Author Chris Brady's Blog

Trout Fisherman in Hell

(Below is an excerpt from my next book, being crafted with love and blood even as you read this!)

There is an old story about a fisherman who believes he has died and gone to Heaven as he catches one perfect 2 lb trout after another.  As he sets his fly and hooks into yet one more, he can’t fathom his good fortune.  The sky is blue, the weather ideal, the fish biting like he’s never before experienced, and everything is absolutely perfect.  It is not long, however, before the realization dawns on him that he is not in Heaven at all.  Instead, as the boredom and the pointlessness settle in on him, he realizes he’s actually in Hell.

It’s hard to describe just how hard this little parable hit me the first time I heard it.  In one moment it erased all my whiny complaints about how difficult and elusive success seems to be.  The trout fisherman in Hell story is so extreme, so seemingly ridiculous, that we are confronted with a strange and brutal fact: we may hate opposition and struggle, but it is critical for our mental health.  Without the struggle, we would feel no joy in victory. 

How can this be? How can it be true that we are actually happier and more fulfilled when overcoming opposition than when everything is easy and simply rolling our way? It is because of the way we were made.  Without a battle to win and an enemy to vanquish, the value of the warriar goes to zero.  In the famous words of Thomas Paine, “What we attain too cheaply we esteem too lightly.”  If we don’t earn it, we can’t enjoy it. 

This is profound, and it ought to provide a telling answer against all those dismal statistics that suggest that the "odds" of making it are too tall. If we consider only statistics most of us would never get out of bed in the morning, much less find a way to force ourselves to study for that upcoming calculus exam or next achievement in our career.  You see; it doesn’t matter how difficult success is or what the odds are of us “making it.”  What matters is our struggle against the opposition, the force of our will against the force of everything that would try and stop us.  Not only does it fulfill us to have something against which to push, but in the process it also makes us better.  It is the resistive weight that builds the muscles.  So ultimately, it doesn’t matter if success is hard or not, it simply matters that we pursue it anyway.

Sincerely,

Chris Brady

An Audience of One

 
She knocks on the door to my office and waits until I motion her in. Politely she asks with expectant eyes if I'd like to visit her "gum store." For once making the right choice (trying to remember if I've put her off earlier for the same request) I rise from my work and take her by the hand.

Her big brown eyes and freckled face are all delight as she tours me around the various flat surfaces of her bedroom, each delicately decorated with candies and gums of many colors and varieties. On one particular tray she has segregated Chiclet candies by color, arranging rows of them in a clever striped pattern. On another featuring one lone piece of gum on a tiny silk pillow, she has affixed a sign that reads, "Some of our gum is even royal!"

Everywhere there are signs, and prices, and even games to be played. Displays have been crafted with boundless creativity and flare. Her marketing skills as a 9 year-old are so far ahead of most adults that I consider hiring her on the spot to write ad copy for our company. "And here are some magazines I put together, Daddy," she says, offering me two well-researched handcrafted gems replete with explanations and diagrams showing how gum is manufactured. Throughout each magazine are clever ads and jingles, one-liners and specials. I marvel at the bud of talent inborn.

She is my only daughter, all sweetness and flair, with her own style and dramatic expression. She is precious to me beyond description. And perhaps to her, I am (in addition to her mother) the only audience that counts. Her happiness increases as she sees that her work has pleased me. Later, she again enters my office and hugs me. "I love you so much," she says.

The creative process is exhilerating. We conceive an idea, lay out our plans, and begin work under the most naive of expectations. The mere act of putting things together as we see them rushing into our mind is invigorating. In this delicate early phase, we are alone with the stream of conciousness and can hardly answer its call quickly enough.

Eventually, however, our peaceful cocoon of creativity must clash with the violent opinions of the real world. And usually we are not treated very kindly. Know-it-alls and pedants, critics and cynics swoop in to pluck the joy from our freshly birthed creations - feeding on our receding happiness like parasites without a food source of their own. 

And it hurts.

In fact, many who are stung by the unfeeling mud from the masses retreat within themselves and carefully hide the candle under a bushel, having learned the lesson not to bring it out in front of others ever again. It is tragedy in the true sense of the word. When one's creativity is snuffed by harshness, innocence is lost. Something dies. The world is a little less beautiful.

