90 Days To Discipline

A quick session to get re-focused on what this program is about...

90 Days to Discipline

For the past seven years of my life, I've poured myself into Personal Development. When I began, I was a pretty average salesman, working for a large manufacturing and distribution company in the building products industry. My numbers were OK, but nothing to write home about. I'd had a couple of huge years back to back in 2001 and 2002 that had put me on the company map, so to speak, so I was still riding that wave, with no great recent sucess. A good friend of mine introduced me to a network marketing company around this time. My wife and I decided to get involved and we worked the business for two to three years. Although we ultimately failed at this endeavor, it was probably the best thing that's happened to/for me up to that point in my career and development. The reason is that the culture within the business was dedicated to personal development.

Network marketing is a business of consistent rejection. If you want your team to survive, let alone prosper, you have to be strong emotionally and be able to do what I call "condition your rejection"...meaning, we all have to let all of the "no's" we hear on a daily basis, go in one ear and out the other, without taking it personally. If we let it get to us and we internalize it, eventually it will destroy our ambition and our willingness to try.

The network marketing guys understand this. They know the folks who stick long-term are the ones who can successfully remain positive and stay locked in on the vision of building a network, instead of getting pulled down by everyone around them(and I mean everyone, because nobody's going to support you in those "stupid pyramid schemes"). My wife, Bridget and I took to the PD right away. In fact, I remember falling in love with it...the books, the audio programs, the seminars. My mind was opened like never before, with all of these positive beliefs about the world. I quickly recognized how limiting my beliefs were about business in general. So much fear, so much doubt circled my head. It's no wonder I had not experienced any real or consistent success. I just didn't have the philosophy required to perservere through the rejection that comes with the pursuit of worthwhile goals.

From that point forward, it was on. Every moment I was in my car I was plugged in to some PD book or program. Didn't matter what, didn't matter who, I was gobbling it up. I was so impacted by the positive beliefs that I actually felt compelled to write, while listening. For as long as a couple of hours on certain occasions, I'd pull my car to the side of the road and scribble notes on whatever I was listening to...Tony Robbins, Brian Tracy, Napolean Hill, Dale Carnegie. I have dozens of notebooks and journals, all filled with these amazing, life changing philosophies. No matter what I have going on in my life, I engage in some form of PD every single day. It's the one thing in my life that's been unchanging in the last seven or eight years.

90 Days to Discipline is the culmination of that body of work, of thousands of hours of personal development. Every single day, at least an hour per day...hell, sometimes six to eight hours per day, depending upon the length of the trip I'm taking. On trips to Minneapolis, I've listened to Tony Robbins for as many as 10 hours straight. My wife and I went through TR's Personal Power II on a road trip to Captiva Island...18 hours straight. I needed it, looking back. My mind was chock full of doubt, fear, and powerless beliefs about who I was and what my capabilities were. The one thing I knew for sure back then was how much I could not do. And here I was in the middle of trying to build a business career. What a contradiction! I was a farce. But, that's not the case today. I own these philosophies, they're who I am. This is the single biggest contributing factor to my success today. I owe my life to PD, and to God, of course. You get my drift...

So, what is 90 Days all about? Let's go through it again...I'm a huge believer in getting re-sold on what's important and doing whatever it takes to follow through on commitments. I don't care if you began 90 Days and have fallen off...Here's your chance to get back on the horse. You gotta understand, this is a marathon, not a sprint. If I'd have quit every time I set out on a program like 90 Days, and threw in the towel, I'm not sure where I'd be. I know I wouldn't be where I am today...which is owning a couple of kick-ass businesses and making a strong amount of money each year. So, back at it..starting right now.

The Vision -- this is what our lives are going to look like...what we're going to become as human beings, which is by far the most important ingredient. The goals we're working towards are critical, and I'm not taking anything away from the goals. But, they're important for what they make of us as people, what we become in the process. So, who am I? What sorts of things will I believe as this ass kicking leader of three huge businesses? What will my writings look like, now that I've published several books on success, living well, sales and marketing, entreprenuership, etc? What will my life look like?

