Posts Tagged ‘Vision’

Newton’s 1st Law of Success: Perpetual Motion

Posted: April 12, 2013 in Goals, Natural Laws, Vision
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Newton's Law of Success

We all know about Sir Isaac Newton.

Gravity, the apple, inventor of calculus.

Some of his most famous work was his Three Laws of Motion.

This post is the first in a series of three, looking at how Isaac Newton’s Laws of Motion are also really Laws of Success. They each apply to us every day and our understanding of them will lead us to greater happiness, fulfillment and achievement.

Let’s get started.

Newton’s First Law of Motion: An object in motion will remain in motion unless acted upon by an external force.

blue_glass_marble___stock_by_mrdragonx-d4u249lSo if we rolled a marble on a glass floor, it would keep going and going but eventually stop because of gravity and the friction of the glass table. When an asteroid flies through outer space, it will keep moving straight ahead practically forever until it runs into something or its course is changed by the gravity of some planet.

But how does that apply to you?

This idea was introduced to me by Steven J. Anderson, Behavioral Physicist and all around great guy.

Have you ever had one of those days where things started off bad and then seemed to get worse and worse as the day moved on? Then you go to bed worrying about what else could happen tomorrow and dream about more bad stuff. Sure enough you wake up the next day in a bad mood and before you know it you have put together a bad week.

This is an example of an object in motion in a constant direction. Something happened to you in the morning that was equivalent to you pushing that marble on the glass floor. So your day proceeds in that bad direction. It will continue in that bad direction unless something acts upon it to change its direction or stop it. Some outside force has to come into play.

You are that force!

A bad experience doesn’t have to become a bad day. A bad day doesn’t have to become another bad day or a bad week. If you aren’t happy with the way your life is going, you have to act upon it to change its course or else it will just keep going the way it has been.

Here are some things you can do to change or improve the direction of your life:

#1 – Talk to yourself!

The things we say to ourselves on the inside have a big effect on how we feel about our day. If you have had a crummy day, don’t lay in bed and think about all of the bad things that happened. That just accelerated the marble in the wrong direction. Instead, why not read something motivational or inspiring? (Of course I think Successify.net is a great source!). Or, you can try neuro-linguistic programming (NLP). NLP is a a process where you basically tell yourself, out loud or on the inside, positive phrases about who you want to be or how you want to live.stuart_smalley

For example, some of my favorites are, “I can do hard things!”, “My mistakes make me stronger!”, “Don’t forget to be awesome!”, “I can do anything I set my mind to!”, “Tomorrow will be the best day of my life!” Sounds a lot like the old Stuart Smalley skit from Saturday Night Live.

When you say these things to yourself, your brain starts to release the hormones that make us feel happy and motivated. It literally “gets the juices flowing.” When you are able to go to sleep with those types of thoughts in your head, you will sleep better and wake up more energized for the next day. You will have pushed your marble in the right direction.

#2 – Set goals for yourself.

Another great way to change poor perpetual motion is through goal-setting. When you set goals for yourself you are basically saying, “Here is where my life is going but I want it to be a little better. So I’m going to make a plan to change to this better direction.” You are building up the energy that will then be exerted on your “marble”. Without goals, life tends to flow along wherever the world takes it, like a stream running down a hill. It will follow the past of least resistance, which usually isn’t the path to success.

Choose some things you would like to accomplish in at least three areas of your life: career, family, health, spirituality, relationships, etc. Then write down at least one aspect that you would like to improve on or accomplish in each area. Make sure your goal isn’t abstract, like “I want to be more friendly.” or “I want to eat healthier.” True goals have to be specific and measurable. A good example would be, “I am going to give a compliment to 5 people every day.” or “I am going to lose 5 pounds before June by not snacking on candy every day and exercising 30 minutes a day.”

Once they are written down, are specific, and have a deadline, you need to post them somewhere where you will see them every day. I prefer the bathroom mirror or on the monitor of my computer at work.

If you do this, you will notice within a few days that the direction of your life has been changed for the better.

