Relentless Forward Momentum

Eliminate Fears. Smash Goals. Become Legendary.

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Giving It Your All

Life is about giving it your all - in sports, business and every other area of your life.


“I’ve got a theory that if you give 100% all of the time, somehow things will work out in the end.”

– Larry Bird

The summer before my senior year of high school, I tried out for a travelling, showcase, all-star baseball team. It was a great way to gain exposure to college and professional baseball scouts. It was a team that had incredible notoriety in Colorado. If you made it onto this team, you were destined to gain some incredible exposure.

I went out, had an incredible tryout and ended up getting cut.

I was devastated. Actually, that’s not quite true. I was fired up and probably more pissed off than anything. I couldn’t believe I didn’t make the team, especially seeing the talent there. In fact, two of my high school teammates DID make the team.

That hurt more than anything.

I felt left out. I felt like a huge opportunity had slipped through my hands. I felt like I was deserving of a roster spot more than anybody. But, the cards just didn’t fall that way.

I spent the entire summer in the gym, in the batting cages, throwing myself ground balls off my parents’ brick wall (breaking the taillight on my mom’s brand new Ford Explorer once…) and at the local elementary school running wind sprints, doing plyometrics in the sandpit and running sprints with a weighted vest and a parachute. (Yes, I’m the guy you probably pointed and laughed at…I’m ok with that.)

When I get beat at something, I become obsessed with the comeback. I live for it. I was so unbelievably focused on turning that failure into my biggest victory. And let me tell you, I did.

But, this story is not about the success I had in baseball after that failure. This is about the decision I made in the fall of my senior year, and more importantly a good friend named Kyle who repeatedly kicked my a** all fall.

Instead of playing football, I decided to run cross-country (and yes, my shorts were ridiculously short! And I mean uncomfortably short).

My baseball coach made the suggestion to which I reluctantly agreed.

I ran cross-country AND played fall baseball for the high school team. I also went to the gym for several hours every single day, after cross-country practice and playing a 3-hour baseball game. Nothing could get in the way of my quest to overcome being cut from that showcase baseball team.

I was a dedicated, focused and willing to give it everything I had.

Cross-country was a sport that had never crossed my mind once until I found myself at the first practice of the season as a 1st year senior.

I didn’t think cross-country could possibly be that hard. I had played football, baseball and basketball all the way through high school and was prepared for anything. But that first cross-country practice, we went on an 11-mile run.

I was not prepared for that.

Prior to cross-country I considered myself a “runner”, but, I quickly realized that I wasn’t. Before cross-country, I would run 2 miles here, 3 miles there and occasionally jump on the treadmill for 30 minutes.

But, I NEVER ran 11 miles in a day to that point in my life. Ever.

That was the first practice. My legs were shot. I was actually blown away. It was a lot tougher than I would have guessed. It was actually so tough that in the first 2 weeks of cross-country I had lost almost 15 pounds….and I didn’t have 15 pounds to lose! I had to start eating more than humanly possible to support the cross-country, baseball and weight-lifting schedule I was dedicated to.

So, cross-country was difficult. That is an understatement.

In our first meet I posted a time of 24:30 in my first official 5k. Not really that impressive for anybody who has ran competitively.

Then, there was a kid on my team named Kyle. Him and I grew up playing little league baseball together, but we weren’t great friends at the time. He was definitely the star of the cross-country team. He was running 5k’s in the 15–16 minute range. The kid could flat-out run long-distance.

He became my training partner.

I started sticking by his side in every practice and let me be honest, early on, I would stick with him for a bit and then he would lose me. Slowly, I started to be able to keep up with him a little bit longer. But usually, he left me in the dust after a mile or so.

Funnily enough I beat Kyle when we ran timed 200-meter races at one practice, but my sprinting speed sure didn’t help me much in a 3.1 mile race.

Needless to say, I NEVER beat Kyle in a race. Not once.

In fact, I don’t think I ever came within 2–3 minutes of his finishing time. So what was the difference?

What I learned running cross-country was that it was 100% about your threshold for pain.

The best runners were the runners who were willing to push through more pain, for a longer period of time. That was it. Kyle was a great runner because he had simply learned to push his body harder than I had at the time.

Sure, this had come through experience, but it really was all the hours of running he did, that I hadn’t. He had learned that pushing himself an extra 1-minute per mile faster wasn’t going to kill him. Then, another minute faster, still wasn’t going to kill him. It was amazing to me.

I started really pushing myself in cross-country and it became an obsession. Every race was a challenge to beat my previous time.

One of the things I am the most proud of is that every single race, aside from 1 where I was battling shin-splints and we raced at 10,000 feet of elevation straight up the mountain, my time improved with every race. Each race I was shaving 15–30 seconds off of my time. I started to really compete in a sport that I was totally new at.

By the end of the year, I had qualified for Regionals.

I got absolutely smoked by the best distance runners in the state, but I was there.

And, I posted my best time of the year. When it was all said and done my first race was 24:30, but at the end of the season my personal record was a 19:20!

It had very little to do with my physical condition either.

The ONLY reason my times were improving was because I was getting stronger mentally. I was learning how to push my body harder. I was learning how to cope with the pain and keep going.

Like I said, I never caught Kyle in a cross-country meet, but I was always striving to catch him. He was my target each and every race. I rooted for him, but competed heavily with him. Him and I become really good friends that year.

Cross-country was one of the best decisions I ever made. It truly sucked. Every second of cross-country hurt and you always questioned why you were participating in such a miserable sport, but it just goes to show you that the barriers we all face are self-imposed.

I am absolutely 100% certain that I could have physically ran the same time as Kyle. But, in that one year, I was never able to break through the barriers he had already conquered.

I could never convince myself to run fast enough to keep up with him. It’s not that I allowed the pain to win, because I was continuously improving, but I was not on the same mental level as my friend with respect to running. He had learned that his body COULD race at that pace. I wasn’t there just yet…

I think of this in so many applications. We often don’t know what we’re capable of because we have never done it, but once we do, we can never revert back to our old mental state.

I always wonder what my physical limit was in cross-country.

Honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever reached it and I don’t think any other human being has truly reached their limit. I feel like it’s something that’s impossible to reach. It’s like an asymptote in mathematics. You can continue to get closer and closer, infinitely, but you can never quite reach that limit.

And that’s ok.

What’s important, is that you are continuously improving.

Limits don’t really exist, except in our mind. We all have limits that we have placed on ourselves, in so many different areas of life.

