Follow the Right Steps to Reach Your Goal
“You’re 5 foot nothin’, 100 and nothin’, and you have barely a speck of athletic ability. And you hung in there with the best college football players in the land for 2 years. And you’re gonna walk outta here with a degree from the University of Notre Dame. In this life, you don’t have to prove nothin’ to nobody but yourself. Am I making myself clear?” –Fortune, Rudy
In my Mistakes Dreamers Make article, the second mistake people often make is they don’t exactly know the right way to get to where they want to be. Some people believe the only way to be a successful performer is being the American Idol. They don’t know that American Idol is just one audition out of thousands they could potentially try out for.
He didn’t exactly know how to do it. One of the keys of his success is Father Cavanaugh told him he could admit himself into Holy Cross and enter Norte Dame as a transfer student. To which he did. Had Rudy not been told this he probably never would have made it.
Dreamers often get stuck because they focus on their obstacles. Focus on your goals. Figure out the right steps to get to where you want to be and follow each step one by one.
Rudy had bad grades; he was small for a football player and didn’t really have all that much athletic skill. But, he knew the steps he needed to take in order to accomplish his goals. He had to get good grades in Holy Cross, he had to transfer to Norte Dame, he had to make the tryouts and finally he had the shot at coming onto the field and playing football.
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Productivity Time Wasters
“…in order to not waste any time I wasn’t hanging up the phone in-between calls. I realized that by not hanging up the phone I gained about eight minutes a day. I also wasn’t drinking any water so I didn’t waste time having to go to the bathroom…” – Chris Gardner, The Pursuit of Happyness
What gets in the way of being productive? Increasing productivity is something each of us wants to do, something that is expected of us and something that we are judged on. It is obviously important to increase our own productivity and to do that we must avoid productivity time wasters.
In the movie ‘The Pursuit of Happyness
We hopefully won’t have to go to Chris Gardner’s extent. As I surfed the net I came across a productivity post on Goals to Action. On it he listed five common productivity killers. Listed below is a basic summary of the post.
Productivity Killer #1 – Wasting Time
Wasting time with unnecessary activities
Productivity Killer #2 – Over-Committing Your Time
Saying Yes to too many projects
Productivity Killer #3 – An Open Door
Being too available to your co-workers
Productivity Killer #4 – Avoiding The Hard Things
Pushing off a tougher parts of a project because they are difficult.
Productivity Killer #5 – Lack Of Sleep
Being too tired to work or not getting enough rest
I would only add, Working Hard versus Working Smart as a productivity killer. Sometimes people will keep doing the same thing over and over because that’s the only way they know how to do it. We have to be constantly learning how to do things better, smarter, and more efficiently.
You can read the complete article here.
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State of the Blog for the week beginning 11/12/2007
As some of you may know my Monthly Goal is to reach 50 rss subscribers by December 1, 2007. Last week was hairy. I had a huge drop in subscribers midweek, but I almost fully recovered over the weekend. I don’t know if my announcement here hurt or helped me. But people I need you to subscribe, preferably through email!
Every current and new subscriber’s email will be entered into a drawing. That winner will be able to choose between ”Awaken the Giant Within”
If you already signed up please let me know so you’re your name will have a chance at a prize I’m giving out. Pass the word to your friends. Come on and help me achieve my goal!
Also, I researched a few Affiliate programs for the weekend and you’ll see them on here by Friday. Also, I will be working a little more on quality control. I’m hoping to create a more worthwhile experience for my readers and I guess we’ll see how that goes in the coming weeks.
Top Ten Things I’ve Learned from The Karate Kid
I had previously had plans with my beautiful wife for the long weekend. But she stood me up to help out an old friend. So I was stuck at home and watched ‘The Karate Kid’ this weekend. So, to make the best of things I decided to create a top ten karate kid piece. So, to start your week on a humorous note here it is.
