Navy Seals, Model For Success

Navy Seals, Models For Success.

American captain Richard Phillips was taken hostage then freed from Somali pirates after they were persuaded by a Navy Seal Team this week.

Well, only one was persuaded, the others were killed by the Seal Team Snipers.

Special Ops are a great group to model success by. They have things in place that once set in motion have a very high percentage rate of success.

You can use this model in business, your career or day to day living.

Let’s look at it.

1.      They have an objective. They know what the mission is before they start.

2.      They work as a team and back each other up.

3.       They sharpen their skills daily. (Stephen Covey – they sharpen the saw.)

4.      They always have a contingency plan. Expect the unexpected.

5.      They risk.

6.      They commit.

7.      They take action.

8.      They never give up until the mission is complete.

9.      They serve others. And aren’t we lucky.

Then after they reach the goal or complete the mission they go back and work on 2. 3. & 9.

This is only a broad scope, but you can see why they are successful at what they do.

I almost forgot one very important step.

10.  *They gather as much information (intelligence) as possible before the mission starts and as the mission continues. This helps them adjust their approach if needed.

If you are already implementing these steps I salute you.

Got Passion?

Imagine for a moment that you were out in the middle of the ocean on a

yacht. Then all of a sudden you got pushed over the side and fail into the

water. Then you felt a hand holding you down, keeping you under the water.

With all your effort you try to push to the top. You’ll try every possible

means to reach the top. You would be motivated, excited and full of action.

That is the type of passion I’m talking about. That’s the kind of passion that

makes the difference in your life.

With passion and purpose you will always encounter some risk. Along with

risk you will have some fear of the unknown. You may ask yourself what if

this never works out. Instead ask yourself what if it did work out. Don’t die

with your music still in you.

So, how do you create that passion that we’re talking about? How do you

find that one thing that stirs you deep down in your soul?

One - To begin with you must have a vision. You must have a vision of a

definite goal or purpose. Purpose has to come first. That’s why I put it first in

this series Purpose, Passion and Power. The Bible tells us that “those without

vision perish.” The vision you hold constant in your mind is the vision that

helps create the passion that pushes you forward. James Lane Allen said,

“Your vision is the promise of what you shall one day be; your ideal is the

prophecy of what you shall at last unveil.”

Two - Have faith in yourself and for the things you strive for.

 Faith + Passion + Action = Courage.

Mark Twain said, “Courage is not the absence of fear but the

control of fear.” Create the habit of knowing that you can handle any

challenge that comes along.

A positive knowing that you can learn and grow as you go forward.

You don’t need all the answers when you start. Anything worth doing is

worth doing badly in the beginning. When we learn to walk as babies

 we crawl, stand, fall and then we walk. We never stop when we fall,

that’s why we’re all walking around today. The falls from your past doesn’t

equal your future.

When Bill Gates sold his software idea to IBM he didn’t have any software to

offer. He persuaded IBM to use his software and then he started to work to

find it and become the richest man on the planet. He didn’t have all the

answers that day, but he knew he could find them.

The wake of a ship is only an indication of where it’s been. You don’t captain

a ship by looking behind you. At least the captains I know never do. You

can’t direct your life in the direction you want to go by looking behind you

either.

Three - Seek wisdom. Ben Franklin once said, “Genius without education is

like silver in the mine.” Any fool can become passionate and highly

motivated, and then you only have a passionate highly motivated fool. Work

on yourself daily. Read books and quotes that keep you on fire and

passionate. Listen to audio programs that feed your mind with good

motivational messages that inspire you. Inspire means to be in-spirit which

means breath. If you’re not inspired then you have no breath, if you have no

breath you have no life. Stay inspired.

Four - Create the habit of discipline. Re-center yourself every morning or

when you find yourself getting off track. Morning is the best time of day to

get yourself centered and on course for the day. Take the first half hour to an

hour of the morning to get your mindset in order. When you first wake in the

morning you’re still in alpha state, the same state you go into during

hypnosis. This is the best time to help program your mind for success. Go

over your goals list. List all the reasons why you’re passionate about this

vision or goal. Imagine the successful outcome and how you and the people

you serve will benefit. Make your blueprint for the day. Look for the circumstances

you want and take action!

