How To Stay Motivated & GET During Life’s Low Point
SQI Security Entrepreneur Series 21
Proven Techniques To Stay Productive During Tough Times
I’ve got some bad news for you: the world doesn’t care about your plans. Seriously. You may have all sorts of ideas, you may be excited about your grand visions, but let me tell you, nothing will come of any of these unless and until you take action.
You have to understand that the world only cares about one thing and one thing alone: results. The world is always asking: Can you get things done? Can you do the big things in your life that truly matter? Everything else doesn’t matter. Sadly, most people fail to take action on the big things… because they are having a tough time with the small stuff.
As you probably have already heard, life is what happens when you have other plans. Don’t be surprised if you constantly put your big dreams and visions on the back burner. Chances are, if you’re like most people, you end up wasting a tremendous amount of your personal focus on the penny ante stuff right in front of you.
You’re sweating over the small stuff. But each and every day that passes is a missed opportunity to do the things that truly matter in your life. If you’re like most people, you can’t even manage to take care of these small things so you can free up enough time for the things that truly matter… This is why you struggle.
Your big dreams remain as distant as ever because you’re just so caught up with the small stuff in the here and now. If you are sick and tired of living far below your fullest potential, listen up. This book is the answer to your problems.
This book will teach you to become a more effective person. Personal effectiveness means building a system that helps you do more stuff, in less time, and at higher levels of quality. Do this right and you will be able to free up enough time and motivation for the big projects that will move your life forward.
LIFE REWARDS ACTION
As I’ve mentioned in the introduction to this book, there’s only one thing that the world cares about: results. I think we could all agree on that. It doesn’t care about your feelings.
It doesn’t care about your intentions or motivations. It doesn’t care about any of that. All it cares about is what it actually sees. The world is objective. Do you earn $100,000 a year or not?
Do you have a big house or not? Do you have a Ferrari or not? Can you dunk a basketball or not? These are the very basic black and white questions that the world asks.
Everything else is just fluff. If you are able to wrap your mind around this, let’s take things a little deeper. Success is defined by what you do. Please understand that results are only possible when you take action. Everything else is empty talk.
Accordingly, if you want to be successful, you have to do things. You have to take action. Success is defined by what you do, not what you dream about, your potential, your hopes and wishes. Everybody’s got those. Anybody can daydream. But to actually achieve your dreams, you have to do. Similarly, to live a life of purpose, you have to do. You can’t live a life of purpose doing nothing except hoping and wishing.
Believe it or not, to achieve happiness and joy, you have to do. You have to take action. This is a big problem for a lot of people because most of us are afraid to take consistent action. Most of us can wrap our minds around the need to take action.
Most of us can manage to do that. Unfortunately, we think that we only need to take action one time in a big way and the rest will follow. It doesn’t work that way. If you’ve ever worked on a big project like, getting a college diploma or building a successful business, you should have noticed that it takes consistent action.
You don’t just get the reward the first time you press the lever or the first time you swing the bat. It doesn’t work that way. You have to keep trying over and over again, despite the fact that there are obstacles in the way. Consistent action trips people up because we are afraid that the road ahead is long and hard. We tend to focus on the obstacles. The more we look at the obstacles, the more we lose sight of our ultimate destination. We get taken aback by the stuff we need to let go.
Remember, if you are on the road to success or to great riches or wealth, the road or the process changes you. You have to sacrifice. You have to change. You have to let go of certain parts of your personality. This is painful because most people fear change. We’ve grown accustomed to doing things a certain way or thinking about things a certain way. It’s very scary to let go of the things that we are familiar with.
We end up worrying about what we stand to lose. The more you hang on to the harmful mindset that you can “coast through life” relying on your past successes is an illusion. Your skill sets erode over time. Eventually, you reach a point where you don’t even know what to do to produce any kind of result.
That’s the path that you’re on. The way out of this dilemma is to understand that the world rewards action right here, right now. Not tomorrow, not the day after, not next week, but right here, right now. I need you to do one thing right now. If you want to proceed with this book. I need you to decide to get things done… NOW! If you have decided to do things right here, right now, meet me in THE NEXT PAGE.
BEST PRACTICES IN GETTING THINGS DONE
These are some best practices that you should adopt if you would like to become a more effective person. Not all these best practices apply to all people. They don’t apply across the board. However, if you see any of these applying to your set of circumstances, don’t hesitate to adopt them.
Start Now
I don’t care what’s going on in your life, but you have to commit to starting now. I know it may seem inconvenient. You probably are tempted to hold things off until tomorrow. However, let me tell you, tomorrow will never come. The more you keep saying to yourself there is always a tomorrow, the more you doom yourself. You’re just giving yourself an out. You’re giving yourself excuse after excuse not to start. You’re giving into your fear. Don’t do that. Resolve to start now. Of course, what I mean by that is not immediately, but starting at a certain predefined date. However, regardless of what you’re feeling, when that date comes, you snap into action and start.
Every Baby Step Forward You Take is a Victory
A lot of people are under the impression that if they are looking to boost their personal effectiveness that they have to get out of the gate like some sort of Kentucky derby thoroughbred. Absolutely wrong. You don’t have to get out of the gate like a champion. You can take baby steps. That’s okay. As long as those steps are consistent, you are making progress. Always remember that every baby step forward you take is still a step forward. In other words, it’s still a victory.
Every Failure is a Victory in Disguise
When you run into a snag, don’t allow yourself to get emotionally down. Seriously. When you run into a problem, you get an opportunity. You get to learn how to fix problems. More importantly, you learn how to change your personal character to get poised for greater success. Your failures don’t have to define you. Your emotional stress doesn’t have to derail your forward progress to eventually victory. Focus on the big picture and, most importantly, focus on solving problems in the here and now to take you one step closer to your eventual goal. Now, understand that sometimes when you attack the front door, you can’t make any progress. That is the cue you need to go through the side door. If that is sealed off or is unavailable, try the roof or the basement. Whatever you do, keep trying.
Focus on Building Systems
People who fail are focused on hacks. They’re focused on figuring out what to do at the right time at the right place. Now, this is a problem because you’re basically just betting that you will get lucky. Oftentimes, luck doesn’t appear when you need it. So, focus instead on building a system. It’s not terribly sexy, but it’s effective. It’s all about having the right sequence of tasks that you do so you can tackle whatever comes your way.
Get Enough Sleep
If you really want to give your all to your daily tasks every single day, get enough sleep. When you get enough sleep, you get enough willpower. Willpower is the “currency” that you pay to achieve things every single day. Improve the quality and length of your sleep so you can have the resources you need to accomplish things that truly count every single day.
