First, watch this 30 second video.

In order to succeed you must fail. Failure is an essential step towards success.  The more successful the individual the more failures they will have faced along the way.  These might be small failures such as being rejected by a prospect, or they may be larger failures such as a business failing.  These failures can propel you towards success.

Michael Jordan is a great example about success through failure.  There are many lessons that can be learned through his experiences.  Use these tips as an opportunity for self examination.  How do you respond to failure?

1. Take the Shots

In the commercial above, Michael Jordan talks about how many shots he missed.  He missed shots because he was willing to take them.  Are you willing to take the shots that will help you succeed in your goals?

2. Don’t Let Failure Stop You from Trying Again

A missed shot didn’t stop Michael Jordan.  If he had stopped shooting because of one miss, or not been willing to take the next game winning shot simply because he missed the last one, he would not have become the championship player he was. Is a past failure stopping you from moving towards your goals?

3. Don’t Let Failure Get You Down

Michael Jordan didn’t let a missed shot create discouragement.  You cannot dwell on your failures – you must move on.  It is hard to overestimate the importance of a positive attitude on life especially when you fail.  If you are able to keep a positive attitude when you fail, you’ll be able to be ready to try again more quickly.  Have you let failure get you down?

4. Learn Every Time You Fail

There is no doubt that Michael Jordan learned from his failures.  By learning from your failures you will gain more success.  Every lesson you take from failure can be used to help you succeed the next time.  Failure simply shows you what doesn’t work, allowing you to go do what does work the next time.    What can you learn from your most recent failure?

5. Know your Game Winning Shots

Your game winning shots are the activities which push you over the edge as you work towards your goals.  They are the things you can do that allow you to win.  Your game winning shot might be making sales calls to your top prospect list, or submitting another book proposal to a publisher.  You need to know these most important activities and look for opportunities to take shots. What are the game winning shots for your business?

6. Your Response to Failure Impacts Your Team

Not only was Michael Jordan a basketball superstar he was part of great teams. With Michael Jordon the Chicago Bulls won six NBA championships.  Similarly, you need a team to succeed.  Your team will follow you lead.  If you respond negatively to failure, your team will follow.  If you dismiss failure, learn from it, and quickly move on with a positive attitude your team will do likewise.  How is your response to failure impacting your team?

Written by:
The Success Professor – Danny Gamache
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No matter what type of organization you lead, business you run, or what kind of personal goals you are pursuing, one of the keys that will determine the level of your success is momentum.  Momentum is defined as “the force of movement”.  It can help decide how high you will go and how quickly you will get there.  At the same time, momentum can often prove illusive; something that seems to be here today and yet is gone tomorrow.

WHAT DOES MOMENTUM LOOK LIKE

John Maxwell calls momentum “the big mo”.   In his book “The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership”, he says that “Momentum is really a leader’s best friend.  Sometimes it’s the only difference between winning and losing.”

You know you have momentum when you run over obstacles in your path like they were nothing.  Momentum is when things happen with ease, one success follows another and forward growth comes quickly.  Momentum allows leaders to move past mistakes quickly, and any kind of change is possible.  People throughout the organization are motivated to achieve more, and at a higher level. Momentum makes the leader look good, because success seems to happen easily.

If you’re in sales, momentum is when sales come easy, one after another.  In fact you are confident going into the next sales call that you will make the sale.  In your personal life momentum is when you are meeting your goals one after another.  It is when your life is in balance and everything is going right.  You get the idea – it’s like dominos once one thing falls, the rest follow suit.

HOW TO ACHIEVE MOMENTUM

1. Achieving momentum starts with creating forward progress.

Getting started is the most difficult part.  It’s like the law of inertia:  an object in motion tends to stay in motion, and an object at rest tends to stay at rest.  Momentum is what happens when you get moving.  Whatever your goal is take a step towards it now.  This is why I suggest starting your day with a power hour. Your power hour allows you to do something first off in the morning that gives you progress towards your goals right away.  You create success within the first hour of the day, helping you gain momentum.  Once you are in motion for the day you are more likely to stay in motion and continue on towards your goals.

2. You are responsible for the momentum of your team.

Momentum starts with the leader, and then moves outwards and impacts the entire team.  If you lead a team of people in any form then you are responsible for the momentum of your team, you can’t place the responsibility on anyone else. Team momentum starts with your personal momentum.  You need to be motivated yourself and moving forward, before you can motivate others.  Understanding this will allow you to help your team to follow these steps towards momentum.