George Bernard Shaw said, “The people who get on in this world are the

people who get up and look for the circumstances they want and if they can’t

find them, make them.” Too often people let circumstances stop them dead in

their tracks. When you find your passion, you will find the circumstances you

want.

“If thought is the seed of creation then action is the doorway to results.”

…Rodney (Lynn)Lane

Success Skills Part 3

Nine - Make sure your major goal serves people in a virtuous way. When you

do this you will respect yourself and gain the respect of the people around

you.

Be kind, patient, and generous to others. Remember the Law of Sowing

and Reaping. When you sow a good seed you reap the good rewards every

time.

The greatest gift you can ever give is the gift of yourself. When you

have the virtues of kindness, patients and generosity you build your character

and your inner strength.

Ten - Be bold. We come into this world without fear of new adventures,

without the fear of what others may say or think. Our brain is designed for

greatness, but as we grow we become programmed for failure.

We are born with the fear of falling and the fear of loud noises. All other fears

we learn as we get older. The good thing is that our fears are learned and

 conditioned responses.

That means we can unlearn them and recondition our habits. The

best way to defeat fear is through action. Make action a habit every day. The

action habit will help you grow in confidence and lift your self-esteem.

Eleven - Take action. Take some type of action toward your goals as soon as

you finish all the other steps. Action will help you gain momentum.

We all learn in school from Isaac Newton that once an object is set in motion it

remains in motion until acted upon from an outside source. So get in motion

now. Now if some outside source shows up to throw you off course (and it

will), gather more information, reevaluate your options and change your

approach if you need to.

When a plane takes off from Dallas and has a destination of New York, it’s off

course most of the time. The pilot is always adjusting the plane to keep it on course.

The pilot knows where the plane is going and keeps moving in that direction.

The same is true when you’re working on your major goals in life. You’ll be off

course from time to time, but if you know where you’re going and you have the

self-discipline to adjust your path and keep in a forward motion you will get there.

Twelve - Read your goal list daily. We know that we can only hold one

dominant thought in our mind. Emerson said, “A man is what he thinks about

all day long.” The Bible tells us that “As a man thinks than that also shall he

be.” When you review your goals daily you begin the process of focus.

You’ll begin to notice things that will lead you nearer to your goal. People

will show up to help. You’ll find resources that didn’t exist before. The

universe will be on your side. The things you’re seeking are also seeking you.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now will it be hard? Yes! Will there be times when you’ll want to give up

and quit? Yes! Will there be times when people will turn their backs on you

and let you down? Yes!

Will it all happen overnight for you? No! But, if you follow these steps and

stay persistent, and continue to learn and grow from the successful people in

life you will arrive at your goals much quicker.

“Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though

checkered by failure…than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy

nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory

nor defeat.”

…Theodore Roosevelt

Success Skills – Part 2

 Success Skills.

.

.

.

Five - Write your goals down. Most people never write down their goals

because they say they know what they are and don’t need to. The winners in

life write down their goals in a clear focused manner. Just by writing down

your goals you start the Attitude of Attraction to working for you. You will start

to attract the things you focus on the most. You should have one major goal

or purpose then smaller goals to support that one big goal or purpose. When I

started on my black belt in Kenpo Karate I knew the big goal was the black

belt, but the most important belt is the first belt. The smaller goals will

always support the big goals. Write your goals down in the present tense as if

they were already here. Write your goals down with a deadline. Give yourself

a time limit to accomplish each goal. (Things happen and if you don’t make your

deadline, create a new on.) Make sure each goal is measurable. For

example, you can measure a salary increase or losing weight.

Six - Determine the price you’ll have to pay for it. I know you’re saying,

what? Pay for it? Yes, here’s what I’m saying. What are you going to have to

learn to reach your goal? How hard do you need to work for it? What are you

willing to sacrifice for it? Are you willing to stay up late at night and get up

early for it? Are you willing to sweat hard for it? If you can’t answer these

questions, then you are not committed to your goal. You must pay the price.