But a true artist doesn't perform for the world. A true artist creates because it is what she does; who she is. All she has to do is remember who her true audience is. It's not the world, or its teeming masses of unthinking envious critics, or even its well-meaning coldhearts. No. Her real audience is her father, her Father in heaven. He is the One who embedded those talents and creative capacities in her to begin with, and it is for His pleasure she should give life to their impulse. Just as I attempted to do in the sincere expression of my approval and affirmation for my daughter's "gum store," God does for His children; for those who are called according to His purpose. He is never harsh or unkind in his praise of our sincere use of talents for His glory. And He is never too busy. Having thus pleased Him, we should thereby be insulated against the opinions of mere mortals. After all, it wasn't for them.

So express those truths you hold deep inside. Create, write, paint, build, design, assemble, as for a king. His is the only opinion that counts. He is your lone audience; the audience of One.

Sincerely,

Chris Brady 

 

AND (The Art of the Both)

The word "the" is the most common in the English language. Hot on its heels in terms of amount of usage is the word "and."

"And" is also a very important word when it comes to high achievement.

We have all heard about the importance of focus. Most of us suffer from distraction diseases of all sorts, including "Interruptidess," "smart-phone-check-obsession," "multi-task-mania," and "involvement-overload." Our natural tendencies are toward diversion and distraction, not focus. Even so, in the accomplishment of all high achievement, there is a degree of breadth required. There is such a thing as too much focus.

We have all heard that it is critical to "major on majors," that if we "fit the big rocks in the jar we can always get the little ones in later," and similar sayings. And these are all true. However, in our rush to simplify and focus, we must not forget that life is not that simple, and nobody accomplishes worthwhile goals without the ability to handle several things at once. The key is to know which majors to major upon, and which minors not to disregard.

You see, for every major task toward an objective, there is always a supporting cast of minor details. We may ignore most details as trivial, but some are not. I am reminded of coach John Wooden teaching his incoming freshman basketball players to turn their socks inside out and remove the balls of cotton that could otherwise cause blisters. Mastery and accomplishment are to some extent the product of understanding what details are important and which can be disregarded. We must learn what minor things play a supporting role for the major things. Once we know this, only then can we ignore details and smaller things, knowing that they really play no role in achieving our overall goal.

As leaders and high achievers we must master the "art of the both." Get good at determining which tasks are primary to accomplishing your goal, but then also discern which smaller ones play an important supporting role. In fact, it is by making these distinctions that you can then focus most effectively.

Sincerely,

Chris Brady 

 

Don't Ever Let the Bozos Get You Down!

If you are new to the pursuit of excellence, or are just launching upon your dream chase, or are just now responding to a calling on your life, you may need to be warned about something (or someone):

Bozos.

Really, I've got nothing against Bozo the Clown. He wore his baldness with poise and managed to keep a smile upon his face despite the wardrobe he was forced to wear. Pretty admirable, any way you slice it. His name does serve as a categorization, however, for a certain type of person.

It doesn't matter how noble your calling, how amazing your talent, or how sincere your attempt, there will ALWAYS be a Bozo somewhere to criticize what you're doing. Usually, there will be several.

Bozos, you see, appreciate and grow stronger with each other's company, taking courage from their collective cowardice. Their purpose, as a lower species, is to denigrate others. They will question and criticize your ability, your talent, your motives, your heart, your character, your results, and just about anything else they can think of that you have or are attempting.

Get used to it. Realize that it's just part of the landscape of high achievement. No one, and I repeat, no one is immune from Bozo Infestation.

Exhibit A: In this video (be sure to watch it all the way through), a little eight-year-old girl sings a difficult song so well it should bring tears to the eyes of anyone even approaching the classification of a human being. And thousands of people quite appropriately clicked "like." But notice that, inexplicably, more than 2,000 people clicked "dislike." I can't imagine being in the presence of such nincompoops for even two seconds. Bozos are not above the criticism of anything, even an adorable, unbelievably gifted little girl. Just remember this the next time someone trashes you. If they can criticize little Connie Talbot, they won't have any trouble hurling their stones in your direction.

 

Like a swarm of mosquitos, Bozos will swoop in to darken your brightest shinings. Don't let them. As with mosquitos, you can swat them, ignore them, and curse them. But by far the most effective approach in dealing with Bozos is to apply an effective repellent. In the case of living your life and giving your all, this repellent consists of the following:

1. An awareness of their existence and a refusal to be shocked by such.

2. A refusal to listen to their vitriol, realizing that every great achievement is accomplished under a hail of criticism.