#3 – Change your routine

We’ve all heard the term “stuck in a rut.” It doesn’t have a very positive sound to it, does it? Our lives are, for the most part, a series of patterns or routines. We repeat them every day. Some of them, like going to work, cannot be changed. So what do we do when negativity sneaks into our daily routine? I find that some simple changes to the pattern can have a ripple effect that improves the whole day. I cannot easily change the fact I go to work every day but I can choose what I listen to on the way there. I can choose what route I take. I can choose to leave early enough to have a relaxing drive instead of leaving late and frantically trying to get there on time.

Small variations in the overall pattern of our day allow us to find new experiences and get us out of the “rut”. Often times we are stuck in a rut by our own choosing. If the pattern of our day is not working out for us, change the pattern! Mixing it up a little will affect your overall mood and help you go in the right direction.

Conclusion
Signature of Isaac Newton

Signature of Isaac Newton (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

As Newton taught us, our life will head in the direction we set for it. If we aren’t careful, other factors will enter and try to pull it down or to a stop. We need to apply constant pressure in the right direction or alter the course if we see it veering away from our intended goal. Apply Newton’s 1st Law of Motion, or as I call it, “Newton’s 1st Law of Success” and you will have a lot more successful days.

Next time we will talk about “Newton’s 2nd Law of Success: Acceleration”

Kris

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You Were Born for This!

Posted: April 4, 2013 in Attitude, Courage, Willpower, Work
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Born for This

Why are you here? Have you ever stopped to wonder?

Some would have you believe that you are merely here because of a reaction between two complex molecules. They would have you believe that there is no purpose to your life other than to procreate and advance the species. You are not special. You are nothing more than a random mixture of DNA. Born DNA

They will tell you that the world is made up of only greed, selfishness, and misery. They will tell you it is okay to become cynical, negative, and depressed because that’s how life is. They will be angry with envy when you succeed. They will be content and self-congratulating when you are down. They will never stop criticizing everything else because “life’s not fair.”

They will tell you that your biggest dreams are foolish and that your deep emotions are over-exaggerated. They will keep an eye on you and when you start to peak your head up above the crowd, they will try to pull you back down. If you step out of their line, or march to a different beat, they will be ready to “fix” you.

They will remind you of your mistakes. They will discount your joys. They will tell you that you are not unique; that you are just like everyone else. They will show you pictures of what you should look like or how you should act. They’ll say you need to “go with the flow.” They will tell you all of this whether you want to hear it or not.

They are wrong.

You were born for this roller-coaster called life. You were specifically designed and engineered to tackle whatever obstacles come before you and to come through triumphant.

You were born with a unique ability to think differently than everybody else. Your thoughts and feelings have never been experienced before by anybody in the way that you put them together. There is nothing about you that is “just like everyone else.”

This experience we call life can be difficult at times. One day you are on top of the world and the next day you feel like the weight of the world is going to bury you. Some days life will lift you up and others it will beat you down. The great secret is that you get to decide what happens after each up and each down.You can learn from both if you choose to.

You won’t be able to control 99% of what happens around you in the world but you will be able to control 100% of what happens within you. Your thoughts and emotions belong to you and nobody else.Born for Victory

You were born with an ability unique to the human race. It is the power of choice. Conscious decisions. That ability gives you the opportunity to choose both the shoes you wear and the car you drive. More importantly, it gives you the ability to choose your attitude. In every uncontrollable circumstance, you get to choose to be positive or negative. To sit quietly or to stand up and shout. To shrink or to fight.

So when the world is crashing down around you, when it feels like you are alone or isolated, when you are continually criticized for just trying your best, remember that you were born for this! You have everything you need within you to overcome. Decide what you want out of life. Decide what it will take to get it. Decide how hard you are willing to work for it. Then go and make it happen. The more they criticize you, the more certain you can be that you are on the right track.

Enjoy the journey, you were born for this!

Kris

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John F. Kennedy’s Case for Dreaming Big

Posted: April 1, 2013 in Goals, Vision
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JFK moonThis weekend I was reading John F. Kennedy’s speech at Rice University in 1962. You may know it as the speech in which he declared that we would put a man on the moon by the end of the decade.