The limits I had placed on my body always surfaced in the middle of those cross-country meets. Keeping up with Kyle for the first half mile of the race was easy, but then my mind convinced me that I had to slow down. I had to conserve energy for the remaining 2.6 miles.

I continued to improve, and had a heck of a season, shaving over 5 minutes off of my time. That’s an incredible feat, and I’m very proud of that, but I always wonder…..

What if I had to guts to push even harder? What if at all costs I would’ve committed to staying by Kyle’s side for an entire race?

I can guarantee that I wouldn’t have died. Would I have experienced more pain than I was accustomed to? Oh, heck yea, but, it wouldn’t have been the end of my existence.

I only ran cross-country for one year and I’m certain that I would’ve continued to improve if I had the opportunity to run for a couple of more years. Maybe I would’ve beat Kyle. Maybe not.

I know one thing that is for certain though. Even if I did beat Kyle, that doesn’t mean that I would’ve reached my limit.

I think we all have an infinite capacity for growth and personal development. Physically and mentally. My question to you though, is this:

Are you really giving your all?

Each race I ran, I thought I gave it my all, but there was always a little more in the tank. This isn’t laziness, or complacency, that’s not at all what I’m suggesting.

I just believe that we all have barriers that prevent us from going further. We have to break these barriers down piece by piece. I could not have went out and beat Kyle in my first year. He had too much experience.

I had to continuously beat my previous time. Then, I had to do it again. And again.

This is the only way to achieve incredible results in your life.

It’s to continuously push yourself harder and farther, until you eventually achieve what you set out to do. Then, you start all over.

Life is about challenging your limits. It’s about testing yourself in new endeavors and quite frankly, it’s about getting beat sometimes.

You’ll never reach your limit, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t strive to, every single day.

If you enjoyed this post, you’ll love this one too. Also, I have tons of additional content on my website, including copies of the 3 books I have published, which are available fo’ free (say what?!). All you have to do is enter your email here and you’ll get copies of my books AND regular inspiration, motivation and strategy directly to your inbox. All the cool people are doing it (every single one of them…). Just kidding, in all seriousness THANK YOU for reading this blog and for continuing to allow me to share my ideas with you all. It means so much to me!

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Born To Win: 4 Indisputable Ways to Lead a Victorious Existence

Born to win

You were born to win. You were born to lead a victorious existence. You were born to become a hero in your own respect. You should never settle for less than that.

It’s my belief that you and I were both put on this earth to mesmerize the world with our achievements.

There is not a soul on earth who can convince me otherwise.

Every person who has succeeded, has simply adhered to 4 simple and undisputed principles, which I will uncover in this blog. You were born to win and to unlock your full potential and your innate greatness, you must master some simple mindsets.

First, you must possess a ridiculously stubborn belief in yourself AND your ideas. This will lead you to completely refuse the thoughts of limitation that tend to slow most people down.

Next, you must become unafraid of attempting things which may end in failure. This is the 4th principle of the Relentless Forward Momentum formula and it is to Become Fearless.

Then, you must exclusively focus your energy on doing things that you are good at. You must learn to capitalize on your natural strengths, as outlined in my first book – Relentless Forward Momentum: a 6-step tactical approach to becoming a fearless and unstoppable goal-crushing legend.

Finally, the 4th principle is to become annoyingly persistent, what I usually refer to as being Relentless (it just happens to be my favorite word in the English language…)

So, there you have it. I’ve outlined 4 very simple, undeniable and undisputable principles that will surely help you get to the next level, whether it’s in your professional life, in the gym, in your financial life, or in some other endeavor.

Like I said earlier, you were born to win, but that doesn’t mean you will. Victory doesn’t come knocking at your door. You have to go out and earn it. My goal with this post is to give you the philosophy and the principles but more importantly, INSPIRE YOU TO EXECUTE!

So, let’s get to work.

Step 1: Become Stubborn as Hell

Stubbornness is absolutely crucial to your success.

Being stubborn as hell isn’t a bad thing, as it’s often labeled. In fact, it can be your greatest asset, as it has been for me.  Stubbornness is simply a refusal to give up on yourself, your ideas, your passions and your personal-development.

To me, being stubborn is sticking to something, regardless of what people are saying or the amount of success you are having with it.

I was the absolute worst baseball player on my team at the age of 9.

I was Terrible (with a capital ‘T’).

I hit .115 and was scared to death of being hit with a 5-ounce baseball every time I stepped into the batter’s box.

Yet, I was stubborn as hell.

In fact, I was so stubborn that I didn’t quit baseball, even though it made all the sense in the world at the time.

Everybody, I’m sure even my parents, was convinced that this just wasn’t the sport for me.

There is no doubt that I “should have” quit.

But, that stubbornness paid off in a very successful high school and college baseball career.

More importantly, that stubbornness resulted in learning how to overcome fears in my life beyond the baseball diamond.

If I would have followed conventional wisdom, I would have quit baseball. I would have never faced my fear of being hit with the baseball. I would have watched my friends continue playing baseball while I kicked myself constantly, wondering if I could have.

Worst of all, quitting would have then become acceptable for me.

Even though you were born to win and overcome challenge, you still must exercise your stubbornness. I always saw myself as a baseball player, even when I struck out looking almost every single at-bat when I was younger. I knew that I couldn’t give up on this vision. I had to stay dedicated to fighting through the challenges and being stubborn as hell.  

That’s exactly how you tap into your innate greatness. You have to be stubborn. When you can’t stop thinking of a dream, then don’t. Keep fighting for it. It might not come easily for you, but baseball never came easy for me.

Most great things that happen in your life, won’t come easily. Don’t forget that.

If you can learn to ignore the opposition and ignore that voice inside your head that will tell you to quit, you can overcome the seemingly insurmountable challenges that lie ahead. You just have to stay committed to the process.

As stubborn as I was as a baseball player, I might be even more stubborn as a writer. Have I made a $1,000,000 writing yet? Nope. Not even close.

In fact, in the last 4 years I’ve spent more than $20,000 of my own, hard-earned money to develop myself as a writer and to build the Relentless Forward Momentum platform.

People say that is stupid and maybe, you agree. Who knows?

But, I don’t.

And that’s because I’m stubborn as hell (you knew I was going to say that again, didn’t you!?)

A lot of people are surprised to hear how much money I’ve spent (and continue spending) to learn, educate myself, build a brand, publish blogs and reach new followers.

But, I’m willing to take it even further. I’m willing to spend another $100,000 without batting an eye to make this dream a reality. 

