As you all know I am currently here on the Big Island of Hawaii with my family. We are here for two reasons: Lifestyle and Learning. We are attending a conference along with over a thousand people from all over the world who have also come here for Lifestyle and Learning. We have been here since last Thursday and have been having an awesome time! It puts new wind in my sails to sit here and watch my children experience Hawaii for the first time. The light in their eyes and the excitement in their step fuels me and gives me a new passion for life. Life is good!

The Path of Least Resistance

Throughout the conference I have heard a common phrase. The last two presenters, Shawn Achor and Erik Wahl, have both mentioned this phrase. I have always known this but it has taken on a whole new meaning to me within the last few days. The phrase is “The Path of Least Resistance.” Basically put, human nature. We, as human beings, are naturally programmed to take the path of least resistance. We will take the easy road. If we come to a fork in the road and one has a mountain to climb and the other has just a hill, we’ll take the hill. It’s in our nature. We’re not stupid right!?

Well, this can be a damaging trait. Allow me to attempt to assist you in seeing this point through my perspective, or through my eyes. In life, what is the easiest path for you, getting a job or starting a business? Coloring a page with figures already drawn out for you or creating your own figures to color? Building a tree house using a manual or drafting and building your own design?

The answers are obvious right? The easiest path is the one that has already been laid out for you. Most likely, the life that most of you are living right now is a life that you have been pre-programmed to live, a life that has been, in a sense, mapped out for you. You went to college because that’s what everyone did. You got that job because that’s what most people do. You took the path of least resistance. It’s easy to follow something that you have been taught since childhood.

The difficult yet more rewarding path is the path of the entrepreneur. Entrepreneurship isn’t something that is taught to us as children unless it comes directly from our parents. It definitely isn’t taught in schools until you get to college, but even then, learning about business economics can’t teach you how to think like an entrepreneur.

To truly become an entrepreneur one must, more than often, head down the path of most resistance. As they do, they grow faster, learn faster, get stronger, gain more experience and are the ones leading the pack. They are the Rhino instead of the cow.

I can tell you this much, and all of you should already know this…..success evades those who always take the path of least resistance.

So if you find yourself doing what seems easiest, think twice about that decision. Sure, common decisions such as climbing hills over mountains are a no brainer, unless you’re goal is to get into shape. But if you are someone looking to create a wealth of success in your life, make sure your decisions are moving you closer to your goal. At times, that requires you to go against your natural programming, and if you plan on being an entrepreneur for long, get used to it!!

I received an email today from a business associate of mine that inspired this post. Often times I get asked how I can blog as often as I do wondering how I come up with my content. That’s the cool part, I don’t come up with my content. Everyone else does. So thanks to all of you and everyone else. You inspire me!

The quote he sent me was this, “Don’t ask your children what they want to be when they grow up… Instead ask them, Who they came here to be.” Just as it got him thinking, it got me thinking as well. Who did I come here to be?

This post might just be a bunch of questions for you to ask yourself. It know that as I write this, that’s pretty much all that seems to come to mind. Who am I to be while here on this earth? Who am I to be as a mentor for those looking to create success and wealth in their life? Who am I as a father of three girls and a husband to my beautiful wife? Basically, who is the ultimate me?

Finding the answer is simple….Who do you want to be? Think of the details, get clear on it.

Once clear, the questions is how do we become that person? What are the steps to getting there?

Well, I am a very successful home based business Entrepreneur. Why? Well, I before I become the successful entrepreneur, I saw myself as the successful entrepreneur. Once I truly believed myself to be the person I was to become, I started to act as though I was already that person. I just lacked the results. But what happened to my results once I started acting as my future self? That’s right! They starting to come.

So in order to act as our future selves, do we do it all in one day? No! That would be too difficult. Just add one or two things per day that move you closer to becoming your future self. If you are in my business and are only placing a few ads a week and are getting only a few leads a day, what is going to move you closer to that future self who is generating 20 leads per day? Quadruple your marketing efforts! It’s simple. That is one thing, put into practice daily, that will move you closer to your ideal future self.

But becoming your future self is not as simple as just taking the same actions. Most of these actions are inspired by your mindset, or your vision for you future and who you are. You must dig deep in your visualizing. Put yourself in the shoes of your future self. If you are to become the most successful person that ever existed in the direct sales industry, how do you think? What are your priorities? Who do you hang out with? What do you do during the day? What books have you read? How do you inspire others to greatness? It’s all part of the package!

“In order to become the man or woman you have envisioned becoming, you must first become that man or woman mentally, and then start acting like it!”  –David Allred (My future self is a best selling author, so why not start quoting myself right now! Right!)

Ask yourself honestly, are you the person, right here and right now, that you ultimately would like to become? If the answer is yes, congrats. Are your results in order as well? If the answer is no, in the words of Gwen Stefani, “What you waiting for? Take a chance…!” Choose something to integrate into your day that will move you closer to your future self. Imagine the difference you will see in just 30 days. It’s not that far off. It’s just waiting on you!

There’s a very common understanding floating around among the successful people of this world. It’s the fact that most of the decisions they have made and will continue to make are not the same decisions that the majority of people would make. They tend to stand out in a crowd because they are walking the opposite direction. While everyone else merely chooses to go with the flow, they choose to resist and make their own path.

Here’s some statistics that may shock you a bit. Less than 5% of the people of this world will live their dreams out. Less than 5% will accomplish their goals. So what are the other 95% of people doing? They are probably doing what everyone else is doing, or what everyone else says they should be doing. It just makes sense.

Here’s a question for you: When you hear of a success story, why is it always taking place in the middle of opposition or adversity? Any clue?

This analogy might paint a better picture for you.

Have you ever flown a kite? Please say yes, because if you said no, you missed out on an important part of childhood. What do you have to do to get the kite up in the air? First off, some wind is required. You can still kind of make a kite fly without it if you are sprinting while holding the string, but that’s no fun. The wind is the key to all flight. It’s called resistance. Kites fly their best going against the wind, not with it. It’s the resistance that makes them fly. A kite flying with the wind will just fizzle out and fall to the ground to be tossed to and fro. Against the wind, you can feel the power behind the string and it soars.

The same applies to you and I. If it is success you desire, first understand that if you could obtain it by making the same decisions as everyone around you, then everyone around you would be wildly successful. You must go against the flow. You must think differently. Resistance is a good thing on the climb to success. It builds you and gives you the wind necessary to fly. So if you announce to your friends and family that you intend on starting a business and they all tell you not to do it, know you are thinking and making decisions differently. You are on the path.

Don’t try to avoid resistance. It’s all part of the process and necessary for growth. Try this one on for size. We all know how successful Wal Mart is right? Well, they get sued a ridiculous amount. Is it because they are a horrible store? No! They are just wildly successful and everyone else who is not, can’t stand that fact. So they resist!

In my opinion, if you get something negative written about you on an internet forum from someone you have never met, get told that you will never succeed, placed an ad that didn’t work, wasted money with an idea, have been told you are crazy for starting that business or anything similar, you are doing something right!

If you ever find yourself in the majority, and your goal is to become wildly successful, you are doing something wrong. Making decisions, that are just like everyone elses decisions, lands you right where everyone else is. Choose to go against the flow a bit and see what happens!

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!