Motivational

Get Busy Living!

Get busy living, or get busy dyingby Chris Banescu –
Life is hard, for everyone. It’s a constant battle to stay grounded and deal with adversity. To endure and thrive, we must continually sharpen our souls and minds, strengthen our tenacity, discern truth, avoid dangers, and solve problems. We must fight to stay healthy, balanced, and sane.

Seeking the company and counsel of good and decent men and women helps us on our journey. Experience and wisdom allow us to discern the truth and live in reality. Courage gives us the determination to accept the truth and take action.

Learning continually allows us to adapt and change. Reading good books gives us the knowledge to know what to do. Discipline allows us to consistently, creatively, and rationally deal with problems, find pragmatic solutions, and move toward meaningful goals. [Read more…]

Pain of Discipline vs Pain of Disappointment

Pain of Discipline vs Pain of Disappointmentby Chris Banescu –
“There are two pains in life. There is the pain of discipline and the pain of disappointment. If you can handle the pain of discipline, then you’ll never have to deal with the pain of disappointment.” ~ Nick Saban

We all pay a price for the lack of discipline. Whether it’s our physical or mental health, spiritual well-being, character, family life, career situation, financial status, friendships, or business condition, we always suffer if we don’t do the essential work to either improve, adapt, or deal with the changing circumstances of our life. The longer we avoid consistently doing the right things for ourselves, our families, and/or businesses, the worse things will get. We will feel the inevitable physical and psychological pains that arise when we let things slide and refuse to do the daily necessary work. [Read more…]

Focus on Your Strengths, Improve First-Rate Performance to Excellence

Focus on Your Strengths, Improve First-Rate Performance to Excellence“We all have a vast number of areas in which we have no talent or skill and little change of becoming even mediocre. In those areas a person –and especially a knowledge worker– should not take on work, jobs, and assignments.

One should waste as little effort as possible on improving areas of low competence. It takes far more energy and work to improve from incompetence to mediocrity than it takes to improve from first-rate performance to excellence.

And yet most people –especially most teachers and most organizations– concentrate on making incompetent performers into mediocre ones. Energy, resources, and time should go instead into making a competent person into a star performer.” ~ Peter F. Drucker

The Compass vs. The Clock, Put First Things First

by Chris Banescu –
The realization that something is not right with our lives can manifest itself in various ways. A feeling of emptiness, a bothersome disquiet, or a strange pain, like a deep sadness or a heartache, gradually or suddenly begins to trouble our souls. We feel guilty, anxious, unsatisfied, stressed, or sad even in moments when we ought to be at peace and carefree; when we should be relaxing or enjoying ourselves. For some this pain is only a vague discomfort. For others, including yours truly, the pain can often be intense and unrelenting; sometimes lasting for long stretches of time.

I discovered the reason for this mysterious affliction in the book First Things First, written by Stephen Covey, Roger Merrill, and Rebecca Merrill. They describe this particular grief as the “pain of the gap,” the gap we sense between the compass and the clock in our lives. Every time we don’t put first things first, when we fail to follow our calling and vocation and focus on the most important things in life, our conscience warns us that something’s not right and corrective measures and proactive actions are required. [Read more…]

The Dirty Little Secret Of Overnight Successes

Secret Of Overnight Successby Josh Linkner –
As Chris Dixon pointed out in a recent blog post, Angry Birds, the incredibly popular game, was software maker Rovio’s 52nd attempt. They spent eight years and nearly went bankrupt before finally creating their massive hit.

James Dyson failed in 5,126 prototypes before perfecting his revolutionary vacuum cleaner. Groupon was put on life support and nearly shut down at one point in its meteoric rise.

When looking at the most successful people and organizations, we often imagine geniuses with a smooth journey straight to the promised land. But when you really examine nearly every success story, they are filled with crushing defeats, near-death experiences, and countless setbacks. [Read more…]

Ten Success Principles to Remember

Ten Success Principles to Remember - Believe in Yourselfby Chris Banescu –
Listed below are ten principles of success to always remember. These are ideas many of us already know or have seen elsewhere. We often need to be reminded of important lessons we’ve already discovered but quickly forget.

  1. There is no progress without action. What’s not started today will never be finished tomorrow. Some of the greatest ideas never made it. Why? Because the genius behind the idea failed to take action. So take action now and begin to move in the right direction. Once you get started every step afterwards gets easier and easier. Eventually, what had once been invisible, starts to become visible, and what once felt unattainable, starts to become a reality.
  2. You must believe you can. It all starts with a dream. Add confidence, and it becomes a belief. Add commitment, and it becomes a goal in sight. Add action, and it becomes a part of your life. Add determination and time, and your dream gradually becomes a reality. [Read more…]