For the next 30 days I am going to take a challenge to arise before the sun does. Why am I doing this? Well, there are multiple reasons.

First, I am a father of three girls all under the age of 8 and for the most part, the only “Me” time I get is early in the morning. I use this time to educate myself. I once read a quote by Mark Twain, “Don’t let schooling interfere with your education.” If I am not learning, I am wasting my life away doing nothing. What good am I and what difference can I make in the world if I am not making a difference in my life. Educate yourself! Learn as much as you can. As you do, apply it and use it to serve and inspire others.

Second, there is a power spoken of in ancient scripture about arising early. I certainly don’t write all these blog posts just to write them. I do it to teach people what I have learned. Scriptures were written to teach wisdom. Amazingly enough, the principles taught thousands of years ago still work today, and may even be working better today than then. Just as I write, they have written, with the intent for others to read. Scripture reads, “Retire to thy bed early, that ye may not be weary; arise early, that your bodies and your minds may be invigorated.”

Third, I take a moment every morning to express my gratitude for all that I have and know. This is actually the first thing I do every morning. Unless I am grateful for what I currently have, I will never be blessed with more. As I take the time to think of all the abundance in my life, more abundance is added to it throughout the day.

Fourth, I set goals in the morning and come up with some of my best ideas. My mind is rested and fresh. Ideas just pour in like rain in the morning time. It is a self mastery period for me. Visualizing, goal setting, thinking of ways to improve, saying affirmations and setting courses of action for the day are a few of the things I do. For all you fisherman, remember, the big fish are always caught in the morning!

During this challenge I will think of 5 new ideas that will move me toward my goals, every morning. At the end of 30 days, I will have a ton of new ideas to work with, of which, many will already be put into action. I will have my journal on hand to keep record of these ideas as they come to me. I challenge each of you to do the same.

Think about the power that comes with arising early on your own terms. What I mean by, “your own terms,” is doing it not because you have to, but because you choose to. If you are employed and are compelled to get up before the sun does, wake up a little earlier on your own terms. Claim victory on your day instead of giving credit to someone else or doing it because you have to. It will change your outlook. I promise.

I can’t speak for anyone else, but I love getting up early. I love it even more than sleeping in, but it can be hard, if you’re not in the habit of doing it. Once that habit is created, it is as easy as brushing your teeth every morning. So starting tomorrow, June the 6th 2009, I’ll beat the sun up.

If you’d like to take this challenge along with me, congratulations! Let me know your thoughts and experiences! See you in the morning!

Have I ever told you all how much I love what I do? Well, I do and here’s one of the many reasons why. Today, as Amy and I were driving our girls to swimming lessons, I told Amy of something I overheard my oldest daughter say. This last weekend, we had a huge family fishing trip. My brother and sister came up with their families and we had an absolute blast and caught a ton of fish. Well, as they were all leaving my home, my oldest daughter decided to tell everyone that we were moving to California.

I had no idea she was doing this. My sister was the first one to come up and ask if we were really moving to California. I said, “no,” and asked her why. She then told me that my oldest daughter had been spreading the news. So, on the way to swim lessons I told Amy what had happened and my oldest daughter overheard our conversation and decided to explain herself. She told me that we were moving to California. I said, “Well, maybe we could just go stay in California for a week. How’s that?” She said, “Nope! I have been meditating about it and we are going to move to California!”

Wow! I was entirely impressed with her. She is deciding her future by preplanning it in her mind. Now, I know that all kids dream about things. That’s just something kids do and they believe they can be and do anything. Well, that’s true! But she was actually visualizing what she wanted to happen and is completely convinced that it will.

It is cool to see the principles Amy and I use on a daily basis being picked up by our children. Visualization is something I do every morning, day and night. It is my planning time. It’s the only way that I or anyone else can see the future and my kids are learning this stuff. Sure, we attempt to teach them to the best of our abilities, but it is great to see them putting it to use.

Being involved in the Personal Development industry has been a blessing to Amy and I and to our entire family. It has influenced our children, our parents and siblings. If you think that improving yourself will only improve you….Think again! It will effect everyone around you, and by effecting them, it will effect many others in a positive way as well. So when they say, “Improve yourself, improve your world,” it’s true beyond comprehension.

Simply by improving myself, my bank account grows, my business flourishes and my family is strengthened. If you want to know the secret to my success, that’s it. Personal Development!

