The Success Professor

This year for Christmas and in the lead up to the day my family will be joining in the conspiracy. This conspiracy is not really a secret, but it is not really that well known either.  It is a conspiracy to change Christmas; I think, to make Christmas more SUCCESSFUL.

The video below will invite you to join the conspiracy.

Note: The video is from a particular faith perspective, however the CONSPIRACY is something that can be participated in by people of any spiritual belief and is not tied directly to any particular organization.

Will you join the conspiracy? Share what you will do differently this Christmas below.

Danny Gamache – The Success Professor

If you liked this article, leave a comment below, or subscribe by RSS!

photo by providenz

Follow me on Twitter (@successprof)

In the last post, I shared about why it is important to stay consistent as you work towards your goals. That leads to the next question: how can you ensure that you stay consistency?

The struggle for consistency will look different in every person’s life based on their individual goals and lifestyles. The following are general tips which will be helpful to many of you.

1. Make a decision

Without making a conscious decision to pursue your goals consistently, week after week and day after day, you will not be able to do so. It takes a true effort on your part to be consistent so you must decide to do so. This can’t be a light decision where you say “I’ll try to be more consistent”, rather it must be a committed decision. You must be firm about your decision to pursue consistency.

2. Determine a realistic time commitment

Take some time and evaluate your life. Evaluate all the different roles you have in your life. You might be a mother, a husband, an employee. You might have roles with your church, with other organizations, or with a sports team. Determine how much time you realistically should be putting in to each role on a weekly basis, and if possible schedule in your committed times. Use this as a starting point to determine how much time you should realistically put towards your various goals every week. Whether that is two hours, four hours, ten hours or more; determine the appropriate amount of time that you can commit consistently – ever week! Make sure this commitment is realistic, so probably take your initial estimate and scale it down a little. If you set a commitment that is too high it will lead to burnout and you won’t follow through. You may want to use my weekly planning system as part of determining your time commitment.

3. Set specific times

The next step is to take your weekly calendar and mark in when you will actually be spending your time pursing your goal. Determine what days you are going to do activities, how much time each day, and when those hours fall. For example, one of my goals is to grow my blogs. That means taking the time to write good articles. To do that, I have set aside thirty minutes a day for writing. These thirty minutes occurs almost immediately after I get up in the morning. Because it is a specific time, it quickly develops into a habit. Another goal I am pursuing is growing my affiliate home business. Part of this goal involves phone meetings with business partners and potential clients. On my schedule, I have one time slot each day set aside for one of these phone meetings. I used to try to do as many as possible, and found that I would do a lot for a little while and quickly burn out. After burning out, I wouldn’t do any for a long time. That is NOT staying consistent. By scheduling only one time each day for a phone meeting I keep up a steady consistent pace.

4. Stick to it

To be consistent you need to stick to your plan. You likely will get off track from time to time. When you do, get right back on your plan and start moving forward again. You will need to refocus in this way from time to time. Also periodically revisit your time commitment and scheduled times and examine whether they are still appropriate. You will need to make revisions as you go along and move towards your goals. Also, at some points you will achieve a goal you are pursing. Take some time to celebrate and then determine what the next step or new goal that you would like to accomplish.

5. Try, try and try again

Staying consistent is a learning process. It takes time to learn how to build your life around consistent action. Certainly some people find this comes naturally, but for most of us it consistency does not come easy. That may be true even if you are excited and passionate about what you do. It is easy to burn out on your passions by spending too much time in those areas. As you continue to work towards consistency, you will get better. If you have made a firm decision to make consistent progress towards your goals, you will get there. Work your plan each day and each week. If you find yourself losing consistency, recognize it and refocus yourself. Over time you will get more and more consistent.

The great thing about consistency is that as you pursue it, you will see results. You will see yourself moving towards your goals step by step. You will find yourself breaking through the difficult inertia of the early stages and building momentum. Whether your goal is losing a few extra pounds, getting out of debt, building a part-time business, or learning a language, consistency will help you succeed.

Written by:

Danny Gamache – The Success Professor
If you liked this article, leave a comment below, or subscribe by RSS!
I’m looking for partners, if you are looking for a way to earn extra money, click here!

photo by aarmono

Follow me on Twitter (@successprof)

One of the biggest problems that most people face as they work towards a goal is the ability to put in consistent effort. Staying consistent in your activities and effort is one of the keys to success.

