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So what’s holding you back from moving forward more quickly towards your goals? Likely you are reading this article because you want to learn something. You want to learn something that you can apply to your life or business, so that you can grow and move forward more quickly. You likely have goals that you have not achieved. One of the keys to moving forward will be to find out what is holding you back.

This is a question I ask myself from time to time. While I am making exciting progress towards many of my goals, there are some that I am not moving forward on as quickly as I would like. Self examination helps me look at these areas and ask: “What’s holding me back?”

While everyone will have unique factors that hold them back, there are a few things that many people have in common. Here are the things that most likely are holding you back.

1. No Clear Picture of the Destination

If you don’t have clarity about what you are trying to accomplish and where you are trying to go, you will not make significant progress. This is more than simply writing down a goal. It is having a crystal clear picture for what achieving this goal will be like. The difference is like the difference between a black and white photograph and a high definition video. Most people have goals that are like the black and white photograph. You know what you want, but you don’t have a vivid picture of it. Dream a little. Use your imagination. Turn that black and white photograph into a color photograph. Then dream some more and turn it into a movie. Then dream some more and turn your movie into vivid high definition. Your dream will have increased clarity and you will have more passion to move towards it.

2. You Don’t Know WHY

Another thing that might be holding you back is that you don’t know your WHY. Your WHY is the motivating reason behind the goals. It is the reason why you will spend extra time and effort working towards the dream. The WHY is not the dream itself, but all the reasons WHY you want to achieve the dream. The WHY is usually outwards focused – on the difference you can make for others, or the difference it will make for your family. Make sure you know your WHY clearly.

3. Self-doubt

This is a big one. It was the big one in the past for me, is still the biggest one today. While with success comes more and more self-confidence the self-doubt is still there, it is just in different forms. Self-doubt is the voice in your mind that limits you – that says you can’t achieve it, that suggests you won’t make it, that you don’t have the skills and that it won’t work. Self-doubt causes you to focus on your weaknesses rather than your strengths. Self-doubt is a deadly poison for people working towards a big goal. If you let this limiting belief take over you will slow down and stop pursuing your dreams. You need to recognize self-doubt as an attitude that you can control. Focus on your strengths, and remind yourself that you can achieve your goals. Have a support system around you and train them to give you positive reinforcement about your abilities and strengths.
Bonus article: Six Steps to Defeating Self-doubt

4. Lack of consistency

Pursuit of a goal requires consistent effort. While there are times when a focused spurt can be valuable, in general it is much more effective to work at something continuously over time.  Consistency helps you to maintain steady growth. The best way to improve your consistency is to have clear goals that you break down and pursue on a weekly basis and that you break down into daily activities. (For one example, see my weekly planning and goal setting system).

5. Procrastination

Everyone struggles with procrastination. Anytime you put off doing what you know you should be doing you are procrastinating. It is something that controls many of us more than we even realize. The more you are able to move past procrastination the more quickly you will reach your goals in every area of your life. Often people procrastinate on what they view as the little things; however these little things soon add up to become very big things. Procrastination occurs when you take your focus off the importance and benefit of doing the task at hand. When you do this, the negative aspects of the task appear larger than the benefits, and then you won’t do it. You need to focus back on the benefits of what you are doing. Often it helps to just get started, even doing a little. Once you are in the state of action, more action will easily follow.

So what’s holding you back? Is it one of these five things? Is it all of them? Is it something else? Take this opportunity to do a proper self-examination. Understand what is holding back, and work towards eliminating these.

Written by:
The Success Professor – Danny Gamache

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First impressions are very important. Research shows that people often make lasting decisions about you in less than a second. For others it may take a few minutes.  In almost every case when you meet someone they will make up their mind about you early on in your first meeting. That means it is vitally important to make a good first impression, and you need to be prepared to do so. Here are some ways to make a good first impression.

1. Smile

In most cases the first thing that people will see is your face, so be sure you are smiling.  Few things in life are as compelling and inviting as a smile.  Smiles make people feel like you are warm, friendly and inviting.  Smiles are contagious.  Your smile will lead others to smile. People are smiling are generally happy, and if they are happy around you there is a better chance you are making a great first impression.

