What's In Your Control?

Has anyone ever had the experience that as soon as you make a big decision in your life, all of a sudden everything seems to turn to crap?

Yeah...

Not completely, but it definitely seemed that way on the surface right...

When going through changes in your life, especially major changes, you will have to go through transition periods where everything seems to be even MORE messed up than it was before. It's like cleaning the garage (or your room). If it's pretty messy in there and you want to clean it up, the first thing you need to do is empty an area to sort through it. Like dumping everything out of an old box or drawer onto the ground. That makes it even messier. Then, you sort through it and toss out what you no longer use or need or want. Right? Some people try to clean the entire room all at once and then it takes weeks to get it all back in order. Anyway, that happens internally as well.

A few weeks ago, I was on fire. Business was hot, my team was building and growing and moving forward quickly. I went to convention in LA and was inspired and enflammed even more than before with a desire and resolve to do whatever it took to get to where I wanted to be. Nothing was ever going to stop me ever again...

Now, things had slowed to a crawl because I was away for a week and many things came up in the lives of those around me, so that at first everything looked like just a trickle compared to the previous months' activity.

Not fun.

So what did I do to get through this plateau and on to the next level?

Well, we have a saying around here. It's this: there are only two things you can control, your attitude and your activity. You can't control what others think or do, or the circumstances around you. All you can control is you. And that's all you need to control.

So I looked at my attitude. What was I focused on? What were the dominant thoughts in my mind? I noticed that they were telling me to take a step back to clear my mind, take some time to read and learn more, and re-focus my energies. A really important shift is happening inside of me, going from someone who's been an employee and part-time entrepreneur for so long into being a full-time business owner and builder. It can be done smoothly as long as you realise that you cannot do what you did as an employee and make it as a business owner. You must become a business owner and builder in your mind first, start thinking like one, before the reality around you shifts too. And always change your negative thoughts into positive thoughts, no matter what happens, because negative thoughts will suck the enthusiasm out of you and put you on a downward spiral.

You WILL have negative thoughts, guaranteed, and many things WILL go wrong. As long as you realise this you won't be so surprised. From there, you can then change the directions of your thoughts into a constantly more positive perspective of the situation.

You might be sick to your stomach of people who are positive, but it's a very important lesson to learn. The difference here is that you want to be more than thinking positively. You want positive ACTION as well.

That's the second part you can control, "your activity".

So I looked at mine. What was I doing? Was I doing the necessary activities to move my business forward? Was I making the calls, the contacts, doing the necessary follow-ups and paperwork? On the whole it seemed like I was, but was I doing enough? Could I do more? Yes I could. Was I stepping out of my comfort zone into new territory to push me to learn and grow? Hmm...

Asking myself those questions helped me to pin-point a few areas to focus on, and what I needed to do to improve both my attitude and my activity in regards to the changes I was implementing in my life.

After about two weeks of this, I'm almost back to where I was in terms of having lots on the go and feeling amazing as I see my goals move a little bit closer each day.

I'm also a lot wiser in terms of learning to BE the person I need to be to bring into my life the success I dream about.

Could you apply this concept of "attitude and activity" in your life?

CHB

Copyright © Charles Begin

If you would like to reprint these articles or pictures in part or in whole, please include my site (www.CharlesBegin.com) so that others know where they came from and the copyright is respected. Other than that, feel free to share... and thank you for reading!

A Giant's Perspective

"If Arnold Schwarzenegger, Oprah Winfrey or Lance Armstrong got into this business, who would bet against them reaching the top? Nobody right! Why? Because a bet against a champion is a bad bet."
- Steve Siebold

Those are the words Mental Toughness expert and author Steve Siebold started with when he adressed a convention of 12,000 independant financial coaches in Los Angeles, CA last week.

Mr. Siebold then went on to some of the characteristics and underlying beliefs that make up the mind of a champion.

Most of what he talked about, I had heard many times before. I had even tried to implement some of it to change my own mindset, with varying degrees of success. Sometimes though, we just need to be in a different state of mind to really get it, or to hear it said or demonstrated in a different way by someone else.

Whatever the case may be, that morning in a gigantic conference room in downtown L.A., I felt like I GOT IT!

It was the second day of a four day convention and I was ready to go home (I'm glad I stayed because we had awesome speakers the rest of the week but at the time, that session blew me away). That's all I needed! That was it! From now on, all I had to do was read, study, and integrate what I learned from my new book "177 Mental Toughness Secrets of the World Class" to change my beliefs and thinking from middle-class thinking to those of a world-class champion consciousness.

Anyone remember a time in their life where they thought they had found the answer that could completely transform your life?

Yeah, me too.

And I was right pretty much every time.
All of those things I learned and kept learning would completely transform my life if I could really become a student of the principles and really apply them and integrate them until they became a natural part of who I am.

It's tough, but I know that if I focus, take it one day at a time, and give my efforts time to compound instead of expecting it all to change overnight... I will succeed.

Take exercise for example. I developed a passion for becoming my best physically in my early teens, and only now, almost a decade and a half and thousands of dollars in books, DVD's, CD's, classes, and in-the-field-training and competing later, am I finding myself training consistently and gaining momentum in the direction I want to be heading in.

That may sound like a long time, and it is, because my total growth could probably have been accomplished in about 2 years if I had been moving in a straight line. Instead, I found myself taking 1 step forward and 2 steps back, followed by 3 steps forward... moving forward, then sliding back... making progress, then seemingly regressing or hitting a plateau that won't allow me through... stagnating... kinda frustrating sometimes.

But that's just the way life is.

And you would never learn everything you needed to learn to become the person you really want to become if you hadn't gone through all of those experiences before.

The question is, are you ready and willing to learn and grow no matter how uncomfortable or afraid you might feel in the process? Are you willing to learn how the champions think and be coachable enough to actually make the changes to become one yourself and stick to them? Even if they don't pay off for you right away?

I've made a decision for myself:

I not only have a burning desire to become the greatest at something in this world and be recognized for it, I want to be more than a champion, I want to be a Giant, in my domain.

Am I one now? No, not even close.

Am I willing to learn and practice and do whatever it takes (ethically and legally) to become one of the Giants of this world? Yes.

Those who know me personally or professionally will see the transformation take place over time. It will not happen overnight but it will happen... because I will never quit... I will continue until it is done. I will never settle for anything less than being the greatest that I can be.

That's my promise.

Do YOU have something you want to achieve?
Are YOU ready and willing to make such a promise to yourself?

This is your life we are talking about.

I choose to LIVE!

Do you?

Copyright © Charles Begin

If you would like to reprint these articles or pictures in part or in whole, please include my site (www.CharlesBegin.com) so that others know where they came from and the copyright is respected. Other than that, feel free to share... and thank you for reading!