And, I will.

Every writing session I stubbornly struggle through, every dollar I invest to grow my audience and reach new readers and every single minute spent reading, thinking, creating and delivering new content brings me closer to this dream I’ve stubbornly held in my heart for almost a decade now.

Enough about me though. This message is about you.

It’s about helping you unlock the stubbornness inside of you. The stubbornness that knows, deep down, you were born to win. 

The true depth of your greatness is unfathomable and it’s only through sheer stubbornness that you can fully unlock it.

Like I said earlier, you were born to win, but you still must work for victory.

Winning doesn’t just happen. To win, you have to learn to become stubborn as hell, never allowing negative thoughts to rule you, never allowing irrelevant people to influence you and never allowing your failures to prevent you from becoming all that you can be.

Winning is your duty. It’s your obligation.

It all begins by simply becoming stubborn as hell.

Step #2: Become Unafraid of Catastrophic Failure

First off, I don’t believe in catastrophic failure. Not one bit. You can always recover from a seemingly “catastrophic” failure.

Call it confidence. Call it a bit of stubbornness (like we just talked about). Maybe even a little bit of naivety, but you must eliminate failure from your thought-patterns.

You can’t waste time on it.

Think about a group of lions in the Safari (I promise I’m going somewhere with this example!). They go out hunting and fail far more times than they actually succeed. There are many nights that they go home dinner-less (is that a real word?!). This happens a lot. They fail at what they set out to do, for whatever reason.

Maybe the Buffaloes are too big and working too well as a unit, or maybe the gazelle simply outruns the lion, or the lion takes the wrong angle on the attack to have the prey slip through his claws (Can you tell I watch a lot of lion documentaries?!).

All of these scenarios can be considered failures. However, lions don’t become depressed, getting all down on themselves.

They can’t. If they did, they wouldn’t survive. They have to have an attitude that forgets failures fast, just like I talked about in this video awhile back.

Lions stay focused on the next opportunity. They don’t see failure. It’s all part of their process. Some hunts are successful, others are not.

As humans, we have this terrible habit of getting down on ourselves when we fail.

It’s probably the worst trait you can possess. It prevents you from future attempts and it completely strips away your self-confidence.

It imperative that you learn to be unafraid of catastrophic failure.

Just because you were born to win, doesn’t mean you will never fail. Failure is part of the process of learning and developing yourself. You must learn to embrace it, just as you did in your childhood.

Look at most children and you will recognize that they are absolutely fearless in their attempts. They will fall off that bicycle a thousand times until they succeed. They are what I call fiercely determined.

Somehow, most of us lose touch with this childhood fearlessness as we get older.

To lead a victorious existence, you must reconnect with this mentality. You have to stop worrying what other people think. You have to stop dialing back your goals to be more “realistic”. You have to stop worrying that failure might be final, because it NEVER IS.  

The surest ways to living a disappointing life is to let your fire burn out. It’s to start acting like the rest of society. It’s to slowly become more and more “realistic”.

Being “realistic” isn’t exciting and excitement is what sets the human spirit on fire. 

It’s imperative that you have something that excites you in your crosshairs…at all times.

And, it doesn’t even matter if you ever reach it. It simply serves as a target for progress and the creation of momentum.

Bruce Lee once said, “A goal is not always meant to be reached, it often serves simply as something to aim at.”  

It’s crucial that you have something to aim at in life, and it’s just as important that you are fearless in your attempts. Too many people let the possibility of failure stop them from even attempting.

What these people don’t realize is that with every attempt you gain strength. With every failure you move closer to victory. With every setback you find a better way to reup.  

To make something incredible of your life you must begin embracing failure. You must welcome it with open arms. It must become part of the process of BECOMING all that you are capable or being.

It must be the key to unlocks the victor inside of you.

It always brings me comfort knowing that any setback or failure I experience, is not catastrophic. I have developed a deeply-rooted belief that no matter what happens, I can ALWAYS bounce back.

I believe that wholeheartedly and you need to as well.

I don’t believe that anything can stop my progress. Some things can slow it, temporarily, but nothing can STOP it.

As long as you are taking action and have your sights set on some target that will push you, there will always be progress taking place deep within you.  

Every day I believe that I am getting smarter. I believe I am making connections between disparate pieces of knowledge. I believe that I am understanding myself at a deeper level and refining my craft as a writer, business person, man, etc. This is taking place constantly.

This is what gives me the courage to tackle big goals repeatedly.

Do I always succeed? Hell, no.

Do I ever fail? Of course…

…but, life isn’t about the wins and losses it’s about who you are becoming in the process.

This is why it’s crucial that you develop a mindset that is complete unafraid of catastrophic failure. It doesn’t exist. Nothing is catastrophic unless you accept it as such.

Just remember that every challenge, every setback and every failure can pay a huge dividend to you.

If you allow it to.

Work to develop a powerful vision of exactly who you want to become; work to create absolute clarity about the things that you want in life and watch them begin to materialize.

The point of this section is to have you begin welcoming failure into your life. Failure means that you are EXECUTING, which puts you way ahead of the procrastinating majority, anyways. 

Failure is going to occur anyways, so you might as well be mentally ready for it. That doesn’t mean you plan for it, but don’t be surprised by it. Take the opposite approach and profit from your failures!

Once you become unafraid of catastrophic failure, the world will open its doors to you. Nothing will be off limits anymore. Nothing will be able to slow you down.

From there, it’s a matter of directing your energy into the most profitable areas. It’s a matter of focusing exclusively on what you’re good at, like I will discuss in Step 3.

Step 3: Focus Exclusively On What You’re Good At

Call them strengths. Call them skills. Call them gifts. It really doesn’t matter what you call them. We all have them.

You were blessed with a set of natural strengths, unique to you, that if fully applied, will create remarkable, maybe even unbelievable results, in your life. 

This is a huge challenge for a lot of people. There are so many influences around us that most of us never really hone in on what we are ACTUALLY good at.

Maybe you have developed the habit of listening to your parents, peers, and teachers, putting more weight on their opinions than your own. This is a big mistake. You were born to win and to achieve incredible levels of greatness.

To make this a reality, you must discover who you really are; you must reach a high level of self-awareness to understand your strengths. More importantly, you must take action on your strengths. This is where most people fall short. Most people don’t take the time to study themselves and direct their actions based on these findings!

How many people do you know who hate their job in this world? Why do they “hate” it? Do you ever stop to ask yourself why?