So the best way to make a difference, in not just your little world, but the entire globe, is by improving yourself. The rest will fall into place!

We all have the opportunity to choose between two things in life….to become less or to become more! We can choose to learn less, be less happy, become less at work or less at home. We can choose to become less of a father or mother, less caring or less of a leader. We can choose to do less in our business…..and where would that land us?

We can also choose to become more. As I was teaching a lesson the other day in Sunday School, I had a comment from a young man who was struggling with getting his life on track. He was very open with this struggle. To him, it seemed extremely difficult to make a significant difference in his life. In reply, I told him that change doesn’t happen all at once. It won’t happen at the wave of a magic wand. By doing small, daily, consistent actions which move you toward your goal, change will occur. Your life will improve.

Sometimes being more can seem like a pretty taxing task. I think as human beings we tend to look at this task in fast forward. We tend to just look at the end and all that it will take to get there instead of  just looking at the very first step, putting one foot in front of the other. Instead of becoming more all at once, just try one day at a time. Become more today than you were yesterday or more tomorrow than you are being today. It becomes easier.

We’ve all heard of the saying, “God accepts you as you are, but loves you too much to leave you that way.” Who we all are is beautiful, but we can become more. We have more potential than we can even comprehend. To stay the same would be a waste of life. To grow, expound, progress, learn, create, win, and succeed is to fulfill the true measure of our creation. To see every day as a new opportunity instead of just “another day” is choosing to become more.

View your life as a work in progress instead of a dead end task. Love yourself. Treat yourself in the best possible ways. Reward yourself for successes and constantly build. Be healthy, learn more, think more and dream more. Do these things and you will become more than you could possible imagine.

As a result of becoming more, you will also have more!

“Results are the best measurement of human progress.” -Jim Rohn

What if I told you that if you could learn just one simple principle, you would be able to create success in everything and anything you decided to do? What if, by applying this one principle, you could take an average income and turn it into an exceptional income. With this one principle, or concept, small things become great. This one key principle is a key attribute in developing true leadership. People will follow you because of it.

Now, what if I told you this one principle was something simple, like Persistence? Well, it is. Persistence is the key principle to succeeding at any endeavor. Do it long enough, with passion and you will succeed. In my business opportunity, there are three key ingredients to be persistent at…..

• Placing Ads
• Calling the people who respond to those ads
• Providing details for them to review
• Collecting checks

I know! It sounds like a tough work schedule right?! Now you know why this is a part time business. However, the checks range from $1,000 to $8,000. Part time hours in this business definitely does not mean part time income, but the moment that I stop being persistent and consistent in any four of those areas, my business will start to falter. If I place an ad that results in a poor response, I place another ad. I am persistently working towards my goal. My goal is to maintain my lifestyle of working from home and making the income I deserve. So one failed ad holds little weight in the total outcome because I am persistently moving towards it regardless of the obstacles.

The definition of being persistent is: to go on resolutely or stubbornly in spite of opposition, importunity, or warning!

And believe me, there will be opposition, importunity and warning in every endeavor. Where would the fun be in doing it if there wasn’t?

Persistence

Kids are very good at this. What does a child do when he or she is hungry? They keep asking you, and asking you, and asking you, until what? They ask you until they get what they want, food! So how many ads will I place before I get what I want? The answer……As many as it takes!

But here’s the secret. This whole persistence thing cannot be mixed with indecision! Repeated, persistence cannot be mixed with indecision. Translation, when you start a business, be persistent in that business. Take the mindset of “There is no other option,” cutting off all other possibilities other than the one you are in. Cut yourself off from any other possible outcome other than the one you desire. Be set on one thing, one outcome, and do whatever it takes, as long as it takes to get that one thing. Jumping from one thing to the next, even if your intentions are to be persistent, is actually being resistant. Persistence works the best when focused on one thing. Simply put, STAY PUT!

Learn it! Use it and live the life of your dreams!

If I told you that your life was to be without discouragement, I would be flat out lying to you. Discouragement is a simple part of life. It can creep in when you least expect it to and if allowed to take over, will destroy whatever it is you are trying to do.

Discouragement is an enemy to success

So what do we know about discouragement? Let’s break down the actual word: Dis-Courage-Ment. So we see the word “Courage” in the middle there. Is it safe to say that the meaning of the word is to be without courage? I read a quote the other day that said: “Discouragement is not the absence of adequacy but the absence of courage.” Meaning, it’s not that a discouraged person is unable to complete the task at hand, it’s just a brief moment of having the lack of courage to move forward. Now I used the word “Brief” for a reason. As I look back in my career as a Home Business Entrepreneur, even my most discouraging times were very short. Why? Because I quickly regain my whits, or courage, and move forward.