3. Pity for their pathetic little lives they are choosing to waste.

4. A steady focus upon your dream, your calling, and what God built you to be.

Don't ever let the Bozos get you down.

Sincerely,

Chris Brady 

Rascal Manifesto

Stephen Palmer of the Center for Social Leadership concepted the idea for a poster for the Rascal Manifesto. His gang also recently produced this video to promote it. Enjoy.

Sincerely,

Chris Brady

 

Your Personal Brand and the "Margaritaville" Concept

It happened to you and it's uniquely yours. No one else has your story. No one else has your particular mixture of experience and ability. Not only did God make you unique in all your parts, but the life He lets you live is just as uniquely yours. Nobody else experiences the world in exactly the same way as you.

These concepts are important to understand, because they form the basis of your personal brand.

What is a personal brand?

A personal brand is "whatever you do or bring to the world that is uniquely yours." Surprisingly, the more you stick to what is uniquely yours and the more authentic you are in what you do, the more interesting it is to others and the more marketable it is.

Allow me to give an example.

My incredible wife Terri Brady is a very interesting person with a compelling personal brand. Beyond all the foundational things that attracted me to her back in our college days (her love of the Lord, her values and her upbringing, her beauty, her courage, her playfulness, her native intelligence, her musical gifts, and above all, her undeniable wisdom in choosing me!), she has lived an incredibly interesting and inspiring life. Her list of brand experiences include prolonged infertility, surviving a life threatening brain tumor, engineering degree and work experience, home schooling four children, a consistent record of physical fitness, mastery of multiple musical instruments, dedication to worship and serving in the name of Christ, leading and mentoring many other women, high level entrepreneurship and business ownership, fabulous public speaking to audiences of tens of thousands around the world, a wildly popular blog, not to mention being married to a rascal like me! In addition to these unique experiences, many of which were beyond her control, how she carried herself through these events is even more impressive. The trials came without complaint, and the victories came without conceit. If you wrap all these things together you've got one incredible woman with a lot to share with others. All of these pieces together comprise Terri's personal brand. They make her interesting. They give weight to what she teaches. They give power to what she says.

Now, what would happen if Terri tried to teach people about scuba diving? Or produce a product focused on fashion? It wouldn't work. It's not her. It doesn't fit her brand.

The purpose of this example (beyond a shameless ploy to get points with my wife) is to demonstrate that who we are at the core, in the most authentic version of ourselves, is what we should focus on bringing to the world. In other words, only do what only you can do. It might be inspiring to know that when you do exactly that, you will be the most fulfilled. It's when you are doing precisely what you were built to do with the specific gifts God gave you that you feel the most alive. Any time you stray away from this reality you feel less yourself, less alive, less real. Life isn't about finding employment that pays the bills and then hanging on through the years waiting to die. It's about discovering what God built you to do and then doing it with all your unique abilities to His glory and pleasure.

Quite often I have people approach me asking how to become a public speaker, how to write a book, or how to best start a blog. Many times they've already made an attempt but the effort hasn't gained traction. My advice to them is always the same: first determine your true authentic personal brand. Find out what you have that is uniquely yours, and work your guts out bringing it to the world. The more your heart is in it, the more others will want it. There will always be a market for the best you've got to give (but, that is not to say that it won't be harder than you can imagine). You've got to focus. You've got to bring it all to bear on your great unique brand.

One more example.

Jimmy Buffett is an overwhelmingly successful musician and entertainer. He has attracted a following of fanatical fans who dress up in crazy costumes and follow him around on concert tours. He has sold millions and millions of dollars of music and books. He has a string of successful restaurants and a clothing line. He even has (or had) a channel on satellite radio! Over the course of more than four decades, Jimmy Buffett has assembled a massive entertainment empire. And really, when it gets right down to it, he did it all with just one song.

If you listen to Buffett's early music, you will notice that it doesn't really match his brand. The songs are serious, the topics are ordinary, and it's obvious that in those early days he hadn't really struck the chord of his true authentic gift, of his personal brand that would someday delight millions. But as soon as he produced the song Margaritaville, a star was born. He had hit upon it - an escapism genre that whisked people away from their cold, boring lives and put them in the warm tropical sun.

