To be successful in life we have to take the time to invest in ourselves and our goals, ambitions and desires.

This takes time, thought and planning to accomplish and requires each of us to have a philosophy or plan, a Personal Success Plan if you will. A set of the sail, a positive direction for our lives that will serve others well, thereby serving ourselves and meeting our own needs, receiving what we want from life and more importantly becoming a person with admirable qualities and integrity.

With this in mind here is a compilation of thoughts, philosophies and mindsets for your consideration.

Be happy with what you have while you pursue what you want.

Don’t pursue your dreams, goals and ambitions for what you’ll have, do it for the person you’ll become in the process.

Learn from yesterday, focus on today and plan for tomorrow. DA

Who you choose to associate with in life has everything to do with how your life turns out and the person you become. You will become a reflection of one another’s morals, values, characters, habits and traits. In short your integrity will be reflective of those with whom you associate.

Start your day off ahead of time, not late and chasing it from behind. You’ll be amazed at the difference it makes in how your day goes and the results you achieve. End each day knowing you did all you could and you’ll sleep better with a sense of fulfillment from your efforts.

Don’t major in the minors. In other words don’t put yourself and those around you under emotional duress over matters less important than the vitality of your relationships.

To achieve success we have to give of ourselves in order to receive. In other words, we have to satisfy the needs & interests of others before we will meet our own needs. Show up with that mentality. It’s not what can I have or take, it’s how can I help those around me or the team accomplish their goals. In personal and professional relationships bring value, not needs.

Be an Ambassador of Goodwill in life. When people look into your eyes, heart & soul let them see and feel goodness and compassion, God sent emotions.

It’s not what happens to you in life; it’s how you react to what happens that will determine your success in dealing with people and difficult circumstances. Attitude is everything and attitude determines altitude.

Don’t blame your circumstances for your results. Be thankful. You already live in the land of opportunity. Pay your taxes, smile and be happy and enthusiastic. Take advantage of the opportunities you have. Cherish the blessings of each day of life you are given. Life is a gift.

When you’re in troubled times, remember that life tends to have many cycles you have to endure. It’s sometimes referred to as “The Seasons of Life.” Some cycles are very positive with good things happening and others are not. Remember when you’re in a cycle whether good or bad, it’s going to eventually change. Don’t overreact or make rash decisions when a calmer head will prevail over time. Realize some situations take time to change. In a cycle of good times the same principal applies, things may not stay good, that is why squirrels store nuts in the summer, they know winter is coming. If you spend all of your money while you’re making it, you won’t have any when you’re not. Remember, your past or current circumstances don’t have to determine your future results. Put things in perspective and keep a long term outlook in mind to keep you from over reacting to today’s difficulties.

When dealing with problems and decisions in life, weigh out your alternatives, accept the best and worst case scenarios, make a choice and move on. Do a Ben Franklin on a legal pad. Make a big T near the top of the page and down the middle. Write down the problem at the top. On the left side of the T near the top write down “advantages”. On the right side of the T write “disadvantages.” Write possible solutions in order down the left hand side of the paper and list out the advantages of disadvantages in each column and then make the most logical decision. Eventually you can do this in your head but go ahead, try it sometime. Writing crystalizes thought and this is very important in problem solving or planning. Generally speaking don’t look back unless that’s where you want to go, meaning don’t dwell on failure or negative events. Don’t spend your life being bitter about things that happened that you can’t ever change. If prior events are haunting you or someone you care for and affecting their quality of life they may need counseling or professional help. For the majority of less detrimental occurrences look back for the express purpose of analyzing prior events and learning lessons from your previous actions, mistakes you could have avoided or things you could have done better. Don’t let your life focus stay on a few negative things that occur during your day, week, month, year or life. Your attitude and mind set are a choice. Remember, failure often and usually does come before success. Life is that way, you can get better with time and experience or reciprocally you can stay the same or get worse in your habits and performance, a digression in life skills brought on by events in the past that determined your future.

Frankly speaking, review and analysis of everything you do is imperative to making life improvements and needed adjustments. Smart people reflect on their activities, goals, results, tasks accomplished vs. tasks planned, overall performance and interactions with people personally and professionally on a daily, weekly and annual basis. I call it “reconciling” my day, week and year. What happened? Why did it happen? Did I control my time and actions or did other people? How did my day, week, year or life get off track? What didn’t get done today that I need to do tomorrow and what new priorities came up? How do I prioritize those “To Do’s” so they fit best with my goals? Hint, you have to have goals to know the answer. Otherwise life can be grey and vague as you wander through it aimlessly without a specific plan and the world happening unto you instead of you determining your destiny.

Do not waste a lot of time, energy and mental anguish on people and circumstances you cannot control. Sometimes it is best not to try to convince someone who’s mind you’re not going to change. Despite your best efforts often you cannot control what other people say, think or do, so don’t over do trying and don’t get involved unless it directly affects you or people in your center of influence. Now, regarding people you really care about, you can positively influence them but know the difference and set your expectations accordingly. People can only change themselves, you can advise and attempt in good faith to influence them but they have to make the conscious decision and implement the needed changes themselves. “Yes dear, I know I need to quit smoking.” Everyone can tell you that but only you can do it. It doesn’t mean you give up and stop encouraging people that are important to you in your life but when people are going in the wrong direction and something detrimental may be getting ready to happen, you have to know when it’s in your best interest to let them figure it out so you don’t suffer the consequences of their poor decision making yourself. Remember, people making poor choices will take you along for the ride just as willingly as someone making good choices that may need good associations to share in their success. In life you are going to share in other people’s success and failures, that’s inevitable but you will have a choice in what you may be sharing more often than you think if you’re conscientious in your recognition of these patterns.

