It’s before 7 AM, on a foggy Saturday morning, and my mind is mulling over the personal development habits that produce champions.  Every person reading this blog, everyone, without exception, can become a champion by changing his daily habits.  One of the problems in life, probably due to the Biblical fall of man, is that bad habits are easy to develop, while good habits are hard to develop.  Think about it, no one ever creates a plan to get out of shape, but many have performed the task admirably, myself included.  On the other hand, there have been seasons in my life, where through discipline, I have been in great shape.  I know that I can do both, but one takes constant discipline, the other doesn’t.  How many things in life is this true of?  Do you pick whatever habits feel good at the moment, accepting whatever long term results that come with it, or contrarily, do you choose the habits that are inconvenient in the moment, but produce the long term results that you desire in life.  Today, as you read this, you stand at a fork in the road.  If you haven’t produced the results that you yearn for, look no further than your daily habits.  Look at your road.  Can you see the long term results developing from your habits?  Are you happy with these results in your life? If you are, then forge ahead, but if you aren’t, then perhaps today is the day, in which you take a different road.  

The champions road is available to all, and nearly all would love the results of a championship life, not just the monetary rewards, although that doesn’t hurt :), as much as the feeling of satisfaction created by a life well lived.  One may be thinking, if that is true, then why don’t more people choose the success path?  Simply put, the path is uninviting, having briars, thorns, and burrs scattered over the trail.  In fact, it’s hard to even recognize the fork in the roads, since the success road is loaded with painful reminders that it’s off the beaten trail.  Even the people who truly want to change, will suffer greatly from walking down the “road less traveled”, wondering if they made the right choice as they are poked again and again by the burrs, thorns and pickers.  This is the moment of truth in one’s life.  Do you turn back, yielding to the pain of the moment by surrendering your dreams for the comfort of the well traveled road to mediocrity?  Most people who start on the success road will not finish, turning back when the going gets tough, but that doesn’t have to be your destiny, because you don’t have to be like “most people”.

I have walked down both roads at different seasons in my life, learning many lesson along the way. I learned that the success road in life is hard, don’t let anyone mislead you on this point, requiring a pain tolerance beyond what most people are willing to endure in our pampered age, but, over time, the road will get progressively easier.  Conversely, the road to mediocrity is easy, requiring little upfront pain, with plenty of company to encourage you on your road to mediocrity, but, over time, the road will get progressively harder.  With each mile, the mediocrity path becomes more of a burden, drinking to its dregs from the ‘purposeless life’ cup. The road to mediocrity becomes littered with hurting people, dealing with the pain of their self centered lives.  By focusing only on their own challenges, having no time to serve the hurting people around them, suffering from the regret filled pain of a purposeless life, the road to mediocrity becomes a long walk of quiet desperation.  Don’t let the fabled ease and comfort of the road to mediocrity fool you as life has its price that must be paid in full, either a life full of discipline or full of regret, the choice is yours.

Winners choose the success road, enduring the hardships, knowing that success lies on the other side of the pain, while others choose the mediocrity road, seeing only the perceived comfort, believing the lie, that life can be lived successfully without paying a price.  Sadly, it’s only after many wasted years, that people realize, that from listening to the wrong people (the masses living in mediocrity), that they have sold God’s purpose filled plan for self’s pampered filled pretensions.  The good news is that it doesn’t have to end this way.  At any moment in time, one can get off the road of mediocrity and find the straight and narrow path, leading to success.

