Putting your time in

Next week I head off to the Huntsman World Senior Games where I will play in the Men’s Singles Tennis Tournament. In 2007 I played and won the gold for the 60-64 age group. This adventure in tennis competitions started as a goal to reach the top of the tennis rankings for my age group in my state of Utah. And I did that, last year. How did I manage this, after dealing with arthritic hips that hardly allowed me to bend or run even half way down the block? Well, surgery helped but mostly it was just simple hard work.

The process of attaining a goal includes more than just defining your goal and planning your steps. Reaching a goal requires time–the breadth of time it will take for you to amass the knowledge & experience you will need to attain your specific goal and, most importantly, the hours you put in working at it, practicing what you know, until you’ve mastered what you need to reach it. Nothing happens without those many hours of work.

In Malcolm Gladwell’s book The Outliers, he spends a entire chapter discussing what he calls the 10,000 hour rule. The idea is that you need to concentrate your energies for 10,000 hours to be the very best at whatever it is you have set as a goal. That’s 40 hours a week for 50 weeks a year for 5 years. That is quite a commitment, concentrating on that one thing for that long. Most people won’t go that far and that’s why anyone willing to put in that kind of time will find themselves the very best in the world!

Being smart or having a particular talent is certainly helpful, but the most successful people aren’t necessarily, or even usually, the smartest or most talented. They are the ones who put in the time and mastered the skills they needed to succeed.

The power of simple hard work

One of the most fascinating areas I went through on my recent European trip was the Baltic states. Even though these regions didn’t really start to modernize until 1989 they have made incredible progress in the short time since. The roads are wonderful, food is terrific, the people are incredibly friendly, and technology is sprouting up everywhere. We even had full internet service on the super bus we took from Latvia to Estonia. I have to say, I didn’t expect to see such advancement, especially so soon after many decades of Soviet occupation and repression.

It’s obvious this development didn’t happen spontaneously in the Baltic states. The people of these countries worked very hard to get where they are today and continue to work hard to support the growth and improvement of their region. There was no magic pill or secret formula that brought on such incredible growth. Just a goal, persistence, and plain, old, hard work.

You can also see the results of such determination in the hardworking immigrants that come to the United States, many with no money and no prospects when they get here. Still, many manage to build businesses and successful careers from nothing more than perseverance and their own blood, sweat, and tears. Even when you don’t seem to have anything else, you have the ability to work hard to achieve whatever it is you want.

So look to the former Soviet countries and to the rousing examples of their success for inspiration and as an example of what can be done with simple determination and hard work.

One more thing about working hard—and keeping at it. Malcolm Gladwell in his book Outliers puts forth the 10,000 hour rule. His research has revealed the difference between the “haves and the have not’s”—10,000 hours. Gladwell calls it the 10,000 Hour Rule. He points to phenomenal successes like Bill Gates and The Beatles. These were not particularly brilliant or gifted people—just hard workers, putting in 10,000 hours of more of consistent work on their focus.  More on the 10,000 Hour Rule in a future blog.

But for now, continue to set BIG goals for yourself, write out your B-RAM lists, and get to work!

Give Your Brain the Novelty It Craves

Have you ever considered how children and young people are always trying something new, pushing themselves, eager for adventure … but older people seem to be content to do the same things they always do in the same old way?

It’s just a generalization as I know many older people, myself included, that still continuously seek out new and challenging experiences. However, there is a sense of complacency that is easy to fall into as we get older or as the obligations of our life wear us down.

As our physical energy wanes, so does our ambition, and next thing we know, our brains turn off and we are just living on autopilot. It’s at that point that making any change in our lives gets very, very difficult.

The thing is our brains don’t wear out the same way as the rest of our body. Normally the brain is still willing and able to do its job learning, solving problems, and amassing knowledge even when we physically feel worn out. But when faced with a lot of stress or just dull repetitious experience the brain deteriorates.

To keep your brain in top shape, give it the novelty it craves. Educating yourself through books, television shows (like PBS and the History Channel), and on the Internet will certainly help, but remember, your brain is a multi-sensory organ. Feed all of it.