Consistency is even more important than simple mathematics may make it seem. By this I mean that consistently putting in 5 hours each week over the course of a month towards building business, growing a blog, or achieving a goal, is more valuable than putting in 30 hours one week and nothing for the next three weeks. Yes, the 5 hour a week plan only puts in 20 hours for the month while the other plan has 30 hours, the 5 hour a week plan is still more effective. The same applies on a month-by-month basis. You need to be consistent month after month, not work for a month, and then take a month off. Being consistent will help you reach your goals much more quickly than a sprint-and-stop plan.

You can see this idea really clearly when you think of exercising. Having a big long work out once a month is not nearly as effective as having a smaller workout every day, or even every second day. Similarly, working out every day for a week and then taking the rest of the month off is not as effective as working three times each week across the entire month. Being consistent is more effective. This same principle applies to other goals you are pursuing.

Consistency like this is important for a few reasons:

1. Inertia

The hardest part of any accomplishment is getting started. If you work in spurts you are spending a lot of energy getting started. You will work hard to get started and then before you know it you are stopped again. The law of inertia says that “a body at rest tends to stay at rest.” If you then take a significant amount of time off from pursuing your goal, things will have stopped completely and you will need to use all of that energy again. If instead, you do a little bit every day, you will be able to carry over some of that energy. Think of the exercise program again. The first workout is the hardest, because you have negative inertia. Your body doesn’t react the same, and you mentally aren’t as in to it. After a while your daily workout becomes routine and you carry forward from one day to the next. If you only exercise once a week, it feels like you are starting over each time. Both mentally and physically it requires more effort to get started again.

2. Momentum

Moving past the initial steps of negative inertia allows you to build momentum. Momentum is when the activities you do start to snowball in their effects. The work you are doing starts to build up speed because everything you are doing is building on itself. The efforts of today are building smoothly on the efforts of tomorrow. Momentum is positive inertia. The positive side of inertia is that “a body in motion tends to stay in motion.” Momentum is clearly seen in many areas of life. In politics, momentum is a powerful force for a candidate in an election campaign. In sports, many games are filled with momentum swings where one team has all the energy and everything seems to go just right. In business, momentum helps companies grow more quickly than they have before. As you work consistently towards your goal you will develop momentum that makes things happen more quickly and with less effort than before.

3. Power of Mental Focus

In life people consistently move towards the things that they focus their minds on. If you work in spurts, your mind will be focused on your goal for a short period of time. After that time you forget about it, or at least it is not part of your focus. By consistently focusing on your goal, even just a little bit each day or week, will keep your mind engaged in the process. If you mind is engaged and focused on your goal, you will notice when other things come along that might help you achieve your goal. For example, if you are growing a part time home business, you may find potential clients while doing other things. If you are consistently working on your business, you will make those connections. If you are not, you might miss out on that opportunity. Being consistent keeps your goal in your mind and helps you move towards it more quickly.

4. Keeping your life in balance

You need to allow all the areas of your life, family, work, business, spiritual etc. have some level of balance. That means you need to spend an appropriate amount of each aspect of your life. If you pursue your goals with quick spurts where you put in a huge amount of time in for one week, then during that week everything else in your life will be out of balance. Of course the opposite is also true. If you take three weeks off from pursing your goal, you will be out of balance in that area. Take exercise as an example. If you go overboard one week, then you will have taken time away from other things you should be doing; you will be out of balance. If you then stop working out for the next three weeks, you are equally out of balance, this time short on the physical activity side of life.

Consistency in life is vital. In almost every situation in my life where I haven’t achieved my goal, or where I am unsatisfied with my progress towards a goal it is because I have been inconsistent in my efforts. Being consistent allows you to use inertia instead of working against it, it allows you to build momentum, use the power of mental focus, and keep your life in balance. The next post will discuss HOW to improve your consistency.

Written by:
Danny Gamache – The Success Professor
If you liked this article, leave a comment below, or subscribe by RSS!
I’m looking for partners, if you are looking for a way to earn extra money, click here!

Follow me on Twitter (@successprof)

Lou Holtz is known as one of the top college football coaches of all time.  Most recently he came out of retirement to coach South Carolina and before that had a successful run coaching at Notre Dame.  He is the only coach ever to have brought six different teams to bowl games and is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame.

Recently I was at a conference where Lou Holtz was the keynote speaker. Aside from being a great football coach, Holtz is a great LIFE coach.  His lessons are clear and powerful and delivered with a mix of inspiration and humor.  Here are his five keys to success.