By finding a mentor, one who has walked further down the road of success, one finds, not only a friend, but a model, an example of someone who endured the pain to live a life of significance.  I learned from my mentors, that if they can journey down the success road, then I can too, leaving behind my habits of mediocrity and replacing with the habits of success.  Where are you on life’s journey?  What road are you traveling on?  Are you living with discipline or with regret?  Perhaps you are you ready to find a different road, discovering the fork that leads to purpose filled success?  It’s your life, it’s your choice, and it’s your pain, either discipline or regret. Choose wisely. God Bless, Orrin Woodward

Chris Brady and I discuss the use of historical example in our Launching a Leadership Revolution book in this video.  So many people, exhausted by history teachers with little imagination, have grown to dislike history.  But history is an amazing field to study human behavior in action.  I can’t imagine where I would be if I could only learn from my own struggles, but thankfully, I learned the power of reading to live vicariously through the leadership challenges of others.  Both Chris and I read voraciously to continue growing in the field of leadership. What are you waiting for?  Start reading and learning on your own leadership journey.  God Bless, Orrin Woodward

The following video shares the five levels of influence with Chris Brady and myself teaching how to move your leadership up the levels.  Everything rises and falls on leadership and anyone can improve in this critical area. God Bless, Orrin Woodward

While many think talent is the separation point between the successful and the unsuccessful in life, the truth is that hard work and focus trumps talent every time.  Don’t misunderstand me, successful people are extremely talented, but then again, unsuccessful people have plenty of talent as well, albeit unused.  Talent is given to all, but what separates people on the success journey is the willingness to focus on the critical work to get the job done.  PDCA is a great process, but is nearly worthless without the work ethic to cycle through the process again and again, improving the key skills every new PDCA cycle.  Most people fail in life simply because they are getting outworked.  It doesn’t matter how talented one is; it doesn’t matter how good the plan is; nor how good the intentions were, if someone doesn’t work, they will not win.  One of my favorite books in the Bible is the Book of Acts.  Notice, that they didn’t call it the Book of Intentions or the Book of Thoughts, but the Book of Acts.  Either actions will conquer fears or fears will conquer actions.  Inside of all of us, is a champion waiting to be unleashed upon the world, through the steady persistent application of work to a given task.  Starting today, refuse to allow the excuse of ‘lack of talent’ to stop you from moving in the direction of your dreams.  Work ethic trumps talent period. 

As Malcolm Gladwell, in his thought provoking book, Outliers, writes on the researcher K. Anders Ericsson’s study:

“The striking thing about Ericsson’s study is that he and his colleagues couldn’t find any ‘naturals,’ musicians who floated effortlessly to the top while practicing a fraction of time their peers did. Nor could they find any ‘grinds,’ people who worked harder than everyone else, yet just didn’t have what it takes to break the top ranks. Their research suggests that once a musician has enough ability to get into a top music school, the thing that distinguishes one performer from another is how hard he or she works. That’s it. And what’s more, the people at the very top don’t work just harder or even much harder than everyone else. They work much, much harder.”

In fact, the number that seems to keep popping up when researchers study top achievers is 10,000 hours to develop mastery in any given field.  It takes a minimum of 10,000 hours of studies, practice, actions, improvements, and adjustments to develop make the skills look natural.  This concept explains why the ‘haves‘ separate themselves from the ‘have nots’ in life.  How many people are willing to dedicate 10,000 hours of continuous improvement in any profession?  Some may be thinking, but I have worked for twenty-five years in my profession, don’t all people eventually reach 10,000 hours?  But just putting in time isn’t enough, as it takes continuous improvement to count towards the 10,000 hours.  Most people who have twenty-five years in a profession don’t have twenty-five years experience, but only one years experience, twenty-five times.  10,000 hours is literally 10,000 hours of PDCA time, improving in they key areas on a consistent basis, until one has mastered his craft.  Anyone can do this, but sadly, few will dream big enough, building enough passion, pushing through laziness, to strive for excellence.  If someone is going to dedicate 10,000 hours in a profession, it becomes clear that focus is a key, since there isn’t enough 10,000 hours to go around in life to master all of them.  One can become great in nearly any field, but one cannot become great in all fields.  The question becomes what area is one going to master, defining ones life?

