chris brogan | Bigg Success

Jon Swanson, aka The Social Media Chaplain, recently had a couple of posts (titled Focus and Away) that really got us thinking. Thanks to Chris Brogan for introducing us to Jon.

No intent to convert here but just a warning – if you’re offended by the mention of Jesus (oops, that means we just offended you), you’re going to be offended (more)! Otherwise, continue reading.

Jon tells about a time when Jesus had been up all night healing people.

As dawn arrived, he walked away. He went to a secluded place.

But people came looking for him. They pressed him to continue his good work.

But Jesus said no. As Jon points out between the two posts, Jesus said no for three reasons:

1) Purpose

You have a reason for being. It’s your purpose.

You are meant to do something BIGG. It’s your destiny.

But there’s a magical word for keeping your life in balance – No! You must learn to use regularly if you’re going to fulfill your purpose.

It’s what Jesus did in this case. You will be well served to follow his example.

2) Decompress

You’re human. You need to rest. Even Jesus needed to rest.

Sleep – it’s what we sacrifice to maintain work-life balance. Or at least some semblance of it.

If you’re like us, you work and work and work. And you can’t shut it off like a light.

You quit for the day physically before you quit mentally. So in order to get a good night’s sleep, you need to spend some time decompressing.

3) Seclusion

Most of us work hard and long these days. You need to rest now and then. You have to know when to say when.

Jesus demonstrated this in this example. Sometimes you just have to stop and rest.

Just make sure you don’t fall into the trap with your free time. We often think craving seclusion is bad.

Being reclusive is a negative. It’s a sign of deep problems.

Spending time alone now and then is a plus. It will help you refuel and stay on course to your destiny.

Sometimes you just have to get away to be a BIGG success.

How do you know when it’s time to get away?

Image in this post from stock.xchng

U2 is on tour again. They’re playing at sold-out stadiums and getting rave reviews. Before a crowd of 60,000 people in Norman, Oklahoma recently, lead singer Bono said something we found particularly interesting, “It took us 26 years to travel one mile.”

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He was referring to the band’s 1983 performance at the Lloyd Noble Center. There were four to five times as many people in the crowd this time compared to a quarter century earlier.

Becoming a star takes a lot of time and hard work

Is there another alternative?
We heard this story about U2 through a great post by Kris Dunn, the hr capitalist. He said that there is another way: instead of working your butt off, you can eliminate everything that doesn’t lead to bigg success. (Okay, we’ve paraphrased what he said a little bit!)

The problem with the second choice is that it’s often hard to know, in advance, what will ultimately lead you to the success of which you dream. You may unwittingly eliminate the thing that will put you over the edge.

And we’re not talking about The Edge from U2!

Overnight success is a misperception
Internationally best-selling author Chris Brogan (we love adding that tag to his name) has a great series of posts on being an overnight success. He says in the first one:

“Overnight success doesn’t sleep in. Overnight success doesn’t watch a lot of TV. Overnight success doesn’t have a whole lot of hobbies right now.”

We live in a society where we think overnight success is a reality. The problem is that it’s almost always a misperception. We need to look behind-the-scenes where bigg success is created.

Let’s shed some light on becoming a star:

Find your delight.
Bigg success is life on your own terms. So set your terms and get started on the path to bigg success. But remember that, since you’re setting the terms, bigg success will set the price. Paying the price is much less of a burden if you’re doing what you love.

Keep your eyes on your lighthouse.
Fair weather or foul, light or dark, you have to keep going. In your darkest moments, the only consolation you may have is that you can still see your lighthouse. Your vision of success can’t be taken away from you. Keep focusing on it to keep going.

Work by candlelight.
There’s one simple difference between people who reach bigg success and people who don’t. People who reach bigg success are willing to do whatever it takes to get there.

Yes, you have to be willing to work hard. Yes, you have to be willing to work in the face of opposition. Even if the power goes out, you’ll light some candles so you can keep on keeping on!

Highlight what’s most important every day.
It’s easy to get distracted. It’s easy to waste time. It’s easy to go nowhere.

It’s hard to focus all your efforts and energy exclusively on what’s most important today to move you closer to your dream life. It’s hard to keep it in front of you. It’s hard to get right into your next task or project when you complete one.

Relight your torch every day.
Bigg success is a long journey. You have to fuel your fire. You may get your daily mojovation here at Bigg Success. You may meditate. You may listen to great music while you work out.

If it works for you, it works. Just do something – anything – to keep your torch burning.

The bottom line is this:
Lightweights don’t ever get to step into the spotlight.
You have to work hard and smart to become a star.
You have to persevere if you want to be center stage.
And isn’t this ironic … you have to risk failure to reach bigg success.

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