helpful.

The same stories are out there day after day, it doesn’t mean that we need to dwell on them…there are plenty of people prospering in this economic circumstance…they are the people that are too busy producing results to listen to the bad news…be one of those people today…

A good Brand needs to ignite a love affair between itself and its customers.  That relationship becomes something that people can’t live without, something that they will go out of their way to be involved with.   A  great Brand will naturally bring return buisness because its biggest concern is its relationship with its customers…most people and businesses these days aren’t concerned much with relationship, they are more concerned with telling you what they want you to know about them.

There are so many things grabbing for your attention in this new media world…the only things that are really going to capture attention are things that are so different from the ‘norm’ that you can’t help but notice them.  The handwritten thank you note is one of those things…hardly anyone takes the time to send them anymore, yet it is such a strong statement that you do things differently.   Brands that are committed to doing things differently and taking care of people are the brands that will win as the economy revives itself…

I am learning from various sources that consistency is one of the main ingredients of a successful life, I am also learning that consistency is an area that I need A LOT of work in:)

Starting working Darren Hardy’s “Living Your Best Year Ever” system last week and I scored myself this morning on last week’s performance…a whopping 34%!!!! Granted last week was a horrible week for me, however I have promised myself that no matter what I am going to follow this system which includes a weekly evaluation.

Today the poor performance last week has made me more aware of making sure I do better…so far I am on track for a perfect score for today…I will keep you posted!

This morning Darren Hardy posted a Brian Tracy quote on his Twitter feed…”Dress for success. Image is very important. People judge you by the way you look on the outside.” This quote supports the point I was making yesterday about YOU being a BRAND.

Many people will tell me that they are unhappy with their present life circumstances and that they want to make more money and have more success and then I look at their lives and their personal habits and how they conduct their affairs and it becomes very apparent to me why they are where they are in life. People are where they are because of WHO they are…nobody is responsible for their lot in life EXCEPT for them…and most people don’t want to hear that. Most people want to play the blame game, they want to blame their childhood, their bad marriage, their parents, and their boss and on and on and on…

BOTTOM LINE—if you don’t like where you are YOU have to change and you have to admit that no outside force is responsible for you being there.

Darren Hardy’s book ‘The Compound Effect’ (www.thecompoundeffect.com) has reinforced to me two very valuable lessons:

• YOU are ultimately responsible for everything in your life
• CONSISTENCY is KEY to successful change

Many people want to have more or make more money, however very few people are actually committed to doing whatever it takes to get those results.

I have studied success principles since I was 12 years old, I’m now 42 and I am still learning and still pushing myself to go higher and it is still hard work…I don’t see me ever stopping and I don’t see it getting any easier…

You are a Brand…whether you want to admit it or not. Everything you do either strengthens your brand or weakens it…the company you keep, the way you dress, your personal habits, the way you interact with others…every, single thing you do showcases your personal brand to the world around you.

So, being that you are a Brand, do you know what you stand for and are you clear about the message that you ARE communicating to the world around you?

Is what you ARE communicating consistent with your “image” of yourself and does it accurately express where you want to go in life? Will the message that you are giving out get you the results that you desire?

Everything the Trump’s do is consistent with their Brand’s message…is your message as consistent or do you think it doesn’t matter how you show up?

Who do you want to be?

A statement on my office wall reminds me—always– that you can accept the reality of a situation, however you are NEVER to accept its permanence…Possibility is NEVER absent. How many people even really understand what this means?

It means that– yes, SHIT happens…however when it is happening it is not set in stone, when something doesn’t go your way or turn out the way you want, it doesn’t mean that your life sucks! It SIMPLY means that the particular relationship or situation did not turn out the way you wanted. Possibility is NEVER absent; it is only hidden from our view when our negative thoughts and words obstruct it. We are the only people that can keep our own good from us…not your boss, your spouse, your kids or the government…only YOU. You keep your good from coming to you by engaging in thoughts that are not useful…thoughts like :

“I will never have another girlfriend like THAT”

“ I will never have money again”

“My career is awful”

“the economy is bad, it’s no use”

“I’m this old and this is what my life is like??? REALLY??”