3. Have a clear vision and goals for your future.

Develop a vision for where you want to go and keep that vision out front.  Continually remind yourself and your team about the vision you are pursing.  Your vision should be important, not just to yourself but some way of contributing to the world and the well being of others.  This kind of vision will inspire. Then starting from your vision set your goals.  Make your goals clear, concise and dated.  Develop ways to remind yourself about your goals and vision.  Review your goals list daily, and put photos around your workspace and home that remind you of your goals.  Use these reminders to inspire you to move forward.

4. Apply the principle of massive action.

In the Olympic 100m sprint, the most important part of the race is leaving the starting blocks.  Sprinters that have a quick reaction time and are able to leave the start with power are often able to get so much momentum that they can’t be caught later in the race.  In your business you need to leave the starting blocks fast.  Even if your business is established you can get out fast by restarting your business – do that today and go!  If you are looking for customers, make a massive amount of prospecting calls bringing in a large amount of new customers; if you’re promoting your web site, do massive amounts of promotion – whatever you do to grow your business or to achieve your personal goals, start creating momentum by doing massive amounts of what it takes to succeed.

5. Follow one success immediately with another.

When is the best time to try to set an appointment with a prospect?  The best time to make a new prospecting call is immediately after you just set an appointment.  When is the best time to do a sales presentation? It is immediately after you just made a sale.  Far too often people will stop and take a break after they meet some goal or objective.  They think they deserve a reward and they take a break.  I’m all in favor of rewarding yourself for success but if you do it immediately after a small success, you’re limiting the momentum you can achieve.  If you’ve just had success in a particular goal, whether its making a sale or meeting a deadline you have gained a tremendous amount of energy and confidence from that action – so take advantage of it and make the next step.  You are most motivated immediately following a success, make use of that motivation to continue the forward motion you’ve started.  Reward yourself later, keep moving forward now!

6. Create Wins for Your Team

Having seen your success, the motivation of your teammates will be rising.  You can capitalize on this by putting them in situations that allow them to see some wins in what they are doing.  Look for any way you can of helping them succeed.  The more wins they can have, the more confidence they will have and the more momentum they will be build.  Make sure you are not neglecting the massive personal action at this time as well.  You need to maintain personal activity while working with your team members at the same time.
Following these steps will help you create “the big mo”.  Hold on tight, because momentum can propel you and your business further towards your goals in a short time than you might even imagine.

The Success Professor – Danny Gamache
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Fears come in many different shapes and sizes.  There are extreme fears (or phobias), fears about your future (worry), and fears from stepping out of your comfort zone.  Fear is a natural part of life.  Success comes when you move beyond fear. It is not that you won’t feel the fear, but you will feel the fear and do it anyway.

What are you afraid of?  You may have fears in each of the categories above.  This article will focus on the fear of trying something new or doing something that might cause rejection.  This might be the fear of starting a new business, of making a sales call, or of making a speech.  This is the fear you fear when you ask someone out on a date or when you need to make a presentation in front of an unfamiliar group of people. We all carry many fears in this category.

“I have learned over the years that when one’s mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear.”
- Rosa Parks

You may have heard that FEAR can be considered an acronym for False Expectations Appearing Real.  It is not that the fear is false, but that the expectations that are false.  One result is that fear can cause a paralysis of procrastination.  As we are afraid of something we are procrastinate and find other things to do.  This is the wrong approach.  Instead of being paralyzed by fear we should run towards the fear.  Feel the fear of something and do it anyway.

This summer, I had the privilege of attending the Olympic Games in Beijing.  I went with an organization that works with athletes, and had the goal of networking and meeting lots of athletes.  Doing this meant overcoming significant fear. It is easy to think that successful athletes won’t want to talk to you, or that they are too busy.  You can build up a lot of reasons in your mind why you should not approach an athlete.  Of course these are generally all false expectations.  Athletes are normal people and generally are excited to meet people.  This is especially true at the Olympics where the international camaraderie is extremely high.  Approaching an athlete didn’t happen without fear.  I would feel the fear and do it anyways. Of course my fears (false expectations) never did happen, and moving past the fear was very rewarding.