Imagine going to a Jimmy Buffett concert. You take in the enthusiastic crowd, you sing along with some of the songs, you feel relaxed and happy as you too escape to the islands for a few fun figurative moments. But what would happen if Buffett finished up his concert and failed to play the song Margaritaville? You would not only feel disappointed, you'd feel cheated. Buffett HAS to perform that song at every concert because it is the classic embodiment of his personal brand, and Buffett, being the consummate entertainer and crowd pleaser, knows this better than anyone. 

This principle applies everywhere. How disappointed would people be if Stephen King came out with a marriage book? Or if Dave Barry released a serious novel? Or if Michael Jordon left basketball to play, I don't know, let's say baseball? These people, and every successful person in every walk of life, have succeeded by finding their true authentic gift and then giving it over and over with gusto.

Which brings us back to you.

What is your unique brand?

What are your particular foundational gifts?

What are your unique experiences?

How have you grown as a result, and what can you give out of it?

What innate talents has God given you that are yours?

What makes you feel the most alive?

What makes you feel the most fulfilled?

What things do you do that seem to bring the most accolades from people?

I guarantee that if you answer these questions and package all of this together, you will be at least heading in the right direction. Whether this means you will write books, blog, create music, speak on stages, preach, start a company, paint, organize something, lead a charity, invent a new technology, or whatever, if you line things up to be a product of who you are and what you uniquely can contribute, you will succeed. By this, I mean that you will find meaning and fulfillment in contributing something that only you can contribute.

Don't live anyone else's life for even a minute. It's yours. It's unique. Find your Margaritaville and then sing it with all you've got until you can't sing anymore. I promise, there will be fans cheering for your authentic output.

Sincerely,

Chris Brady 

 

 

 

 

Success is Hard

Many Misunderstand Success

The most formidable obstacle in anyone's path when deciding to enter the business world will likely be their own thinking.

This was certainly true of me.

I used to think that all I needed were the specifics of an endeavor and a little time and I could be a success. What I discovered along the way was that the specifics are easy and simple to acquire, and almost (I say almost, meaning comparatively) irrelevant. What I needed the most, and what I see as a similar need in many people with whom I work, is a "business mindset." And actually, beneath that mindset is another important manner of thinking, namely, a "success mindset."

Success is Difficult

Here is what I didn't really understand: In anything worthwhile, success is hard.

Let's consider business in general and the costs to even get started. According to buildyourfirm.com, the average startup cost for an accounting office is $50,000 for a book of $150k of business. According to fastfood.com, to start an Arby's franchise requires a $37,500 initial fee, a liquid capital requirement of $500,000, and a total estimated initial investment of $2.3 million. This is followed by the requirement of paying a 4% royalty. A Cinnabon requires $30,000 up front, $100,000 liquid capital requirement, a minimum net worth of $300,000, and an overall estimated initial investment of $362,000. The royalty payment required is 6%. One more. Subway requires a $15,000 initial fee, $90,000 of initial liquid capital, a minimum net worth of $500,000, and an estimated initial investment of $238,000. The royalty payment owed is an ongoing 8%. So with just this small sample size considered, it is obvious that the cost of starting a business is high. (Keep in mind that the average North American has just $3,800 in regular savings and cash).

So what about the odds of business success? According to a report by creditdonkey.com, 50% of new businesses are out of business by year five, and only 35% are left in year ten, with many never making any money at all.

What about sports?

According to Business Insider, the odds of success in professional sports is even worse than the odds of making it in business. Consider that in baseball, for instance, just 0.6% (that's 6 out of 1,000 boys) of high school players and just 11.6% of college players even make it into the pros, while the average professional baseball career is just 5.6 years long. It's 0.08% (that's 8 out of 10,000 boys!) of high school players, and just 1.7% of college players that make it to the pros, where a professional career lasts an average of 3.5 years. In hockey it's 0.1% of high school players and 1.3% of college players that make it to the pros, where an average career lasts 5.5 years. For basketball it's 0.03% (3 out of 10,000) of high school players and 1.2% of college players that make it to the pros, where a career lasts just an average of 4.8 years.

Ok, so business is expensive and hard, and sports have super long odds, but what about other areas of success?

Let's say, for instance, marriage?

According to marriage and divorce expert Marty Friedman, in 1970, 72% of people were married, whereas only 59% are today. The average divorce occurs at the 7 year mark, and 50% of first marriages, and 60 to 70% of second marriages end in divorce. Fatherless households account for 63% of youth suicides, 90% of homeless/runaways, 85% of behavioral problems, 71% of high school dropouts, 85% of youths in prison, and over 50% of unwanted teen pregnancies.

