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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One of the achievements from last year that my wife and I are most proud of was the fact that we paid off an extra 15% of our total mortgage amount. We are about to make another extra payment as we continue towards our goal of being completely debt free.

This is certainly something you can achieve as well. Here are seven ways to pay off your mortgage more quickly.

1. Make a bigger down payment

Naturally, the larger your down payment the quicker you can pay off your home and the less interest you will pay. Take for example a $200,000 home with a mortgage at 5% interest over a 25 year period. There is a significant difference between making a 10% down payment and a 20% down payment. The 10% down payment results in $135,000 in interest. The 20% down payment will result in $120,000 in interest charges. That is a total of $15,000 extra you save pay making the larger down payment.

2. Get a shorter amortization period

The shorter the amortization period, the less you will pay in interest, and naturally the shorter amount of time you will have to pay off the debt. Take the example above, of the 25 year mortgage with a 10% deposit. As mentioned you would pay a total of $135,000 in interest. If instead, you reduced it to a 20 year mortgage you would only pay $105,000. If you went even further and had only a 15 year mortgage the interest charges would go all the way down to $76,000. That means nearly $60,000 is saved by having a 15 year mortgage instead of a 25 year mortgage. Certainly that means your monthly payments are higher – but not by as much as you might suspect. The difference is only about $400 each month.

3. Pay every two weeks

By breaking up your payments and making a payment every two weeks you will in effect be making two extra payments each year. In order to do this you need to make the payments half of what you would have paid monthly. This means that your extra two payments go directly onto the principle lowering your total interest and speeding up your repayment process.

4. Increase the size of your payments

One of the most important ways of paying off your mortgage is by arranging to pay more than the minimum payment. Anything you pay extra will go instantly to the principle. For example, with the mortgage described above (a 25 year mortgage at 5% for a $200,000 home with 10% down) if you simply paid an extra $100 per month you would pay off your mortgage three and a half years early and save over $20,000 in interest. If you increased the extra payment to $250 per month you would pay off your mortgage more than seven years sooner and save nearly $50,000 in interest. If you went full out and paid an extra $500 per month you would pay off your mortgage eleven years sooner (in nearly half the original time), and save nearly $75,000 in interest.

5. Don’t refinance too often

The idea of refinancing for lower interest rates, or to free up some cash for other purposes, can be a serious temptation. Unfortunately, many people get in the trap of frequent refinances and end up getting stuck in a cycle of increasing mortgage debt. It is easy to think of using increased equity in your home to do renovations or repairs. In reality these sorts of things just add to your debt without creating any real personal wealth. Refinancing for lower interest rates may seem simple enough but there are often many fees involved. If interest rates have fallen significantly it might be worth refinancing once in a while, but don’t get in the habit. If you do refinance, make sure you understand all of the fees and make sure you are going to be living in the house long enough to truly take advantage of the lower interest rate.

6. Pay extra bulk payments

Extra bulk payments can be another powerful way of reducing the time remaining on your mortgage. In our example of a $200,000 home, an extra payment of $10,000 at the end of the first year shortens the length of the mortgage by about 2 ½ years and save you over $20,000 in interest.

7. Know your policy

The important thing to do when planning to pay off your mortgage quickly is to know your mortgage policy. Your policy may have certain provisions as to how you can pay off your mortgage and what sort of payments will have a penalty attached. In our case, our mortgage allows a maximum of 15% of the mortgage to be paid in a bulk amount each year. On top of that I can double any payment that I chose, and increase my payment amount by 10% once a year. These numbers serve as goals. By knowing that I can pay a maximum of 15% of the mortgage extra each year, I have a goal to pursue. I use their standards to drive me towards success and knowing the policy well protects me from paying any extra fees.

8. Set your debt free date

Like any goal, getting out of debt requires you to have a deadline. In paying off your mortgage your deadline is the date you set as your debt free date. This is the point in time when you plan on having your mortgage burning party and being able to say that you own your house outright. Do you have a debt free date? Take some time to set one and do what you need to do to make it happen.