2. Give a good handshake

A lot of people make judgments about people by their handshakes.  This is especially true in many business relationships.  There is a belief that your handshake speaks about your character.  One thing it really clearly reflects is your confidence. You want to appear to be a confident individual, so shake hands like you are.  That means giving a strong firm handshake.  Shake hands with purpose, knowing that it is one way to show that you are worth knowing.

3. Remember names

Remembering names can be very challenging.  A lot of people struggle with remembering the names of people that they meet.  Thankfully, remembering names is a skill that you can learn.  You can practice remembering people’s names, develop tricks to help you, and you will get better at remembering names. One simple trick is to repeat the name back once or twice in the first minute or two of the conversation.  You may also want to putt a mental picture of the person with the name, adapting it to be something very memorable or so that you think of someone else with the same first name.

4. Establish rapport

Rapport is the connection that you have with another individual. When you are in rapport you are really “with” the person you are talking to.  Some refer to it as being on the same wavelength. It often happens unconsciously when people have similar interests or are in a positive discussion.  There are ways to increase rapport. Salespeople use these to help connect with their prospects, and you can use them to help you build a great first impression.  The techniques are simple things such as maintaining eye contact, mimicking basic body language or breathing patterns.

5. Show interest in them

People appreciate people who are interested in them.  Remember no one is more important to the person you are speaking to than she is to herself.  Show interest in them by asking questions and getting to know them. Look for common interest areas and then focus on asking more questions to them about it. Often the people that will have the best first impression of you are the people who you ask the most questions of.  Get them talking about themselves rather than you and people will be more impressed.

6. Dress well

Be sure to always be well dressed and well groomed.  In other words take care of your appearance. This doesn’t always mean being dressed in a fancy suit or even a shirt and tie.  You just need to look good in what you are wearing. You also need to be dressed appropriately for the venue.  If you are at a business meeting dress professionally – don’t wear jeans or a t-shirt.  Likewise, if you are going to a neighborhood summer party, wear a good pair of shorts and a golf shirt.  You still want to look your best, but be appropriate.

7. Have good posture

Good posture is about how you carry yourself.  Stand upright don’t slouch or slump your shoulders. If you are sitting, sit up with your back against the chair. Carry yourself in a professional and confident manner and people will view you as professional and confident.

8. Have a positive attitude

The last tip may be one of the most important.  Have a positive attitude.  Be happy, and think the best of the situation.  Be a glass half full rather than a glass half empty kind of person. Look for the best of the situation and of the individual you are speaking with. People are attracted to positive friendly people, and so being positive will help you make a great first impression.

While all of these can come across as techniques, they can eventually become just part of who you are. You can become the type of person who naturally makes good first impressions and who others naturally want to be around and be connected to. Use these tips to start but work on developing them into habits.

Written by:
The Success Professor – Danny Gamache
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Have you ever gone through a period where you just don’t feel like you are accomplishing anything?

Have you ever had a time where you suddenly are not doing the things that you know you need to do to reach your goals?

Have you ever gone from a period of high achievement to suddenly doing nothing at all?

Have you ever had a time when you seem to have lost your motivation?

Have you ever just felt drained and have been not sure how to get back into life?

It is easy to get into a slump in life. All of these situations are symptoms of a slump. In a slump you are not making progress towards your goals.  In a slump you get out of the habits that help you accomplish important things.  In a slump you feel like you are just treading water, not moving through the water.

There are several things that might move you into a slump.  You may get into a slump because:

• you overwork yourself
• you have gone through a major change in life and you have not adjusted your habits around this life change
• you failed to reach an important goal
• you are exhausted
• you had something interrupt your regular life pattern for a period of time
• you got distracted and started pursing things that are not important
• you set goals that were too high and unreasonable and you don’t move towards them because you believe you can’t achieve them anyways

The good news is that once you recognize that you are in a slump there are some concrete steps you can take to move on and back into progressing towards your goals.