Along those same lines, what will my business life look like? What sorts of high-level activities will I be focused on during my day? Who will I be working with, as we pursue these worthwhile endeavors? Will my kids one day take over these three companies? What will our headquarters look like? You get the idea...specifics regarding your career, business, and financial situation.

What greater good will you be serving now that you've experienced such amazing financial abundance? How much will you be contributing to your alma mater? What sort of big projects will you lead for the children of your community? Contribution leads to real motivation and ultimately, fulfillment.

Now that we've built our vision in our heads, what will life feel like when this is all manifested? What are our reasons for building this life? For becoming this man? For giving all we give? These are our compelling reasons why we do what we do...this is what will pull us out of bed and into action when we'd rather just stay hidden underneath the covers on that cold winter morning, at 4:45 am.

In each area(health and fitness, biz/career/finance, things, contribution, personal development), I'll ask you to take five minutes and write down everything that you'd love to be, do or have in each category. Five minutes per category. Please be outrageous, don't limit yourself. Fear and conditioning will tell you not to write down certain items...you've got to fight that. After five minutes is up, write down a number next to each item on your list in each category. The number you write tells us the number of years you feel is OK to reach this goal. You'll have some 20's, 10's. 5's, 2's, and some 1's. The ones are what we'll focus on. Take the top two or three one year goals in each category and write them down. Next, write a description of why you want to be, do or have each goal. These are your reasons why...crucial step.

Next, look at each area of our lives and discover the one or two main activities that drive 90% of the positive results in each area. For example, in the health and fitness, obviously, working out drives the results. Mark this one down. Eating right is also an obvious one. Tony Robbins calls this process "chunking". It's simplifying each main category within our lives by focusing our efforts on one or two main actions and taking action, as opposed to complicating things. We can chunk the health and fitness aspect, our careers/financial/business, our things goals, and contribution, and personal development(who we become, because it's most important). In each area, we need to focus on the one or two actions that drive the results. Write them down.

I'll offer my actions...I call them Simple Disciplines. For me, they are as follows:
H/F -- strength training, running
Biz/Financial -- Sales Calls W/W, Prospecting, Canvassing, Building marketing systems, Blogging, Writing my Book

Really, these are the only two that require actions, because our ability to acquire things and to contribute hinge upon our ability to earn. So, we don't need to outlines Simple Disciplines in these categories. Not a bad idea, though to give ourselves some tangible action items to get us closer to our goals in these areas...ie, get a brochure for my Astin Martin, sign a letter of intent to donate $25,000 to my school

So, there you have my Simple Disciplines....
Arise early and visualize my vision, as if it were real, get into peak state
Work out hard
Plan my day and focus on what I need to do today to get closer to my goals
Eat clean all day, for fuel(imagine 165 lbs with 8% bodyfat)
15 Sales calls W/W, 5 with new biz prospects
10 prospecting calls for new biz
5 hours per week canvassing MBJ myself, build canvassing team to generate 16 leads/wk
Blog daily
Write book one hour daily
Visualize at night my vision as if it were real

Now, for the next 90 Days, execute these Simple Disciplines with enthusiasm, passion, and absolute faith that my vision is real...acting as if it were already real....

Guys, we have such an opportunity right now. It's spring, the weather's getting warmer, the sun's shining through a little longer, and we still have some time to get ourselves looking decent for the summer. Our families are counting on us. The country is full of folks who have it much worse than we'll ever know. We've been blessed with tremendous health, great families, and talents beyond what we can even imagine in ourselves. Why not go out and just leave it all out there on the field every day? We have to work anyway? We have to get up and do it all every day anyway. Why not pop up in the morning and go at it 100%? I'm talking balls to the wall every hour of every day, Monday through Friday, so our famiies don't EVER have to worry about money or having enough? Are we going to be one of those guys who looks to someone else to provide us and our famiies what we need when times get tough? We have to decide. It's a simple choice, and we make it every morning when we roll out of our comfy beds. Is this going to be the day we wake up and realize our potential? You decide. I've made my decision.

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