The Single Biggest Barrier to Success

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I’ve been a student of self improvement for nearly twenty years. I’ve read a library full of books on success. I’ve absorbed a ton of information on what it takes to be successful.

Yet here I sit at forty-one years old fairly mediocre. I’ve only sometimes achieved what I’d call success. And then only very modest success at that.

I’m a pretty smart guy. I already know what I need to do to succeed. Yet I routinely fail to do what I know I should do, what I know I could do if I just would do it.

Over the past couple months I have become acutely aware of the fact that even though it feel like something is holding me back from doing the things I know I need to do, in reality I am my own worst enemy. I am my problem. I just couldn’t figure out why I was so thoroughly and effectively sabotaging my own success.

Until last night.

Ah-Ha Moment

Last night I read something in yet another self improvement book, The Slight Edge: Secret to a Successful Life, on page 28, that was like a light bulb going off in my brain. For me it was one of those powerful “Ah, ha!” moments that comes along and can change the course of your life.

I’d figured out the first half of the equation on my own, even before reading those powerful words last night. Read more

The Pursuit of Happiness

We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness…
–The Declaration of Independence

A Different World

This holiday I can’t help but think that the men who hotly debated the content of that formidable document and ultimately passed it 231 years ago were living in an entirely different world than we are today.

There are differences over and above the obvious technological changes. But just to help get your mind around how different the world is now, let’s do an imagination exercise.

Try to imagine how different your world would be without any of these things: cell phones, internet, email, computers, cars, trucks, electricity, air conditioning, refrigeration, television, antibiotics, anesthesia, contact lenses, air travel, plastic, synthetic materials, self propelled ships, artificial lighting, recorded music, radio, mass transportation, telephones, the list seems endless.

But living without all of those things would make for a radically different world to be sure. Read more

Success Principle #14 - Master Your Addictions

My Addiction

I like coffee.

I drink lots of it. Potfulls. Mass quantities.

These days the perfect cup is a nice mild blend with a little half and half and a teaspoon of raw sugar. Or, if I’m feeling especially healthy, perhaps a bit of Stevia instead of the sugar.

I like the smell. The taste is wonderful. And with my goofy work schedule the caffeine kick is an extra bonus.

I’m on day two of coffee withdrawal.

Another Addiction

You see our secretary smokes.

I don’t know exactly how much, but I’m guessing somewhere around a pack a day. Whenever I’ve asked her how much she smokes she usually says, “it’s not that much,” which really doesn’t narrow it down very well.

We’ve been going back and forth hassling each other about our addictions in a very civilized, kid your coworker sort of way for a few months now. She’s a master of diverting the topic of discussion, asking questions aimed at steering the conversation in another direction.

But I wasn’t falling for it.

Friday I finally got her to say out loud that there is no positive health consequences that result from smoking. She also acknowledged a bunch of other things about her smoking.

For example, she admitted that she believed she could quit if she really wanted to. And that the reason she didn’t was mostly because she thought it would be hard.

Oh, there were a lot of other excuses and juicy rationalizations thrown in there too. My favorite was her claim that smoking a cigarette was no less healthy for you than eating a hamburger. Did I mention she’s a vegetarian?

I don’t know if the hamburger thing is true or not. Who knows? It might be.

But just the same I don’t know too many folks who eat 20+ hamburgers a day. Every day.

I’m just saying. Read more

Facing the Fighters

This past Monday (a day that will hence forth be known here at SuccessCREEations as Black Monday because of our server crash) I posted about Business Fighting Styles. In the discussion that followed a couple of cool things happened.

First Grigor Ćorić suggested someone I’d left off my list, the Fight Promoter. Go check out what he said about that one. Good stuff.

Then Andrew Wee (after helping me out with a little spelling challenge I had) asked a very good question.

Any specific techniques on dealing with these various warriors?

Well I was taught that you should always bring a potential solution with you when you point out a problem. That’s always the challenging end, isn’t it? I mean any schmoe can point out a problem. But coming up with a solution… Now that’s bringing value to the equation.

So in my effort to bring value rather than just poke holes, here are my suggestions for how to deal with some of those difficult people at work. Read more

What’s Your Business Fighting Style?

Conflict is a reality in business. Because it usually takes more than one person to keep an enterprise going, inevitably there will come a time when the people involved don’t see eye to eye on something.

Even if you are self employed and don’t have any employees you probably still have to deal with clients and vendors in the course of your daily work. And I bet not everyone of them always see things exactly your way!

How do you face that conflict when it happens? If you were to step back, would you be able to recognize some recurring patterns in your conflict resolution?

I thought it might be helpful for you to put together a few business fighting styles so you can get a picture of how some folks deal with conflict.

Do you ever run into any of these folks during your work day?
Read more