To Be A Success

Hail in a Blizzard

The world is brutal. Failures are like hail in a blizzard. They will pummel and crush you until you are backed in a corner, begging for your life. Just as you overcome one failure, there seems to be another that arises, calling to be addressed. Your shoulders become heavy with the baggage of your mistakes. Your body become worn while your moral slowly chips away. You find yourself in the fetal position waiting for it to end. Will the failures ever stop? Should I call it quits and return to my comfort zone, far away from the treachery of failures?

Rising from the Ashes

The hail blizzard continues to thrash. You are far from shelter, from safety. Life is fleeting, and you are on the brink of death. There seems to be a light, something shining in the fog of the wartime blizzard. This light is shining from within you. This light is what initially sparked your journey to success. Where has it been? You’ve become so preoccupied with the storm that you’ve forgotten the light that kindled within you, so the light diminished. The light has always been there. Now, you remember why you started. The light grows brighter. Now, you feel something new, something you’ve never felt before. The light grows brighter. Your muscles tighten, and you feel a miraculous power serge through you. The light sparks into a flame. You’ve never felt this type of power before. Ambition transforms into manifestation. The blizzard stops.

A New Skin

Ambition excites. It launches you into an endeavor with high expectations. When you experience failures, these expectations are injured. The plans that initially embarked you on the quest are bound to be flawed, just as is the world is. Don’t let your ambition cripple you with denial, rather let it drive you forward with change. To rise from the ashes, you must be willing to accept the change that comes with success pursuits. Holding on to old ideas will bring you to your knees while the hail crushes you.

Never live on ground level; have your head in the clouds and look down. The ground will eventually come to you.

You will feel helpless at times, only because you are living in a land of uncertainty. The longer you endure this uncertain land, the more it will become certain. Failures are the world’s greatest teachers. If your goals do not scare you, they are not set high enough. If you do not feel helpless, you are not pushing yourself hard enough. Persevere through the helplessness, and you will make the unfamiliar, familiar.

A Little History of IQ

The IQ test was invented in the early 1900s as an is indicator of natural human intelligence. Back then, IQ could determine whether you were a genius or subpar. The people with high IQ scores were praised as awe-inspiring with their knowledge. “Why are they so good at math? How come I am not as fortunate Steve? How does he know so much? He must be a genius! I am never going to be as successful as him.” These are the common ideas held by people of that time. Now, times have changed.

The Fall of IQ

What value is IQ if knowledge is at the tap of a finger? Smartphones and the internet killed IQ. Today, anyone can know anything at any time, whenever they want. People with high IQs are no longer considered the beacons of success . The supply of knowledge has drastically increased, thus the demand of naturally intelligent people has decreased. Anyways, it takes a lot more than IQ to be successful. It takes grit.

The Rise of EQ

Humans are emotional creators. We act and respond with emotional tendencies. If we gain control over our emotions, we gain control over our lives. 90% of what a person says is processed by how they said it. The other 10% is the content of what they said. Emotional intelligence allows a person to notice another person’s emotions and talk or act accordingly to them. It also gives us an understanding of our emotions. Empathy and self-awareness come with emotional intelligence. Anyone can acquire knowledge, but few can gain control over their emotions.

The Potential of EQ

Successful people have a very high EQ. No one can reach success without being good with people or keeping themselves motivated. Passion is emotion, as is ambition. Self-awareness, also known as emotional intelligence, allows one to read which emotions they feel, just as easy as reading words on a page. Self-awareness is key. Negative emotions alter to positive emotions with EQ. Grit, perseverance, and emotional toughness form through sharping the understanding of yourself and your feelings. The arsenal of emotional intelligence includes empathy and internal drive… people skills and motivation. The two traits required for success.

What exactly is our gut?

Our gut our natural decision making function. It dictates what we will do when pressured to make a decision. Formally it is known as our intuition, our subconscious way of acting in any situation that requires action. All of us have it. Some people are well-tuned with their intuition, and some are not. Your intuition is your compass. It guides the decisions you make and the direction you place yourself on, but, only if you let it.

Should we follow our gut?

Yes, actually no. It depends. Do you have an informed intuition? If so, then you will know what to do in any given situation. If not, then you need to consciously devote yourself to make the right decision. The only way to know the right decision is to be consciously informed, which in turn acts to inform your intuition. For instance, you might have read a book about being better with people. The book will give you a map to consciously act out. After taking actions in the right direction, your intuition will follow and adapt. Once your intuition has adapted to your new direction of decisions, then let it take over and continue to make those decisions. This is how you have an informed intuition.

How do you know when to follow it?

Once you are unaware you are acting out in the manner you intend to, you no longer need conscious effort to do so. This is when your intuition is taking over. If it is working the way you intend it to in order to bring you closer to your personal success, then let it do its thing. If it is not working the way you want it to, make a conscious effort to correct it.

