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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Earlier this week I took the GMAT. The GMAT is an exam similar to the SAT or GRE. It is designed for students about to enter business school, often for MBA studies, or in my case PhD studies. Preparing for the GMAT has been a primary focus in my life over the past month and the completion of it is an exciting accomplishment for me. In reflecting on the experience there are many life lessons that can be learned from how to be successful on the GMAT. Each of these life lessons can be applied as you look for success in any area of life.

1. Set A Goal – I am convinced that all successful endeavors start with a goal. Your goal should be clear, specific, and dated. For me, the goal was to score over 700 on the GMAT. This would put me in a high ranking and make me competitive for most PhD programs. Do you have a clear goal set for what you are pursuing?

2. Revise Your Goal as Needed – As the exam date approached, it became obvious that I could exceed my goal. On some practice exams I was scoring over 700. I revised my goal to 730. I knew that this would open up even more doors. In the end I scored a 750, putting my effort in the 98th percentile. Should you raise a previous goal because it is too easy for you?

3. Have a Plan – Based on my goal I established a clear plan. My plan involved one month where I would take three hours each day studying. I would focus on my areas of weakness while still giving some attention to my strengths. Early on I would do a few practice exams, but by the last week I would be doing practice exams every other day. Do you have a plan in place to achieve your goals?

4. Have a Support Team – My achievement would not have been possible without a sport team. This started with the support my wife gave me. She was an encouragement at all times, often believing in me more than I believed in myself. Beyond that, I enlisted a group of friends who encouraged me and spent time praying for me on the exam day. Who is your support team? How can you encourage them to help you achieve your goals?

5. Have a Fixed Deadline – After I booked my exam date I knew there was no going back. I had “burned the ships.” I had talked about taking the test for a while, but until I booked a date and established the deadline I never got serious. As soon as the date was fixed I got to work. There was no more wasting time. It would cost $250 to change the date and I wasn’t willing to do that. My deadline was fixed and so I got to work. Do you have a fixed deadline for achieving your goals? If not, set one now, and provide an external source of accountability so you can’t change your deadline.

6. Use all the Resources at Your Disposal – In my preparation I used many study resources. I purchased a study guide that had a CD-Rom to accompany it. I download free software and practice exams, and I went to free discussion forums online. I took every practice exam that I could get my hands on. Do you use all of the resources around you to reach your goals?

7. Don’t Neglect Other Areas of Your Life – Sometimes singular pursuit of a goal can result in dropping the ball in other areas of your life. In preparing for the GMAT it was important that I didn’t neglect things like my health and fitness. I worked out consistently, making sure that I would be physically prepared for the four hour exam. Many times different areas of your life are more connected than you think. I also continually pursued my other life goals, making some major achievements during this same time. My weekly goal setting program helps to keep a handle on all of these areas of your life. Are there areas of your life that you are neglecting?

Written by:

The Success Professor – Danny Gamache
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For years people believed it was impossible. It was impossible that a man could run a mile in under four minutes. Doctors and Scientists said that the human body could not possibly achieve such a feat; some suggested that the body would break apart before such a speed could be reached. Everyone agreed: the four minute mile was not possible.

Well, not quite everyone. After breaking the 1500m record (the mile is 1600m) Roger Bannister started to believe. He started to believe that the four minute mile could be broken. And that belief made all the difference. It led to increased training and an all out effort to break the barrier.

Then on May 6, 1954 this happened:

Roger Bannister had done it. He had broken the four minute mile; a barrier thought impossible. Now he had proven that it could be done. Other people now had the evidence that the four minute mile could be broken.  Other people had the belief.

In the days and years that followed, that belief turned into results:

• Just 46 days later Jim Landry of Australia broke the record again.
• Less than two months after that both Landry and Bannister both broke four minutes in the same race
• Since then thousands of people have run the mile in under four minutes
• In the next 30 years the record was broken 16 more times
• The record now stands at 3 minutes and 43 seconds
• Even high school students have broken the four minute mile
• In 1997 Daniel Komen of Kenya double the feet running TWO miles in LESS THAN EIGHT minutes.

Each of these feats took Roger Bannister breaking the record to show the way. To show them that it was possible. To break the barrier that others had put up. Once the barrier was broken by Bannister, everyone else followed suit.

What is your “Four Minute Mile”?