This speech is fascinating because at the time it was given, the United States hadn’t even put a man into space yet. The U.S. was repeatedly getting embarrassed by Russia, whose space program was breaking new ground over and over again. In the space race, the U.S. was falling way behind.

When Kennedy took the stage that day he knew he needed to do something to inspire the American people; to wake the ingenuity and creativity of a country. He knew it would take the strength and support of an entire nation to achieve such a lofty goal.

Here are some of my favorite excerpts from his speech: (you can watch, listen, or read the speech HERE)

“…we meet in an hour of change and challenge, in a decade of hope and fear, in an age of both knowledge and ignorance. The greater our knowledge increases, the greater our ignorance unfolds.”

“So it is not surprising that some would have us stay where we are a little longer to rest, to wait. But this city of Houston, this State of Texas, this country of the United States was not built by those who waited and rested and wished to look behind them. This country was conquered by those who moved forward–and so will space.”

“The exploration of space will go ahead, whether we join in it or not, and it is one of the great adventures of all time, and no nation which expects to be the leader of other nations can expect to stay behind in the race for space.”

“For the eyes of the world now look into space, to the moon and to the planets beyond, and we have vowed that we shall not see it governed by a hostile flag of conquest, but by a banner of freedom and peace. We have vowed that we shall not see space filled with weapons of mass destruction, but with instruments of knowledge and understanding.”

“But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic?”

JFK Go to the Moon“We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.”

“To be sure, we are behind, and will be behind for some time in manned flight. But we do not intend to stay behind, and in this decade, we shall make up and move ahead.”

“To do all this, and do it right, and do it first before this decade is out–then we must be bold…But it will be done. And it will be done before the end of this decade.”

The way he presented this vision to the country teaches us three valuable lessons about how we should set our personal goals.

#1 – He set a goal big enough to inspire us.

Short-terms goals are important to keep us moving forward. They can be achieved with just a little more focus and attention. But our overall vision for our life needs to be big and inspiring. We should feel joy and excitement every time we get one small step closer to achieving that vision. Kennedy did not just say, “Let’s catch up with the Russians.” He didn’t say, “Let’s get a man to orbit the moon and return.” He took it 10 steps further by saying we would put a man on the moon, get him back on the ship, blast off back into space, then return to earth. The technology to do most of these things did not even exist or hadn’t even been imagined. But once the vision was in place, things started to happen.

#2 – He identified the problems or obstacles

Kennedy didn’t just flippantly throw out a dream about going to the moon. He basically said, “Look, we are way behind. We’ve had some very public failures. It will take everything we’ve can muster to pull it off. But it is worth doing. If we want to be a world leader, we need to be leading in the space race.” As we look at our vision for life or our long-term goals, we need to identify where we are currently and what are the obstacles we will need to overcome in order to obtain our goal.

JFK Space Race

#3 – He set a deadline

Every effective goal has a deadline. Kennedy was not satisfied with merely saying, “We will go to the moon.” He said, “We will put a man on the moon and return him home before the end of the decade.” When did it happen? July 20th. 1969. When writing your goals, put a deadline on them. This adds a level of urgency in our brain which will push us that little bit harder. It transforms our goal from an abstract wish to a concrete objective.

#4 – He got to work

In the parts of the speech that I left out, Kennedy talked about how he had increased funding to the space program, tripling the amount spent the previous year. He called upon NASA to increase its work load. He told the nation that every working American would essentially giving 50 cents a week to space exploration. He was telling the country, “Here is the vision, this is the plan, this is when it will be accomplished, we’re all in this together so let’s get to work.”

Conclusion

We all have a bunch of goals, dreams, and desires floating around in our head. They give us hope for our future. They give us something to look forward to. Hopefully they inspire us. The trick is turning them from dreams into action. To do it, we need to follow the points that President Kennedy taught us:

#1 – Find a dream that inspires you

#2 – Locate the obstacles

#3 – Set a deadline

#4 – Get to work

May you have a wonderful journey on the pathway to success!

See ya on the moon!

Kris

JFK moon langing

What if money was no object?