The world and the people in it should not judge you, it’s true, but guess what? They do. Therefore plan accordingly. Make the best out of what you have in any given situation to maximize your results. Everyone has a market value personally and professionally that is determined by the skill and expertise that you bring to the task, job or relationship. Appearance, mannerisms, dress, articulation, verbiage, delivery, education, skills, etc., it matters, everything matters. Everything affects everything else, you start off on the wrong foot on any path and it can spiral out of control in no time at all. Reciprocally, positive momentum can compound quickly as well. Good or bad results can tend to multiply quickly either way so pay attention to the laws and principles of compounding effects. If you don’t like your market value, change it. For example if you’re not making enough money then you must change your value to the market with increased qualifications, whatever they are. Everyone is a Sales Person in life selling themselves, their ideas, thoughts, plans, aspirations, etc. People like to say they are not but don’t kid yourself, you’re in sales from the second you’re born crying for food and attention and it never stops your entire life, so you might as well study sales, negotiating and human psychology.

Don’t waste time complaining and blaming. This group will give you lots of reasons why if the people around them weren’t incompetent and the economy was better and the cost of living wasn’t so high and so on, they would be doing much better. Don’t buy into that. That kind of person is the wrong association for you. Be careful about associating with negative people, this alone can lead to your own failure and demise. Find people better than this that are smart, problem solvers, business minded, visionaries, forward thinking, goal oriented, entrepreneurial and so forth. I reap what I sew, I can control that. I can and will get better at being who I am and doing what I do. Difficult circumstances serve to increase my motivation to succeed in my own worthwhile pre-determined goals. I only have what I have to work with. You have to start where you are now with an honest self-evaluation of whom you are and where you are in every area of your life and then make a detailed written plan of where you want to go and how you’re going to get there.

Control the things you can, yourself, your integrity, your personal success plan, your set of the sail, your philosophy, your attitude, your written set of goals to improve every area of your life. Your physical health, diet and exercise program, your mind & mental health, your faith & spirituality, your family & relationships & your personal finances. Have detailed written goals and plans for each of these vital areas of your life.

Plan for success, if you don’t you will settle whatever life gives you. Some people happen unto the world & have a sense of destiny. Other’s let the world happen unto them. The world will move aside for those who know where they are going. The world and people in it will decide for you if can’t do it by yourself.

When negotiating in business or personal situations think about what the other side wants. Know where they’re coming from. Don’t underestimate them. Create a win/win situation. Make it easy for them to say YES to your proposals. Put yourself in their shoes and ask what they will need to see or know. People act to either gain a benefit or avoid a loss. Paint the picture accordingly to show them their benefits of doing what you want them to do.

Success isn’t the result of doing remarkable things; it’s the result of doing ordinary things remarkably well. Jim Rohn

Pick a habit or pattern of behavior & change it to align with your goals and the results you seek. Identify a few things in your life that can make a major difference and implement them periodically one by one.

Live by Jeff Olsen’s “slight edge philosophy.” Small, success oriented disciplines and habits implemented daily lead to success and achievement. Small errors in judgment implemented daily lead to mediocrity or disaster. Common examples anyone could relate to are diet and smoking. A poor diet and lack of exercise will eventually leave you in poor health with less energy to take care of your responsibilities, increased stress, mental anguish and high health care expenses. Smoking will slowly but surely give you lung cancer and kill you. Neither of these examples gets you day one; they compromise your life slowly but surely over time. Put the set of your sail off course a few degrees compounded over time and you’ll end up somewhere you didn’t want to go & you won’t know why. Your current daily activities indicate where you’re going and where you’ll be five years from now. We can’t afford to be naive.

Disciplines are habits, good and bad that are easy to do or easy not to do. Eat an apple a day, not a Hershey bar. Habits can be changed. In just a few short weeks of implementing new daily disciplines the old bad habits can be gone for a lifetime. Leave each day knowing you did all you could, you’ll sleep well and feel content. You don’t have to always win or succeed but you’ll feel satisfied in knowing that you had a plan and executed it to the best of your ability and gave your best effort day in and day out. God has given you tremendous capabilities to be whoever and whatever you want to be. Why not reap your God given potential and be all you can be, why not, what else do you have to do?

A question to ponder from my Father William C. Armor, JR. If you work 8 hours and you sleep 8 hours, what do you do with the other 8 hours? Why does he ask? Because that 8 hours and the weekends are the only time you have seek balance in every area of your life. You have to plan, execute, reflect, alter your course accordingly and repeat this cycle over and over every day within that time. It’s important. Know what you do with your time. Success doesn’t happen by chance; it’s by design and specifically planned. Plans and priorities change daily with the ebb and flow of life. If you’re working on one area of life, you’re neglecting the other areas of your life. Hence the importance of prioritizing what is important to you in life.

Here are a few quotes from my mentor’s William C. Armor Jr. and Paul J. Meyer: “Procrastination is the thief of time and the robber of opportunity.” WCA

“Success is the progressive realization of pre-determined, worthwhile personal goals.” PJM

“If you are not making the progress you would like to and are capable of making it is simply because your goals are not clearly defined.” PJM

“Whatever you vividly imagine, ardently desire, sincerely believe and enthusiastically act upon must inevitably come to pass.” PJM

In Closing be committed to excellence with the continual development of all of your individual skills and abilities. Take the time to plan and prioritize your goals, dreams and desires as individuals, couples and families on a personal and professional level. Invest in your own success. “The world get’s out of the way for those who know where they are going.” DA

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