“Don’t be afraid to go out on a limb. That’s where the fruit is.”
- H. Jackson Brown

One of the first opportunities to connect with an athlete this year happened on my flight to Beijing.  After getting on the flight I noticed an athlete come on.  Normally, I can identify athletes by the team clothing and credentials, but I didn’t need any of that for this particular athlete; I recognized her immediately.  She is a multiple medal winner from previous Olympics.  Naturally the fear of approaching someone so successful was high.  The false expectations appeared very real to me. In that situation I chose to act in spite of fear.  I used the time before take off to walk up to her seat and have a conversation.  It was a great conversation where I made a valuable contact; feel the fear and do it anyways.

Another place that people experience this sort of fear is in business prospecting.  Perhaps you are looking for a new customer or client, or searching for a business partner.  There can be significant fear in making the next contact.  This is a major reason why so many people fail in the sales related businesses.  They have fear of making the next call and that fear paralyzes them into procrastinating.

As mentioned earlier one of the main reasons that we face fear in our lives is because we all live in a comfort zone.  Your comfort zone includes those activities and events that you are comfortable with. It includes the friends you hang out with, the types of activities you do at your job and how you spend your free time. You become comfortable with what you do now.

“Every time we choose safety, we reinforce fear.”
- Cheri Huber

Unfortunately, if you stay in your comfort zone you will not grow and achieve anything more than you have now. Growth requires moving out of your comfort zone. The good news is when you move past fear and move out of your comfort zone your comfort zone will expand. Think about your first day on a new job.  You are likely nervous because you are not sure you can do everything required of you.  Perhaps you felt like the new job was above you.  Now, over time you likely became comfortable with the activities on your job.  Your comfort zone has expanded by doing the things you feared.

Chances are the things that you fear because they are outside of your comfort zone are the very things that you need to do to become more successful. Making the sales call to that potential customer that you are afraid of may be the very call that will grow your business.  Asking the girl you like out on a date might help you start a wonderful relationship.  Run towards the fear and you will move into a higher level of success.

“You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do.”
- Eleanor Roosevelt

Those people who most quickly move towards their fears and move past them will be the first to succeed.  What are you afraid of?  What are the false expectations in your life?  Identify them so that you know what to run towards.  Courage is not the absence of fear, it is the ability to move towards the fear instead of away from it.

Written by:

The Success Professor – Danny Gamache
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Hi everyone,

On Sunday’s I share links from around the web.  These will be articles that I found valuable and hopefully will be useful to you as well.

1. Alex Shalman has a guest article on John Chow called “How Planning Can Make Your Broke” where he shares his story of writing an publishing an e-book in 3 days!

2. Gaping Void shares a wonderful post on How to be Creative. This is a long post, but really worth reading.

3. Presentation Zen believes that Obama’s Victory Speech will become a classic historical speech.

4. The Colorado Springs Gazette does a Case Study on the 4 Hour Work Week.

5. Seth Godin shares about The Sad Lie of Mediocrity.

Enjoy the links!  Take some time today and set some goals for the upcoming week, and let’s get to it!

The Success Professor – Danny Gamache

If you are in any type of business, you are in the business of making promises. The promises are the claims that you make to your customer. You make claims about your product’s or service’s benefits for your customer through your advertisements and your sales presentation. Every claim you make in these, or any other marketing materials you may have, represent a promise to the customer.

The result of these promises is the expectation that your customers have for your product or service. The level of expectations that your promises create represents the standard the customer will hold your organization to. If you meet the expectations that you set, then the customer will leave your business satisfied. If you exceed the expectations that the customer has, your customer will leave enthusiastic about your company. Of course, if you fail to reach the expectations that you have created then your customer will leave disappointed. Naturally, how your customer leaves your company will impact whether or not they return, and how likely they are to spread the word to others about your business.

Let me share an example. This past summer my wife and I were on vacation in southern Turkey on the Mediterranean. We were staying in the resort city of Ola Deniz. It was a beautiful location with a wonderful beach, and truly a great vacation spot. The city of Ola Deniz is filled with tour operators selling day trips around the area. They all shared wonderful stories of the tours. My wife and I settled on two specific tours that we wanted to take and negotiated a good price.

We had enjoyable days on both trips, but left a little disappointed each time. The problem wasn’t the trip itself, but rather how the tour didn’t match the promises with the actual experience.