I believe it’s simply an inharmonic relationship between a person’s inner-self and their environment. Of course, this is an oversimplification, but I think that’s it. Most people are not doing something that aligns strongly with their natural strengths!

Don’t discount your feelings as being “irrational”, either. A lot of times people play the “tough-guy-card, saying things like, “I need to stick it out in this job because nobody REALLY likes their job.” That’s a cop-out. Don’t make a rash decision and completely eliminate your livelihood, but if you are feeling discontent or a lack of energy, there IS a solution or remedy to overcoming that.

It’s creating more harmony between yourself and your environment. It’s putting your natural strengths to work! It’s seeking enjoyment and pleasure in something. It’s reconnecting with childhood energies and desires.

Don’t look to the outside world. Don’t try to get opinions from others, even though they have your best interests at heart, they don’t have all the information. They don’t know what brews deep inside of you. They don’t know who you are at your core.

This is deep stuff and it takes a lifetime to master. Shoot, you might never “master” it, but listen to your emotions and feelings. They are based on deeply-rooted passions that have directed your life since childhood. They are constantly seeking to reconnect you with who you really are, at your core.

When you reconnect with your childhood desires and begin finding enjoyment in everything that you do, life is no longer a tiresome routine. It becomes an exciting journey of self-discovery and personal-development.

I’m sure at some point you have met somebody who seemed at peace with everything. Somebody who was brimming with contagious energy and positivity. This person seemed full of life and genuinely happy.

This isn’t a coincidence.

This person has simply found a deep connection with who they REALLY are and has created an environment that supports this connection fully.

This person has created a perfect alignment between their natural strengths and their environment. More than likely, they stopped caring about what other people wanted for them and they started listening to themselves.

And that’s exactly what you should do…

Step 4: Become Annoyingly Persistent

Once you master your strengths and create an environment that supports them, victory is right around the corner. The 4th step is to become annoyingly persistent, or, the term I most frequently use, Relentless.

I can think of no greater example of this than a gentleman I met a few years ago, who went by the name, “Nizz”, or Nate. He is what society would call, “a criminal”. There’s no way around it. Nizz was charged with 70-something felonies in 1 night as an 18 year old and had spent the majority of his late teens, 20’s and early 30’s in and out of prisons, halfway-houses and rehab facilities.

He wasn’t an awful human being, he just ran around with the wrong crowd and fell victim to the gang-life. I just remember Nizz telling me about a fight he got in once, and apparently, he got his butt kicked. I guess the guy who beat him up was much bigger than him.

I’ll never forget what he said after telling me about the stitches, black eye and the broken nose that he endured, he said, “I’m not scared of anybody. A guy can kick my ass once, that’s fine. But, I’ll be back tomorrow and he has to do it again. And the next day. And, the next day too. Eventually, I’m going to wear that guy down.”

That, to me, is the epitome of being annoyingly persistent. This guy was willing get his ass kicked a hundred times rather than give up.

Some people have this same type of persistence, but have learned to apply it constructively.

Nizz, did not.

His life was a series of bad choices, compounded by more bad choices. It’s really a sad story.

Someone who has the type of relentlessness that he did, could do some incredible things in this world. I hope that he finds it in himself to still do that. I hope he recognize how to apply this annoying persistence in the most constructive of manners.

I have to say that I really respected the mentality that Nizz had. It’s something I understand completely.

It’s a common trait among successful people; it’s the ability to refuse the existence of failure as a possibility, in any endeavor, whether it occurs or not. It’s a short-memory that enables them to focus on trying once more, even when failure HAS occurred.

Talent is rarely the reason for success. It’s usually, almost exclusively, the person who is the most relentless. The person who is annoyingly persistent, refusing to give up, no matter how insurmountable the obstacles may seem.

Your greatest asset can be your persistence. It can be your refusal to give up and your dedication to making your vision a reality.

The truth is that setbacks and failures are unavoidable. So many things will happen that you have absolutely no control of.

So, why waste time worrying about things that are out of your control? Why waste time focusing energy on anything that is out of your control?

Develop a plan centered on mastering habits that are relevant to your vision.

Then, it’s simply a matter of outlasting the setbacks, the days full of self-doubt and the moments where progress seems to have stalled.

A person who is annoyingly persistent is unbeatable, just like Nizz, who I talked about earlier.

Develop a “it’s not over until I win” philosophy and imbed it in your subconscious mind.  

You were born to win, as I’ve said over and over again in this blog, but it takes effort on your part. It takes a commitment to the 4 principles that I’ve outlined in this blog.

Let’s Review

We all possess an innate greatness that makes us born to win. We all have skillsets that are unique, perspectives that uniquely ours and thought-patterns unlike any other person who has ever walked the earth. It’s time we realize this and begin putting it into practice.

To truly unlock the your inner greatness, you must master the 4 principles that I recently laid out.

First, you must Become Stubborn as Hell.  Stubbornness in this context is a sign of confidence, not naivety. It’s a commitment and dedication to the ideas that fire you up and make you smile.

To become stubborn as hell you must refuse to allow the opinions of others to sway you, one way or another. You have to trust yourself, trust the path you are on and trust that you will figure out the way to make your dream a reality.

Stubbornness is simply refusing to give up on yourself and your ideas, despite the criticism you may experience. Everyone who has done something incredible has heard the proverbial “be more realistic”, or “what makes you so special?”

Sometimes, these words come from the people you love most. It doesn’t mean that they don’t love you to death, because more than likely they do, as outlined by their words. They just don’t want you to get hurt! They don’t want you to experience pain, rejection or failure.

But, this kind of advice can be detrimental to long-term victory. You have to learn to smile and nod when you hear things like this and get back to work.

You have to be stubbornly committed to your own vision. Nobody else’s.

Second, you must learn to become fearless, which means you are unafraid of catastrophic failures. You are unafraid of catastrophic failures because you know they don’t exist. You have developed a level of self-confidence and mastery that gives you a comforting feeling, knowing that you can recover from any **seemingly catastrophic** failure.

That alone opens up a world of opportunity for you. Once you are able to attempt without fear, the barriers of limitation come crumbling down. Once you lose your fear of failure, your energy can be fully focused on victory.

Reconnecting with the childlike enthusiasm that most people lose connection with will be instrumental. When you were younger, you were unafraid of experimentation. You were unafraid of failure.

Failure wasn’t real in your younger years and it shouldn’t be now. When you fell of your bike as a child, you got back on and tried again. Or, if you were anything like me, you would stay outside all night launching 3-pointers from the middle of the street until you finally buried one. I did this because it was fun to make one. I didn’t care that it took me hundreds of attempts!