Gladwell gives an example of talent vs hard work using the world famous band – The Beatles.  Many assume, that the Beatles were just incredibly talented musicians, and that talent alone, catapulted them to success.  But reading from the Beatles, biography, Shout!, referring to the year and a half of live nightly performances in Hamburg, Germany, it becomes clear that they paid the 10,000 hour price to develop mastery:

“They were no good onstage when they went there and they were very good when they came back. They learned not only stamina. They had to learn an enormous amount of numbers–cover versions of everything you can think of, not just rock and roll, a bit of jazz too. They weren’t disciplined onstage at all before that. But when they came back, they sounded like no one else. It was the making of them.”

Just how many hours did the Beatles play during that year and a half?  They performed 270 times in that period, many times for eight hours or more on stage!  It’s not shocking that the musical skills, and showmanship of the Beatles, improved dramatically with thousands of hours of live performances in Hamburg.  When Beatle mania exploded upon the USA music scene in 1964, the Beatles had performed live over 1200 times, more than most band will perform in a lifetime.  Simply put, the Beatles were willing to work harder than other bands, improving their skills, as the hours accumulated through the PDCA process.  Gladwell reflects, “The Hamburg crucible is one of the things that set the Beatles apart.”  Truthfully, every leader/performer needs his Hamburg crucible, practicing while others are playing, dreaming while others are complaining, enduring while others are quitting.  No great achievement is accomplished without great sacrifice, and, the 10,000 hours is the price to be paid for mastery in any field.  People love the thought of being successful, but few love the thought of 10,000 of hard work in the PDCA process to achieve success.  When one falls in love with, not only the dream, but the work to accomplish that dream, Beatle’s like success is the reward, accomplishing greatness in an age that glorifies mediocrity.

It seems like the harder people work, the luckier they seem to get.  Success occurs when opportunity and preparedness meet.  One cannot control an opportunity arrival, but one certainly controls the preparation beforehand.  Abraham Lincoln, amidst trials and tribulations, wrote, “I will work, I will study, and when my moment comes, I will be ready.”   Working, studying, learning, and improving are key aspects of any solid work ethic.  Winners aren’t lucky, but they are prepared.  They may be blessed, but they prepared themselves for the blessing by constant improvement through hard work for their moment of opportunity.  Like the old saying goes, “Don’t wait until you are thirsty to dig your well.”  Winners would rather be over prepared, waiting for their moment, and, when the moment arrives, they capitalize on it.  Luck is a persons excuse for a winners commitment.  Prepare daily for the opportunity, because in a person’s life, real opportunity may come along only two or three times.  Sadly, most people were too busy knocking the opportunities to hear opportunities knocking.  Do winners have luck?  Yes, if you define LUCK as – Laboring Under Correct Knowledge – then yes, winners have LUCK.

Geoff Colvin, in his powerful book, Talent is Overrated, shares a concept called deliberate practice, a technique that ties in perfectly with the PDCA process described earlier, he writes:

“Deliberate practice is characterized by several elements, each worth examining. It is activity designed specifically to improve performance, often with a teacher’s help; it can be repeated a lot; feedback on results is continuously available; it’s highly demanding mentally, whether the activity is purely intellectual, such as chess or business-related activities, or heavily physical, such as sports; and it isn’t much fun.”

Deliberate practice separates the amateurs from the professionals in any field.  The amateurs, practicing the skills that they competent and comfortable with, while the professionals working at the limits of their skills, pushing to failure, in an effort to move their mastery of skills past their current competence and comfort levels.  Only through pushing past ones comfort zones, will one improve the level of skills.  Few, are willing to consistently endure the failures inherent in a properly running PDCA, because deliberate practice demands a level of focus and endurance, needing a high pain tolerance.  Colvin writes on the importance of pushing past he comfort zone in deliberate practice:

“. . , great performers never allow themselves to reach the automatic, arrested-development stage in their chosen field.  That is the effect of continual deliberate practice – avoiding automaticity. The essence of practice, which is constantly trying to do the things one cannot do comfortably, makes automatic behavior impossible. . . . Avoiding automaticity through continual practice is another way of saying that great performers are always getting better.”