1. Understand how you got into a slump

Moving out of a slump starts with an understanding of how you got into the slump in the first place.  Take some time to reflect on what got you into the state you are in.  Perhaps it was one of the things listed above, or perhaps it is something else.  You need to grasp the cause of your slump if you want to move out of it. Recognizing the cause will help you put in safe guards to protect it from happening again.

2. Pick a start date

Look a couple of days ahead on your schedule and pick a day where you don’t have anything major planned.  You don’t necessarily need an open schedule, just some free time.  Perhaps it is a day with fewer meetings and obligations, or a free evening.  Choose this as your REstart date. Don’t give yourself too much time ahead of your start date, two to three days is ideal.

3. Revisit your goals

Spend some time rereading your goals.  Look over your long term goals as well as the goals for the current quarter of the year.  If you don’t have goals now is a great time to write them down. If your goals are no longer appropriate, use this time to set new goals. Make sure that you have goals that you want to achieve, believe you can achieve and are committed to achieving.

4. Spend some time dreaming

After revisiting your goals spend some time dreaming about achieving those goals. Imagine you are living your perfect day, what would be like? What would life be like if you achieve the major goals you are working towards?  How would life be better?  To dream like this you need to get away from distractions. You may want to go for a walk, or go and lie down in a park.  You may want to talk a hot bath.  Find some way of doing nothing except dreaming.  Allow your imagination to take over. Get a clear picture in your mind about what achieving your goal will be like.

5. Get rid of life clutter

Before your REstart day you need to make sure you get rid of the clutter in your life. This involves getting your work environment and home environment to a place where you can function.  This might mean cleaning your house, doing those errands that you have been procrastinating on or cleaning your desk. You need to get rid of anything that is going to stop you or distract you from restarting towards your goals. Remember this must happen BEFORE your start date.  This is one of the reasons you should choose a start date a day or two out is that you need to make sure you get your life free of clutter.  Once your start date comes you don’t want to be worrying about the little things.

6. Set some basic starter goals

These should be small goals that will help you get moving, things that you can complete quickly and that do not rely on outsiders for your success or failure; in other words things that you can do yourself.  These are important because they help you start getting some successes under your belt, to get feeling good about yourself and start gathering momentum. These can be easy goals.  The point is not to make them too challenging, but to get you started on something.

7. Get started

Next you need to get started. You might not feel like doing anything, but you need to just start doing them.  Often action causes feeling – the more you do something the more you feel like doing something. The first step is often the hardest, the one that takes the most energy.  Take that first step and get started.

8. Build back into your daily habits

Once you start moving again you need to work on bringing back your daily habits that help you be successful. Start getting up at your optimal wake up time.  Develop your morning routine.  Set your daily to do list, and your weekly goals.  Get back into your work out habit.  Do whatever it takes to reestablish the key habits that help you move towards your goals.

By following these eight steps you will be able to break out of your slump.  You can get back on track towards your goals, and you can achieve success.

Written by:

The Success Professor – Danny Gamache
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Ok, so now Danny must really be going crazy you think. Isn’t gravity what holds us to the earth? Isn’t that a good thing? Well yes, and no.  Yes it is good that we have gravity to keep us from floating off into outer space, but don’t you ever have times that you wish you could just defy the law of gravity and fly. I mean really fly! Fly above the beautiful earth we live on; fly through the valleys and over the amazing mountains. You would marvel at the beauty of creation and you would be away from all the struggles of life!

The same applies to you as you pursue your goals. If you want to FLY you need to break the law of gravity. The law of gravity I’m talking about here is the gravity that comes from negative people and things that are trying to hold you where you are at. They are trying to keep your feet on the ground and keep you were you are now– they are your gravity! There are several types of gravity to avoid: the negative family member or friend; the gravity of negative self image; and the gravity of life’s distractions.