You build your intuition through experiences guided by direction.

What area are you intuitive in?

We are naturally more intuitive in our area of strength. Focus on your strengths and your intuition will take you to success. If you go into a craft that focuses on your weaknesses, then you are bound to slip up and make your weaknesses known, which kills creditability and respect. Go into a craft that is fully focuses on your strengths so that your weakness become insignificant. Nothing can stop you when you have your intuition backing you. Blowing up your strengths will push your weaknesses into a corner, and cause them to shrivel in fear, not daring to show themselves in face of your strengths. Let your intuition lead the way to your success, but keep it in check when needed.

Emotions can either make or break us. You can become fiery with passion but you can also become lethargic with remorse. Emotions are inevitable, and a basic part of our human biology. Do not let the primitive, emotional brain (amygdala) dictate the thinking brain (neocortex). What is the primary characteristic that separates us from apes? Our brain. Our brain allows us to act on logical and rational conclusions, and not purely emotional bursts. Watch any animal and take note how they react to their environment to survive. All they do is react and move on. They stay with the simple monotone tune set by nature.

Human Thinking Power

Humans are different. We each individually set our own tune. This is the work of the emotional brain and the thinking brain working together in harmony. You can think about a certain topic but what gives you the incentive to think?

Our emotional brain works as a painter and the thoughts work as the painting.

Emotions come first, always. They then move the strokes of thought until they convey an image, a complete thought. We also have the ability to sell a complete thought to other people but that is to be discussed in the topic of influence. Emotion dictates the action and composition of a thought, but it must be balanced.

Emotional Channeling

If you become ruled by emotions, then you are bound to make rash judgements that you might regret later when you start to think with your logical brain.

Think with your emotions, do not let your emotions think for you.

We are not animals, so do not allows emotions to take helm. What makes a person great is his or her ability to control emotions and channel them. I’ll explain in a personal story of mine:

I rarely touched the field in my early years of high school football, so when the time came it was a big moment. My front foot was lined up with the kicker prepared for a kick off. I was nervous and my heart was pounding. My emotions were about to make the situation ugly… until I took a breath, identified the emotion, and channeled it to a productive cause. In my case, this was to tackle the guy at the other end of the field who had the ball. When the kickers foot made contact with the ball, next thing I remember was tackling the ball-carrier before he made any significant yardage. I provide this example to show the power of emotional channeling. Here are the four steps of emotional channeling.

1: Take a breath.

2: Identify the emotion.

3: Recognize it as energy in motion.

4: Avert the energy to a productive cause.

Channel your emotions with conscious thought, and don’t let your them control you. Ask yourself at random times in the day how you are feeling. Take note. This will build self-awareness so that you will know when you are acting through emotions, or when you are using emotions for your benefit. Use them for your benefit.

The Bad Mindset

A mindset determines your probability of success. There are several mindsets that can produce yielding results of success, but most mindsets are not this. The number one mindset today is the thought of entitlement. This can be identified in a multitude of ways. One, the person does nothing but play video games, watch TV and internet videos, or does nothing but waste time on mindless activities and expecting to achieve a great deal of success in life. Don’t get me wrong, watching TV and playing video games are not an entitlement mindset, but when it is constant and coincides with the belief that you will be successful then it is.

This [the entitlement mindset] is the belief that everything will fall into place just because you think you deserve it. Do not have this mindset.

Poverty is unimaginable to this mindset but they do nothing to combat it. A sense of entitlement is contagious. These people will attempt to spread their mindset to others. Misery loves company. These entitled minded people may lean toward verbal aggression against others who are putting in the work to be successful. Anything that makes these people seem lazy and incompetent is a threat to their being, so they react. Reality is that these people are a disease, and, in fact, are lazy. They do not take ownership for themselves. Extreme versions of these people may be seen in the bar, or may even be alcoholics in some cases. Stay away from these people if you value your success.

The Success Mindset

The mindset for success is the opposite of the mindset of entitlement. You must feel entitled to absolutely nothing, but strongly desire success. That strong desire for success is important otherwise you’d just be homeless. Your desire is the coal to your steam engine that keeps your train chugging and chugging.

Once you fully understand the mindset of zero entitlement, then you will realize, and actually fear, the idea of poverty – you will do something about it.

You understand that everything in life needs to be worked for. Nothing is for free. Nothing at all. Action is your mantra. You must act or you won’t have. You won’t sit and watch, you will take. It is easy to become complacent when you have nice things around you. My principle for basic motivation is to live in a poor environment so that the desire for something better grows. The more you are around luxury, the easier it is to become complacent of the feats required to obtain them. Don’t lose your stoicism. Remain hard-skinned and have the zero-entitlement mindset coped with a strong desire for something better, and I will guarantee you the best chances of success.