This is why hard work is so important, when the going gets tough, the tough get going.  Knowing why one is willing to endure the hardships of growth is essential to success.  Success is available to anyone reading this, but make no mistake, the success process will reveal what’s inside of you.  Winners will choose to get better, whiners will choose to get bitter.  Success isn’t easy, but then again, neither is failure.  If we are going to struggle either way, let’s struggle in the attainment of excellence, not existence.  One must work hard, accepting no excuses, focusing on the long-term dreams, enduring the pain in the personal growth process, but the rewards are well worth the effort.  Rewards, that go way beyond the financial, and into the satisfaction obtained when one knows that he truly did his personal best in a worthy cause, allowing one to look in the mirror and see a winner staring back at him.  God Bless, Orrin Woodward

When each of the five attitude enhancers, along with adding a strength of will, is applied to life, one develops a strong emotional intelligence quotient.  All of us have heard of IQ – Intelligence Quotient, but only a few of us have heard of EQ – Emotional Quotient.  When it comes to success, EQ is more important than IQ.  The world is full of unsuccessful people who have a high IQ, but when a person develops high EQ, doors are opened for them.  EQ is the ability to maintain your cool while others around you are losing theirs, a grace under pressure.  EQ requires proper communication between the emotional and the rational centers of the brain.  The physical pathway of the senses into the brain travel through the spinal cord to the back of the brain, moving into the center limbic system (where you feel), finally moving to the front rational system (where you think).  Since all senses go through the feeling limbic portion before the rational brain, it’s easy to respond emotionally without allowing yourself time to rationally develop the proper response. Look at the top NFL quarterbacks over the years, the Staubachs, Elways, and Montanas, all of them had EQ, a poise and confidence in their abilities, even with time running out and the game on the line, each responded with his entire brain, not just with emotional feelings.  Without EQ, people succumb to pressures, blaming others, and blowing up, creating chaos along with lack of results.  Every world class leader must have EQ, thinking through situations, even when others start to panic, since panic is not a good strategy.  EQ begins with having a good attitude, but it move beyond it.  EQ includes a strength of will that stands strong regardless of the situation, a strength of mind that forces the brain to think instead of entering ‘fight or flight’ mode.  

The greatest athletes and leaders all have a poise about them that strengthens the resolve of all of those following the leader.  No great achievement can be fulfilled without leaders of great attitude and great EQ.  The good news is that EQ, like a muscle, can be developed by placing oneself in increasing pressure situations over time.  Having a leader with high EQ is essential for others to learn from his or her poise on how to maintain composure even when others are losing theirs.  At the start of leadership, everyone will fail in EQ in different situations, but over time, one learns to develop the internal fortitude to control one’s emotions, rather than have the emotions control them.  Never let them see you sweat is a key principle in EQ based leadership.  Teammates will rally behind the EQ of the leader, developing a confidence that the leader will see them through. Conversely, if the leader lacks EQ, the team will panic, each one attempting to save his own skin, leaving the team and the team’s goals in shambles.  Attitude plus poise, plus strength of will, equals emotional intelligence quotient and every great leader must develop a high EQ.  Remember, it’s not what happens to great leaders that counts as much as how great leaders handle what happens to them.

The story of Phineas Gage, as shared in the must read, Emotional Intelligence Quick Book, was instrumental in helping psychologist understand the workings of the mind.  Here is a quick summary of his story.  Gage was a supervisor of a railroad crew, considered one of the best, for punctual work and leadership skills.  In an on the job accident, while tamping gunpowder into a blasting hole, the gunpowder exploded, sending a 43 inch long tamping iron of a full one and a quarter inches diameter through the frontal lobe of Gage’s brain. Amazingly, Gage lived to tell the story!  It was a miracle that he lived to tell the story, but very quickly, others realized that he wasn’t the same man.  Instead of his famed emotional control and leadership, Gage now lost his temper quickly, becoming emotionally unstable at the slightest provocation.  He would curse like a sailor under stress, creating tension and chaos among his crew, responding to challenges radically different than his previous leadership style.  He went from being one of the best of crew leaders to being unemployed, simply because of his lack of emotional intelligence.  Gage, unlike us, had an excuse, he literally lacked the frontal lobe where reasoning took place.  Meaning it was physically impossible for him to reason through his feelings, but the many EQ impaired people in life, do not have the same physical excuse.  EQ is a simply a choice.  A choice to slow down and think through the issues before reacting with feelings only.  Yes, the senses will hit the ‘feeling’ part of the brain first, but with patience, one can wait for the senses to hit the ‘reasoning’ part also, responding with the whole brain in a high EQ style.  Leaders refuse to react to the emotional stimulus only, but choose a response after feeling and thinking, in other words, with a high emotional intelligence quotient.