The first type of gravity often comes from a negative friend or family member. This person is likely very well meaning, in fact the likely want the best for you. The problem is they usually want their best for you – not what you might know as best.  They are likely trained in the 40/40/40 mindset. That is the 40 hours a week, 40 weeks a year for 40 years – and boom you get to retire! They don’t mind the idea of spending 60000 hours of your life working for someone else! They don’t really mind having to leave the kids at home while you go to work!

Often the best way to handle this type of gravity is to prove them wrong – as Nike says, “Just Do It!” When they see you start to have the success you’ve dreamed about often this person will come around. If it is your spouse sometimes you will have to be a little more patient. It might be worth asking him or her for permission to give the your goal one-year, or at least six solid months of effort. There will be sacrifices in working towards your dream, and getting permission to make those sacrifices for a one-year period can often give you the time you will need to prove that the goal is worthwhile.

The next form of gravity that can prevent you from seeing success in life is a negative self-image. Not believing in yourself can actually be the biggest form of gravity you will face. I believe the first important step here is to realize that your negative beliefs in yourself are irrational and are going to hinder you from success. Choose NOT to believe those negative thoughts. Make a DECISION to move past it.

There are a few practical steps that can help you: First off, listen to positive motivation and self-improvement tapes and read similar books (see my top books choice here and my top podcasts choice here). These can really make a difference. Secondly, don’t compare yourself with the top performers. A golfer who is used to shooting in the 80’s does not compare himself with Tiger Woods – that would only be more discouraging. Instead he or she tries to beat their personal best. They can still make it all the way around the course (which is a success in itself), and they can still try to do better and better. If that same golfer shoots a 78, they have an even bigger success. A lot of times when I am coaching people towards a goal they get disappointed if they don’t immediately see success.  You should look for continuous improvement towards your goal, not necessarily getting there day one.

A third form of gravity that can hold you down and keep you from really soaring are the distractions of life. Everyone has them. The number of things we have to keep us busy naturally expand to the amount of time we have. There is no such thing as spare time – in my experiences it doesn’t exist. So the key is as Stephen Covey says, put “First Things First”. First things naturally need to include your faith, your family and perhaps you job. Immediately following those things, I suggest that you give your primary goal a high priority. Finally the idea of ‘First Things First’, can also be applied WITHIN the goal you are focused on. Know what activities are critical in moving you forward, and then focus on those activities. Do not focus on things that will not provide you with results.

What is the gravity that is holding you down? What is keeping you from soaring to new heights and reaching your goals? Is it one of the examples listed here? Is it something else? Whatever it is, the key is to realize what is holding you down and break past it. Make a decision today that nothing will hold you down from reaching your goals and do whatever it takes to move past the Gravity, and soar!

Written by:
The Success Professor – Danny Gamache

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WIN NOW; these are two words that can completely change the way you build your business or pursue your life goals. The result of applying the WIN NOW principles are that you indeed will “win now”! But aside from being a nice sounding phrase, WIN NOW can teach an attitude that will empower you to achieve your goals, remind you of what you should be focusing on, and help you take advantage of every opportunity you are given. WIN NOW is the combination of two important acronyms. WIN stands for What’s Important Now? NOW stands for No Opportunity Wasted.

WIN is taught by Lou Holtz, one of the best football coaches of all times and an amazing leadership speaker. “What’s Important Now?” is a phrase that will help you keep on track in your business and your life. To apply the WIN principle, simply ask yourself the question, “What’s Important Now?” over and over again throughout your day. It is a simple question which can help refocus you and take action.

Throughout the day it is really easy to get off track and move away from important action to doing things that are only a waste of time. By asking yourself “What’s Important Now” you can remind yourself that there are things that are important and you can move back to activities that will help you accomplish what is important.

The answer to the WIN question will change throughout your day. At times, WIN will mean giving complete attention to your spouse or children; at times WIN will mean taking steps towards growing your business, and at times it will mean being the best employee you can be. The key is that you SHOULD be doing the important thing at any one moment.

