The Priority Mission

Last week I wrote about my great friend, Paul J Meyer, who was a major contributor to my making millions of dollars. Yes, he was a financial genius that helped thousands and thousands of people make a huge success of their lives. His book is a must read for anyone that wants to lift their lives to huge heights, and not just financially. His book is called Fortune, Family, and Faith—24 Keys That Bring Complete Success.

One area of his life that Paul talked a lot about was how to keep your priorities after you set your goals for various parts of your life. As I promised in last week’s blog, here are the 13 things he committed to in order to stay focused on his priorities. I recommend you use them as well.

1. Write down my priorities.

2. Decide that I will keep my priorities/commit to them.

3. Post my priorities in highly visible places.

4. Start with a very small action each day that reinforces my priorities.

5. Learn to do that small action right away.

6. Refuse to go to bed until I have done what I intended to do.

7. Create visible checklists or tracking systems.

8. Find an accountability partner, someone I can be honest with who will be honest with me.

9. Have picture reminders.

10. Concentrate on the benefits.

11. Review regularly to see if I am on target.

12. Choose to never make excuses.

13. Craft a personal mission statement.

About that last one, Paul felt that a mission statement would also help ensure that your priorities are the right priorities. 

“Writing a life mission statement is quite simple,” he wrote. “You begin writing out your priorities in descending order and then answer the question, ‘What do I want to accomplish in life by keeping my priorities?’ or ‘Why do I have these priorities?’”

Paul also said that “You can keep improving your mission statement as time goes by. By fine-tuning it, you are simultaneously fine-tuning your overall life’s direction.”

Paul emphasizes that “a mission statement is not an exercise to complete and then forget.” As he goes on to note, and as I have seen myself, the mission statement provides things like direction, focus, and consistency in the things you do while keeping you on track with your goals.

There is more about mission statements and other thoughts on priorities in his book 24 Keys That Bring Complete Success. Pick it up and find more great words of wisdom to live by.  

Narrow Your Focus

I know I’ve been talking a lot lately about acting on your goals, but there are smart ways to go about that and not so useful ways. So, this week, I wanted to talk about a really important part of taking action that makes the action you take not only more productive but makes it far more likely that you’ll achieve those goals. What I want to talk about is summed up really well in this quote:

Nothing can add more power to your life than concentrating all of your energies on a limited set of targets. — Nido Qubein

How true. Trying to work on all of your goals at once requires that you split your time and resources among them. That makes it far less likely that you’ll accomplish what you’re after, or at least not to the extent that you might have hoped. But what if you spend all your time and resources on just one goal?

For example, maybe you’d like to be a great at a bunch of sports like tennis, baseball, hockey, and football. Can you imagine trying to work out, learn, practice, and play all four of those sports at the same time? You might be able to do it, but you wouldn’t be great at any one of them. Now, if you picked just one sport and put all your energy and practice time into improving your skills and stamina in it, don’t you think you’d be very good, if not great, at it in a fairly short span of time?

If you have set multiple goals this year, take a step back and choose just one or two to work on for now. Pick the most important or the most urgent. If you choose two, try to pick ones that are in two very different areas of your life. For instance, you can work on jumpstarting a new career while aiming to do some sort of exercise every day. With those goals, you won’t be trying to focus on more than one objective during any one part of your day.

I’m not saying you need to put aside or forget your other goals. You can always work a little here and there on them, preparing for the time when you can give them the focus needed to work on them productively. You just need to keep in mind that you should concentrate on a “limited set of targets” so you have enough energy and enthusiasm to take the action needed and be super successful!

The Responsibility of Knowledge

Here is a very simple thing to think about for our lives as we head into a new year. 2022 is going to be a good one for you, especially anticipate having the best for you, your family, and your friends and then work hard to make it that way.

I just read a great little piece by Carlos Castaneda about what it means to be “a man of knowledge”. I wanted to share it with you, my readers. I did change it a bit to make it a “person” of knowledge as I this applies to all humans, not just men.

A [person] of knowledge lives by acting, not by thinking about acting, nor by thinking about what [they] will think when [they have] finished acting… [They] know that [their] life will be over altogether too soon… [they] know, because [they] see that nothing is more important than anything else… Thus a person of knowledge endeavors, and sweats, and puffs, and if one looks at [them, they are] just like any other ordinary [person], except that the folly of life is under control. Nothing being more important than anything else, a [person] of knowledge chooses any act, and acts it out as if it matters to [them. Their] controlled folly makes [them] say that what [they do] matters and makes [them] act as if it did, and yet [they know] that it doesn’t; so when [this person] fulfills [their] acts [they] retreat in peace, and whether [their] acts were good or bad, or worked or didn’t, is in no way any part of [their] concern.