Posted: March 22, 2013 in Life
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This is such a hard principle to teach people because we have been programmed to think of success and satisfaction completely backwards.
I hope you enjoy it. Remember to chase your dreams!

Kris

11 Ways to Be Unremarkably Average

Posted: February 25, 2013 in Vision
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Ways to Be Average

Do What Makes You Feel Alive!

Posted: November 30, 2012 in Courage, Vision
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Ask YourselfThis is such a cool representation of how many of us are trained to give up our dreams at a young age in order to fit into a cultural norm or to meet the expectations of others. Artwork by Gavin Aung Than of zenpencils.com

- Kris

Get Those Hands Dirty!

Posted: October 18, 2012 in Vision, Work
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    When I first started consulting businesses and providing life-coaching for individuals, I felt that the greatest thing most people lacked was a vision. A real, solid vision of what they wanted for their business or for their life. Most people have dreams floating around in their head of how nice it would be to do this or have that. But very, very few have taken the time to sit down and really think through their ideal life and then write it down. I always felt that if a business or individual could just do that, they would be on their way to a more successful life.

I still believe that to be the case but I have come to realize that there is a second factor that actually seems to trip up a lot of people. The second factor is a desire or willingness to work. A vision is rendered completely worthless if we aren’t willing to work to make it happen.

I’m not talking about going to your job, or cleaning the house, or playing with the kids. Those are responsibilities that need to be done. I’m talking about elective, hard work that you do without a deadline or without somebody looking over your shoulder. I’m talking about getting the things done that will really improve your life or bring you closer to your vision.

It is the kind of work we decide to do when our bed, or the couch, or the TV look so tempting. When we feel like we are just too tired to do anything. This is the work that sometimes seems like it will take forever, so we never get started. This is the type of work that we are afraid to do because we fear rejection or failure.

This is the type of work we need to do if we are ever going to achieve any of our goals.

Sometimes it is making that extra phone call. Or perhaps it is sitting down to work on a family budget. Maybe it is just turning off the TV for 30 minutes to have a conversation or play a game with your spouse.

I have found in my life that the most meaningful work I can do towards my goals is quite often the last thing I really want to do at that moment. I have to force myself to get started and get the hands dirty. I have found that once I get started, it is never as hard as I thought it was going to be and when I get done I have an enormous sense of accomplishment. If I decide to watch TV instead, all I get is a better knowledge of Seinfeld re-runs.

The great accomplishments in life come only after we have put in the effort, gotten our hands dirty, and earned the rewards that only come to those who are willing to go to work for their goals.

May your hands be covered with the dirt of success!

Kris

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Any Direction You Choose!

Posted: October 16, 2012 in Life
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Image

 

Wake Up

Posted: September 14, 2012 in Attitude, Discipline, Goals, Happiness, Hope, Life, Perspective, Vision
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Last night someone asked me why I started Successify! I have always had different answers to this question but none of them ever seemed to describe why I really started it or what it’s purpose is.

As I thought more about it on the drive home, these words came to mind:

“I look out and see a world full of promise and opportunity…and it is waiting.

I look around and see people full of promise and potential…but they are sleeping.”

And I realized that it was a great way to describe what I’m trying to do. I feel like we live in an amazing world where it has been proven time and time again that ANYBODY can rise up and create a fabulous and successful life.

But I think most of us don’t ever do it. Sometimes it is because of self-doubt. Sometimes it is because we let life get in the way. For whatever reason, we give up our greatest dreams about the time we hit college. We stop thinking big and start thinking practical. We put our ambitions into hibernation. And by the time we realize it, we feel like it is too late. Or that we just don’t know how to get a jump start.

The vision I have for this website and company is to help people “wake up” from their proverbial slumber. To tell people that it is time to start living the life they always dreamed of living and show them how to do it. I want to form a community of like-minded people who want to work together and support one another in adding the elements of success into the family, their business, their relationships, and their personal lives. I don’t want anyone to get to the end of their life and say, “I really wish I would have…”

I hope you find this blog helpful. If it ever becomes dull or boring, please let me know. If it is of no value to you, then I need to improve it.

Now wake up and get to work!