1. You listen Mr. Miyagi no question.
2. When you want your enemy out of commission sweep the leg.
3. To make your kids do their chores teach them Karate
4. All the popular rich kids hang out at Golf-n-Stuff
5. Before attempting the impossible, catch a fly with chopsticks
6. Most important things in life are held by your heart and mind, except your pants.
7. When injured, rub your hands together and massage the area for complete recovery
8. When you want balance in life, beat someone up
9. All Old Asian Handymen who fix toilets are martial art masters
10. Crane kick beats right punch
Anything to add? Please comment to me.
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Clip of the Week: I Can See Clearly Now
November 9, 2007 by marvin
Filed under Clip of the Week, Inspirational
Hey everyone, we made it to another Friday. Here is the inspirational Clip of the day. The video ‘I Can See Clearly Now” with scenes from the movie “Cool Runnings”. For those of you who do not know, The movie is based on the true story of the First Jamaican bobsled team trying to qualify and compete in the 1988 Winter Olympics. Enjoy and have a great weekend!
Quality Versus Quantity
“It is the quality of our work which will please God and not the quantity.” -Mahatma Gandhi
© Photographer: Sanuk | Agency: Dreamstime.com
I spent time with my wife and watched Kitchen Nightmares last night. A show I posted about in Gordon Ramsay: A Real Mentor to Restaurateurs . As you know, in other posts I talked about how you can succeed through observation. One thing that has been on my mind and something I see over and over in successful restaurants is the concept of quality. Gordon Ramsey does not release a meal until it passes his quality test. Every time you release something you say something about your product, so when you release your product it should exist in the way you intended it.
I’ve been having a hard time coming up with quality posts. The main reason is the time constraint on having to publish. I am often left unsatisfied with my end product. It could have been better had I had more time to research, more time to refine. Some of my posts I really wasn’t too happy with.
It took Hattori Hanzo 7 days to create his finest sword. What if it takes me a month to release a post I am happy with? That probably may not fly either, it’s something I will have to think about and tinker with.
Taking a lesson from Nightmare Kitchens, I want to concentrate on quality. Creating posts that are a little higher quality. So for the next few days or weeks I’ll be experimenting with not releasing a post if I am not satisfied with the quality. It doesn’t have to be a work of Shakespeare. I just have to be happy with what I’m releasing and I’ll try not to go overboard with it. I will continue to publish the featurettes and state of the blog, but when it comes to the posts that are most important to me I’ll give myself a little more time to publish them.
Will this work for me or against me? I suppose we will find out.
Until then observe, study and learn.
Three Mistakes Dreamers Make and How to Avoid Them
“Well, you know I never got to bat in the major leagues. I’d like to have my chance just once, to stare down a big league pitcher, to stare him down and just as he goes into his wind-up, wink, make him think you know something he doesn’t. That’s what I wish. A chance to squint at the sky so blue that it hurts your eyes just to look at it. To feel the tingle in your arms as you connect with the ball, to run the bases, stretch a double into a triple, and flop face-first into third, wrap your arms around the bag. That’s my wish, Ray Kinsella, that’s my wish. And is there enough magic out there in the moonlight to make this dream come true?” -”Moonlight” Graham, Field of Dreams
In Field of Goals, I asked when should you give up on a dream. I’ve thought about this for the last few days. I do honestly believe that if a person worked enough and hard enough they’d be able to accomplish anything.
However, when I watch people pursue their dreams there are three mistakes people make. The first is that when in comes to professions, oftentimes there simply isn’t enough room for everyone to achieve their dream profession. There can only be one American Idol a year out of the tens of thousands of hopefuls. There are only so many players in a professional basketball team. Not everyone can go to bat in the major leagues.
The second is, sometimes people have the wrong idea of how to get to where they want to go. I think about that aspiring actress, she had no agent, no experience and no clue. Yet, somehow she still believed she didn’t need any of that. Someone will discover her and she’ll have the lead role in a multimillion-dollar movie. All with no agent, no experience and no clue. In all honesty she’s probably still waiting to be discovered.
And the third has to do with not knowing the impact your dream will have on your life. You might achieve a dream only to find it wasn’t what you thought it would be.