Now don’t forget that you can combine all of these steps. Let’s look at one final example. We’ll stick to our $200,000 home and an interest rate of 5%. Remember that the original plan has you spending $135,000 in interest and paying off your home in 25 years. To start our plan you will make a bigger down payment. You’ll make a 25% down payment instead of 10%. You’ll take a 20 year amortization instead of 25 and you will increase the size of your payments by $200 a month. With this plan you will pay off our mortgage in 15 years and spend only $63,000 in interest; a savings of over $70,000. Do you think you might be able to put that $70,000 to good use? Of course you could. Not only that, but after 15 years you are done. You can take your monthly payments and redirect them to other things such as your retirement, travel etc. It is worth it. Make the small sacrifices now to live an unbelievable future.

Written by:
The Success Professor – Danny Gamache
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Last week BusinessWeek released its list of the top 20 people for entrepreneurs to follow on Twitter. While the included some great people in their list, I think they missed some.  So here are the top 12 people to follow that Businessweek missed.  Feel free to extend the list by nominating people you think that both BusinessWeek and I missed!

1. Michael Hyatt, CEO Thomas Nelson Publishers  (@michaelhyatt)

Michael shares excellent success tips, important blog posts, and even gives away a free book from time to time.

Sample Tweet:
“I am reading, “15 Unconventional Uses of #WordPress in Action”: http://bit.ly/2YtVXk (via @wpbeginner, one of my favorite sites)”

2. J. Sewell Perkins (@TheSCIcoach)

J.S. Perkins is a life and business development coach. She shares great quotes, encouragement and advice

Sample Tweet:
“ “The ability to convert ideas to things is the secret of outward success.” – Henry Ward Beecher”

3. Alex Shalman (@alexshalman)

Alex is a personal development blogger and podcaster.  He has recently entered dental school as he works towards his dreams.  He shares personal updates and professional development advice.

Sample Tweet:
“You’re only lonely when you don’t like who you’re alone with…and Im having a ball ”

4. Leo Babauta (@Zen_Habits)

Leo is the author of “The Power of Less”, and the blog Zen Habits.  He is currently one of the leaders in the A List Blogger Bootcamp. He shares links, advice, and blog posts through Twitter.

Sample Tweet:
“’Prevail. Prevail. Prevail.’ ~David Hieatt”

5. Darren Rowse (@ProBlogger)

Darren Rowse is the well known author of the blogs ProBlogger and Twitip.  He will keep you up to date on the latest happening and advice for bloggers and twitter users.

Sample Tweet:
“I would strongly advise holding off on upgrading to Snow Leopard – or at least make sure you’re completely backed up before upgrading”

6. Tom Ziglar (@TomZiglar)

Tom is the son of Zig Ziglar. On Twitter, he shares great quotes from his dad, and other gems from around the internet.

Sample Tweet
“The most practical, beautiful, workable philosophy in the world won’t work –if you won’t.Zig Ziglar”

7. Rick Cooper (@RickCooper)

Rick Cooper is an attraction marketing specialist who shares business advice and tips.

Sample Tweet:
“Question of the Day: Do you have a backup plan when your technology fails?”

8. Tony Robbins (@tonyrobbins)

The real Tony Robbins, the motivational speaker and expert. He shares tips, quotes and links to help you stay focused and motivated.

Sample Tweet:
“ “We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.” Winston Churchill”

9. Alejandro Reyes (@Successfool)

Reyes is the author and blogger better known as Successfool. He tweets social media tips and is very interactive.

Sample Tweet:
“Would it be negative to Tweet examples of Cheesy Marketing? Example: “Cheesy: Don’t tag people on FB to get them to see your spam””

10. Christine Hill (@Chillami)

Christine is a social media expert and web designer from Utah.  She shares great tips, quotes and links to important articles.

Sample Tweet:
“”Time & money spent in helping men do more for themselves is far better than mere giving.” Henry Ford”

11. John C. Maxwell (@johncmaxwell)

Leadership expert and author of books such as “The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership” shares leadership lessons and quotes.

Sample Tweet
““What legacy r u building? “I hope people will remember me as one who was kind & considerate of others” -John Wooden””

12. Lance Armstrong (@lancearmstrong)

As an athlete rather than an entrepreneur or blogger, Armstrong may appear out of place on this list.  However, following Lance through Twitter gives you an inside look into the life of this inspirational man.

Sample Tweet:
“Done riding. Took 2 decently nasty ‘diggers’. If someone finds my technical skills, please return them, reward offered.”

Who did I miss?  Be sure to share your recommendations below!  Until then, happy Tweeting!