So, stop worrying about failures. Stop worrying about the “what ifs”. Stop wondering how you’ll meet emergencies that arise in the future.

Things won’t always go as planned and that’s fine. That’s what makes the journey of personal-development so challenging and fun. Learn to embrace it.

Third, Focus Exclusively on What You’re Good At.

As simply as I can possibly put it, you have way more potential to develop your strengths than you do at “fixing” your weaknesses. Too many people have this backwards. Self-awareness is the starting point. Discovering and understanding what you are good at.

Then, in the words of Charlie Parker, “Master the instrument, master the music, then forget all that shit and play”. Once you recognize your strengths, you have to immerse yourself in the development of them, constantly finding new and better ways to express them and utilize them to make your vision a reality.

Unhappiness often comes from a lack of connection to your strengths. Certain tasks make you come alive. Others suck the life out of you.

Take mental notes of what is bringing you the most energy and DO THAT.

It really can be that simple. It doesn’t have to be complicated. When you notice yourself constantly dreading something, eliminate it. Your life depends on it!

You will never live up to your full potential doing something you hate.

Think to a time where you just felt alive. What were you doing? What made you feel so alive? How can you replicate that environment more frequently?

This is a simple starting point. Find your natural strengths and fight like hell to bring them into their fullest expression.

There is something that you were born to do.

You have a gift unlike anyone else in the world. You just have to find it.

Finally, the last principle is to become annoyingly persistent, or Relentless.

This means you don’t give up. It means you always find a way.

If a door doesn’t open, you build one.

Too many people, with enormous potential, give up at the first sign of failure, or worse: resistance! Don’t forget that everybody who has done something remarkable, experience pain, setbacks and plenty of failures along the way.

We always see the end results of so many people’s efforts that it skews our thinking. It leads us to believe that success comes easily, or without challenges, but it doesn’t.

It’s only the people who are strong enough mentally to endure all of the obstacles that they face, who end up victorious in their pursuits.

You were born to win, just like me, but the surest path to victory is to keep trying, especially when you experience failure.  

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(3-ish Steps) for How To Overcome Fear

(3-ish Steps) for How To Overcome Fear

Fear is the only thing standing between you and your vision. Fear is paralyzing. It strips away your confidence. It creates unnecessary roadblocks between where you’re at and where you want to be.

Fear can never be completely eradicated, but I want to teach you the necessary mindset that will not only show you exactly how to overcome fear, but how to conquer your fears and become fearless. It is possible. But, like all great achievements, it takes some self-discipline and commitment to a set of principles. And that’s exactly what I want to talk about now.

Does that mean that you will never experience fear again? Unfortunately, probably not. Will you complete rid yourself of anxiety? Doubt it.

But, becoming fearless means that you take action in spite of your fears. That’s the real meaning of living fearlessly.

I want this to be an actionable blog. Which simply means that I want you to understand why you should want to conquer and overcome your fears and ultimately, why you should become fearless.

First of all, when you face the world fearlessly, you develop an internal confidence that is not a function of the random events that occur in your life. Simply put, you gain full control over your environment. You might not have control over all of the things that “happen to you”, but you recognize the internal power that you possess to always control your response.

This is very, very important. Self-confidence is the key to getting what you want out of life. You will never reach your full potential without a confident aura. People who lack self-confidence are always unsure of their decisions. This indecisiveness creates a timidity, which is an actual, measurable, vibrational frequency…..…[in English please….] This simply means that people can sense your hesitation. If you are unsure of yourself, other people will be too. The good news is that the opposite is also true. Confidence is contagious. Any great leader will tell you that. When a leader is confident, so is the team.

Now, what does that have to do with overcoming your fears? A lot, actually.

If you can simply develop the proper mindset, you can conquer your fears, giving you an overwhelming amount of decisiveness and self-confidence. There are 3 simple principles that will teach you exactly how to overcome fear and the immobilizing effects it can have on your long-term success.

Without further ado….

Step 1: Recognize That Fear Is Not Real

Fear is not real. It’s a product of your mind. When you start really dedicating your mind to becoming fearless and taking steps to learn how to overcome fear, this is the first place you should start.

Fear is an emotion. It’s an emotion that is based on anticipation of negative consequences. Sometimes, it’s good. If you fall into the lion cage at the local zoo (don’t do that by the way), fear is a logical emotional response. It makes sense. You could get eaten by a lion. That would pretty much suck. But, when it comes to going after large goals, fear takes on a very irrational presence in the mind.

In most cases, fear only exists because we have given it power. I mean come on people, public speaking is a bigger fear for most people than death. Yea, you read that correctly. People are less scared of DYING, than speaking in front of an audience. How irrational is that? That fear is holding so many people back. It’s been shown, time and time again, that people’s income drastically increases in proportion to the number of times they speak publicly! So why aren’t people doing it? Yep, it’s fear.

So, the first step in learning how to overcome your fears is to simply recognize when you are experiencing fear. Then, it’s simply asking yourself if it’s rational (I’m stuck in a confined space with three 700-pound predators who haven’t eaten in a week), or if it’s irrational (I’m standing on stage, about to speak to a small group of people and I remembered to wear pants…that’s always a good start.)

Too many times we allow our mind to talk us out of great opportunities. We drastically overestimate the negative consequences and underestimate the opportunities. Overcoming fear means really recognizing the exaggerations of your mind. To live fearlessly and conquer your fears, you must start by asking yourself a few simple questions when you feel fear surfacing. Here are a couple:

  1. What is the origin of this fear? (society, personal experience, negative self-talk, etc.)
  2. Is this a real fear or an exaggeration of my mind?
  3. How will my life improve by overcoming this fear?

Remember, recognizing that fear is not real (in most cases) is the first step you must master in learning how to overcome fear, but it’s simple. Just pay attention to the emotions you experience and why. Slowly but surely, you will begin to take notice of irrationality

Step 2: Be Brave and Be Fearless Anyway

The second step you must master to overcome fear, is to take action anyways. Like I said earlier, fearlessness isn’t an absence of fear. It’s a willingness to be brave and fearless in spite of your fears. It’s a willingness to recognize the irrationality in the majority of your fears. It’s the courage and self-confidence to go after what you want in life, regardless of your hesitations. Don’t think for a second that the incredible achievers of the world don’t have hesitations, because they do. But, they have learned to push through the inertia they feel. They take action, especially when they feel discomfort and fear.

