April 2009 | Bigg Success

Monthly Archives: April 2009

Make the Grass Greener on Your Side of the Fence

Written on April 22, 2009 by George Krueger & Mary-Lynn Foster in Personal Growth

It’s Earth Day which always makes us think that spring is close at hand. them.”

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marylynn Spring … I love it! Flowers are blooming, trees are budding. Warmer temperatures are coming!

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george When I think of spring, I think spring green, which got us thinking about the old saying, “The grass is greener on the other side of the fence.”

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Hear George & Mary-Lynn discuss today's topic on The Bigg Success Show! To listen while you read, click the purple player: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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You look across the fence at your neighbor’s yard – at that nice green grass – and you wonder how in the world your neighbor does it. You feel like you work just as hard at tending to your yard, but somehow your neighbor’s yard still looks better.

So today we want to talk about four fences between you and that greener grass. The first two involve our perceptions.

You and other people

One fence sits between you and other people. Some may be more successful than you. Just like a lush neighbor’s yard, success just seems to come easy for them.

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marylynn Bigg success is life on your own terms. One of the many things I love about that definition of bigg success is that it is so liberating. I don’t have to worry about what other people are doing. I focus on what I’m doing.

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george I think we have a tendency to view our success in light of others. But that’s counterproductive. We need to discover and live up to our potential and stop thinking about what other people are (or are not for that matter) doing.

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The reason it’s not good to compare ourselves to others is that we’re not truly walking a mile in their shoes. We don’t really know how hard they’ve worked. We don’t know about all the obstacles they’ve overcome.

We make assumptions because we see the output – the green grass – but we don’t think about all the sunshine, the rain, the fertilizer, and the manual labor that made it that green.

What you did and what you could have done

Another fence is between what you’ve actually done and what you think you could have done. We look over that fence and beat ourselves up. The grass would be greener if we had only taken a different path.

We romanticize the outcome that could have been. We assume that life would be better.

In fact, it may be worse. We’ll never know. All we see is greener grass. We need to realize that the decisions we made got us to this point and the experiences we’ve had make us a unique human being.

That’s an asset that we can use for our bigg success.

Now we want to look at the final two fences. These fences help us make the grass greener.

Yesterday and today

Another fence is between yesterday and today. It’s up to us to make the grass greener today than it was yesterday.

It’s about doing all that you can … day-by-day, step-by-step … to move closer to bigg success, to life on your own terms. If you’ve done everything you possibly can today to get closer, your grass is greener!

Where you are and where you want to be

The final fence is between where you are and where you want to be. You see the green grass that you want to have. You see a person or persons who were where you are and now are where you want to be.

This could be a role model, a mentor or a coach. Instead of looking over the fence and being jealous, you know that you can learn from them. They can teach you how to make your grass greener.

What are some of your secrets for getting your grass greener?

Share that with us by leaving a comment below, calling us at 888.455.BIGG or sending us an e-mail at bigginfo@biggsuccess.com. Maybe your comment will help make the grass greener for others.

Thanks so much for reading our post today.

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Please join us next time when we ask, “What’s your one thing?”

Until then, here’s to your bigg success!

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The Power of Momentum

Treating If-Only Syndrome

(Image in today's post by tinyfroglet, CC 2.0)

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Learn to Play to Learn

Written on April 21, 2009 by George Krueger & Mary-Lynn Foster in Money, Time Management

We recently did a show on the tradeoff between work and play. We said that it was important to make time for both productive play and pure play – things you do just for fun. We said it really is true – we do seem to get more done when we’re busy.

Ryan left a great comment on that topic. He’s one of our regulars and he often leaves comments. We love the feedback!

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Hear George & Mary-Lynn discuss today's topic on The Bigg Success Show! To listen & read, click the purple player: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Pre-paying for play plans improves productivity

He said that he’s learned that it’s good to keep busy with his downtime. So he goes to a sporting event or a concert just about every week. Because he’s paid for the ticket in advance, he feels compelled to go. That’s his secret – it forces him to work more efficiently to get his work done.

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george I had never thought of that little trick! We schedule fun activities of course. But I had never thought about purposefully and routinely scheduling an activity that I paid for in advance as a way to ramp up my time at work.

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marylynn It’s a great suggestion. It’s easy to get so busy working that I fail to recharge myself by doing something that gets my mind off of work. By committing my money, I’m more likely to commit my time!

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george I’m one of those people who can go and go and go. But at some point, my body and my mind start saying, “Enough already! What are you doing to us? We need a break!” Ryan’s suggestion helps make sure that doesn’t happen.

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marylynn Fortunately, and maybe unfortunately, George and I are very similar in that respect. I’m a bit of a workaholic myself. So we work very well together. But I agree – it would be helpful to schedule more time for fun knowing that I’ll be more productive at work.

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It’s about living with purpose on purpose. After all, we’re only human. We should live on human time! Plan something fun and pay for it in advance. You’ll be more likely to do it!

Ramp up your downtime

Ryan also said that when he was in college, he got better grades when he took eighteen credit hours than when he only had twelve in a semester. His personal observation sparked a thought for us …

… we should always be a student!

It pays bigg dividends to be curious about everything with which you come in contact, not just your area of expertise.

Since Ryan brought up sporting events, you can learn from studying the players – when they’re warming up, idle, in the middle of a play, or when the game’s on the line.

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george This is something I do. It’s interesting to see the differences among players when the game’s on the line. I’ve learned a lot about operating under pressure by watching sports.

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marylynn At concerts, there are a lot of details. The artist’s stage presence, the lighting, the way musicians play together, and even their hair! If it’s a symphony, study the conductor and how he or she leads. They’re masters of their craft and we can learn lessons that we can apply to our crafts.

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george One of my favorite things to do is to be a student when I’m talking to people in social settings. I can read a book or an article, but there’s nothing like learning about someone’s occupation and interests first-hand. You get to ask questions and go deeper into a subject with a real person who is living it.

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marylynn We have a friend who made a great suggestion that has forever changed how I watch movies. He said to think of yourself as a director. When the movie is over, ask yourself what you would have done differently. It gets my creative juices flowing and makes for great conversation afterwards.

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Always be a student. It helps keep your mind young. It expands your imagination. It will help you reach bigg success even faster!