I am going to give all of you some in your face advice and inspiration you need…. sit back and hold on. The University of Chicago did a poll last year and found that Americans are the unhappiest they have been in nearly 50 years. Here is the scary thing. That poll was done before the Corona virus outbreak!
Before I dig in, Happy New Year. I wish all of you health, wealth, and happiness in 2021.
I believe 2020 was an awakening for the human race on this planet. But I do not think many of you awoke. You are still playing the victim role. You are still blaming everyone for your circumstances. You are complaining about every little freaking thing. You are still sleeping in the average life and not leveling up to be the best you can be.
I felt like I was Carl the janitor in the movie, The Breakfast Club, when he said “I’ve learned a couple of things. I look through your letters. I look through your lockers. I listen to your conversations, you don’t know that but I do.” I silently watched many of you on social media this year.
My news feed was painful. Really painful. It was a shit show. Many of you spent a good majority of the year trying to figure out Corona Virus conspiracy theories. And when the US Presidential Election came, suddenly there was this greatest fraud in the history of the face of the earth. Now, I am not doubting that some funny things went on. Fraud happens. People do bad things. But I did not let the Corona Virus, or the US Election, or whatever else was thrown my way define me. I defined me in 2020.
Our year started out with several significant medial emergencies in the family. The Corona Virus impacted us personally as well. I got knocked down at least 20 times over this year. I got back up every single time. Yet, I had the best year financially for me since 2015 when I left Corporate America with a nice six figure salary. I did phenomenal in the mortgage business this year. I know many people did as well because of the low rates, but many missed the boat too. My career and life strategy business did great things, even monetarily it was the best year. Hell, I even did well in my drone business.
I shut up, turned a ton of things off and focused on these four things. I hope you can utilize these three things that propelled me to the best success and will continue to do so:
- THE RIGHT FOCUS AND MINDSET
I have always said where you put your focus, your mind and energy flows to. I believe this area is one of the most critical that you can all do better. You must focus on what you want. What do you want to do? What goals do you want to achieve? When the Corona Virus hit, many of you fell apart and never recovered. You are good people and I feel for you. When the virus hit, I worked harder, longer, and I dug in and said this virus is not going to define me or my family. It will never sink us. I never posted negatively about the virus. I never went down the rabbit hole of the US Election. I removed a ton of negativity around me, and I unsubscribed from many email lists. Its easy for all of us to make excuses and blame the way things turned out on the Corona virus. Sure, there is some legitimacy around it hitting us hard, but I saw some business owners pivot and be creative to keep their business going. They had the right mindset and the energy to do whatever it took.
My circle of friends grew smaller too. I was listening to way too many people who were regurgitating the same bullshit that is already out there. I leveled up around successful people. I surrounded myself with better quality people who had success in where I wanted to go. I dressed better. I studied and learned what the most successful people have been doing. I studied them hard. Like Carl the Janitor, I opened their lockers and watched what they were doing and learned from them.
Many of you need to clear your mind today to get your focus and mindset back. January 1, 2021 is a new blank slate in a way. Changing your mindset can occur at any time. It is up to you. Not Trump, Not Biden, not Dr. Fauci, not your spouse, not your boss. YOU! Use today as a catalyst if you need to. Take the remainder of the day. Go for a walk. Go call someone. Write down what you want to achieve and go for it. No one is going to do it for you.
- PUT IN THE WORK
It is your job to make yourself do the crap you do not want to do. You have to put in the work. You have to put in long hours. You have to give up some things to get things. It’s a sacrifice. If you want to be successful in however you define success, you have to do many things you do not want to do. I did not get to the level of success this year by binge watching TV or writing about what I wanted to do on social media! You have to make the calls, write reports, follow up, make more phone calls, and work like you have never worked before. I do not like making cold calls, but I do them because it is a part of being successful. In the past, I never liked seeing myself online in videos. I got over that fear by doing the work, by putting myself out there. I stopped listening to everyone around me telling me I was nuts and giving me feedback on what they thought I should do. One person asked me how I got so good at videos. When I said what do you mean? She said you seem like you are not nervous and things just flow! I responded to her by saying that I forced myself to put videos out in January 2015, and my first videos stunk. I do consistent videos. Go look at them! LOL. By putting in the work and consistently doing videos, I am now helping others do the same.
I put the work in. Many nights I went to bed after midnight. I still got the sleep I needed and made up for it when I did not need to work past midnight. I did what I had to do. I remembered some of my early days in the Corporate world travelling to Washington, D.C. by train every day. Getting up at 3:00 a.m. every morning to go to work. That inspired me to keep focused and was an anchor to remind me of my ability to do what it took.
- Abundance Versus Scarcity
We humans are a funny species. We are so worried that we are going to lose things that we play life on defense. We do not seem to go on offense that much. We always believe things are not going to be there for us. That is why we had a toilet paper and disinfectant wipe shortage this year. Everyone hoarded them like they would never be made again. Many people will have disinfectant wipes sitting around for years and they will eventually dry up. So much money wasted. That is because we are playing life like we are going to lose and not be successful. You have an abundance of resources around you. So many people want to help. So many opportunities are out there. You just have to ask. You have to research. You must create a mindset of abundance, that everything is available for you. When the Corona virus hit, there was a bit of panic that people were going to stop buying homes or not need coaching programs. That was the furthest from the truth if you lived your life in the abundance mindset that there is plenty to go around. Its there for you.
- Outcome Instead Of Goal Setting
In my Corporate days, I could not stand the silly and stupid goals that were being passed down. They did not energize me. They never made sense. And the crazy thing was that many of these goals were started in mid-January and locked in by the beginning of March. WTF! I stopped setting goals. I created outcomes I wanted to see. I reverse engineered each outcome and wrote down what I needed to do to get there. If you begin with the end result in mind, it excites you, it energizes, you. It is much easier to work backwards and figure out the steps. And it is less overwhelming.
An example is you have an outcome of 1,000 YouTube subscribers by December 31, 2021. Write that outcome down and then determine what steps you need to take. Record and upload five videos a week. Share them across multiple channels. Call two friends a week and ask them to subscribe. Send five emails out. Those are the steps you have to take to get to your outcome. Stop setting goals and start creating outcomes. Start with five outcomes. You do not need to create so many. Start small and add as you can.
I took an hour today to celebrate 2020 and all the gifts it gave us. 2020 is in the past for me but for some it still not is in the rear view mirror. The world is counting on you to be you and rise up to who you are supposed to be. The real question is, are you ready to step up in 2021?