Ponder on this a bit. How close do you think discouragement and failure is to success? Obviously they are very different, but what is the connection there? Do they have anything to do with each other? The answer is YES! They do! Discouragement, if allowed to take control, can result in failure. But, both failure and discouragement are stepping stones on the path to success. Without expecting yourself to get discouraged or to fail, you must also realize that it’s all part of the process. Don’t ever think that you are the only one that has ever felt like things just weren’t going to happen for you. Everybody has had those feelings sometime or the other and it’s simply because they lost their courage for a brief moment. Once that courage is found, you feel even more powerful and more energized than before. I sometimes think that everyone should experience it, so that they know how powerful they really are.

Here’s a quote that fits perfectly:

“Permanence, perseverance and persistence in spite of all obstacles, discouragement, and impossibilities: It is this that in all things distinguishes the strong soul from the weak.” -Thomas Carlyle

Hint: The way to overcome discouragement, is by planning to, before it comes. In other words, development such a strong work habit, which will build an external toughness, that will get you through any temporary, internal discouragement. Set yourself up to win when the rough times come, but never expect them to. If you set yourself up to win, you will!

A man was walking down a street. It was a very nice street with all kinds of shops, restaurants and people. It was the most prosperous street in town and this certain man was having a fantastic time. He was headed to a restaurant he had heard about and lunch time was approaching. Well, before eating the best meal he would ever have, he looked at a wall down an alley, and read something someone wrote. It said, “This is the worst street in the world. Don’t eat the food, it’s the worst food you will ever have and it costs way too much!” Well, naturally, the guy decided not to eat at the restaurant, which is also the choice that most people would make. Only very few actually go into the restaurant after reading the writing on the wall. These very few are the people that enjoy the best food and will continue to return to the restaurant regardless of what someone else says, because they know first hand and create their own opinions. It turns out, the guy who wrote that comment on the wall, which is graffiti, lives just below it in a cardboard box.

The Graffiti Restaurant

The internet is a wall full of graffiti from people who have been offended, found fault, found what they thought were greener pastures or just plainly quit. That’s why it is there. They can’t blame themselves for their own failure. That would be crazy right?! So they make their blame public by using the internet.

I mean, someone could walk into paradise and still find something wrong with it if they were looking for it. Right!? Thus is life. As an example, I live near Phoenix Arizona. I’m not saying that Phoenix is paradise okay, but when it rains, it cools off the entire town, and for a brief moment, can be paradisical. It only rains a few times a year there and people were actually complaining about the rain, wishing it would stop. This is proof that people will complain about anything, regardless of what a blessing it is.

Ten times out of ten, the guy to listen to is definitely not the guy who moves from one opportunity to the next, hoping that it will be better than the last. And ten times out of ten, the ones to listen to are not the bums writing graffiti in forums. The ones to listen to are the people who have created success. It just makes sense! You just have to ask yourself the questions, “Who do want to become like?” If you want to be a graffiti bum, take advice from the graffiti bum. If you want to be outrageously successful, take advice from the outrageously successful. Simple!

I eagerly await the day when the majority of the people take the advice of someone successful over the opinion of 30 people who are not. Following the majority has never been the way to create success in life. Otherwise, everyone would be outrageously successful. If you are following the majority, chances are, your results are just like the majority, average! Ask Albert Einstein if he followed the majority, Abraham Lincoln, Michael Jordan. There a leaders and there are followers. A follower, is not a leader.

It turns out, the restaurant owner in the story decides to leave the statement on the wall that deters so many people and is glad it is there. Why? It’s because he now gets the perfect customer. The customer who is loyal and returns often and tells all his other loyal friends about this great restaurant. The statement on the wall keeps out the ones who would have found fault, even in paradise! It keeps the ones out that are “wishy-washy” in their decisions and jump from one thing to the next. It keeps out the ones who are terrified to experience change. It keeps out the followers of the majority. The graffiti bum has actually done the restaurant owner a huge favor!

You, the one reading this, might be the one who bases decisions on what the graffiti says. If it is you, I hope you are enjoying “average!”

Choose to be the one out of 30 who can see past the graffiti and the bum living below it, who was the author of it.