1. Choose Your Attitude

In life you will face many difficulties and problems. It is guaranteed that life won’t be easy.  You choose how you respond to adversity or difficulties.  You choose how you respond to rejection.  You choose how you approach life.  Be self discipline and be enthusiastic about everything you do.

“You cannot let others people determine your attitude.”

“Life is ten percent what happens to you and ninety percent how you respond to it.”

“Show me someone who has done something worthwhile, and I’ll show you someone who has overcome adversity.”

2. Have a Passion to Win

You need to develop a deep passion to win. As you do, obstacles will slip away.  If your passion is strong then there will be no obstacle that will keep you from being a success.  You will pursue, persevere, and endure.  You will sacrifice and have no excuses.

“You can evaluate your passion to win by what you are willing to sacrifice.”

“Focus on why you can win; no on why you can’t.”

“You’re never as good as everyone tells you when you win, and you’re never as bad as they say when you lose.”

3. Understand Your Purpose

Do you know your purpose?  Your purpose is your WHY: the reason WHY you are pursuing your goals.  You need to have clear objectives, and have a team ready to help you move towards your goals. Based on your purpose, ask yourself the WIN question: “What’s Important Now?”  Ask yourself this at least 25 times a day.  This will help you push back towards your purpose.

“If you’re bored with life – you don’t get up every morning with a burning desire to do things – you don’t have enough goals.”

“I can’t believe that God put us on this earth to be ordinary.”

4. Be a Dreamer

Your purpose should be connected to your dream. Have a dream, share your dream, and use your dream to identify your goals.  Develop a dreams list of all the things you dream to do.  Have something to do, something to hope for, something to love, and something to believe in.

“Don’t maintain where you are – everything is either growing or dying.”

“Don’t be a spectator. Don’t let life pass you by.”

5. Lift People Up

You need to develop and maintain meaningful relationships with others.  Do what is right to others.  Do everything to the very best of your ability. Show people you care. All the people you meet have their own struggles and are carrying some burden. They are just like you.

“Do right. Do your best. Treat others as you want to be treated.”

“If you burn your neighbor’s house down, it doesn’t make your house look any better.”

Read more of Lou Holtz’s wisdom by picking up his book “Winning Everyday”.

Written by:
Danny Gamache
Based on a presentation by Lou Holtz

If you liked this article, leave a comment below, or subscribe by RSS!
I’m looking for partners, if you are looking for a way to earn extra money, click here!

Hi everyone,

Sunday’s I take the opportunity to share with you some of the best things I’ve come across on the web in the last couple of weeks.  This week we have  special video edition.

1. Watch this fascinating video about the value of Hard Work, Sacrifice and Discipline (source: Wasabi Burger)

2. Seth Godin speaks at TED on Tribes:

3. Gary Vaynerchuk reminds us about the importance of story telling in “Story Telling is the Game”.

Enjoy:
Danny Gamache
If you liked this article, leave a comment below, or subscribe by RSS!
I’m looking for partners, if you are looking for a way to earn extra money, click here!

Follow me on Twitter (@successprof)
One of the things that holds most people back in business and in life is procrastination – putting off things that should be done today and leaving them to do ‘later’. Everybody procrastinates to some extent, so you are not alone.  It is those people who can put aside their procrastination and move towards action more quickly that will be the most successful in life and business.  A favorite quote of mine is that “life rewards action!” Action, at the proper time, is the opposite of procrastination.

Why does procrastination occur?  It occurs when your mind, consciously or sub-consciously, has a view of the ‘pain’ and ‘pleasures’ that can occur from doing, or not doing the task. Each task in life has its own costs (‘pain’) attached completing it, but it has rewards (‘pleasures’) as well.  What people often forget, but in truth drives you just as much, is that for every task there are also ‘pains’ of not completing the task, which drives you towards their completion.  It is the balance of these varied pains and pleasures that result in one of two things – action or procrastination.

For example, if you are procrastinating and not mowing the lawn that needs to be cut, you view the ‘pain’ of mowing the lawn as more important than the results (‘pleasure’) that would come from having it completed.  In other words, the time you give up to do the mowing, the effort you would need to put out and other ‘pains’ that would be involved cover up the satisfaction you would get for completing the task and from having a nicely cut lawn.