Okay, so matrimonial relationships are fraught with challenges and horrific ramifications, what about a totally different category, say, acting?

The best sources I could find seem to agree that only about 2% of those consistently active "in the field" make it as a full time occupation.

Well, what about authors? How many become best selling authors?

According to one of my publicists, there are approximately 1,000,000 books published per year.  Only about 200 go over 100,000 in sales per year, which is 0,02% (or 2 authors out of every 10,000).

What about goal setting in general? Let's get away from specific industries and endeavors and just talk general success.

According to researcher Douglas Vermeeren, 80% of people never set goals at all! Of the roughly 20% who do, approximately 70% fail to hit those goals!

Have I made my point? Success anywhere is hard! All these statistics certainly bring a little light to Sturgeon's Law, which states that "90% of everything is crap." Or the old Pareto Principle which states that for any given output, "roughtly 80% of the output is due to just 20% of the causes." 

It begins to be obvious that in any endeavor only a small percentage of the population actually "make it." Does this mean that business, professional athletics, marriage, acting, writing, and goal setting in general are "scams?" Certainly not, it simply means that excellence and high achievement adhere to the cold, cruel laws of success, even if most people are unfamiliar with them. 

Let me reiterate: to reach the level of mastery and high accomplishment in any area will be difficult, fraught with peril, and painful. So much so that it will eliminate most of your competition along the way. The laws of success and competition are brutal, and apparently most people are not familiar with them.

This is what I was missing when I started out in business, when I started writing books, and when I started doing public speaking. The good ones made it look so easy I just assumed that with a little practice I could do what they were doing just as well - and I was in for a rude awakening. This is what I find when working with most people; that they just have no concept of what success really takes, or how slim the odds of high achievement really are.

Why?

Because most of us are raised in a soft cocoon of protection, in which we are given trophies for participation, and told we are great even when we are not. Many careers and occupations shelter people from the cold realities of competition, paying them a salary regardless of output and forcing them to confront their performance only in little ways and perhaps as seldom as once per year in a soft-ball performance review.

Let's face it, there are very few places in our adult lives where we are really forced to confront a totally honest scoreboard of our performance. And when we do, many of us shy away from it with cries of "it's not fair" and "you cheated" on our lips to hide the painful reality that we don't really measure up. We are more comfortable in our "illusory superiority" than we are confronting the brutal reality of our lackluster abilities.

This is why I chose to highlight businesses, sports, marriage, acting, and writing in my statistical review: because each of these activities requires participants to truly exceed in order to succeed. There are no shortcuts to success in any of them, and they each expose participants' true abilities.

Success is Worth It

But success is worth it, right?

It depends upon what you define success to be. I would recommend reading the following articles for assistance in determining your own unique definition (Success: An Important Definition, Competing Views of Success, Customized Success - It's Your Life, The Top 10 Realities of Success). But yes, in my opinion, success is worth it, as much for what it makes out of us during the journey towards it as for any amount of reward for achieving it. There is just something exhilarating about opening yourself up to the scoreboard of life and daring to have a look at how you stack up.

What are the odds (in any endeavor) of you becoming one of the top performers? Long indeed.

What are the odds of the pursuit itself making you into a better person in the process? Almost assured.

So dare to pursue something amazing, and worry not about the people around you who seek guarantees and the quiet false comfort of an existence hidden away from the scoreboard.

They just don't "get it," but you just might!

Thanks for reading!

Sincerely,

Chris Brady

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Exertion

There are multiple roads to accomplishment.  

Some people begin the journey to success in a particular endeavor endowed with obvious natural talent. Everybody who observes such people gives ready acknowledgment to the obvious gift of inborn ability.  

Others, however, (and most, as it turns out), are not so gifted.  This second group has to work harder to do what the first group was able to do naturally.

Over time, however, the differences between starting points fade away. 

How? 

First, a little background. 

Most people are average. While this is true statistically, it’s hard to swallow emotionally. As a result, most people think they are above average. In fact, there is a research paper that won the year 2000’s satirical “Ig Nobel Prize” for psychology written by Dunning and Kruger. What resulted is called the Dunning-Kruger Effect: “a cognitive bias in which unskilled individuals suffer from illusory superiority, mistakenly rating their ability much higher than average. This bias is attributed to a meta-cognitive inability of the unskilled to recognize their mistakes.”   

