In The Slight Edge, Jeff talks about reading 10 pages a day and explains how just this simple commitment will allow you to read 15 – 20 books a year. Because I travel to Toronto every day, I’m spending almost four hours a day on the bus. I decided that it isn’t unrealistic to take 15 mnutes a day to read. Now I’m on another book!

The Fred Factor. This book by Mark Sanborn really emphasizes many of the same principles that you hear in The Leader Who Had No Title and The Slight Edge. It’s doing the little things time after time that add up to greatness.

How often do you remember to kiss your wife goodbye on the way out to work? Do you know what her favourite treat is? What is the one thing the kids enjoy doing with you and when was the last time you did it?
Most of these things don’t cost much but mean a lot to those people you care about in your life.

What about the people you don’t know? We pass people on the street every day and you see them struggling. For example, an elderly person having a hard time opening a door. Do you offer assistance?

“Freds” are those people who do that little bit more for those around them that make the world a better place a little bit every day. They are everywhere! You see them in the store, you see them in the office and you see them on the street. These people make a choice to improve the world around them and through their actions make the world a better place for the rest of us.

Next time you see a “Fred”, say thanks. Be careful though, you could become one of them.

Have a great day!

Barry

What am I thankful for today? I’m thankful that my son is finding happiness. I’m thankful that I am able to read. I’m thankful for Connexus and what it is doing for my wife.

In The Leader Who Had No Title, the comment is made “so success is actually easy”. I believe it can be. I also believe that for some reason most of us make it difficult!

Compare yourself to your teenager. How many times have we said “If you had just done what I told you, it wouldn’t be that hard”?

We talk about this in my wife’s business. If you were to pay $1M for a large franchise opportunity, you would show up for the training and you would do the things that they told you worked. At least the successful people would. But when you see an opportunity for a couple of hundred dollars, you don’t give it the same respect. Why is that? It’s because pain is the greatest motivator. Only when $200 causes as much pain for you as $1M will you give the same attention and effort.

Why is it that we wait for the pain?

To quote from Robin Sharma’s The Leader Who Had No Title “success is created through the performance of a few small daily disciplines that stack up over time to produce achievements far beyond anything you could have ever planned for”.

I’ll use a very simple example of practicing The Slight Edge philosphy. I had a diabetic incident last summer. My mother had just died and I believe that her diabetes had a lot to do with that. I was feeling some pain! Over the next two weeks, went to the hospital and spent 12 hours hooked up to an IV getting flushed. That drove the pain home! I modified my diet and started walking a half hour a day at lunch time. Every day, rain or shine. The first couple of times that it rained, I almost excused myself from the walk but forced myself to go out.

Within about 12 weeks, I lost over 25 pounds, had more energy, and don’t need any medication to control my sugar!  Now something is missing from my day if I miss my walk.

There was no miracle cure. It was simple discipline. Now, if I can just apply this to the rest of my life!

It’s not easy, but it is.  Like Nike says:  Just do it!

Have a great day.

Barry

P.S.
What am I thankful for today? I’m thankful for the people who care enough to put up with me. I’m thankful for high speed internet. I’m thankful my Dad is still alive.

Jeff Olson is an acquaintance of ours who wrote a book called “The Slight Edge”. If you ever get a chance to hear him speak, you will be treated to an amazing experience. It’s a pleasure to hear from someone that speaks with true passion.

One of my favourite stories is of the two young men who’s father is dying. The father is very wealthy and calls his sons to his side. He gives them two choices. One is instant financial wealth, the other is a long term strategy. He gives them time to think before making their choice. Of course, being brothers, they each have to make a different decision and the story goes on to tell about how and why one is successful and the other is not.

I don’t want to give away too much because I believe you should read the book! There is a lot to be learned in this story. In a nutshell, the one who chose what seemed to be the lesser option, is the one who came out ahead in the end because he was willing to do the little things in a consistent manner over time. He understood that doing the little things time over time will lead to great results. This is the Slight Edge philosophy.

Remember the story of the tortoise and the hare?!

I believe that we should all strive to improve ourselves every day. One of the ways to do that is to read the teachings and experiences of people who have gone before us. By reading 10 pages a day, you will have read 15 – 20 books over the course of a year.

You will find that there are common themes and it may seem repetitive.  My experience is that I can hear the same stuff 20 times from 20 different people but for some reason I reach a point where I’m finally ready to absorb what I hear. Everyone presents ideas in different ways and eventually, some speaks directly to you.

Don’t give up. Do your ten a day. Live the Slight Edge philosophy and one day, in what to appears to be “all of a sudden” you will find your success.

God Bless and have a great day!

Barry

P.S. What am I thankful for today? I’m thankful that I have a car to get to work. I’m thankful that I have meaningful work in my life. I’m thankful that I can help others because of some of the challenging experiences I have faced in my life.

In T. Harv Eker’s “Secrets of the Millionaire Mind”, he talks about your blueprint.

I compare this to the story of the ugly duckling. Remember that one?

The duckling grows up thinking he’s ugly and he’s ashamed of the way he thinks the world sees him. One day, when he’s a little older, he happens to see his reflection in the water. What he sees is a beautiful swan. Elegant and graceful. At first he doesn’t realize that he is seeing himself. Eventually he comes to realize he is, in fact, a beautiful swan and his perception of himself is changed forever.

