faith | Bigg Success

success_and_failure Here’s a great quote by entertainer Steve Harvey …

“Don’t live by old sayings that don’t apply to you. For instance – ‘Have a Plan B.’ Having a Plan B means you believe that Plan A might fail. Having a Plan B requires that you put time and energy into what you could’ve been doing for Plan A to make it work. And if Plan A doesn’t work, guess what, get a new Plan A.”

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There’s some real wisdom in his quote. We’ll look at it line by line:

“Having a Plan B means you believe that Plan A might fail.”

Believe

He’s emphasizing how much we have to believe in success, not in failure. We have to believe, in ourselves and in our plan, in order to succeed. The first person who has to be on board with our plan – the first person who has to follow us so to speak – is ourselves. If we’re not in line, we’re in trouble!

Throw away the security blanket

There’s another thing that comes to light with this quote. Think Linus van Pelt, Charlie Brown’s best friend and Lucy’s younger brother. He never went anywhere without his security blanket.

We can’t succeed if we hold on to our security blanket, or blankets, as the case may be. We have to throw it away once and for all if we’re going to succeed bigg.

A lot of times we hold on tightly to that security blanket just in case. Just in case, things don’t go as planned.

Well, here’s the brutal truth – no matter how good we get at planning, things never will go as planned.

That’s when we have to hunker done. We have to double our efforts to make our plan work. We have to overcome all the obstacles that we will face and keep the faith.

The covenant with Nature

We must keep on believing that we will succeed because we have no choice but to succeed. When we reach that level of resolve, the forces of Nature begin to conspire with us, instead of against us.

It’s not a miracle. It happens too frequently to think of it that way.

It is no accident. Because that implies a randomness that doesn’t exist.

It’s isn’t luck because it happens more often to people whose thoughts lead to certain behaviors. The more determination we have, the luckier we get!

It’s more like a covenant. Nature says, “This is how much you have to believe. Here is what you have to let go of in order to have my blessing.”

Now, let’s look at the next line …

“Having a Plan B requires that you put time and energy into
what you could’ve been doing for Plan A to make it work.”

Setting priorities

Since we only have a certain amount of time, we can’t afford to waste it if we’re going to succeed bigg. It’s all about priorities.

We tend to think that:

we’re super-human
we can do ten things at once
we don’t need to focus on just one or two major objectives at a time

The bare naked truth is … all of that is a lie!

We do have to determine what is most important right now in pursuit of that bigg success of which we dream. Then we have to focus all our energy on only that.

In the last part of his quote, he says,

“If Plan A doesn’t work, get a new Plan A.”

So the question is, how do you know if Plan A isn’t working?

One way to judge it is if you keep running into the same wall over and over again.

You’ve tried to climb over it.

You’ve tried to go around it on one side.

Then you tried the other side.

You tried to dig under it.

You even tried to blast through it.

You’ve tried five times, but the doggone wall hasn’t budged.

Plan B is like Step 2

It may be time to start thinking of your alternatives. And here’s where we deviate slightly from Steve Harvey. Because we think Plan B is like Step 2 on your path to bigg success. You have to have a clear picture of what bigg success looks like to you before you start. Then you need to map out the steps to get there.

With your plan in place, you’ll focus all your time and energy on Step 1 before you begin to take the second step. So we’ve thought about it before we start, but we don’t worry about it until it’s time.

We think Plan B is just like that. Before we start working on Plan A, we should have thought about Plan B. We’ve prepared for the contingencies. But that’s where we stop.

And the important distinction is this ….

Plan B doesn’t send us back where we were before. Plan B moves us ahead in a way that Plan A didn’t. It makes that wall insignificant.

The only path to bigg success

But it doesn’t pay to spend too much time thinking about Plan B because the wall we face probably won’t be the wall we expect. So now we’re back on track with Steve Harvey.

Think about it a little, but don’t dwell on it. While you’re pursuing Plan A, keep Plan B out of your head. Because you have to if you want to succeed bigg.

Your mindset has to be, “This is my only path to bigg success.” By thinking that way, you will find bigg success.

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Thank you for checking in with us today. Join us next time as we begin a two-part series on the ten early warnings of a business in trouble. Until then, here’s to your bigg success!

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Abandon Ship!

Climbing The Stairway To Success

(Image in today's post by cobrasoft)

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Successful people are a diverse group. Some are outgoing while others are extroverts. You have creative types and analytical people. They do however share a few commonalities.

One of those was displayed by Thomas Edison. The great inventor obtained over 1,000 patents in his lifetime. But did you know that it took Edison about 10,000 tries to finally invent the light bulb? If at first you don’t succeed, try 10,000 times again!

The one must-have ingredient to succeed is persistence!

History is ripe with example of people whose greatest success came after their biggest failure. So today we’ll discuss three persistence principles – things you can do to keep on keeping on.

#1 – Believe in yourself and your idea.
You need to almost be stubborn about it. Have faith – not a blind faith, but a “calculated faith”. We often think of “calculated risk” – this is similar. You have insight that others may not.

You’ve done your research. You may have a unique perspective based on your education and experiences. You have confidence in your plan. Trust your instincts and push on!

#2 – Keep your spirit up.
There are a number of ways to do this; find those that work for you. You may read success stories. Or keep your batteries charged by hanging out with positive people. Get a good night’s sleep … or take a nap. Get some exercise. Whatever it is, plan some time daily to keep your flame burning so you can keep pushing, no matter what obstacles come your way!

#3 – Welcome failure.
Imagine if Edison had quit after two tries, or 5,000 … or just one time short of his great invention? Learn to recognize failure for what it is – progress toward success.

Take the example of great sales people. The numbers are different for different industries, but think of this example – a sales person knows that he has to make ten calls to get two appointments. He has to have two appointments to make a sale. He fails ninety percent of the time. But here’s what he knows …

The sooner he gets through those nine failures, the sooner he succeeds!

Here’s a story that illustrates the importance of persistence. It comes from Think and Grow Rich, the great book by Napoleon Hill.

During the days of the gold rush, a young man went west to find his fortune. He staked a claim and went to work. A few weeks later, after much work with no reward, he discovered gold!

He quickly raised the money to buy the equipment he needed to mine the gold. He started drilling, but then the vein disappeared. He kept drilling, but to no avail. In desperation, he quit and went home a poor man.

Some time later, it was discovered that he had stopped just three short feet of one of the richest deposits of gold in the United States.

Don’t stop three feet from success – be persistent!

What do you do to keep going? We’d love to hear from you!
Leave us a comment below…

Our Bigg Quote today is by the great author and speaker Brian Tracy:

“Remember you only have to succeed the last time.”

Here are two things to add to your list of things that are certain –
(1) you will face obstacles on the way to success, and
(2) you will succeed bigg if you persist.

Next time, with all this talk of persisting, we thought we’d throw a curve ball your way – we’re going to talk about when to quit. What are the signs that it’s time to move on?

Until then, here’s to your bigg success!