Get out of the house, out of town, out of the country when you can, and experience new sights, smells, sounds, flavors, and textures. New experiences will boost both your physical and mental energies and motivate you to do even more.

In fact, go and create a ”bucket list”—that stuff you want to do before you kick the bucket, like Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholsen did in the movie “The Bucket List”. I sure know that having my own “bucket list” motivates me to get out and do more and avoid stagnancy. There’s just so much to do in our short time here.

More on my bucket list–and some of the huge goals I have in that list–in the near future.

Keeping up that energy and motivation are KEY to getting what you want. So go out and enjoy life, learn and explore, and keep your mind sharp and your energy up.

Being Ready for Serendipity

Life is full of unexpected and random encounters. Sometimes the opportunity and the assistance you need to reach your goal or enact the change you want in your life will just drop into your lap from the most unexpected places. You need to be open and ready to grab on when serendipity comes your way.

It was just such an incident that led us to an invaluable and ever so delightful friendship with a wonderful, generous man named Krzysztof Fialkowski. My wife and I love to travel. Having a life that allowed us to travel and experience the multitude of cultures out there was a primary goal of mine when building my wealth and shaping our life. In our travels we run into many people and strike up an interesting conversation here and there but usually we just move on afterwards. When my wife got waylaid by a friendly stranger at a stop in Poland I thought of it as one of these momentary distractions and wandered off to look into the next leg of our adventure.

Eventually my wife brought her new acquaintance over and introduced him and we all chatted for a bit. An unexpected friendship bloomed right then and there and now Chris, as we call him, personally takes us around the neighboring countries when we visit Eastern Europe and has introduced us to places we would never have encountered if it had not been for him. My goal of experiencing different cultures was expanded on several levels by this random encounter. Had I been in more of a hurry that day we meet Chris and cut short the conversation, we would have missed out on an invaluable opportunity and friend.

You never know where serendipitous encounters will arise. Don’t make assumptions about what someone or some event can do for you. Get out and meet new people, go to a variety of social events, and visit new places, and seek learning from sources that stretch you. You never know what will come your way. It could be the very key you need to reaching your goal.

Celebrate Life

After all your hard work, all the trial and error, the long hours, the ups and downs of your success, there needs to be a pause, a time when you step away and look at what you’ve done and celebrate it. Taking time out to appreciate what you’ve accomplished is as necessary to successfully reaching and sustaining your goals as any other aspect.

These past few months have been a non-stop circus for me with the marketing of my book, the talk shows and interviews, the speeches I’ve made, and the building of a new home. But now I am off to Europe to visit with friends and take a leisurely barge trip through France. It may seem odd that I would go on a trip now when there is still so much to be done, but if I don’t, when will I stop and savor the life that I’ve built and all that I’ve done?

You work hard to achieve your goals but if you never step back to appreciate what you’ve done, you will lose perspective on why you’re doing it and will be working only for the stated goal instead of for the bigger picture—improving your life for you and your loved ones. You have to take time out to enjoy your accomplishments and enjoy your life.

Whenever you’ve gotten through a particularly difficult set of tasks or when you’ve reached a goal, even a minor one, celebrate it. Go out for dinner or take a trip like I have or simply allow yourself an afternoon off to go for a hike and consider what wonderful things you’ve accomplished. Not only is taking time out to celebrate essential to your happiness, it will add to your motivation and energy and make your tasks much more enjoyable.

Life is for the living, as they say. Work hard when you need to but live fully and take time out to appreciate all you have and all you’ve done.

Sharing your Passion Benefits Everyone

As some of you know, I fast regularly. It’s not a particularly fun process and there are times when I feel like it would be so easy to just give up and not go through my fasting. But I know I will always do it. It’s not just that I know how good it is for me, that I will really enjoy the benefits and would miss them if I didn’t go through with it, but it’s also because I am accountable to more than just myself. I write about my fasting routine in my book and talk How to IGNITE Your Passion for Living to other people about its great benefits. So how could I skip a fast after all that and let people down?