What does “Leader and Manager” mean?

Every person must have some degree of leading, as well as some degree of managing in themselves. Whether you know it or not, there is a distinct different between the two. Leaders are direction oriented and forward moving. Managers are the pillars that hold the components together. Now to make it more clear:

Imagine a ship in the middle of the ocean. This ship is you. The ocean is the vast world. What can the ship do? Well, a ship must have a crew, and a ship must move. How is the ship going to move? The crew must work together to pitch the sails, determine the direction of the wind, and many other variables that work together. The manager would oversee in coordinating the crew to make something happen. But where are they going to sail? Where is the best possible direction to move toward in order to hit land or reach treasure? This is the job of the leader.

Physical vs. Mental

The leader and the manager must work together in harmony for a perfect execution. Managers and CEO are the backbone of a corporation, for example, and they operate the same way demonstrated in the ship analogue. These are leaders and managers that we can visibly see, but there are also leaders in managers not seen to the human eye. They are in ourselves. Our mind must constitute as a leader and a manager and work autonomously. We must know where we are going and we must manage the components within us.

Application

First, the leader must create movement, otherwise known as setting a goal, making decisions, and taking the first step.

Once the direction or goal is set, then the manager must govern the emotions, tendencies, and habits in order to reach the goal.

For example, if you want to lose weight, the leader will know what needs to be done to achieve it. Cut carbs, study nutrition, make a workout schedule, set a time frame for execution, and the number of pounds desired to be lost. Next, the manager must make sure these plans are executed since the leader gathered everything need to accomplish the goal. Some days you will feel too lazy to go to the gym or eat the right foods, but the manager will identify these emotions and realize the bigger picture that the leader set. Therefore, by shear will-power in some cases, the manager must execute.

The manager begins to build the habits and keep the emotions under control so that over time they will become second nature, hypnotic rhythms under the control of the unconscious mind. The leader may now set new goals and consciously build upon the unconscious.

Thus, the leader and the manager builds the mortar of an individual, promoting grow and proper purpose in the construction. Synchronization of leader and manager truly is the skill to master.

What has changed?

If you’re reading this, I’m guessing you made the ultimate choice to demand something better for yourself. In all honesty, the choice was the hardest part. Once the choice is made, everything else will be a breeze and appear to just fall into place.

After making the choice, you will be willing… no, you will be enthusiastic about all that follows.

“All that follows” will seem grueling to the people who have not made the choice. You will push yourself beyond your limits, and disacknowledging your comfort zone. The comfort zone is your worst enemy. Fears are cancers of success. Your mind is open to all possibilities and you will do whatever it takes.

You fully realize that you can have whatever you want when you do whatever it takes.

Time

What does “whatever it takes” entail? Well, it requires you to compartmentalize time. Time is your most valuable asset. You don’t have much time. It is being spent right now reading this blog; therefore, I will make good use of your time. You will make good use of your time. Anything and everything that you do burns the one commodity that you do not have much of, time. Time is scarce. Although time is fixed, it can be made. Time can be made by sacrificing the things that are not important to your overall purpose. An overall purpose is formed with your choice. If you don’t have an overall purpose, you are just wasting away as the clock ticks, as time takes its toll on you.

You realize that there is never a time in life that you will not be making the most of the time that you have.

Rest

You are all in, but, of course, you realize that some rest must be allotted to recharge the hustle. The more charged the batteries, the brighter the flashlight. But you remember that the reason you are resting is so that you can hustle later and be a more effective goal striver. So, resting is a means to an end. Look forward to the hustle, not the rest. The choice is going to pay off. You already see where you want to be, and will make it reality. This is the best choice you made.

To begin the success in your life, it just comes down to a choice.

Are you…

• willing to settle for who you are right now, or do you want to achieve something greater for yourself?
• fine with being just like everybody else, and working the 9 to 5 job like everyone else?
• willing to learn what it takes to be a success, or are you just in it because it sounds cool?

This is a lifetime commitment.

So many people are focused on that one big break or that one big opportunity to present itself to them, but they would not be prepared for it even if it occurred. Make opportunities readily available for you, and know what it takes to execute when the moment arises. Make your own luck. I will teach you how to do this and then some. I wish to improve your relationships, work life, and happiness.

Success is the over encompassing word I will use to define the greater purpose everyone is called to.

I wish to unveil the ignorance and shine light on the truth so that all people see how easily success is achieved. Don’t get me wrong, if it was so easy everyone will be doing it. But, what seems hard will become easier as time progresses and mental paradigms shift. It just comes down to deciding when to take responsibility for your life.

The decision is yours, and nobody else can make it for you.

I will inspire you, and I expect you to inspire those around you. So, let’s get started on this awesome journey, right now.