But there is another ‘pain’ involved too.  Except this ‘pain’ pushes you towards to completing the task.  In this case, it would be the pain you feel from looking at your uncut lawn. The pain you perceive from the harm to your reputation you might face amongst your neighbors.  The longer your grass gets, the more this ‘pain’ becomes prevalent.  The ‘pain’ that prevents you from doing the task is a NEGATIVE ‘pain’.  The ‘pain’ pushing you towards doing the task is a POSITIVE ‘pain’.

“The secret of success is learning how to use pain and pleasure instead of having pain and pleasure use you. If you do that, you’re in control of your life. If you don’t, life controls you.” – Tony Robbins

These ‘pains’ and ‘pleasures’ from a given task can change as time goes on, which is why you might suddenly do the task at hand.  I see this all the time with my students.  If you are a student who has a paper due in a month, there is not as much ‘pleasure’ from doing the task, and there is no positive ‘pain’ pushing you towards doing it – you only have the negative ‘pain’ keeping you from doing it.  If however, you now have only one day before the paper is due, there is a new positive ‘pain’ that pushes you towards doing the task.  That positive ‘pain’ is of course the risk of getting a failing grade.

If you are in sales you might procrastinate about making a call to a prospect.  In this case you view the ‘pain’ of getting out of your comfort zone and facing possibly rejection as being stronger than the pleasure from the results you could get from making the call.  The thing about this fact is that usually your mind has it completely wrong.  The tendency is to inflate the costs and to lower the true rewards you will receive.   That is why FEAR stands for False Expectations Appearing Real – most of them will simply never come true.

So based on this view of ‘pain’ and ‘pleasure’ and their effects of procrastination, how can you force yourself to take action more – to get past procrastination and create results?  There are three ways that naturally come out of this understanding:

1. Decrease the perceived negative ‘pain’.

This means using your mind to view the task at hand as having less negative costs.  In other words, take a realistic look at the possible outcomes.  Chances are you are making it much harder than it really is.  You are likely emphasizing negative results that in reality are never going to happen. Take a more realistic look and understand that in most cases what you fear will never happen, that the task is much easier than you are making it out to be, and will take much less time than you are figuring.

2. Increase the ‘pleasure’ from completing the task.

To do this, spend more time focusing on what you will get out of completing the task.  Think through all the benefits of completing the task at hand.  The better feeling you will gain, the removal of stress, the extra income you will earn, the easier it will make your life etc… That is why goal setting is so important.  You need to clearly be able to know why you are pursing the goals you are pursing. What are the results you will get, and why are they important?  If you are building a side business, blog, or website, you need to think through the benefits that success will bring to you and your family. Emphasize these positives in your mind.  Focus on this, rather than on the ‘negative’ pain.

3. Increase the positive ‘pain’.

In other words, emphasize all the negatives that will occur if you DO NOT do the task at hand. Think through all the potential costs with not doing it.  These could include the loss of reputation, the giving up on your goals, and the missing of deadlines.  Make these ‘pains’ as large and as important as possible.  If you are the salesperson needing to make a prospecting call focus on all the things that could happen if you DON’T make the call.  Perhaps the prospect goes with a different product, or goes with the same product but purchases it from someone else. Realize in your mind that your business will not grow if you don’t make the call – you’ll be giving up on your dreams and your goals.  Repeat to yourself the saying,  “If I don’t act, I lose!” This increased positive ‘pain’ can drive you towards completing the task at hand.

Procrastination is all in the mind. It is how you perceive the ‘pains’ and ‘pleasures’ associated with either doing, or not doing the task at hand.  Because the mind is what causes procrastination, you can also use the mind to defeat it.  Use the mind to increase the ‘pain’ of not doing tasks, increase the ‘pleasures’ of completing the tasks, and decrease the ‘pain’ associated with doing the task.  Do these three things strongly enough and you will be able to get yourself to take action on whatever you need to do.

Written by:
Danny Gamache

If you liked this article, leave a comment below, or subscribe by RSS!
I’m looking for partners, if you are looking for a way to earn extra money, click here!

Photo by Iwona_Kellie

Follow me on Twitter (@successprof)

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

If you liked this article, leave a comment below, or subscribe by RSS!
I’m looking for partners, if you are looking for a way to earn extra money, click here!

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
If you liked this article, leave a comment below, or subscribe by RSS!
Start your transition to working from home – start part-time as my partner.  Preview information: click here.