“my car is old, my living quarters are awful”

“everyone around me is annoying”

And ON and ON and ON it goes…if you let it. Once that dark ball gets rolling in your mind, it’s hard to stop. It takes a GREAT amount of effort to stay positive in the face of anything, a GREAT amount of effort to stay in faith that things will be better, a GREAT amount of effort to trust that good is coming. Nothing good comes easily, nothing lasting is formed without great effort. Life is not supposed to be easy, that Staples button is a crock of shit…the fantasy of that button manifested itself from a society that is becoming lazier by the day…HARD WORK is how you gain anything that matters and you know why you get to keep it after you worked your butt off for it? Because you EARNED it…you did whatever you needed to do to get it and you elevated yourself in the process and so now you earned something and you became a different person because of that.

Whining and wishing for the EASY button will bring you a whole lot of NOTHING and if you do manage to grab something from the EASY track, you won’t be able to keep it because spiritually you didn’t earn it, nor did you change in order to receive it. Why do you think that so many people that win the lottery end up losing it and having their lives ruined? Because they didn’t EARN it.

Your life is the way it is because that is how your life is supposed to be at this moment, you are where you are because you need to learn something, because you have to grow and test new skills…if everything was EASY you wouldn’t learn a damn thing.

There is GOOD in every situation even when you can’t SEE it! It is there…it will show itself faster if you can remain open to the fact that possibility is never absent, possibility is like GOD…ever present…

I am not saying that you should avoid whatever ‘reality’ you are currently in, I am saying be mindful that it is simply a PASSING circumstance…DO NOT accept the permanence of any situation…EVER

Everything can be altered…everything…

It is difficult to initiate change when one becomes complacent. Webster’s defines complacent as marked by self-satisfaction especially when accompanied by unawareness of actual dangers or deficiencies. The key in this definition is the part about being unaware of ‘actual dangers or deficiencies’…complacent is a place in consciousness where nothing new happens, it is an area of ‘no change occurring’…when change is not occurring things become stale and stagnant.

Becoming complacent is like settling for what you got instead of being uncomfortable and moving on to get what you WANT. People do this in business, they do it in relationship, they do it in marriages and they do it with their health. CHANGE is hard work, it is uncomfortable, it doesn’t plateau…it keeps things moving…when things are moving new growth happens.

Complacency is dangerous because it allows for you to stay in situations and circumstances that don’t work…we all do that, we make excuses for people and things, we tell ourselves it is ok even when we see and hear ‘RED FLAGS’…when we do that, when we stay in things that don’t work to their best ability, we steal a little bit of our aliveness every day, every day that we make concessions and excuses is a day that we lose a little bit of ourselves.

It is upsetting to make changes, life is messy…out of mess comes order…out of chaos new things are formed.

It struck me this morning that well most people want to get somewhere in life that they are not, how many of them are living into the right question.

That question is:

WHO WOULD I HAVE TO BE TO __________?

Fill in the appropriate blank with what your goal is. Personally, I have a particular income goal in mind for 2011 which makes my question “Who would I have to be to make XXX money this coming year?” Soooooo many people want to do better, have more, make more etc….yet a lot of those same people fail to realize that you have to BECOME someone different to achieve higher goals. Who we are now in this moment is what allowed us to get where we got—to get to another level we have to UP the personal ante.

You cannot achieve higher results by staying the SAME and I think that is something that most people are missing.
Ghandi says to BE the change we want to see in the world and that holds true here as well…things won’t change unless we change and unless we start asking ourselves the tough questions and answering them…

So far some of my answers to the question are:

I would be someone who went to the gym 5 days a week at the same time everyday NO MATTER WHAT.

I would be someone who actually USED their expensive calendar system.

I would be someone that made a list of priority tasks every night for the next day.

I would be someone that took my supplements faithfully every SINGLE day.

I would be someone that updated their blog EVERYDAY as a discipline.

I would be someone that didn’t procrastinate about anything…

I am going to keep up the inquiry with myself and make a list of who I would have to be to meet my income goal for 2011. What are your goals and WHO would you have to be to meet them? It is an interesting question to live into…