The first trip was a trip by bus and then river boat to another town where we would experience a mud bath and a visit to turtle beach. The salesperson went in detail through each step of the trip, and in general gave a pretty accurate level of expectation for what we experienced. Unfortunately she chose to leave out one stop – a stop a jewelry shop. Naturally the jewelry shop was part of the tour because they hoped that the tourists would spend money and that the tour company would receive a commission from the jewelry shop for brining by the customers. For most this was simply an extra thirty minute stop and left many customers with a bad taste of the experience.

The second trip was a boat trip on the Mediterranean. The salesperson explained that this boat trip would involve stops at five different bays as well as a stop at the famous butterfly valley. There was even more dissatisfaction for the customers on this trip. First of all, the five bays turned out to be very close to each other. In fact a number of them could be seen from each other. When you set out from one bay and are ready and excited to see more of the sea but then end up only travelling a ¼ mile to a bay you could clearly see already, you are naturally left a little disappointed.

The disappointment got worse with the stop at the famous butterfly valley. One couple on our boat took the whole tour because they wanted to go to this one stop. When we got there, we found out that we only had a 40 minute stop, but that it would take more than one hour to walk to the end of the valley and back. Everyone was disappointed that we would not even have time to see the cliffs and valley that made butterfly valley famous. Further, we found out at butterflies only live at butterfly valley for about one month a year; naturally not the month we were there. Nearly everyone we talked to left the trip disappointed.

Of course when reflecting on each experience, we got great value for what we paid. All that needed to have happened was for the expectation level to be set more realistically. My wife and I paid a total of $25 dollars each. That got us two trips, lunch each day and a chance to see some wonderful sites. If only the expectations had been set to match what we experienced we would have left extremely satisfied.

If the stop at the gold shop had been included in the details of the first trip no one would have complained. The salesperson took so much time going through each and every stop on the trip that neglecting the jewelry shop became even more obvious. Setting the expectations correctly by explaining that there would be one stop at the jewelry store would have set the proper expectations. We would have left the trip very happy.

If the second trip had properly advertised what we would experience during the stop at butterfly valley, and set better expectations about the distance between the five bays, the trip would have been wonderful. It was a relaxing day at sea, a chance to see wonderful sites, and to swim in some great locations. Again the problem was that the expectations didn’t match reality.

What are the expectations that you are creating for your product or service? Are you meeting those expectations? Are you exceeding them? If you are not meeting (or preferably exceeding) those expectations, then you need to get to work. Perhaps you need to lower false expectations that you are creating in your marketing that you simply don’t need to make the sale. Maybe you need to increase the benefits you actually give your customers and ensure that every expectation you are creating is actually achieved. A simple way to do that is to under promise and over deliver.

The ability to under promise and over deliver is a powerful way to create excited customers. You need to manage your marketing efforts to provide realistic promises to your customers. Make sure that every expectation you set is something you can easily achieve. Once you’ve managed the expectations you are creating, go out and surpass them. Go and do more for your customers than you promise.

Written by:

The Success Professor – Danny Gamache

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Recently, I shared with everyone my Top 10 Books.  At the time I mentioned that I was currently reading “Getting Things Done” by David Allen.  In the comments, Dave Jones, asked me to share my thoughts on the book when I finished.  This post will share my reflections on the book, as well as a few take home points that will help you become more productive.  Please be sure to share your experience with Getting Things Done (GTD) in the comments section below.

Reading and applying tips from GTD will make you more productive. The subtitle of the book is “The Art of Stress-Free Productivity”.  There are two claims in this: 1) You will be stress-free in your work, and 2) You will be more productive.   Obviously, both of these are very appealing thoughts.

The idea that you will be stress-free comes from Allen’s belief that if you have everything on your “to do” list written down and in a trusty system your subconscious mind will stop worrying about the task, stop reminding you about it, and allow your trusted system to go to work. While, I do see the system as a way to reduce stress, and help you relax more, the idea of being completely “stress free”, may be pushing it a bit.

The real strength of the book for me is in providing ways to increase productivity.  The book is designed specifically for knowledge workers; people whose primary work is to use, process, and share knowledge.  Chances are that if you primarily work in an office, you are a knowledge worker, and this book will help you be more productive.  For me, this would necessarily include all three of my major professional areas: being a professor, writing this blog, and building my home business.

The System

GTD is designed to be an entire system, not just a few activities. The system will allow you to take any activity, task, email/voice mail, or project and move it more quickly towards completion.  The system involves five major processes that every activity needs to go through.