This is one of the reasons why I encourage people to share their goals and to talk about their passions. I call it a wise selfishness. You tell others about what you are doing because it drives you but also, the act of having to explain your intentions will help you focus and puts it out there publicly where, now, there are expectations that others are also aware of. It is amazing what that can do to keep you on track.

The act of sharing your goals is not really a wholly selfish act. You are actually doing others a disservice by not sharing because talking about what you are planning can be a tremendous inspiration to the people around you. Passion is contagious. Share your goals and your passion as you work towards them and just watch the people around you get fired up. It’s win-win.

The Key to a Passionate Life

Whenever I’ve decided to sit back and enjoy the ‘good life’ after successfully building wealth and having plenty of time to travel and to spend with family (it’s the kind of life everybody would love to live, right?), I have been amazed at how unhappy and depressed that I get. I don’t even want to get up in the morning, don’t see any joy in my day?

It was a mystery to me at first. Why could leisure make me so unhappy. I researched my symptoms, and tried various methods for improving my health and my mind. Some of these techniques worked, to an extent, but if I thought back to my earlier years, there was no comparison. When I worked long days fixing up homes or, later, negotiating huge real estate purchases, regardless of all the toil and pressure of those times, I was happy. I had goals and a bright future and I was intensely passionate about what I was doing. It was while pondering the past that I realized, for all the great things I had accomplished, for all the wealth and love I had in my life, it was no life worth waking up for without a purpose and a passion.

I had always enjoyed life the most when I was helping others better their own. With so many years of experience and knowledge, and having already written books on succeeding financially, writing another book, one that would help people not just become wealthy, but would help them reach any goal they desired was just the natural choice. Once I decided to write the book, my days came alive again. Joy really is working towards something you truly believe in.

It was a long arduous road but finally, “How to Ignite Your Passion for Living” was published earlier this year. I have already been gratefully rewarded with seeing and hearing about many people whose lives are changed because of the stories and techniques in my book. But the book is to be just the beginning of this chapter in my life. I continue to work towards spreading these ideas through other channels such as workbooks and podcasts and this blog. I am hoping, through these posts, to inspire and motivate, and I hope other readers here will share their own stories of struggle and success. My readers are my purpose and passion now, the driving force that gets me jumping out of bed in the morning, looking forward to all the new day has in store.

Mark O. Haroldsen Talks about His Book

You can’t miss this! Excerpts from Mark O. Haroldsen’s book that you can listen to. He just added the Forward, Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 today. It’s great to hear everything in his own voice. Just click play and you’ll be able to listen right from your computer.

Don’t give up or lose sight of your dreams! Listen to Mark’s amazing advice about living your life passionately.

Humbled by blog post about me …

Humbled by blog post about me (Mark O. Haroldsen): http://tinyurl.com/nxd7ct Lists my 20 success principles.

Zen Habits and the Habits of Happiness

“Thinking about the past and future is the cause of all unhappiness.”

– Leo Babauta

In this interview, Leo Babauta discusses what happiness is. Babauta is writer of the famous blog Zen Habits. There are many who tout happiness itself as an end. I’ve talked about how thinking about the past and future too much can cause unhappiness, however, what causes happiness?

I life I don’t focus on the cause of happiness, but instead I have written about the critical keys you need to bring satisfaction and contentment to your life. I don’t claim that these keys can bring you happiness though — like many others do. I believe that pursing happiness as a goal is folly.

Happiness is what you get from achieving your goals. Satisfaction and contentment are far superior and longer-lasting than feelings of so-called happiness.

“The happiest people I know always focus on the positive things in their lives — they always appreciate what they have, see the silver lining on everything, and find the good in everyone.”
– Leo Babauta.

Babauta focuses on passion and doing that which makes you feel contentment and satisfaction – and happiness often results. However, the Happiness Project focuses on happiness itself as a goal to pursuit. I think as you read my book, you’ll learn more about creating passion in life and the many facets of how we think, eat and do in life. This is what happiness results from.

If you have anything to share from reading my book How to Ignite your Passion for Living, I hope you’ll share in the comments.

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