How many of us have known people who suffered from “illusory superiority?” In the body of the study, Dunning and Kruger report that people who overestimated their ability at a task adjusted their opinion of themselves upward when confronted with data depicted the ability level of others sampled. In other words, people generally think they are pretty good at something even when they are not, and when shown data of how others perform at the same task, they increase their “illusory superiority” to an even higher level! 

This is very insightful research because it provides a window of understanding into the behavior of people who recoil from a true scoreboard of their performance. Those of us who teach and coach others in the topic of success and high achievement never cease to be amazed at the response of certain people when they are forced to confront the reality of their performance (or lack thereof) in an objective fashion – that is, when they must face a true scoreboard of their performance. Among others, the reactions of such people include the following:

1. Anger at the scoreboard

2. Claims that the game is stupid or unfair

3. Excuses along the lines of, “I’m just not competitive”

4. Denial that others are really scoring better than them and the claim that those who appear to do so must be “cheating”

5. Quitting the task altogether in favor of a retreat to an endeavor where their individual performance can be masked, hidden or unobserved

But none of us need fear the scoreboard. Instead, we should embrace it as the positive-pressure cooker of our personal improvement. Why? Because all of us can improve. We can all get better. 

Now, it’s time to answer the question posed above: How do the differences between starting points and talent levels of individuals fade away over time?

Consider the chart below. Although drawn arbitrarily, it mirrors the principle of the power of exertion, over time. 

Note that a large range of effort brings roughly the same in terms of results. In that band is “mediocrity,” an average amount of results from most participants. For any given endeavor, this is where most people live. But for some reason there is a small, self-selected group of individuals who push harder, who consistently give more effort, who take the endeavor much more seriously. This extra 10% push (again, an arbitrary estimation) brings perhaps twice as much results (represented by the 2X on the Y axis). This is where people leave the zone of mediocrity and enter into “good” or “very good.” The greatest achievers, however, push even further.  Just 5% more effort, taking them to the maximum of 100%, is enough to generate as much as 10X the result. So, the closer one gets to maximum effort, the more of an exponential one can expect to see in results (given enough time).

This is instructive in the following way:

1. If you are the type of person who has always felt a little behind others, a little less gifted, or a little put down, the good news is that with exertion into the upper ranges of effort, sustained over time, you can achieve excellent results. No matter your starting point, you can make it, if you work hard enough consistently enough and long enough.

2. If you are the type of person who has always felt a little ahead of others, a little more gifted, who have always had a little easier path, the bad news is that you cannot rest on that as a sustainable advantage. If you don’t eventually push yourself into the exertion zone toward excellence, those who are working harder will eventually pass you by. However, if you can somehow adopt their hunger and work ethic, you might just be uncatchable. 

Either way, don’t learn the wrong lesson. The less gifted should never feel permanently disadvantaged because of their starting point, while the gifted should never count on their natural advantages to sustain them long term. Over time, excellence goes to the consistent hard worker.  

Jerry Rice is often talked about as the best wide receiver in the history of the National Football League, and sometimes even considered to be the best all around football player ever. Yet in his youth he was only able to garner collegiate scholarship from the relatively small and unknown school, Mississippi Valley State. His professional prospects were quite a bit better, based upon his collegiate performance, but still, he had not been expected to be taken until the sixth or seventh round in the NFL draft. One coach, however, understood his worth. Bill Walsh of the San Francisco Forty-Niners was looking for exactly the kind of player Rice had made himself into – quick, precise, and incredibly hard working. With these basic foundations, Welsh knew he had found what he was looking for to complete his high-percentage offense featuring the accurate and precise quarterback, Joe Montana. For the next twenty years Jerry Rice continued to work at an intimidating pace to perfect his craft. Even after winning multiple Super Bowls and MVP awards, Rice demonstrated an uncommon hunger to push himself to maximum effort in the pursuit of excellence. A man with perhaps only above average talent, with literally hundreds of others “ahead” of him on the talent scale, had worked himself into icon status.

Exertion --→ over time  -→ massive results 

The question then becomes, “How?” How does one keep himself in this “exertion zone?” How does one stay at high effort over time?

1. A deep and abiding purpose – the more noble your cause the more your efforts will be able to withstand the lure of distraction, the pain of discouragement, and the poison of critics.