In order to apply WIN you need to have an understanding of what exactly is important. Knowing what’s important comes from an understanding of your mission and your goals. Your personal mission should help you always have a clear understanding of what sort of things are going to be important to you. The main part of my mission is “teaching others how to be successful in all areas of life”. Therefore, the things that are important will in some way help me to do this. In my case this can be through my job as a professor, through my role at my church, through my blog, or through my home business. In all of those situations, and in others, I am teaching others how to be successful.

After you have clarity around your mission you can set goals. For goals to be effective within the WIN principle you need to have long-term goals that are broken down into short-term goals set on a weekly basis. Each week you should set your priorities in each of the different areas (or roles) in your life. (You may want to use my weekly planning system to help you do this). If you understand clearly your weekly goals that will allow you to focus on WIN throughout each day. The things that will be important are those things that help you achieve your weekly goals.

The second part of the phrase is NOW, or No Opportunity Wasted. This is a phrase originated by Phil Keagan, the host of The Amazing Race, and his television show “No Opportunity Wasted”. NOW refers to never letting a chance for growth go past you. Opportunities are all around us. There are opportunities in all realms of life – your physical life, your personal life and your spiritual life. NOW means that you will be watching for these opportunities, you will recognize them when they present themselves and take advantage of them.

NOW will connect directly with WIN. The opportunities you will look for when applying NOW will be the things that help you achieve the important things from WIN. NOW will mean making the contact with someone you want to partner with in your business. NOW will mean getting out of your comfort zone on a daily basis; NOW will mean taking advantage of the ten minutes you have between meetings to do something useful. In other words, thinking “No Opportunity Wasted” will help you to look for any opportunity to do the important things that will help you achieve your goals.

By combining NOW and WIN you get the phrase WIN NOW; which is exactly what will happen for you if you continually apply these principles. With WIN you will be always asking yourself “What’s Important Now?” This understanding will allow you to take action towards these goals. NOW will help you to remember to be watching for opportunities throughout your day, and then spur you to take action towards those activities, even if it means moving through your comfort zone and doing things that may cause fear. These actions towards the important things in life will indeed help you WIN NOW.

Written by:

Danny Gamache
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Self-doubt is one of the things that most holds people back from achieving more success in their life and business. It is something that everyone, even people who appear very successful may battle with self-doubt. The further ahead you are towards reaching your goals the more you will have conquered self-doubt. With more success comes more confidence and less self-doubt, but you need to eliminate some of that self-doubt before you can succeed in the first place. There are several ways to help defeat the demons of self-doubt from your life.

1. Make Small Promises and Keep Them

One of the best ways of fighting self-doubt is by making small promises. These may be promises to yourself or to others. This can be an effective technique in creating momentum in your life. What is a task that you need to accomplish? Set a plan for completing that task, give yourself a deadline and then promise yourself that you will do that task. Once you have made a promise to yourself in this manner, make sure you do everything within your power to keep your promise.

Making yourself promises has the opportunity to build fantastic momentum but if you make promises you do not keep it will result in increased self-doubt not diminished. That is why you should make small steps in your promises. The promise needs to be something that is easy and manageable for you. It might be as simple as making one sales call each day, or writing one blog post each week.

After you have completed what you have promised yourself you will build on that success by making another small promise to yourself and keeping that. Keeping one small promise after another eventually leads to momentum and big success in your business.

2. Turn the Promises Into Small Achievable Goals

Once you are comfortable choosing tasks, promising yourself that you will complete them and then finishing them by the deadline you have set, it is time to move towards setting goals. Make sure that you focus on setting small achievable goals. Nothing helps to erase your self-doubt than reaching a worthwhile goal. Start with small goals, achieve them and then slowly increase the challenge of the types of goals you set. As you progress you will build momentum and confidence in life.

3. Put Others First

Another way of getting rid of self-doubt is to take the focus off of yourself and place your focus on others. Instead of focusing on what you can do for your own business or to achieve your own goals, focus on how you can help others. One of Zig Ziglar’s most famous quotes is that,

“You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help enough other people get what they want.”

Notice here that the focus is on other people, not on you. Further, by focusing on others there is no time to dwell on your own limitations and concerns.