So, what are you doing, or will you be doing, with the knowledge you have? I think that would be a great focus for the new year. Let’s look at our lives and consider the things that we know but aren’t acting on and make it a goal to act on all this great knowledge we have.

Aging and the Brain

Having just turned age 77, I’ve caught myself thinking way too much about my age which has not helped me at all. It has got me worrying more about aging. But then my son sent me a book on aging that talks about how much our thinking can affect how we age. I started the book and have been amazed.

The human mind is a very complex and interesting part of our bodies. It can be a huge help to us but it also has the potential to harm us. I’m halfway through the book and am learning so much about how the brain can help our aging selves. If we use our brain correctly, it can actually be a big factor in keeping us younger than our actual number of years.

The book, Disrupt Aging: A Bold New Path to Living Your Best Life at Every Age, was written by Jo Ann Jenkins who, at very young age, became the CEO of AARP. Jo Ann said she wrote the book, “because I believe there is a bigger conversation to be had — focused not on just the historic burdens but also on the potential historic benefits of living longer.”

She goes on to say we need to change our thinking and change the conversation about what it means to get older. Our minds and actions should be not about aging. Our lives can be lived feeling much younger and doing so much more than people several generations ago could or would do.

She makes the point that, “Science is making longer lives possible, and we’re just now beginning to realize the opportunities those longer lives offer. People are reinventing work, searching for purpose, embracing technology, and opening themselves up to new experiences like never before.”

As we age, we really need to focus on our health, our wealth, and really work hard to develop a very good sense of our purpose at a middle age or older. That can extend your life in a big way.

Jo Ann preaches how life enhancing it is to think like a younger person, emphasizing that we should try new things, take chances, and not fear aging. She also tells the wonderful story of a 79-year-old lady, Ernestine Shepherd. “With her flat stomach, toned arms, and excellent health, you’d never guess this female bodybuilder is seventy- nine years old… following the death of her sister and many health problems and depression, Shepherd set a goal to get in shape. She was declared the World’s Oldest Performing Female Bodybuilder by the Guinness Book of World Records in 2010.”

Wow, what a great story. That should motivate all of us to go after our big goals no matter how tough they may seem and put our fears aside. Yep, it can all be done in your mind, in our great brains.

I do want to talk more about this subject of aging and some of the other things our brain can do to help us stay young, active, and productive. So, next week’s blog I will continue down this road.

Better Health Through Pictures

I recently received some absolutely amazing pictures of super beautiful nature scenes and, wow, was I ever impressed!  Just looking at those photographs raised my brain to a very high level.

I then took some time to research why these gorgeous pictures have such a huge effect on the human brain. I came across an article called “13 Science Based Reasons that Suggest Viewing Nature Scenes Can Improve Your Health”.

The article listed what beautiful nature scenes can do for you. It can:

1. Reduce depression.

2. Give the brain a break.

3. Help the body heal faster.

4. Bolster your immune system.

5. Restore your focus.

6. Stave off the effects of dementia.

7. Increase social well-being.

8. It can even increase your life span! 

To see all 13 reasons and the author’s explanations, go to the article here.

I love the tremendous way these great pictures and scenes lift my mood, especially if I take time to pay particular attention to the beauty that Nature gives us. 

Here are a few more gorgeous pictures to give your brain a break and lift your mood. You can use the links below the pictures to see even more.

Focus Your Energy for Strength and Profit

The quickest route to any objective, be it monetary or otherwise, is to totally focus your attention on a minimum number of things. Thomas Edison was once asked how he was able to get so much done. He said, “It’s very simple. You and I each have about 18 hours a day in which we may do something. You spend that 18 hours doing a number of unrelated things. I spend my time doing one thing, and some of my work is bound to amount to something.” If Edison took time to do dozens of unrelated things, he and his team most likely wouldn’t have come up with some of the great, world changing inventions that he patented.

If you truly want to be outstanding in any field, there’s one important rule you must observe: you must concentrate your energy on that one thing. Get just that one thing in your mind and in your heart.