The first step to overcoming fear is recognition. It’s becoming conscious of your fear. Recognition alone is not enough, however. You must be willing to act. You must be brave and you must be fearless anyway. You must recognize that fear is the biggest enemy of your success. It can be paralyzing. It can prevent you from venturing down new, exciting and profitable paths.

People who conquer their fears, take action. They have mastered the habit of stepping outside of their comfort zones. They use fear as indicator that they are heading in the right direction. They create and implement personal strategies that help them recognize and overcome fears every time they surface.

The simplest way to making overcoming fear a habit, is to make it a daily ritual. Some fears might seem insurmountable at the moment, but the key to staggering long-term results, is to break everything down into a series of small steps. That leads me to a strongly related, intermediate step. It’s important to make overcoming fear a part of your daily ritual. You have to make it a habit.

Step 2a: Do One Thing Every Day That Scares You

The number 1 way to overcome fear, in the short or long-term, is to face it head-on. Over and over and over again. Every time you face a fear it begins to lose power over you. Doing one thing every day that scares you, is the key to making habitual and consistent progress towards becoming fearless.

The key word you must remember when you are working to overcome fear is attack. When you attack your dreams, the world makes way. People who are bold, aggressive and more importantly, purposeful, get what they want. Doors always open for people who gain clarity. This same principle applies to your fears. As you attack them, they begin to dissipate. You begin to become fearless. You begin to conquer your fears and the stronghold they have over you.

Learning how to be fearless takes practice. It takes action. It takes a commitment to a life of bold and aggressive action. Conquering your fears is a continual process that might never end, but it will certainly become easier through consistent and relentless action.

Remember that fear loses its power every time you face it. Whether it’s a fear of failure, or a fear of success that has plagued you in the past, it doesn’t have to anymore. You can conquer your fears. You can overcome your fears. You can become fearless.

Do one thing every day that scares you. It’s that simple. Start small. Doing this will really help you realize how exaggerated your fears are. It help you realize that fear is not real. Everybody experiences it, but the people who do incredible things have found a way to overcome fear. They have shattered their fears, one at a time, on a quest to live fearlessly.

As you’re starting to notice, becoming a fearless version of yourself doesn’t mean you anxieties will vanish. It doesn’t mean you won’t experience fear, but equipped with the tools to recognize it and the courage to act when you are faced with it, will make all the difference in your life. Step 2 and 2a are basically the same, however the second part is the actionable item. I want you to pause a second to consider the following questions and how they relate to your life right now:

  1. What small step can you take today to overcome a fear in your personal life?
  2. How about your professional life – how can you overcome fear in that aspect of your life?
  3. What is a fear that has plagued you your entire life and what is a small baby step you can take this week to conquering that fear?

Step 3: Be Patient With Yourself

This point really can’t be stressed strongly enough and nobody is more guilty of being impatient than yours truly. Patience is not a strength of mine but it’s something that can be developed through practice. If you want to learn how to overcome fear you have to realize that you will have good days and bad days in your journey.

You will have days of remarkable progress and other days where it seems like you took 12 steps backwards. That’s ok. Embrace the process and realize that the results of not always reflective of the growth that is actually taking place internally. In other words, the results of your efforts might be delayed. That doesn’t mean they aren’t occurring because they are.

To conquer your fears and become fearless you have to fall flat on your face a few times. You have to experience some rejection and failure. Progress means sometimes having to take a couple steps backward. It’s all part of the process.

I’m here to tell you that you need not be so damn hard on yourself all the time. And trust me, nobody needs this advice more than me. I’m constantly pushing myself to speed up, triple my output and smash all of my fears every day. It just doesn’t work that way.

Overcoming fears that are deeply seeded takes time. It takes small, incremental a bite-sized actions in the direction of your vision. It takes facing your fears head-on and working with diligence on creating Relentless Forward Momentum. That includes being patient with yourself and your progress.

This can often times be the biggest fear for people to overcome. The fear of seemingly not doing enough. But, your greatest work, especially in creative endeavors, is most often done in a state of effortlessness. It’s at a point where you have a crystal-clear vision of where you are headed, yet you are still appreciative of exactly where you are at. You are full of gratitude for your present environment, you are thankful for the fears you have overcome and you are confident of the fears you still have to overcome.

Take a minute to deeply contemplate the relationship you have with yourself. What stories are you telling yourself about your progress, your fears and your future? Let the following questions be your guide:

  1. In what area of your life are expecting great progress, yet not really achieving it?
    1. Is there any fear associated with your progress that might be holding you back?
  2. What are you most proud of over the past few months?
    1. What did you overcome to create such a proud moment?
  3. What can you start doing each day to develop more patience with yourself and your progress?
    1. How will this help you overcome fear and become fearless?

One thing I love to remind myself is that the goal is progress, not perfection. In every area of your life. If you are always chasing perfection, you are always going to be disappointed. But, if you simply focus on progress, you will look up one day astonished with the number of victories you have stacked up. Every great champion recognizes that the key to success consistent progress. That’s it.

overcome fear

The steps I’ve outlined in this post are my gift to you. Let’s review:

Step 1: Recognize that fear is not real.

Stop giving fear power over you. 99.4% of the time it is a product of your imagination (based on no empirical data by the way. Come on though, I used “ish” in the title. Cut me some slack). Fear is (most often) a figment of your imagination and it’s almost always exaggerated. Recognize that. Simply taking an objective look at the things that create “fear” within you, will do wonders for helping you move past them.

Step 2: Be Brave and Be Fearless Anyway

Courage is frequently rewarded. People who are bold and aggressive in the face of their fears usually achieve favorable results. When you do recognize your fears, it’s crucial that you strip them of their power by TAKING ACTION. If you recognize your fears and do nothing about it, I can’t help you. You have to be willing to attack your goals, attack your dreams and attack your fears. Without action you will continue to be consumed by irrational exaggerations and you will never achieve your full potential. (Mic drop).