2. Informational Reinforcement (see the LIFE portfolio of subscription products for this purpose) – we need a constant, consistent flow of information and motivation to sustain us in our quest.

3. Relational Reinforcement (see the LIFE Live seminar events) – we need to surround ourselves with people who lift us up, encourage us, and inspire us to be better.

4. Self Talk (and personal affirmation statements) – it’s important to control what we say to ourselves. 

5. Remember that you are NOT average, by choice! - excellence is attainable through exertion, no matter where you begin on the talent scale.

So get yourself into the Exertion Zone now, and stay there! 

Excellence awaits you!

Sincerely,

 

Chris Brady

 

Motivational Myths

In life, in business, or wherever, it is necessary to find sources of motivation to help maintain peak performance. My business partner and often co-author Orrin Woodward once said, "If you don't want to do something, no one can stop you!" Inertia is often hard to overcome, so we look for sources to get us moving. Motivation is the force we use to overcome our general desire to lay on the couch and have someone fan us and feed us grapes.

There are motivational speakers, motivational seminars, and reams of motivational books. Much of the information found in these sources is valuable and at least temporarily able to kick us in the fanny. Sometimes, though, these things can miss the mark. There are times when things that sound true on the surface fall apart upon further inspection.

One time I was at a business conference listening to a speaker on stage who had been a famous NFL football player. His talk wasn't really a talk, it was more like a well-rehearsed theatrical performance. Every line was memorized; every word delivered with just a little too much polish. It was obvious he'd given this exact talk a hundred times. Still, it was pretty good. But then he said something that left me wondering. "The key to success," he shouted with a pause for dramatic effect, "is to fall down ninety-nine times, and get up a hundred!" The crowd went wild. Children cried. Heart patients clutched their chests. Such beautiful words. Such wisdom. Such motivation.

Such bad math!

I chuckled to myself as I imagined how it was possible for someone to "get up" one more time than they'd fallen down!

There is another such phrase so common that nearly every one of us has said it at one time or another. It is in books. It can be heard in speeches. It has been said by well-intentioned advice givers everywhere. The phrase?

"It's never too late!"

But there is one certainty as reliable as taxes: there IS a time when it's too late. When you're dead, it's too late! Or when you've blown the important relationships in your life, it is probably too late. Or when you have destroyed your health, it's too late! There IS a too late!

Now, I understand, the phrase is meant to encourage people that even though they've wasted time, or even though they've failed in the past, or even though opportunities have passed by - that's no excuse for not taking the next positive step. Still, good intentions aside, the phrase is not true. One of the reasons so many people accomplish so little in life is they live as though they've got forever; they live as though it's never too late.

There are many other "motivational myths" out there. Can you think of some? If so, share them with the readers of this blog in the comment section. We need to be a little aware of the "truths" we are swallowing without critical consideration. Success in life, in relationships, in finances, in anything, requires action consistent with true principles. Learn the principles and steer clear of the myths.

Motivate yourself to get cranking now, because although there is a day when it will be too late, it might not be yet! And, if you should get knocked down, feel free to get up once for each time it happens. That should be sufficient.

Sincerely,

Chris Brady

 

 

Personal Management

"What do you do to stay so 'on' all the time?" the man asked me. I mumbled out some sort of answer and asked him a similar question. We finished our time together and parted ways, but his question stayed with me.

Am I really 'on' all the time? I thought.

No, not really, I thought to myself, doubting whether anyone could truly be 'on' all the time.

Still, I am fairly excited and enthusiastic most of the time, and most days I awake super-charged to plow into the work that I do. I am blessed, love what I do, and don't want to waste any chances I've been given.

Also, however, I've been well taught. Years and years of listening to audio CDs, attending conferences and seminars, reading thousands of books, and hanging around similarly driven individuals, have all combined to make me what I am today. One of the biggest lessons I've taken from all this experience is the following: a successful, happy, contributing life comes from proper 'personal management.'

Management can mean the proper, disciplined, responsible application and stewardship of something valuable. It follows, then, that personal management is the proper, disciplined, responsible application and stewardship of one's life, health, time, resources, energy, and blessings. And it can be seen that those who accomplish the most and seem to be the happiest are those who do the best job with their personal management.

In other words, how well you manage yourself determines what you achieve and how much you fulfill your God-given potential.