Written by:
The Success Professor – Danny Gamache

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Every second Sunday, I share some of the best articles that I have come across in the past two weeks.  Here are some great articles that I hope will be helpful to you:

1. Tim Brownson has a guest post on AlexShalman.com detailing “12 Transformational Life Coaching Tricks“.

2. Read about “Six Ways to be More Followable” on Twitter, from the Hello My Name is Blog!

3. Gary Vaynerchuk has a great video post reminding us to spend time with people we know and want to do business with.

4. Michael Hyatt shares “Five Ways to Energize Your Team“.

5. Finally, Mark & Angel Hack Life shares “40 Modern Non Fiction Books Everyone Should Read.”

Elsewhere on the web:

A guest post I wrote at DUMB LITTLE MAN, “Top 10 Tips for Maintaining a Positive Attitude“, is getting a lot of attention.

On my other blog, I just finished a series on Leadership Lessons from the Life of Joseph (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3).
I hope you have a great week!

Danny Gamache – The Success Professor

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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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As the number of miles that people fly continues to increase, understanding how to make the most of your travel days is becoming increasingly important.  It is possible to be very productive, even on a long day of flying. Last week, I had two very long days of flying.  I flew from my home in Saskatchewan, Canada to Orlando, Florida and back.  Each trip involved two flights totaling over five hours in the plane plus layover in between.  By doing many of the activities below, I was able to productively use my time.

Some things to remember:

• you have time after security but before you get on the plane
• once you are on the plane you have time before and during takeoff where some electronic tools are not available (same during landing)
• you have time during a layover, but be prepared to spend some time finding the correct gate
• things change and flights get delayed, if you are prepared you can still use time wisely, even when delayed
• you are not in control – understand that unless you are the President flying on Air Force One you don’t determine when a plane can or can’t fly.  Don’t get mad or upset over things you can’t control

Plan your work:

Just like any day in the office, the first step to being productive on a travel day is to plan out your work. Know what your priorities and goals are. Without planning your work, you won’t get as much value out of your trip as you could. Don’t go overboard, instead list three or four things that you hope to get done on the trip, and put them in order of importance.

Now, here are some things you can do that will keep you productive on a long day of flying:

1. Catch up on Emails - Catching up on your email and aiming for “inbox zero” can be a great use of traveling time.  Gary Vaynerchuk often mentions using his flights to respond to all of his emails.  Many email readers are full accessible offline, and now even online email browsers such as Gmail are now available to be used in offline mode.

photo by: dreemreeper

2. Read - Another valuable and popular thing to do on a flight or in airports is to read.  I love taking a book that I can read quickly and easily while flying. On overseas flights I often set a goal of reading an entire book before the end of the flight.  In fact many times I have started a book after going through security at my departure airport and finished before landing.  It is very rewarding to complete a book, front to back, in that time frame. (My top 10 books are here). You can also read magazine articles.  I have found it useful to rip out the articles from a magazine that I want to read.  I then put them in a folder and take only the articles that I’m going to read with me, instead of the full magazine.

3. Meet people – It is amazing how connecting with a few people over the course of a day of travel can help you grow your network and possibly get you some referrals for your business.  You don’t have to spend all flight talking to someone to build a connection.  I look to visit with the person sitting next to me for a few minutes during takeoff – small talk – and a few minutes as we land and are taxing to the gate.  I use the landing time to see if there is a potential business relationship, or if they can give me any referrals.

4. Listen to podcasts – Traveling is a great time to listen to podcasts. I often put several of my favorite podcasts on my iPod for the day.  While you can certainly listen after takeoff, I usually listen to podcasts in the airport as I move between gates or wait for my flight to leave.

5. Exercise – People don’t often think about being able to exercise on a travel day, however there are opportunities to do so.  Obviously during the flight you are pretty restricted, but if you have any layovers then you have an exercise opportunity. The concourses of airports often are expansive and have a long way between gates.  These are a great place to go for a walk; instead of standing on the moving sidewalk take the time to walk.  Even if your gate is close you can go further and walk around the airport (perhaps listening to a podcast while you do it).

6. Write blog posts or articles – If you have a blog or some other communication outlet you may want to use the time to write a post or article.  You can brainstorm and outline on paper and then pull out your laptop to write the post.  I will often try to write an article on days where I am flying.