1. Collect – writing down and recording everything you need to do.
2. Process – going through everything you have collected and determining whether it can be done quickly, or as part of a project, and then deciding to either do it, delegate it, or defer it until a later time.
3. Organize – taking the activities that you need to do and putting them into actionable lists and set projects.
4. Review – going through all of your lists and projects to ensure that you are doing what you need to do.
5. Do – taking action and getting things done.

Allen’s system comes with a thorough flow chart, and sub systems for each of these five processes to help you move through it efficiently and quickly while not dropping any of the activities you need to do.   The entire system will take significant time to set up and get used to.  You really need to set aside two full days after you have read the book to setup the system in your life.

Beyond the System

The good news is that you don’t need to use the entire system to get a lot out of this book. At this point, I have been implementing a number of elements of the system rather than the system as a whole.  This may change later, but at this point, there are some elements that can fit my life and that I know will make substantial differences in my productivity. When you are reading the book, be open to implementing the entire system, but also realize that you can start with one activity at a time and build up towards the systems he suggests.

Value for Me

Initially, the tips I learned while reading GTD made a bigger impact in my role as a professor than in my blog or business.  As I have gotten better at implementing these ideas in that setting they have now started to naturally carry over into my blog and business as well as other areas of life.  The following are five tips that I have already implemented and that have started to make improvements.  I will list and briefly explain the tips here.  Many of them will become full length articles over the next month or two.

1. Two Minute Policy – Allen suggests that whenever you are processing tasks to ask yourself if what you are looking at can be done in two minutes.  If it can, then do it.  This helps to prevent procrastinating on the small things.

2. Weekly Review – Each week you need to have a time of weekly review where you go through your lists and projects and make sure there are not any outgoing activities that you need to get done, and that all of your responsibilities are written down and set up in the correct part of your system.  This review goes great along with my weekly planning process.

3. Write Everything Down – Every activity that you agree to do needs to be written down.  Simply write it down on a piece of paper and put it in your in box for processing.  By writing everything down you won’t be worried about missing something that you have committed to doing.

4. Folders for Each Project – For each project you are involved in you need to have a folder.  That folder will allow you to place anything that you need for accomplishing that project.  Big projects will have several folders each representing a different aspect of that project.

5. Asking “What’s the Next Action?” – By asking this question of every project you have, you will always know what you need to do next.  Often this next step will be smaller than you had pictured, and may even fit within the two minute rule.  Also, ask this question at the end of every meeting you have, ensuring that all parties go away ready to make progress.

Reading Getting Things Done

“Getting Things Done” is certainly worth reading.  When you pick up the book, remember that it is not a quick read.  Much of the steps that Allen describes require that you take time to think through how that would fit in your life.  Make sure that you read with a highlighter in hand so that you can mark up key areas and return to them later.  Also, have a pad of paper and pen with you so you can write down ideas as you come to them.

One of the reasons it took me longer to read this book than others is that whenever I sat down to read I became inspired to go and get things done! I would sit down with the intention of reading for 30 minutes and would be up accomplishing something after about 10 minutes of reading.  Of course this is a very good thing!  The act of simply reading the book helped me to accomplish more.

This is also a book that you cannot just read once.  I will be returning to this book again in a few months to help me readjust the tools that I have put in place and reconsider ways that I should implement the system as a whole.  I know it will be something that will provide continued value for years to come.

Enjoy the book!

The Success Professor – Danny Gamache

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Welcome to another Sunday Browsing! Here are some great articles from around the web.

1. Financing Your Freedom asks, “What is the Meaning of Money?”

2. Pick the Brain shares about “How to Find and Develop Your Own Internal Motivation”.

3. Financial Expert Dave Ramsey has an article in the Bay Area Business Magazine sharing “8 Action Steps to High Performance Achivement”.

4. Seth Godin asks, “Is Effort a Myth?”

5. Read about “How New Rules of Work are Changing the Game” at Zen Habits.

Finally,  I had a guest post on Alex Shalman’s blog entitled:

How to Conduct a SWOT Analysis of Your Life.

Have a great week!

The Success Professor – Danny Gamache

How is your Financial Health?

Are you in a financial emergency? Do you need to dial money 911?  Certainly, our economy is, and so even if you are not in an emergency state, a full financial check up might be in order.  In times of financial uncertainty people are more aware of their money.