Wait! Before you tune out thinking this is just so much motivational drivel, stop and ask yourself some questions:

1. How well do you do in the category of 'personal management?'

2. Does your life demonstrate self-discipline and a responsible shepherding of the gifts and privileges you've been given?

3. Do employ your time wisely?

4. Do you keep yourself fit and in good health?

5. Do you have goals in life you are pursuing, directly and through a specific game plan?

6. Do you have a financial plan so you can deploy the most possible resources toward your life's purposes?

7. Do you feel a special pull to accomplish something particular in your life?

If most of your answers to these types of questions (and I could expand that list indefinitely) are in the negative, you may need to begin doing a better job managing yourself. After all, it's for your own good and happiness. People sometimes avoid the terms 'discipline' and 'accountability' and 'stewardship' and similar topics because they don't like putting themselves under pressure. But one of the paradoxes of life is that we are the happiest when under pressure, especially when that pressure is the healthy, self-applied variety. 

So what do you need to do to begin managing your life more productively? What must you do to stop wasting time, energy, health, and resources and instead begin living a vibrant, productive, disciplined, happy life? Here is a partial list of things to consider and steps to take that may be helpful. 

1. Pursue your purpose. Aimlessness results from not aiming at anything. Without a burning purpose, time and energy is wasted poking around through the days of your life and accomplishing nothing. Discovering your purpose is a little like an archaeology project, you uncover it a bit at a time. Begin before any more is wasted.

2. Find someone (or several someones) to serve. Our problems usually diminish when we help other people with theirs. We gain perspective and receive blessings from sharing what we have with others in need. It is impossible to be entirely self-serving when you are busy serving others. Whenever I deal with someone who is embroiled in tremendous trifles and poor self-management, I always inquire to find out whom they are serving besides themselves. The answer is almost always, "no one." 

3. Cultivate the awareness of the passing of time. You will not live forever, and each passing day is an evaporating gift. One thing I will never understand is the people who are living as though they've got forever. They waste time, frit away their days, and plow through entire swaths of the calendar without doing anything meaningful or important. You will regret the time you wasted that you can't re-get.

4. Foster a little disappointment in yourself. This won't work for some personality types, perhaps, but I think it's healthy to stay a little unhappy with oneself. I don't ever want to be satisfied with my performance or think I've arrived. I don't want to grow complacent or lose my edge. Therefore, I zero in on areas where I obviously need to improve, and use these to motivate myself to heightened commitment and better results. 

5. Shut out the world a little bit. A lot of what comes in to us is negative and destructive, while much of the rest is distracting. Learn to block out the noise from time and time and garner for yourself moments to think, pray, study, and live uninterrupted.  

6. Plug into sources of power. First and foremost is to understand who you are and who's you are. Get your life right with God. Further, plug into information sources that are educational, uplifting, practical, and edifying. Read the good books (including the Good Book), listen to instructional audios, attend conferences, and learn to feed your brain the food it needs to stay active at a high level. I once asked a busy, active, 83 year-old billionaire what his secret to health and vitality was. His answer was to keep your brain going so fast that it can't atrophy.

7. Improve your associations. We become a lot like the people we hang around the most. To improve your life, improve the quality of the people you allow into it. Be intentional about this and choose your friends and associates wisely. 

8. Set goals. Chasing after something specific is exhilarating and productive. When we have a goal, all sorts of ideas and plans pop into our head to help us relieve the 'pressure' the goal provides. Suddenly we are alive with the idea of pursuit and we are busy about something definite.  

9. Develop game plans. Game plans are the attempted routes toward the accomplishment of goals. They don't always work out, but they at least get us started down the road to victory. Chart a course and set sail. You can't arrive if you don't depart.

10. Allow rewards. When you increase your self discipline, it is a good idea to reward yourself along the way. When you hit a little goal, give yourself a tiny, commensurate treat. This reinforces the behavior and proves to yourself that all the effort is paying off. It cements the productive behavior as a new, worthwhile habit and encourages further growth in that direction.

Consider this: There is nothing more common than someone who is out of shape physically, or has all sorts of relationship problems, or has money problems, etc. Anybody (and sometimes is seems as if it's most everybody) gets themselves off track and into these categories. But it doesn't have to be that way. It doesn't have to be you!

Poor personal management is to blame; it was the road that got them there. But the good news is that personal management can also be the road out. So put some more effort into your personal management today and take the baby steps to where you want to be.

No one can do it but you.

Sincerely,

Chris Brady