Step 2a: Do One Thing Every Day That Scares You

This is a lot like step 2, however this breaks a sort of ambiguous piece of advice into a measurable and controllable daily habit. If you ever read my first book, Relentless Forward Momentum, you know how obsessed I am with creating and mastering daily habits that are both manageable and controllable. This is something I call “process-izing” and it’s absolutely, definitely, not a real word. But, I’m not in a high school English class being graded on my work anymore, am I!?!? (I’m just kidding Mr. Weikle)

Step 3: Be Patient With Yourself

Progress is sometimes slow. Learn to embrace the slowness. Don’t demand perfection of yourself. Perfection is simply a form of procrastination. Chase little incremental bits of progress. Face small fears, then face larger ones. Keep doing this until overcoming fears becomes a habits. That’s truly the goal. Once something becomes a habit, you don’t even have to think about it any longer. Once you have developed the habits of facing and conquering your fears, one at a time, you will become the person who does this their entire life. That’s really the goal. Like I said though, being impatient and expecting immediate results will be counter-productive. It will hinder you in the long-term.

Life is all a matter of perspective and when you change your perspective. You change the world around you. It sounds cliché, but it’s absolute #truth. (yup, that’s a hashtag). Your perspective has the ability to change your life for the better. When you change your perspective to one of gratitude and appreciation, the world of possibility will open up for you. Focus on what you are grateful for and focus on being patient. There is no greater exercise of faith than patience. It’s a level of self-confidence that very few people ever achieve. But, you can be one of them!

As you can see, overcoming fear and becoming fearless is pretty simple. I’ve laid out 3-ish simple steps to help you along the way. Revisit this anytime you need. It’s here as a resource for you. Of course you’ll experience tough days and of course there will be days where your progress seems non-existent. Embrace the tough days. Embrace the change the taking place. Embrace who you are becoming.

My parting words are simply this:

Believing that you are on the right path, means that you are.

[Shakespeare Quote:

Our doubts are traitors,

And make us lose the good we oft might win

By fearing to attempt. ]

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No Days Off

No Days off

Saturdays. Sundays. Holidays. It didn’t matter. I had to put my head down for a full year. I had to see what would happen.

I knew there would be a lot of tough days and there were a ton. More than I care to admit.

In fact, there were more tough days than there were good days. That’s no different today. The awful days, the excruciatingly painful sessions, far outnumber the easy ones. Once you realize this fact it is much easier to deal with. As I always say, “The pain is necessary.” It can ONLY make you stronger.

Writing is such a great metaphor for the underlying process to any great achievement. If you dissect any incredible accomplishment there is always some sort of repeatable process that will surface. Something repeatable, a daily habit that, compounded over time, created the results.

This is true in sports. It’s true in business. It’s true everywhere.

I was fortunate to have this concept drilled into my head working in a large sales organization. Forget results and focus on behaviors. Learn to master your habits and you will master your life.

When you can develop a momentum-building daily habit that aligns with your Vision the world becomes yours. You can make anything a reality.

So my real Vision began to develop about 7 years ago, when I was 22. I wanted to build a multi-million dollar online business. I thought publishing a book was a great way to do this, so one day, about 3 years ago, I just decided that I would write 1000 words every single day for a year.

Just to see what would happen.

My writing sessions were life and death. There was nothing in the world that could stop me from putting those words on the page.

Every day was a battle. Every day my mind told me that I could “take just one day off”.

I knew I couldn’t. One day off always becomes another. And, so on.

I had to finish what I started. Every day I dug deep. Every day I wanted to quit. Every day I fought through it.

I just kept stringing consecutive days together. I kept pushing myself to become stronger. I kept pushing myself to create something that would change my life. I kept pushing to make an impact in other people’s lives.

When I started, I had no clue what the result of this 365 day commitment would be. I just knew that I had several professional setbacks and I felt like a lot of things were happening that were completely out of my control and I wanted to regain control.

On the first day, I opened a blank document, stared for a half hour and then just started typing. This became a ritual.

As soon as I didn’t like the direction I was heading I would save the document, open a new one and start over.

I wrote a lot of garbage. A LOT. The “documents” folder on my laptop became a digital trashcan. To this day, I will occasionally open these old documents and cringe. Surely it wasn’t ME who had written all of that junk…….but I did.

After 3 consecutive months, without missing a day, I decided it was time to publish some of my work.
I knew posting blogs in a public domain would force me to get better faster, or else I would face the wrath of internet trolls and online bullies who would constantly remind me how terrible I was.

Sometimes you got to stand in the fire.

That’s when I started my first blogging website, which was titled, “Yes, You Can – The Entrepreneurship Journey”.

This was an important step that helped me discover the types of topics I enjoyed writing about. I always seemed to write something motivational, sports-related, or my personal favorite, controversial rap-style status-quo-challenging blogs. I started to discover a unique voice. My mind began to expand dramatically.

From there, I kept writing every day and slowly started to publish blogs that I was proud of [at the time].

Looking back now, I’m mostly embarrassed. My content was weak. My style was elementary. My messages weren’t succinct.

Shoot – I’m sure I’ll look back on this blog in a year and say the same exact thing. But, oh well.

I believe every awful writing session led me to a great one.

Every mediocre blog helped me create a better one. For every paragraph that made me shake my head in disgust, there was one that made me very proud. Like I’ve said before, it was all a process.

Another few months passed and I landed my first UNPAID writing gig. Woohoo! Did I mention that I was NOT getting paid for any of the other writing I was doing anyway? I didn’t think I had to.

Writing wasn’t paying me big bucks. It actually wasn’t paying me any bucks. But, nonetheless, I became a columnist for a travelling website based out of Boulder, Colorado with my first official column entitled, “Matt’s Motivational Mondays”.

This was another step forward. I don’t know if it was big one or a small one, but I didn’t care. A step forward is a step forward.

This column was important. It gave me a weekly deadline. I had to publish a blog on Monday morning. It put pressure on me to think about my message all week. Much more carefully than I had in the past.
This blog would be blasted out to several thousand people on a weekly basis. I couldn’t sound like an idiot. Who knows, maybe I did a few times. But, I certainly tried hard not to.

Every single day

As I built my personal blog, and published blogs for my column I still needed other areas to direct my writing. 1000 words a day starts to pile up. You create a lot of content.

That’s when I decided I was ready to write a book. I had never done this before, obviously, but I was ready for the challenge.

I began dedicating a couple of writing sessions each week to my various book projects. (Of course my attention span was too short to focus only on one project). Of course, this didn’t make writing any easier. It actually made it harder. I had to make sure I was staying on topic. I had a lot more days where I experienced the dreaded Writer’s Block.

Anytime Writer’s Block set in, I would just open up a journal and just start typing whatever was on my mind. I still do this. It’s a way to work through the tough days. It’s a process that helps me overcome the difficulties that I consistently experience. It’s a tool that helps me fight through the inertia that occurs in any endeavor.

Now I know what you’re thinking……What about the RESULTS???