The issues of what to spend money on are elevated in the importance of decision making.  Because of this increased focus, it can be a great time to make life changes when it comes to how you deal with money.  Unfortunately most people make only minor surface changes and, after the storm is over, quickly change back to their previous poor money habits.  However, if you change your understanding about money, and develop new habits, the changes can result in lifelong financial peace.

Dealing With The Emergency and Developing Financial Peace

1. Assess the Situation: Be Honest With Yourself

Most people struggle with being honest with themselves about their financial condition.  It is very easy to be in denial about the need to make changes and the need for help.  Here are a few questions to ask yourself:
* Do you have credit card debt?
* Has your overall level of debt increased during the past year?
* Do you have a car payment?
* Does it ever feel like the month lasts longer than the money?
* Do you find yourself struggling to make it until the next payday?
* Are you finding it hard to save for the future?
* Do you and your spouse often fight about money?

If you answered YES to any of these questions, then you need a financial surgery.  If you answered YES to more than one of these questions (or maybe all of them!) then you are in desperate need of changes in you life.  Admit that you have financial struggles and begin to change.

2. Stop the Bleeding

The first step is to stop the bleeding.  You do this by changing your spending habits. This will mean changing your lifestyle.  Let’s face it, if you answered YES to questions above then you are living a lifestyle that you cannot afford.  You need to scale back to a lifestyle you can afford.  The longer that you’ve been living a life you can’t afford, the further you will need to cut back your current spending.

There are many common changes that need to take place in this step.  You may need to:
* Stop eating at restaurants
* Put a hold on any purchases other than food, shelter, and utilities
* Cut out a monthly expense (like your cell phone or cable tv)
* Sell you car to eliminate car payments – by purchasing a small car with cash
* Commit to not buying anything on credit again

The more difficult your financial situation (ie. the more often you answered YES in part one) the more of these steps you will need to take. You may even need more drastic measures.  Part of cutting your spending is to develop a clear, written budget.  Most budget systems are complex and set people up for failure. Here is how to set up a simple budget system.

3. Give Yourself Oxygen: Increase Your Income

Your financial equation has two sides, your expenses and you revenues:  what you spend and what you make.  Once you have stopped the bleeding in your spending you need to look for ways to increase your income.

There are endless ways to increase your income.  You can:
* ask for (and do what it takes to earn) a raise
* have a second spouse enter the workforce
* get a second job
* start a home business
* sell some of your ‘things’ on Ebay or by having a garage sale

Again, the more difficult your financial situation the more ways you will need to find to increase your income level.

4. Consider Alternative Treatments: Have a Plan B in Place

In order to find true financial peace, you will need to develop a “plan B”.  “Plan B” is the preparations you will take in case something unexpected happens to your income source.  This could mean that you lose your job, you get a pay cut, or you get hurt or disabled and are not able to work.

The first part of having your plan B is to develop an emergency fund. Author Dave Ramsey of the Total Money Makeover (one of my top 10 book choices), suggests having an emergency fund of $1000 set aside immediately, even before you begin to pay off debts.  Later you should increase this fund to covering six months of expenses.  If you are concerned about the possibility of job loss in the near future, then get the emergency fund up to six months of expenses right away.

The second part of plan B is to create alternate sources of income. This is where having a home business that allows you to create residual income (also known as passive income) comes in.  Other plan B options include developing new skills and more education or getting your foot in the door at a new company by starting a part time job.

5. Make Long Term Life Changes: Get Out of Debt

After you have a plan B established, have done what you can to increase your income, and have made any necessary changes to your spending it is time to do everything you can to get out of debt.  Again I would suggest following Dave Ramsey’s teaching here.  Dave teaches that you begin a debt snowball by paying off the debt with the lowest balance.  This allows you to gain some quick success.  The snowball effect occurs because once you pay off the first debt you add the original payment of that first debt to your extra debt payments and start attacking the second debt.  Your goal is to pay off everything other than your mortgage right away, and then over time attack your mortgage.

6. Continue to Focus on Long-term Financial Health: Save for Your Future

The next step is saving your future.  This is long-term savings for your retirement.  You need to start to do this only after you have paid off all your debt other than your mortgage.  Your goal is to fully fund your retirement account, to create extra sources of residual income, and to continue to live frugally while you save, save, and save.  Included in this step will be saving for specific purposes such as your next car, vacations etc.  You never want to use debt again.  You will also likely want to contribute to your child’s education fund.  Always buy things with cash by saving for them first.  This gets money working for you instead of against you.

Written by:
The Success Professor – Danny Gamache

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