4. Focus on the Positive

Many times the reasons for our self-doubt is that we are focusing on the negative things of life. You may be focusing on everything that is going wrong rather than what is going right. We are focusing on our weaknesses rather than on our strengths.  Simply reversing this process can go a long way to eliminating much of the self-doubt from your life. You need to train your mind to only remember the positive. Focus on your success not on your failure. You need to learn from you failures and move on.

Successful people face rejection everyday. You face rejection when seeking financial funding for a business, you may face rejection when trying to make a sale, or you may face rejection from a boss or coworker. The reason for your success is your ability to completely forget about most of this rejection. Successful people learn from all of their mistakes but focus on their victories. After all if you dwell on the negative things that have happened to you in the past, you will never be willing to move forward. This same principle applies throughout life. If you focus on all the car accidents that happen in the world there is no way you’ll be able to drive your car – instead you focus on the fact that most times you go for a drive nothing happens.

5. Focus on Your Strengths

Make sure you are focusing on your strengths not your weaknesses. During periods of self-doubt you will likely find that you are irrationally focusing on all your weaknesses and ignoring your strengths. Chances are you have you have many more strengths than you realize. Work on continually thinking about how your strengths can be contributing to the growth of your business or achievement of your goals. If you have trouble with this take some time and meditate on all the strengths you bring to the table. Write these down. Take this even one step forward by having people around you tell you about the strengths they see in you.  You can also use this technique to lower the self-doubt in those around you. Many times you will see strengths in others that they do not see in themselves. You can make a big difference by helping them see the strengths that they might not see easily.

6. Attitude

Although the above ways of defeating self-doubt all are to some extent or another reliant on your attitude, it is important enough that it deserves attention on its own. One of my favorite sayings in business is that “attitude is everything.” Nothing affects your self-doubt more than your attitude. In fact self-doubt is an attitude of its own. It is a very limiting attitude that you place on yourself.

Thankfully attitude is a CHOICE. Each day you can choose what attitude you are going to follow. Make sure you start each day with a positive, “I can do it” attitude. Always believe that you can achieve your goals. Always believe the best in people, and always focus on the positives. Learn from the struggles and focus on the victories.

Always be working on your attitude. Manage your attitude by reading positive material, listening to motivating audio tapes and choosing to make it a daily goal, become the leader in attitude for your team. (See my article 10 Tips for Maintaining a Positive Attitude)

By making and keeping small promises, setting and achieving worthwhile goals, putting others first, focusing on the positive, focusing on your strengths and managing your attitude you can greatly diminish the effect of self-doubt in your life. Now take the focus off yourself for a minute and think about ways you can help eliminate the self-doubt you see in those around you. Encourage them to take these steps towards eliminating self-doubt.

Written by:
The Success Professor – Danny Gamache
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At the start of August, many readers of this blog joined me as we launched the Success Professor’s 31 Day Challenge. The basic premise of the challenge is that you can do a lot in 31 days by focusing in on one area of your life that you want to improve.  As we have moved past the mid-point of this challenge it is a great time to revisit the challenge, renew our focus, and to report on progress.

What are you working on?

Did you decide to make a change in this 31 day challenge? If so, what are you working on? Are you improving your website? Learning a new skill or ability? Or making specific steps to grow your business? The first step in a 31 day challenge is to know what you want to work on and be specific. If you have been working on something, use the comments of this post to report your progress.

You can start today!

If you didn’t join us on the 31 day challenge at the start of August, you can start today.  Each set of 31 days can be perfect for you to grow in some area. Read the original post to give you an understanding of the purpose, and then pick something you want to improve and start today.

This excellent e-book helps you build a better blog.

Personal progress:

My 31 day challenge focused on improving this blog.  I have been using ProBlogger Darren Rowse’s ebook “31 Days to Build a Better Blog” as a guideline.

A sample of my accomplishments this month include:

• regular posting schedule set and followed – this is the first time in several months that I have kept a regular posting schedule

• two guest post written and submitted – one published and one accepted for future publication.