I’d be lying if I said I never cared about creating results from my writing because I did. I still do.
But, after 12 months of total commitment, here were the results:

• I created 2 full-blown blog websites
• I published over 100 blogs
• I wrote rough drafts for 5 books (not a typo)
• I wrote over 400,000 words
• I became an official columnist for an actual business/website
• I made $0 writing

These numbers might mean something to you. They might not. I’m guessing they probably don’t. That’s totally fine.

There’s a bigger lesson here.

Developing a momentum-building, life-changing habit isn’t about the result of your efforts. Sure, there will be results, but what’s more important is what you become throughout the process.

In 1 year I became a real writer.

I wrote rough drafts for 5 books in my first real year as a writer. All 5 of those rough drafts are sitting on the hard drive of my computer right now. I may publish them at some point, but I doubt it. Those books were for me. Nobody else. I did those to develop myself. To understand what I wanted to become.

All of this writing helped me find a voice. It helped me craft a message. It led me to the idea that ultimately became my first official, self-published book, Relentless Forward Momentum.

That book is just another small step towards my real vision of building a multi-million dollar online business. But it’s a HUGE step.

After 365 consecutive writing sessions I learned more about myself than any other time in my life. I learned what it really meant to commit. I learned what the phrase, Relentless Forward Momentum really means.

It means always finding a way to move forward and create momentum. It means never giving up on your Vision.

In 365 consecutive days I never quit. I wrote every single day. I missed 0 writing sessions.

That in itself is the biggest accomplishment of all. That is what I am most proud of. I made a commitment to myself and I honored it.

Writing has done so much for me as a person but it doesn’t come easy for me. Even now.
It’s a battle every day. But, if you’re not willing to fight every day to make your Vision a reality why even have one?

Writing is work. It is hard mental labor. You are not always proud of what you write.

90% of what I write is never seen by anybody other than me. But it’s all part of the process.

It takes bad writing to discover good writing.

It takes fighting through adversity to become stronger.

It takes failures to succeed.

And that is the point.

You may not want to write, or like to write, or be good at writing, but neither am I. You need to write. Either literally, or figuratively. You need to find a daily habit that coincides with the person you desperately want to become. This, and only this, will provide the results, the confidence and the momentum it takes to be great.

That I promise you.

So start doing something. Take the 1-year commitment like I did and see where it takes you.

Forget the results.

Forget the failures.

Forget all of things that might [and probably will] get in your way.

Do it anyway. Do it for you.

You just might create a story the world desperately needs to hear.

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N.O.W. or Never

N.O.W. or Never

now or never

“Do not wait for a change of environment; it may never come. Your only way of reaching a better environment is by making constructive use of your present environment. Only the most complete use of your present environment will place you in a more desirable one.” – Wallace D. Wattles

“Now” is not a synonym for “soon”. Now means now. In its relation to success, it means doing what you can, with your current resources, in your present environment, to move yourself forward. When you are inspired or compelled to do something, you must capitalize on that initial surge of adrenaline. The longer you wait, the more likely you are to succumb to outside forces that tell you to give up, think smaller, or do something easier. Acronyms are super-cheesy, I get it. I’m using one anyway in the hopes that it will help you develop a process to create action. Action is simply the only way to create forward momentum, so here we go….

(N) – Next Step:

Once you are inspired or have an idea you must think about how you can take action. You must determine how you can move yourself forward, in the direction of its fulfillment as quickly as possible. Often times, people think that an idea has to be fully-formed or perfect before they can move forward – this is simply not true. Ideas are not a static entity, they are a dynamic flow of energy that is ever-evolving and expanding into something bigger and better. By identifying small steps that you can begin taking, you are creating 3 things:

1. Momentum – little steps, repeatedly consistently, create HUGE results
2. Confidence – every bit of progress provides education, feedback and the confidence to take another step
3. Opportunities – new opportunities always find people who are action-oriented (i.e. not procrastinators)

Action is always better than inaction. Huge accomplishments can easily be broken down into a series of small steps. Don’t allow huge goals to intimidate you – focus on the little steps that you can control to keep moving forward. When you are busy you have no time for negative thoughts or self-doubt, you just keep creating and building momentum until eventually, nothing can stop you!

(O) – Opportunities Around You:

Now that you have taken a small steps towards your goal or idea, you must begin looking around you – at your present environment. Often times, there are opportunities that you never realized were there. Opportunities seem to always surface once you have started taking action on an idea or goal. You start to see the world differently; you start to see the opportunities all around you. Maybe your goal is to write a book and you realize that your boss is looking for someone to write blogs on the company website. This would be a great opportunity for you to develop your skills as a writer. Or maybe you have a great idea for a website and you find out your good friend’s brother is a website developer. These opportunities are hidden all over the place, it just takes a deeper sense of awareness to start uncovering them.

Use the opportunities around you to propel you to greater ones. Don’t ever wait for your environment to change – change it yourself. Take Nelly for example. He is an extremely successful rap artist and entertainer now, but before he was the Nelly we know today, he was working night shifts at UPS. His true passion was music, but at that point in time, it was not making him any money. He used the job at UPS to create a bigger opportunity. The job was a blessing because it gave him the freedom and flexibility to work on his music all day, while still giving him the income to support himself. Instead of complaining about a job that he probably did not enjoy, he used his current situation to build his dream. He has shown us all that you can take advantage of all that you currently have to push yourself to new heights. This is how people go from good to great. They look around them and see all of the opportunities just waiting to be seized.

(W) – Winning Idea

I hate to break it to you, but not every idea you have is going to be a “million dollar idea”. I can confidently tell you, that many of my “great” ideas, were not so great. Some I might even consider bad. That’s perfectly fine. Bad ideas lead you to good ones. Good ideas lead you to great ones.

Finding a great idea starts with taking action. You will never find that great idea if you do not start taking action on your good ideas. By taking small steps forward and looking around you for opportunities, your ideas will evolve. By pursuing ideas you learn their weaknesses and find improvements. Sometimes you just find total impracticality and you move on. This is still a victory – you have learned something to develop your idea into a stronger one.
Big results come from small activities. Focus on things that are in your control and do not worry about the things that are not. The next time you have an idea or a goal that you are striving to reach, follow the simple formula above. Take action as quick as you can, even if it is small. Look for the opportunities around you and capitalize on them and do not be afraid to give up a good idea for a better one.

Keep dreaming big and taking action, my friends. Like Zig Ziglar always says, “I’ll see you at the top.”