How many times have we witnessed people lose their cool, at work, at the airport, or during a sports contest, naming just a few?  Is this type of behavior drawing people towards the potential leader or repelling them?  No one enjoys spending time with a hot-head anymore than one enjoys walking on pins and needles.  People build friendships with people who have predictable behaviors.  Meaning, its hard to be friends with someone who will hug you one day, and hit you the next.  People with low EQ, having not mastered their own emotions; therefore, they cannot lead themselves, let alone, lead others.  All great victories in life begin with a victory over self.  What happens when pressure builds in your life?  How do you respond to the stress?  If you don’t like the answers, welcome to the club, but the good news is that you can change.  Before reacting to the stress emotionally, take a deep breath, forcing the mind to be still until one has time to reflect rationally, responding to the situation like a leader.  It will take practice, but the results are well worth the investment.  When a person lifts his EQ, it has the opposite effect from Phineas Gage.  Gage lost his EQ, when his lost that portion of his brain, but we can gain EQ, by gaining the functionality of this portion of our brains through patient practice.  It almost as if we gained an extra portion of brain matter, since it was practically unused. Learning to respond with EQ is one of the biggest changes in a person’s leadership journey, quickly noticeable to those following your leadership.

Great leaders must develop great EQ, exercising their emotional and rational brains repeatedly, creating mature responses in all leadership situations.  An improved EQ leads to a greater level of respect and admiration from the community following ones leadership trail.  Success is in your daily habits.  Each of us must build our habits by our daily responses, but eventually, our habits will build or break us.  What seeds are being planted in your garden?  What weeds, some that have grown for years, need to be pulled today, in order to provide fertile soil for the twelve resolutions for success?  Success is a personal choice, just as failure is a personal choice, because only the gardener can tend to his personal garden.  Every garden leads to an abundant harvest, the only question being, whether the garden harvest fruits or weeds. God Bless, Orrin Woodward

Imagine your brain as a garden and you as the gardener.  What do you allow to grow in the fertile soil of your brain?  Ideas have consequences in a person’s life, much like plants produce fruit in a garden.  The key question is what fruit is being harvested from the plants growing in your garden?  Better yet, what type of plants are growing in your garden, as the fruit always follows from the plant.  For example, if you plant corn, you will harvest corn.  Likewise, if you plant weeds, more weeds will sprout up, choking off the soil from any productive fruit.  A person’s attitude is a product of the fruit in the ideas percolating in his mind.  A positive attitude results when positive ideas are cultivated in one’s brain.  A negative attitude is the result when weeds choke off all, or nearly all, the brain’s thinking soil.  Attitude is a choice, being the ability to choose the proper response consistently, no matter what the stimulus.  It’s not what happens to you in life that matters as much as how you respond to what happens to you.  No one can plant weeds in your garden without your permission, but sadly, most people are not tending the garden; therefore, weeds grows as a matter of course through the associations they have in life.

The typical person, before learning of his gardening responsibilities for his mind, allows seeds to be scattered around at will.  From the radio, television, friends, co-workers, and family, one is bombarded with seeds, many of them destructive, without understanding the importance of a positive attitude in the success process.  Most people allow life to plant any seeds in their garden, producing whatever results the seeds create.  Sadly, this surrenders the results of life to ones surroundings, rather than to ones choices.  Attitudes in life determines the altitudes of life.  When one decides to move on, one must assume the responsibility to tend his garden, pulling weeds daily, while nurturing the proper fruit producing ideas.  Why is it easier to have ‘stinking thinking’ than it is to have positive thinking?  It’s the same answer as to why it’s easier to have weeds grow in a garden, than it is to have fruit.  We didn’t make the rules of the game of life, but we must learn to apply the rules in our favor to win in the game.