Kris

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Let No One Predict Thy Future!

Posted: August 27, 2012 in Attitude, Vision
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Over the weekend I came across a list of predictions “experts” made about certain products or people that turned out to be totally false. It reaffirmed for me that we should never let anyone but ourselves decide our future. Your future is completely unwritten and you can change the course of your life at any point. Imagine what would have happened if the world would have believed these predictions:

“This ‘telephone’ has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us.” (Western Union memo, 1876.)

“Computers in the future will weigh no more than 1.5 tons.” (Popular Mechanics, forecasting advance of science, 1949.)

“I think there’s a world market for maybe five computers.” (Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943.)

“I have traveled the length and breadth of this country and talked with the best people, and I can assure you that data processing is a fad that won’t last out the year.” (Editor in charge of business books for Prentice Hall, 1957.)

“But what is it good for?” (Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, commenting on the micro chip, 1968)

“There is no reason why anyone would want to have a computer in their home.” (Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp, 1977.)

“The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?” (David Sarnoff’s associates in response to his urgings for investment in the radio in the 1920′s.)

“Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?” (HM Warner, Warner Bros, 1927.)

“A cookie store is a bad idea. Besides, the market research reports say that America likes crispy cookies, not soft and chewy cookies like you make.” (Response to Debbi Fields’ idea of starting the Mrs Fields Cookies business.)

“We don’t like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out.” (Decca Recording Company rejecting the Beatles, 1962.)

“Heavier than air flying machines are impossible.” (Lord Kelvin, president, Royal Society, 1895.)

“If I had thought about it, I wouldn’t have done the experiment. The literature was full of examples that said you can’t do this.” (Spencer Silver on the work that led to the unique adhesives for 3M PostIt Notepads.)

“So we went to Atari and said, ‘We’ve got this amazing thing, even built with some of your parts and what do you think about funding us? Or we’ll give it to you. We just want to do it. Pay our salary, we’ll come work for you.’ They said ‘No’. Then we went to Hewlett-Packard; they said, ‘We don’t need you. You haven’t got through college yet’.” (Apple Computer founder Steve Jobs on attempts to get Atari and HP interested in his and Steve Wozniak’s personal computer.)

“Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil? You’re crazy.” (Drillers whom Edwin L Drake tried to enlist to his project to drill for oil, 1859.)

“Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau.” (Irving Fisher, Economics professor, Yale University, 1929.)

“Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value”. (Marechal Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre.)

“Everything that can be invented has been invented.” (Charles H Duell, Commissioner, US Office of Patents, 1899.)

“Louis Pasteur’s theory of germs is ridiculous fiction.” (Pierre Pachet, Professor of Physiology at Toulouse, 1872.)

“The abdomen, the chest, and the brain will forever be shut from the intrusion of the wise and humane surgeon.” (Sir John Eric Ericksen, British surgeon, appointed Surgeon Extraordinary to Queen Victoria, 1873.)

“640K ought to be enough for anybody.” (Bill Gates of Microsoft, 1981.)

“Fred Astaire Can’t act, can’t sing, balding… Can dance a little.” (MGM telent scout, 1928.)

“What can you do with a guy with ears like that?” (Jack Warner, movie mogul, rejecting Clark Gable, 1930.)

“You ain’t goin’ nowhere son. You ought to go back to drivin’ a truck.” (Jim Denny of the Grand Ole Opry, Nashville, firing Elvis Presley after his first performance.)

“I’m sorry Mr Kipling, but you don’t know how to use the English language.” (Editor of the San Francisco Examiner, rejecting a short story from author and poet Rudyard Kipling.)

And finally there is the story, seemingly based mostly on truth, that Fred Smith, the founder of the multi-billion-dollar FedEx carrier corporation, originally proposed the FedEx concept in a college examination paper – for which we was awarded a C grade. Smith has broadly confirmed this story in later interviews, albeit with a little uncertainty as to how specifically he presented the FedEx model, and precisely how the examiner expressed his indifference. It’s a good story nevertheless, and helps confirm not only that great oaks grow from tiny acorns, but also how difficult it is to recognize a particularly good acorn before it’s grown.

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