• added “Stumble It” button to the bottom of each post

• increased participation on Twitter

The difficult part for me has been keeping up with the daily schedule in Rowse’s ebook. The activities are great, but some times take more time than I have available.  Add into that a couple of business trips and I am a little behind.  I will continue to progress through the activities both for the rest of the 31 days of August and beyond as needed.  The ideas in the book are great.

Participant Profile – Kyle Durand – www.entrepreneurialadvocate.com

Question #1 – Tell us about yourself: Who are you? What do you do?

If you asked me this three years ago, I would have told you I was a career U.S. military officer and an attorney.  I joined the U.S. Navy when I was 17 and rose through the ranks by doing all the “right” things. I qualified as a nuclear power technician, I graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy, I led troops in combat situations at sea and on land, I graduated near the top of my law school class, etc.

To the outside observer, I appeared to have a “successful” career, but inside, I felt unsatisfied and longing for more.  As I moved up the ranks, I moved increasingly further away from working with people in a personal capacity and more towards becoming a cog in a huge bureaucratic machine.

I also became increasingly dissatisfied with the lack of flexibility I was accorded to pursue my interests and enjoy life with my wife, Cynthia.  I started taking a close look at my interests and skill sets and was struck by how incongruent they were with my career at the time.  I truly enjoyed starting businesses and helping people start and run their businesses more effectively. I launched my first business when I was seven years old and had used my legal training again and again to help others do the same while in the military.

After my last deployment to Iraq, I made the decision to leave the military and follow my passion of assisting entrepreneurs in reaching their business dreams.

I now run Precept Law Group, a full service business and legal consulting firm in the Seattle area. We work closely with entrepreneurs to plan and launch their businesses and to educate new and seasoned business owners on the management and implications of business operations.

In my spare time, I explore the outdoor adventures available in the Northwest United States and travel around the country participating in long distance cycling events and triathlons.

Question #2 – What made you decide to join the Success Professor 31 day challenge? What is your goal for the challenge?

My goal for the challenge is to re-design, improve and grow my blog, The Entrepreneurial Advocate (www.entrepreneurialadvocate.com).  I enjoy blogging and connecting with other small business owners online (via twitter, facebook, etc), but the blog has fallen off my radar over the past few months.  I want to reinvigorate it with a new design, a new logo and new content.

Question #3 – How is it going? What benefits have you received?
The re-design is going great.  I hired a graphic artist to produce a new logo, and I created a new blog layout myself using the Thesis theme as a foundation.  There are still a number of elements that need work, but I’m happy with the progress.

As for the content, I purchased the ProBlogger workbook prior to August 1st and have been working to stay up with the tasks assigned for each day.  Content production has been the most difficult part of this 31 day challenge for me.

The ProBlogger workbook has been an outstanding resource for learning the nuts and bolts of creating content, promoting a blog and connecting with other bloggers. When this challenge is over, I will have to go back through the book several times in an effort to more fully absorb all of the information it contains.  But, I have learned a great deal about what it takes to build and operate a blog and have even more respect for those who put in the time and effort required to create a successful web presence.

Question #4 – What does success mean to you?

Success to me is living life to its fullest while contributing to society by doing work that really matters.  I have a personal mantra that I try to follow every day, “Seize Life’s Adventures.”

I truly believe that if you follow your passion and give more than you expect to get, success will necessarily find you.

After all, what more “success” can you obtain in life than feeling that you’ve made your best, most worthwhile contribution to the world, and that other people’s lives have been enhanced by your presence?

Thank you for creating the 31 day challenge and inspiring me to improve my blog!  It has been a great learning experience and a fun undertaking.  Now, to figure out what I’ll work on improving next month…

Thank you for your time and support, Kyle.

Written by:

Danny Gamache – The Success Professor

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Imagine that you take the top archery expert in the world out to the archery range. This person has won Olympic gold medals and countless other competitions. You get out to the range and you take this expert to the firing line. You then pull out a blindfold and place it on the expert, spin the expert around several times, and have him take his shot. You don’t point him towards the target, or offer any guidance. How likely is he to hit the target, not to mention the bulls-eye? He is not very likely to hit anything, of course.