Most people when they fail at a task, quickly develop coping mechanisms like blaming, excuse making, etc, to lessen the pain of defeat.  But people with a positive attitude know that a temporary defeat is only another lesson on how not to win.  Thomas Edison was asked how he failed hundreds of times on his way to discovering the incandescent light bulb.  His answer should be learned by all potential achievers.  Edison said that he hadn’t failed hundreds of times, but actually had successfully learned hundreds of ways that it wouldn’t work.  Failure is never final to a person with a good attitude.  All winners discipline their thinking to ensure that the failures in life are merely stepping stones to further advancements.  Failure is an event, not a person, but without a winners thought process, people will label themselves failures, instead of the event as a failure.  No one has to be a failure in life, but all of us will go through failure events.  Whether we ultimately succeed or fail, has much to do with our perspectives on failures.  Winston Churchill, a man with a stellar attitude, said, “Success is going from one failure to another with no loss in enthusiasm.”

There are five key concepts to tending your mental garden, allowing the right attitudes to prosper while choking out the ‘stinking thinking.’  The first key idea is to develop a thankful spirit.  One won’t find a negative person who has a thankful attitude, conversely, one won’t find a positive person who isn’t thankful.  What are you thankful for in your life?  This may be hard at first, especially if one has nurtured bitterness and resentment in the garden, but it’s essential to develop thankfulness, helping to pull the weeds in from the garden.  It reminds me of the story of a man griping because he had no shoes, until he saw another man who had no feet.  Many times, thankfulness is a matter of perspective, one can easily identify things that are not going right in life, but attitude is helped by focusing on the blessings, empowering further improvement.   Bitterness and resentment is like drinking poison, expecting someone else to die.  Pull the weeds of bitterness and resentment from ones heart.  Let it go, as one cannot get better until bitterness is released.

There’s a humorous story told to two young brothers.  One terminally a positive spirit, the other, oppositely, a negative spirit.  No amount of lecturing by the parents seemed to change the young boys attitudes. The parents, well to do business owners, decided to run a test, wanting to see if they could affect the attitudes of the two young boys.  At Christmas time, the parents filled one room with games, toys, and nearly any gift a young boy could desire.  In another room, the parents loaded a wheelbarrow full of horse manure. On Christmas morning, the parents opened up the room with all the toys, allowing both boys to see into the room, but only letting the negative child enter.  Not surprisingly, the child played for a while, and then, complaining that he couldn’t find all of the toys that he wanted, sat in the corner pouting. Instead of recognizing all of the gifts that he received, he focused on the few things that he still lacked, robbing him of the joy in life.  The parents, with the positive child in tow, headed to the other room with the horse manure, opening up the door and letting the positive boy enter.  Right away the boy enthusiastically ran around the room, searching frantically, looking for something.  After watching this for several minutes, the parents asked him why he was so excited. The boy, looking up at his parents with a twinkle in his eye replied, “With this much horse manure, I’m sure the a pony in here somewhere!”  The young boy had an attitude, an attitude that each one of can choose on a daily basis.