When I think about the first mistake one phrase comes to mind. I don’t remember where I read it, but it went something like “Shoot for the stars and you might hit a sun. Shoot for a sun and you could miss the whole thing.” In other words, having a dream be the next American Idol is like shooting for a sun. You give yourself an all or nothing at hitting it big. A dream to be a professional singer is like shooting for the stars. You have broader playing field. You have more paths to choose from. More possibilities.
But even if you broaden your horizons, how do you get there? It’s easy to say you want to be a gourmet chef in a high-class restaurant. How do you get there? You have to find out every single thing it takes to accomplish your dream, you have to know what kind of knowledge you‘ll need to garner. You will need to know the roadmap to your destination. To own a restaurant you have to know more than to cook. You’ll have to learn to run a restaurant business. Read, interview and study the most prominent figures in the area you’re trying to get into.
Even if you know how to get where you want to go, how do you know you’re going to enjoy the view? In your study of your monks, read about their lives after they achieved what you want to achieve. How happy and satisfied are they? If you know about what kind of lifestyle you’re going to have to live after achieving your dream and if it still attractive, this alone can help you decide whether you really want to live this dream.
So that’s it, the three mistakes people make and how to avoid them. What do you think?
Top Ten Things I Learned from Action Movies
1. If you’re the best agent/officer/sharp shooter when you try to retire from active duty to train others, you will get your best/favorite student killed. Thereby, pulling you back into active duty.
2. If you want to be perceived as the good guy make sure to have the loudest gun.
3. The tide often turns for the better right after your boss tells you to turn in your badge and your gun.
4. In a battle make sure to be on the side that is outnumbered.
5. Maintaining your thirst for revenge will often guarantee your survival.
6. Running will often enable you to dodge anything from a landslide, explosion, alien death ray or a hail of bullets.
7. You will be undetectable and virtually invisible hiding behind a potted plant, wooden door or hanging from the ceiling.
8. The best way to sneak through a high tech security alarm system is through the air ducts.
9. When planning to rescue loved ones in a hostage situation remember the bigger the explosion the greater your chances of success.
10. No matter how much you beat up, shoot, stab or drown the bad guy he won’t be defeated until you say a witty one-liner.
So, that’s it. The Top Ten Things I’ve learned from Action Movies. Anything to add?
Blog Announcements for 11/04/2007
November 5, 2007 by marvin
Filed under Announcements
I’ve decided to start Mondays off with a humor piece and a State of the Monthly Goal piece and a blog/announcement piece. It seems my top ten lists are pretty popular. So, I’m going to start a featurette for every Monday “My Top Ten List For Things I Learned From (fill in the blank).” It’ll be a humorous piece and not necessarily for personal development per se, but to put you in a good humorous mood for the start of the workweek. My Top 10 List for Things I Learned From Horror Movies was popular.
Friday’s feature a “Clip of the week”. If you read last Fridays post you should be aware that I end the workweek on an inspirational note, a little reward for a week of hard work.
I’m still working out particular topics for Tuesday through Wednesdays. I have some ideas in mind but not enough to tell you about it yet. The main point of the blog is to combine a mix of personal development/self improvement with movies, books and tv thrown in. I really didn’t want to post movie reviews because there are already so many sites doing that. I may post an opinion piece here or there regarding things going on in the entertainment industry or personal development.
Let me know what you think, If you like how I’m arraigning the featurettes and/or what topics you’d like to see me blog about let me know.
State of the Blog for the week beginning 11/04/2007
Ok, my stated Monthly Goal is to reach 50 rss subscribers by December 1, 2007. My efforts are paying off. I’m not going to say just how much right now. I will say there is a definite increase in subscribers. Thanks everyone! I still need more if I’m going to make or surpass my goal. So everyone else come on and subscribe!
For any current subscriber and any new subscriber. I will pick a random winner. That winner will be able to choose between ”Awaken the Giant Within”
If you already signed up please let me know so you’re your name will have a chance at a prize I’m giving out. Pass the word to your friends. Come on and help me achieve my goal!