You Have To Give A Damn.

Period.

When it comes to achieving your ultimate goals, changing a bad habit you have to give a damn, you must care that you aren't at the level you want to be, or your business isn't performing at its ultimate level. When it comes down to it nothing much matters but the internal burn inside of you to give a damn enough to throw caution to the wind and say enough is enough I am going to be a force.

So, how do you create this burn if you can't find it within yourself right now and how long do you have to go before you have enough pain that you must stand up and take action. Ultimately only you can answer this questions, but here a few pointers on how to at least get some hunger.

Think about all the things you are missing out on because you won't get a rocket up your ass, it may be the opportunities to meet new and exciting people or the business opportunities passing you by, the opportunity to reach a new level of income or chance to change someone's situation for the better. These things aren't meant to depress you or think that it's too late to chnage they are to get you so pumped up that you are determined to not live without them for another moment.

Write a list of all the things you wish you could have, dont stop and judge anything that comes into your head just start writing all the things you wish you could do and wish you had done, make a list of a minimum of 100 items and see if you can go for 500, do not stop, nothing is out of the question, after all they are just words at this stage.

Once you have completed the list visualise yourself already doing these things think about the joy and happiness you will have from achieving and working towards these things, block out the negative emotions and simply concentrate on the good times. Imagine how exciting it would be if you woke up every morning and the first thing you did was to read through your list of dreams, you think that would get you pumped for the day?

You have to give a damn about your family and your life and make a change immediately, I believe that we all need external motivators of some kind to get us to move, however they will only take you so far, ultimately it is up to you to do the work and trust me it is going to be work, but remember as Mahatma Ghandi said " satisfaction is in the efforts, not in the attainment, full satisfaction is full effort", remember to enjoy the ride, its your life and only you decide what it will be like.

As always i will give you an example of a tool I have used (and still am) to get me to break from a bad habit and into a new positive and fulfilling habit. I use the 21 Challenge to great effect, it begins by determining something that you want to change, set yourself a challenge of doing something that will build a new positive habit and forcing yourself to stick to it and if you dont do what you have determined to do you must start again from day 1.

In my situation, I had developed a bad habit of intentionally missing calls, especially private numbers, so I set myself the challenge to never intentionally miss a call again and to call back as soon as I possibly could if I did miss a call. Is this something you could do?

Tips to get started.

Write a goals list
Set a 21 challenge and stick to it
Plan, prepare and execute
Model yourself on someone you aspire to (see "Get A Mentor!" Feb 1)
Never Give Up
Think Positive, write a personal mantra that you can recite (20-30 words)
Communicate what you are doing to others, how would that increase your motivatuon?
Give A Damn and Take Action

Good Luck
AP