The second key to a healthy attitude is to guard your associations.  There is an old souther saying, “If you hang out with dogs, you get fleas.”  Don’t misunderstand me, I’m not saying to disassociate with your family, but I am suggesting to set some ground rules in the relationship, ensuring bad seeds are not scattered.  The space in your brain is too precious to be filled with weeds, yielding only more weeds in a person’s life.  Tell me who a person associates with, and I will tell you the persons attitudes.  Birds of a feather flock together.  When people assume the gardeners position over their brain, what and who can scatter seeds into their garden becomes of utmost importance.  Since associations do influence us, it’s critical to ensure the associations are influencing our attitudes in a positive direction.  One cannot hang out with upbeat, forward looking, moving on people without developing an upbeat, forward looking, moving on attitude.  Conversely, one cannot hang out with negative, bitter, resentful, complaining, critical spirited people without becoming negative, bitter, resentful, complaining, and critical spirited oneself.  I started over seventeen years ago with a personal commitment to read at least three personal development books per month, listen to two to three (if not more) personal development CDs per day, and to attend as many personal development seminars as I possibly could.  I knew that it was my stinking thinking that had created the poor results in my life and that it would take improved thinking to improve my results.  Like the Bible states, “Iron sharpens iron.”  If I wanted to develop a positive attitude, then I needed to surround myself with other positive attitudes.

The third key to a healthy attitude is to focus on serving others.  When one is serving others, it helps in providing a greater perspective on ones own challenges.  Self centered people are so wrapped up in themselves, that they cannot see, let alone serve, the hurting people around them. Predictably, self centered people have attitude issues, because they are internally focused, all their issues become magnified, having no comparison to another’s troubles. Serving others is one of the best ways to maintain a positive attitude, lightening your own load by lightening others loads.  In the process, one develops friendships and perspectives that provide true lasting joy.  One cannot help another without feeling better about ones self.  This is a principle of life, neglected by many, but a key factor in all healthy attitudes.  Attitude is a choice, a choice to magnify the good in life.  Attitude is not pollyanna, not ignoring negatives, but simply focusing on the empowering thoughts that will help you persevere through the negatives in life.  By serving others through their challenges, it gives strength and encouragement when facing your own.

The fourth key idea in maintaining a positive attitude is to stay active.  An idle mind and hands are the devil’s workshop.  Pick a path and start working.  Human beings were made to work, and find contentment in a job well done.  When one is truly pursuing a noble objective, one is happier and finds the good in life.  But, when one is idle, having too much time on his hands, one can start nitpicking others, nitpicking life, developing a critical condemning spirit.  Put your hand to the plow and don’t look back.  If you cannot find anything to do, then find someone else that you can help, working for them.  I would rather work, read, think, and learn for free, rather than get paid to be idle. The toughest times in my own life have always been a result of self centeredness, and a corresponding lack of productivity.  I’ve had to discipline myself to keep my focus on others, enjoying the process of productive work.  So many people, have been fooled by the lie, that, if they won the lottery, quitting their job, and focusing only on their own happiness, that life would be complete.  I can assure you, that life is complete only when you are aiding in the completion of other lives.  Working hard in a worthy cause, completes yourself through helping to complete others.  Remaining idle is a recipe for physical and mental disaster.

Lastly, the people with the most consistent, positive attitudes are people with a purpose.  Victor Frankl, author of Man’s Search for Meaning, described that our mission in life wasn’t invented more than it was detected.  Each of us was created for a purpose, but until we start serving and learning, it’s not going hit us upside the head while watching television.  One must get out into the world, focusing on serving others, detecting the purposes and joy created when making a difference in others lives.  I believe that human beings were made in the image of God, having incredible gifts and talents, that we are created an original, like no other human being in the history of the world.  Our lives have meaning and purpose, detecting that purpose, producing results, and sharing with our gifts with others in need, is the goal of every life well lived.  Life is a gift given from above, what a shame that most of us give it back unopened.  The goal of this book is to help provide the hunger in you to open your gift of life and share the fruits of it with the world. God Bless, Orrin Woodward

Are you applying the Three Levels of Motivation into your business or company?  You cannot force people to do what you want, making them feel like your business is a scam, but you can help people get what they want.  Listen in as Chris Brady and I discuss the concept from our WSJ Best Seller, Launching a Leadership Revolution. God Bless, Orrin Woodward

Here is a video where Chris Brady and I share some of the secrets to improving your leadership.  The Tri-Lateral Leadership Ledger is discussed in detail in our best selling book Launching a Leadership Revolution.  Enjoy. God Bless, Orrin Woodward