With blinders on you’ll be able to look straight toward your goal and forget what’s happening on the sidelines. It’s been said that sidelines are “slide lines”. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote two essays on the subject. One is entitled “Power” and the other “Wealth”. He wrote, “Stop all miscellaneous activities. Do away with distraction …,” because, as he put it, “distractions will untune us for the main purpose of our lives.” In another passage, he states that “The one prudence in life is concentration, the one evil is dissipation.”

If you have an intense, unwavering determination to make your objectives and goals a reality, nothing can stop you. Learn to concentrate your efforts by focusing your attention on one thing and keep it focused there. It’s like a magnifying glass—you can take the gentle rays of the sun and bunch them together with that magnifying glass and create a shaft of light that can burn a hole through steel.

To become a great person of accomplishment, financially, artistically, socially, religiously, politically, or any other way, you must concentrate your efforts and attentions through that tiny magnifying glass. You must resolve not to be sidetracked by the hundreds of diversions that will tempt you–diversions that are sometimes very interesting but are, nevertheless, usually meaningless and divert you away from your primary goal.

Finding Focus Through Our Natural Talents

To continue with the theme of these past couple weeks, here are some more key traits of super successful people. And when I say successful, I mean in any part of a person’s life as well as financially.

A big part of being successful is being focused and staying focused. That is a super vital trait that all millionaires and multi-millionaires seem to possess. Finding Focus Through Our Natural Talents in his book, Outliers, makes the claim that anyone who spends 10,000 hours focused on one thing will be become the best or one of the best in the world.  I agree in part, but I also believe a person needs to look at themselves and determine what their natural abilities and strengths actually are. You can’t be great at everything, so it’s wise to look at ourselves and ask the question.  “What is it that I really want to do and become very successful at?”

Also, it’s important to ask yourself, “What do I love to do?”, because if you hate what you are doing there is a very strong possibility that you can’t and won’t stay focused on that thing that you would otherwise become super successful doing.

So, if you want to become highly successful in a chosen endeavor, you must first take a look at yourself and determine what you’re naturally good at and what you really love to do before you start setting goals to rise to the top.  I have noticed that all the millionaires and billionaires I’ve known have been very focused on making their business or investment work, becoming and staying profitable on their way to making millions of dollars. Granted, once they have arrived at the goals that they set for themselves their focus is usually diminished or starts to focus on something else.

In my own life and experience, I set a goal to make a million dollars by age 30. I had noticed that I was really good with numbers and had read how important this was in making a fortune. I also had a passion for negotiating and making deals. Those two natural talents gave me a great advantage, especially when, after researching different methods of making millions, I discovered that many millions have been made, starting from scratch, by the use of leverage on assets that can be fixed up and improved. That, combined with meeting my first of many mentors, led me to that first million dollars.

Wow. Did I ever stay focused! That’s all I thought about and all that I did and I kept that focus because I loved what I was doing. Yes, my focus has changed now and it’s more on tennis and helping others including trying to give back because so many people helped me along the way and I felt a need to pay it forward. I have so much gratitude. I’m working hard to have more of that great thing called “An Attitude of Gratitude”.

If you want super success or just want to add more to your current success, take a hard look at yourself to determine your natural talents and what you are or can become passionate about, then set some goals and get started! And don’t forget to pass it on to your kids, grandkids, friends and anyone you want to help.

 

Limit Your Goals, Focus your Power

I ran across a great quote today:

Nothing can add more power to your life than concentrating all of your energies on a limited set of targets.
~ Nido Qubein

How true. Trying to work on all the goals you have simultaneously means you will need to split your time and resources among them and are less likely to reach them or at least not to the extent that you might have hoped to. But what if you spent all your time and resources on one goal?

For example, maybe you’d like to be a great tennis, baseball, hockey and football player. Can you imagine anyone trying to work out, practice and play all those games during the same time period? You could do it but you wouldn’t be that great at any one of them. Now, if you picked just one and put all your work outs and practice time into getting ready for it, don’t you think you’d be very good if not great at that one sport?

If you set multiple goals this year, choose just one or two to work at present. Pick the most important or the most urgent. And if you choose two, try to pick ones that are in two different areas of your life, like one being to improve your career while the other is a personal health goal so you only have one thing to focus on in each area.

I’m not saying you need to put aside or forget your other goals. You can always work a little here and there on them, preparing for the time when you can give them the focus needed to work effectively. The bottom line is, you should concentrate on a “limited set of targets” so you are going after them with enough energy and enthusiasm to be super successful!