In “Secrets of the Millionair Mind” we read about how, as children, we are born into a certain set of circumstances and that becomes what we know. Like a swan who only sees a family of ducks growing up, we believe that is all there is to life. Some are lucky enough to be exposed to opportunity earlier in life. For others, it may not happen until later. The challenge is to recognize opportunity when we see it and act upon that opportunity.

By opportunity, I don’t mean just a chance at a business or material gain. The opportunity may be the chance to make a change.

The “blueprint” that we carry with us is our guiding map in life. What we often forget is that you can change a blueprint. It’s a lot of work but it can be done.

I’ll use an example of a building that I am working in. It has been half empty for some time. There is a local agency that needed some space but the building had been insulated with asbestos and could not be used for their purpose unless the asbestos was removed. Luckily, someone recognized an opportunity to make changes to the blueprint which allows for the removal of the asbestos and redesigning the interior workspace for a different use. Now that agency can stay close to where they were and meet their clients needs without causing undue hardship to others.

Our building is now safer for us as a result of our making changes triggered by an external source. It can be the same for people.

Sometimes an external force makes us look at ourselves in a slightly different light and all of a sudden the world changes. This can only happen if you are open minded enough to take another look at your “blueprint”!

When was the last time you really took a look at your blueprint to see if you should make any changes?

Have a great day! I know I’m choosing to!

Barry

P.S.
What am I thankful for today? I’m thankful for the people I work with that took me under their wing during a rough period in my life. I’m thankful that someone told me about this book “Secrets of the Millionaire Mind”. I’m thankful for the wonderful people who drive the Greyhound bus that takes me to work most days.

This is from Robin Sharma’s “The Leader Who Had No Title”.

I will make sure that this is not my list:

1. You reach your last day with the brilliant song that your life was meant to sing still silent within you.

2. You reach your last day without ever having experienced the natural power that inhabits you to do great work and achieve great things.

3. You reach your last day realizing that you never inspired anyone else by the example that you set.

4. You reach your last day full of pain at the realization that you never took any bold risks and so you never received any bright rewards.

5. You reach your last day understanding that you missed the opportunity to catch a glimpse of mastery because you bought into the lie that you had to be resigned to mediocrity.

6. You reach your last day and feel heartbroken that you never learned the skill of tranforming adversity into victory and lead into gold.

7. You reach your last day regretting that you forgot that work is about being radically helpful to others rather than being helpful only to yourself.

8. You reach your last day with the awareness that you ended up living the life that society trained you to want versus leading the life you truly wanted to have.

9. You reach your last day and awaken to the fact that you never realized your absolute best nor touched the special genius that you were built to become.

10. You reach your last day and discover you could have been a leader and left this world so much better than you found it. But you refused to accept that mission because you were just too scared. And so you failed, and wasted a life.

Barry:
What am I thankful for today? I’m thankful that God gave me the courage to try new things (and my wife!). I’m thankful that I have a beautiful little grand daughter. I’m thankful for the wonderful people who have touched my life, even the ones that caused pain because that is often where I have learned the most.

A couple of days ago I was on the subway and saw a young mother with her child. The child was having a great time and had jumped up onto a seat leaving the mother standing by herself.

A teenage girl was sitting beside the boy and got up and offered the mother the seat so that she could be with her son to protect him.

I made a point of telling that teenage girl that had shown a lot of class in giving up her seat to that mother. The look on the teenager’s face was priceless! Teenagers are not used to compliments from adults. Isn’t that sad?

See you who you can surprise today!

And then conquer it.

Starting a business or asking your boss for a raise are a couple of examples of fears that we may face. It could just as easily be a difficult conversation with an associate or family member.

Don’t deny the fear. It’s real. Feel it and then face it head on. Look the object of your fear directly in the face and you will soon discover that although the fear is very real and very scary, you can’t just turn away and hope it will move past you. Fear is like the bullies in your life. It will taunt you every day until one day you just have had enough and wrestle that fear to the ground.

Ever notice that when you take a bully on, they usually turn and run? Or they actually end up becoming your friend?

Facing your fear will not always feel good or necessarily end up with the outcome you hoped for but in the end, there will be a clear resolution and you can move on.

Don’t get stuck. Feel the fear, face it and then move on.

For all of the scary stuff out there, there is something much more wonderful just the other side!

Have a great day,

Barry

P.S.
Things I’m thankful for today: I woke up this morning! I have a great family. I have the power to make my destiny.
What are you thankful for today?

Interesting. I’ll bet you thought this was a discussion about religion.

In many of the different courses and programs that I have been a part of, faith is a core component. Faith in a supreme being, for us Catholics, I’ll say God, is definitely beneficial but that’s not what this is about.

When we get out of the bed in the morning, we have a big choice to make. We can choose to have a good day bad or a bad one.

We usually make that choice based on what we see in front of us. For example, the alarm didn’t go off and it’s brighter outside than it should be. We’re late. We can’t control the fact that the alarm didn’t go off and we can’t roll back the clock. What we CAN do is decide how that is going to affect us. This decision is totally based on faith.

We either have blind faith that this will be a lousy day or we have faith that we can make this into a good day. The first choice gives control away and the second allows us to maintain some degree of control over our life. If we have faith that we can turn the day around, guess what? It usually does!

Faith. Without any, it’s a lousy day.

Have faith in yourself and those around you and the universe will respond in a positive way.

Have a great day!

Barry