There’s no free lunch in this life. You must pay in advance.

Seven - Write down every reason you can to support your major goal or

purpose. Why is it you are working toward this goal? Through research we

know that if we have reasons for our goals we tend to stay focused on the

goal at hand. I myself do what I do because I had people in my life that said I

couldn’t do the things I said I wanted to do. They would laugh or just roll

their eyes and walk away. Some were my own family. So think of reasons

that will inspire you. Reasons that will get you re-fired for action when you

need it.

Eight - Create a plan and make it happen. Write out your plan in detail. Go

back about every three months and reevaluate where you are. You can’t build

something that will last without a plan. Start where you are now and think

about where you’re going. Start from the foundation up. Just like a giant

skyscraper. Zig Ziglar says you can determine how high a building is going to

be by how deep the foundation is. Get your foundation deep by preparing

yourself for action with a good plan.

.

.

 To your success!

Have a Great Day!

The Parade Of Life

We will continue the external, internal motivation in a few days.

This morning, I am thinking of my 3 year old soon to be 4 soon to be 24 year old Great Nephew.

He is the inspiration and motivation behind this new company I am building. My wife and I never had kids and my nephew is more like a son to me. I plan to build this business and hand it over to him at a later time for many reasons.

I know that Google will still be around 20 years from now and he will know computing at a early age.

But here is a story that I like to tell. This happened on a saturday morning when I took him to breakfast and I think it folds right into my theme. I also have this story in my book “Never Ending You.”

Enjoy!

A Christmas Parade

This Saturday morning, like most Saturday mornings, I had my little three year old nephew with me.

I love to watch him learn new things and to see what new ideas and words he comes up with. He always gets the attention from the waitresses and they tell him how hansom he is.

One of the waitresses told me a story about her granddaughter.

She had plans to go see the Christmas Parade in town and thought she would take her little five-year-old granddaughter. They both joined the rest of the large crowd and stood waiting for the parade to come by.

Just as expected, right on time they could see down the street that the parade was on the way. As the people on the floats passed by they would wave and the little girl would wave back with a big smile on her face.

 The grandmother was enjoying the parade as well and was really focused on all the different floats. As she turned her head to look at the next float see notice a familiar face waving to the crowd, it was her little granddaughter. The little girl had ran out and jumped on a float.

The grandmother ran out to the parade float and got the little girl off and was relieved she was alright. The family laughs about that story still to this day. Seems the little girl wanted to be in the parade and join the fun and not just stand there and let it pass her by.

Are you going to stand and watch the parade of life pass you by or are you going to jump in and enjoy the ride?

Remember that you are in charge of your life. You have the awesome power to change things in your life. It’s up to you.

Motivation

I want to talk about the two areas of motivation.

External and Internal.

External motivation happened to me years ago as I was driving home from work. I owned a car that had t-tops and I had them out on this hot summer day.

The car had sat outside all day with those tops off.

At quitting time I got my paycheck, jumped in the car and started down the road thinking about how I was going to pay the bills with this $120.00 check and have enough left to go out for dinner with Deborah my wife that night.

Well, I was in deep thought when for some reason I looked over my right shoulder and I thought I saw a copperhead snake dart from under the front seat to underneath the back seat. I took about two seconds to pull that car over and jump out.

 I was walking around that car trying to figure out what I was going to do. I knew that snake had to come out of that car before my wife would ever drive it.

Did I mention it was her car?

I also knew I had to get the car home and that was luckily about five miles down the road. So I decided to drive the car home.

 I jumped in threw it in drive and it took me about sixty seconds to drive that five miles as I was constantly looking down between my feet, paranoid of a sudden snakebite.

 I got the car home and jumped out.

 Now what?

I took about an hour looking for that snake. After taking the back seat out, I finally saw the snake. And I did get it out.

 If you ever wonder how to get yourself to take action, just imagine how fast you would move if you were trapped in a car with a poisonous snake and apply that energy to your efforts.

The second is internal.

I’ll talk about that later.