What is the thing in your life that everyone thinks is impossible? What is the thing that you keep hearing can’t be done? Maybe you even believe it. Perhaps it is a goal you have given up on, or a sales target you think can’t be achieved. It might be the next step to success in your field.

Your four minute mile might even be something that others have accomplished. It just might seem impossible to you. You need to treat this goal as a four minute mile, and know you can do it, that you can break your four minute mile.

“Every time I ran the mile I was aware of my own weakness, there was some opponent who could give me a hell of a fight, so I never went into a race with a sense of invincibility. I always had that feeling of fragility and nerves which made me run faster.” – Roger Bannister.

Lessons From Bannister’s Four Minute Mile

1. You need support

Bannister didn’t do it by himself. As you see when you watch the video, he had teammates to help pace him. They went out and set the early pace for Roger to follow. Behind the scenes he had coaches, training partners, and a support system. To break your four minute mile you need support. Bring the right people around you that can help push and encourage you towards success.

2. Facing criticism

Bannister faced significant criticism as he worked towards his goal. First, he faced criticism that came from having a goal that everyone though was impossible. He was wasting his time. Pursing an impossible goal is a waste! He also faced criticism about his unorthodox training methods. People had an understanding about how to best train for these kinds of races, and Bannister wasn’t following those methods. Roger faced this criticism and went right past it. He didn’t let the criticism affect his belief and the way that he saw his goal.

3. Push through the pain

Reaching any worthwhile goal requires pain and discomfort. In athletics that is often a physical pain, but your pain might be emotional or mental stress. Pushing through the pain and getting out of your comfort zone is vital to success. Bannister said:

“The man who can drive himself further once the effort gets painful is the man who will win.”

4. Barriers are often mental not physical

Scientists believe that the barrier to reaching the four minute mile was a physical barrier. It was not. It was a mental barrier. No one broke the four minute mile, in part because no one thought it was possible. Certainly it wasn’t easy, but it was possible. The same is often true for our goals. What we think we can’t achieve is really only a mental barrier, not a physical barrier. If you believe in your abilities you can achieve far more than you imagine.

What is your four minute mile? It is likely something that you think you can’t do. A goal you think you can’t reach. It is mental. To break through and beat your four minute mile you need to start by believing. Believe that it is possible. Once you have that belief you will still need to work hard. You will need to train, face criticism and push through the pain. But by surrounding yourself with a support team and persevering, you can break your four minute mile.

I’ll leave you with this inspirational video that helps apply Bannister’s four minute mile to life:

Written by:
Danny Gamache – The Success Professor
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You can do a lot of things in 31 days. This is amplified if you focus those 31 days on improving one area of your life. By focusing in on one thing you want to change or do, and making it a priority for 31 days, you will make lasting life changes.

During the next 31 days you could:

• learn a new skill
• lose weight
• create a new habit (getting up early, exercising, etc..)
• start a new business
• put in massive action on your current business
• read several life-changing books (see my top ten book list)
• start, improve and grow your blog
• reinvigorate your marriage
• dramatically increase your website’s exposure
• start a debt free plan
• simplify your household possessions
• conquer a fear

Naturally the list keeps going. You can do so much in 31 days.

Guess what?

August is about to start, and it has 31 days!

What are you going to do in August?

The Success Professor’s 31 Day Challenge

During the month of August, this blog will be hosting a challenge. The challenge is for readers to pick something to focus on during the next 31 days to change your life.

The concept is pretty simple:

• You pick something in your life that you want to do or change in the next 31 days.
• You share in the comments of this article what you will change as part of the challenge
• You get started and do what you set out to do
• You report back how you are progressing

Throughout the month, this blog will feature several update posts. These will be opportunities for you to post your update and record your progress and challenges. The purpose is to provide you with the motivation and the accountability to make a change, to do something important and to make the next 31 days extremely valuable. Further, during each of these updates, I will profile one participant by sharing about their goal and experiences.

What I Will be Doing For the 31 Day Challenge

Naturally, I will participate in the challenge myself. My focus for this challenge will be to make improvements to and grow this blog. I will be following the guide book created by ProBlogger, Darren Rowse, called “31 Days to Build a Better Blog.” My hope is that you will notice the difference. I hope that you will see me in more places on the internet, and that many others will join us in this community. I will use the challenge updates to report on my progress as well.