7. Think – Travel days provide a great opportunity to spend some time thinking.  You may want to dream about your goals or think through a problem you are working on.  You may want to brainstorm ideas for you business, or consider some of your next projects that are coming up.  Make sure you have a notebook and pen so you can write down thoughts as they come to you. You may also want to put your headphones on, even without any music so that people are less likely to interrupt you.

8. Relax - You may also chose to use the travel day as a time to relax.  You are away from interruptions of the workplace, away from family, out of cell phone range, and simply have time by yourself.  Feel the freedom to use some of this time to relax; watch an in-flight movie or do a crossword or Soduko.  Give yourself some time to relax and recharge as you prepare for what is next on your agenda.

If you have a long day of travel with a long flight or multiple flights, you can be productive.  Plan your activities and use your time well.  You can get more done than you may think and put yourself ahead of the game for the rest of the week. It is worth it.

Written by:

The Success Professor – Danny Gamache

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Seth Godin is a powerful voice in the field of marketing.  The contribution Godin has made to the field over the past decade is substantial.  In particularly Godin has been a leader in thinking about the implications of the web and social media on marketing.  His previous books include Permission Marketing, Purple Cow,  The Dip and Meatball Sundae.  Each of these books brought to light an important concept for marketing or entrepreneurship.

In his most recent book “Tribes”, Godin adds to our understanding of the world today by explaining that the world needs tribes. He says,

“A tribe is a group of people connected to one another, connected to a leader, and connected to an idea….  A group needs only two things to be a tribe: a shared interest and a way to communicate.”

Naturally today’s increasingly flat world and the technology that makes it run allow tribes to form and function more easily than ever before.  What is missing, Godin argues, is leadership.

That is the crux of this book.  Unlike his previous books, the focus of Tribes is not marketing or entrepreneurship.  The focus is on leadership. The book would fit much better into the “leadership” category of the bookstore than the “marketing” category.  Of course both marketing and entrepreneurship involve leadership, and as such people with both types of interest would benefit.  However, because leadership is a broader target, the number of people who should read this book increases.

Within the umbrella of leadership Godin touches on topics such as:

• why the fear of failure is overrated
• a brief history of the factory
• the connection and difference between faith, fear and religion
• watching the music industry die
• what is sheepwalking

Who should read this book?  Everyone who wants to make a difference in the world! People who want to make a difference in the world need to lead, and leading today is different than leading yesterday.  Yesterday was made up of local tribes, today while tribes may start local, but they all have the potential for global reach.

“Before the Internet, coordinating and leading a tribe was difficult.  It was difficult to get the word out, difficult to coordinate action, difficult to grow quickly.  Today, of course, instant communication makes things taut, not squishy.”

If you want to make a difference in the world, you need to become a leader – even if you don’t think you want to.  “Tribes” will encourage you, challenge you, and teach you how to make a difference and to lead a tribe.

“Tribes” is also about breaking out of the mold that we are put into, whether it is by our boss or our habits. It is about working against the grain:

“Heretics are the new leaders. The ones who challenge the status quo, who get out in front of their tribes, who create movements. The marketplace now rewards (and embraces) the heretics.  It’s clearly more fun to make the rules than to follow them, and for the first time, it’s also profitable, powerful and productive to do just that.”

As all of Godin’s books, “Tribes” is easy to read.  It is short and filled with section after section of advice.  The book is filled with examples of how tribes are formed and how they are making a difference around the world.  The book is encouraging because it is through and through a call to action: a call to lead a tribe.

I’ll leave you with some other quotes from “Tribes”:

“The market wants you to be remarkable. The most important tribes are bored with yesterday and demand tomorrow.”

“Life’s too short to fight the forces of change.  Life’s too short to hate what you do all day.  Life’s way to short to make mediocre stuff.  And almost everything that’s standard is now viewed as mediocre.”

“If the only side effect of the criticism is that you will feel bad about the criticism, then you have to compare that bad feeling with the benefits you’ll get from actually doing something worth doing.  Being remarkable is exciting, fun, profitable and great for your career.  Feeling bad wears off.”

“Leadership is scarce because few people are willing to go through the discomfort required to lead.”

“Change isn’t made by asking permission.  Change is made by asking forgiveness, later.”

“Leadership almost always involves thinking and acting like the underdog.  That’s because leaders work to change things, and the people who are winning rarely do.”

Review Written by:  Danny Gamache – The Success Professor

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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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