I recently asked someone which direction their business was headed, to which they replied, “Right now, we’re standing still.”

Here’s the deal — standing still is NOT A DIRECTION!

What he was actually saying is they were in a state of contentment, meaning that they were not moving forward or backward; they were simply operating with a “business as usual” game plan.

The state of contentment is a dangerous place to be. You don’t want to be content; you want to be successful. You want to move past contentment and go straight to ecstatic.

Always remember there are only two directions to go — forward and backward.

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There a lot of words that end in “tion.” Some of these words are positive an some negative, but out of all of them my favorite, by far, is Inspiration.

Inspiration is such a powerful force that it alone can drive you to do more than you ever imagined. Many of the most successful people in the world will tell you the catalyst of their success was something significant that happened in their lives that inspired them to take action.

Inspiration is always positive, even if it comes out of what seems to be a tragic situation. How many times have you heard someone’s story that seemed devastating, but yet somewhere in that story, you found inspiration to do something incredible.

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You’ve heard the saying, “What have you done for me lately?”

Unfortunately, in our fast paced world, that view has gotten a bit carried away and now seems to be more like, “What have you done for me in the last 30 seconds?”

We live in an impatient, quick to judge society that loves to voice opinions. And with the social media set as it is, we all have a voice to immediately share those opinions with the world around us.

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Leadership is not the same as holding down a position. In fact, many people who hold positions are not leaders at all.

Leadership is the ability to set a new direction or vision for a group that they willingly follow. The key word in that sentence is willingly. If you have to force people to follow you, then you are not really a leader.

To be a great leader you have to be:

1. Humble — A humble leader is one who will listen to the people that follow him or her. They understand that many times the best solution comes from the group and not the individual. And because they listen to their followers, they will continue to grow as an effective leader.

2. Consistent — When you are consistent, people will be more willing to follow you. People like to know what to expect and even more than that, they love it when what they expect is delivered.

3. Goal Driven — You have to set goals for yourself, your team and your organization as a whole. Setting goals keeps you focused on the task at hand and gives you a measuring stick to track progress.

4. Others-Oriented — As a leader, realize that you will only be as successful as the people on the team around you. So focusing on making the people around you better will ensure that you and your team will succeed at whatever you are trying to accomplish.

Great leaders are not measured on just their own ability; they’re measured on how many leaders they build.

Work on becoming more humble, consistent, goal driven and others-oriented and lead properly so that you can have a successful business, happy family, stronger community and LIVE LIFE!

Faith is the firmest of belief in something for which there may be no proof.

It’s a belief that you are so confident in, nothing can shake you from it.

Most often faith is used as a religious term, and for me — my Faith In Jesus Christ is the ultimate.

My Faith in Christ gives me the tools I need to handle life and it assures me of my future so that I can have the confidence to LIVE LIFE today without hesitation.

When you live by faith, there is nothing you can’t accomplish. Faith allows you to move forward even when you’re not sure what exactly lies ahead.

Martin Luther King Jr. once said that “faith is taking the first step even when you can’t see the whole staircase.” With that kind of  assurance, the most important thing that faith does is it gives you the courage to remove all fear.

Fear holds us all back. In fact, fear is the number one detriment to success, and the number one fear is fear of failure. But when you have faith, fear has no power!

Don’t live in fear of what may or may not happen, and don’t let your fear of failure hold you back from a being all that you can be.

Live with assurance; Live with confidence; Live by faith and LIVE LIFE!

Having a vision means to see more than what actually exists. It’s the visualization of a future result — something that hasn’t happened yet, but you can see in your mind.

We often hear people talk about visualizing success. Athletes are known to rely on visualization to help them get an edge for the game at hand. They literally create scenes in their minds depicting themselves competing and accomplishing their goals.

Football players see themselves making tackles or securing the game winning catch in the end zone. Basketball players dream about making the final shot as time runs out on the game clock. Runners see themselves crossing the finish line with their arms raised high in the air.

After making one of the most mind-blowing catches in NFL history, receiver Chris Carter was asked how he made the catch look so effortless.  He replied “It was easy, because I’ve made that catch 1,000 times. This is just the first time anyone else has seen it.”

Having the ability to create a vision for your success creates the sense of familiarity. In reality, it may be the first time you’ve ever been in a particular position, but if you have visualized it enough times in your mind, it will feel as if you have been there 1,000 times.

Know what you want to accomplish, create a vision that allows you to watch yourself succeed over and over, make your dream a reality and LIVE LIFE!

Challenges can be good or bad.

We run into some of them by accident and others we set on purpose.

It’s good to challenge yourself — to set goals that make you move forward faster. Striving to do something extraordinary forces you to become better than you already are.

Some challenges come in the form of stumbling blocks. You can be certain as you move through life, you will run into challenges that are seemingly there to keep you from moving forward.

These challenges need to met and overcome. When facing an unexpected challenge and prevailing to overcome it, you strengthen your resolve. Always remember, the more challenges you survive and grow from, the better prepared you are for the next one. One thing you can be certain of is that as long as you are breathing — there WILL be a next one.

Life is full of challenges, and that’s okay. Whether the challenge is good or bad, working through it will go a long way to forging the kind of character, mindset and intestinal fortitude necessary to succeed in anything you want.

So challenge yourself, overcome the unexpected challenges and LIVE LIFE!

Have you ever felt like you have plenty of puzzle pieces to work with but the picture just never seems to fit?

This happens to most of us. We work and work to put all the pieces in place, but we just never seem to quite get the outcome we desire.

So what do we do? We go look for more pieces to add!

We read books, listen to experts, attend seminars and we get all these new “pieces” that are supposed to be what we need to magically make it all come together.

We get excited as we rush to cram this new solution in with the rest of our puzzle pieces only to be let down when we find out that this new wonder piece just doesn’t fit either.

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Don’t let the past dictate your future.

Recently I heard a college football coach make the statement that the most important score in a game is the score at halftime.

Normally, I would disagree and say that the most important score is the final score but in this case, he made a valid point.

He said, “The score at halftime shows you what has to happen in the second half. No need to worry about what happened in the first half but rather focus on what has to happen in the second half to change the outcome of the game.”

Too many times in life we allow what has happened in our past dictate our future.

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In the last few posts I’ve shared the importance of turning your wishes into wants and being willing to do the hard things in order to succeed.

Well, there’s a saying that goes like this: “the proof is in the pudding.” I prefer to say, “the proof is in the performance.”

Talk is cheap. You can say you want something and you can say you are willing to work hard to get it. I hear from people all the time who say, “I’ll do anything to succeed.” But will they?

I may not be able to judge the sincerity of your words but everyone can see the fruits of your labor.

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