If you are a blogger, you may want to join me in using the 31 days in the Success Professor’s 31 Day challenge to improve your blog. Pick up the ProBlogger workbook and comment below. There will be an optional email list set up for the people who are working towards a better blog this month. This will provide an extra support platform for this goal.

So what’s next?

Pick the one thing you will change, improve, or do in the next 31 days.
Share what you will work on in the comments below.
Get started!

The Success Professor – Danny Gamache
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Do you remember what you were like as a teenager? No, I am not talking about the awkwardness and struggles with self identity or the clumsiness as you wonder about who your next date will be. I am talking about how you looked at the future. The optimism you had about who you could become and what you could do in life. Chances are your thought process was much different than it is today after you have been beaten up by life a little. It is time to change that, to reconnect with your teenage-self, and start thinking big again.

Have Big Dreams

As a teenager you probably had big dreams about life. Think back to that time. What did you dream about? What were your hopes for the future? At one point, I remember dreaming about being able to retire young and play golf every day. Your dreams at this age are not limited by life experiences. There isn’t as much that you think “I couldn’t do that” or “that’s not possible”. Instead you believed that it was possible to live your dreams.

Do Anything/ Achieve Anything

Chances are you believed that you could do anything in life. You could achieve whatever you wanted to. What did you want to achieve? Did you have a list of what you wanted to do in life? If so, your list was probably very extensive. The world was in front of you and you could aim to do anything you wanted to. It was all possible.

Change the World

Not only did you believe that you could do things for yourself, but you knew that you could make a difference. You could change the world. Your dreams were not small dreams limited to yourself, they were world changing. What impact did you want to have on the world? What was the thing that you wanted to change, for the betterment of all humanity?

Unshakable Confidence

The most interesting thing is that your mindset didn’t stop with big dreams and a belief that you could do anything, achieve anything and even change the world. That dream was combined with an unshakable confidence that not only could you do it, but you would do it. You would achieve more, have more and be more. You would make a difference in the world. You would make your dreams come true.

So What Happened?

A drastic change occurred. Likely you don’t have those same dreams anymore. You likely do not see yourself changing the world, and while you have goals you likely have much smaller goals than the “teenage-you”. Somehow things changed.

This change didn’t happen all at once. It was a gradual change. It happened step by step in your life as things didn’t quite go the way you thought it would. One disappointment at a time, you slowly began to accept less in life. You started to lower your goals and to dream of smaller goals.

Photo by: The Consumerist

It started small. Maybe you didn’t get into your top choice for a college. Perhaps you didn’t get the summer job you hoped for. Later, the disappointments got a little bigger. You graduated from college and ended up working in a fast-food restaurant or a retail store. This wasn’t what you went to college for! You started to think more about paying off your student loans than about the dreams you used to have.

Over time, step by step, the burdens of life and the disappointments that occur have diminished your dreams. As a result, you set smaller goals, and you began to accept less and less out of life.

What Can You Do?

It is time to get your dreams back. No, they don’t have to be the same dreams you had as a teenager – although some of them might be. It is not the actual dreams that you need to get back, but your ability to dream; your ability to think big about life, to see the world as full of possibilities instead of full of limitations. It is about being able to see yourself as capable of achieving big things, and getting back your unshakable confidence.

The Irony of It All

The irony of the situation is that you are now in a better place to achieve big goals. You are now far better prepared to do big things, to live an extraordinary life. You have more skills and abilities. You may have more education, or at least a lot more life experience. You know your strengths and weaknesses. You have more connections, a bigger network. You have more potential!

Combine the Two

In the end, what you need to do is combine the two sides. Combine the energy, belief, and dreams of your teenage-self, with the knowledge, wisdom and abilities of the current you! The trick of course is to combine them without letting your current mindset and beliefs takeover again. Stick to your big dreams. Stick to your unwavering belief that you will achieve your goals, and stick to the attitude that comes from those beliefs. This change in mindset and attitude will take time. You will need to work at it and create a new habit of thinking. But if you do work at it, you can replace your current thinking with the type of dreaming that was true of your teenage-self.

When you combine the two, you will move forward rapidly towards your goals. You are better than you think you are and by connecting with the teenage-you, you can reach your dreams, achieve more than you imagine, and you can change the world.

Written by:

The Success Professor – Danny Gamache
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