Now imagine that instead of blindfolding the archery expert, you take him out to the range on a very foggy day. It is impossible to see the targets in the distance. In fact you can only see a few feet forward. This time the expert is able to stand at the shooting line and aim in the direction that the targets are. He is not able to see exactly where they are, or how far away they are. How likely is he to hit the target? The bulls-eye? Certainly he is more likely to hit something than when he shot in a random direction, now at least he is aiming the right way. Of course, it is still very unlikely that he will hit the target or bulls-eye; at least not very often. He might get lucky once in a while, but that is all it would be – luck.

A third time you take this archery gold medalist to the range. This time there is fog, but not as thick. In the distance you can see the stand that the target is on. You can’t see the target exactly, but you know where it is. You certainly can’t see any of the circles on the target, or the bulls-eye. The archery expert steps up to the shooting line and fires. What would you expect this time? Likely the expert would find the target with most of his shots. He may even hit the bulls-eye once or twice, but for the most part he would just be somewhere on the target. Overall, he is getting closer.

A fourth and final time you take the archery champion to the shooting range. This time it is a clear sunny day. There is no fog, and there are no clouds. You did not bring a blindfold along or anything to impede the view of the archer. He takes his time setting up, moves to the line and fires. What would expect now? Naturally he hits the bulls-eye. He fires several arrows all of them hitting the bulls-eye or just off. He is the champion after all!

“You will me 100% of the shots you don’t take” – Wayne Gretzky

This story represents how people pursue and achieve goals. The first example of the blindfolded archer represents the person who has no goals. This person does not have any clear purpose or direction in life. They don’t know where the target is, or what they are really aiming for. Like the archer, they are unlikely to hit anything. They are unlikely to achieve what they really want in life. At some point in life they likely will remove their blindfold and realize that there was a target all along. They just didn’t know where it is. There was something they wanted to achieve in life, they just didn’t know it.

In the second situation the archer was in a deep fog. He knew the direction to the target but that is all. This is the person who has an idea about what they would like in life but have no clarity around the situation. They have not taken the time to think through what their goal or dream really looks like. Like the archer, this person may hit the target once in a while, but when they do it is simply because they got lucky.

The third story is a big step forward. In this case the archer was able to see the outline of the target stand, but target itself was still not clear because of the fog. This represents the person who has a goal, knows their goal, but has never written it down and clarified it. Their goal is only in their mind. As such, they may likely get close to their goal – getting on the target board many times – but they are unlikely to hit the bulls-eye, at least not very often.

The final story then represents the person who has crystal clear clarity about their goal. They know exactly what they want to achieve. Their goals are written, dated and specific. They have a plan in place for achieving it. This person will hit their goals most of the time. Sure, sometimes they will miss by a little, but even then they are at least close to what they were aiming for. They had a clear picture of their goals.

One final part of the story is the archery champion. What does it take to become a champion? To become someone who hits the bulls-eye most of the time? It takes hours and hours of practice, a support team and a motivation to be the best. The same is true for you. If you want to be a champion at reaching your goals, you need to practice. You need to surround yourself with a support team and have the persistence and motivation to keep going even when you face challenges. Then take the shot, and keep on shooting.

“The difference between a big shot and a little shot is that a big shot’s just a little shot that kept on shooting. “- Zig Ziglar

So how clear are your goals? Are you wearing a blindfold shooting aimlessly at a target you aren’t even sure is out there? Are you in a deep fog, only knowing the direction you want to go, but having no real clarity about what you want in life? Are you in a light fog, able to see the goal in your mind, but the clarity that comes from writing it down? Or are you out in the sunlight clearly looking at your target?

If you are anything other than the last person, today is the time to change that. Write down your goals, put a date on them, make them specific, and develop a plan for achieving them. Remove the blindfold, get rid of the fog, and stare down your goals in the bright sunlight that comes with perfect clarity.

Written by
The Success Professor – Danny Gamache
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