Here’s a fun, little fact you may not know. Have you ever wondered why the floors of a building are called “stories”?

It goes all the way back to the fourteenth century, according to Word Detective. Back then, building practices called for a row of paintings or sculptures on each floor which told a story.

Hence, the levels of a building came to be called “stories”. It’s the reason why many churches have stained glass windows.

BIGG success is reached one floor at a time. You won’t find an express elevator that takes you to the top. There’s not even an escalator.

You have to personally climb the stairway to BIGG success. You do it one level at a time. You get to the next level by taking the next step.

It’s not easy. Matter of fact, that’s too much of an understatement – it’s downright hard at times.

You’ll get tired. You’ll feel like you’ve used your last ounce of energy. You’ll get discouraged.

But you won’t be defeated. Somehow, some way, you’ll keep climbing. Step after step. Floor after floor. Until you reach your dream.

But here’s some consolation for the journey: You’re creating a story, your story. You’re not a one-hit wonder. Just like the buildings of our ancestors – you’re developing a series of stories, one layered on top of the next.

Question: What’s a story without conflict? Answer: Boring!

BIGG success is life on your own terms. It’s a destination, a point you’re trying to reach, a dream you want to live out for real.

But success is a journey too. It’s a journey that prepares you, each step of the way, for your ultimate success.

You will face strife on the journey to success. The strife will make you stronger. It will prepare you for the BIGG things ahead for you.

So keep climbing. Keep building. Press on. So you’ll live happily ever after. It leads to BIGG success! The end.

Image in this post from stock.xchng

In his wonderful book, Success is Within You – an oldie but a goodie – Howard Whitman uses an analogy to illustrate a point about what he calls the “two main criteria of success.”

He talked about the straw and the ice cream soda. He says:

“If you want to fully an enjoy an ice-cream soda it is nice to have both. But if you are to have one only, it is certainly far better to have the ice-cream soda than to have only the straw, for the straw is quite worthless alone.”

What is the straw? When other people think you are a BIGG success.

The ice cream? When you feel like a BIGG success.

Other people will place their success criteria on you. But BIGG success is life on your own terms.

It’s all about YOU! It’s singular, individualistic.

And that’s the way it should be.

Only you know (or can know)…

• what makes you happiest
  
• how you want to spend your most valuable resource, time
  
• where your passion lies
  
• what you need to achieve to feel good about yourself
  
• how you measure success (fame, fortune, status, power, peace of mind)
  
• what fulfills your purpose
  

And that’s as it should be.

Because recognition and adulation from others is great. But they are empty on their own.

You’re the supreme judge of your own success. Your opinion is the ice cream soda. It’s the only opinion that really matters.

What does life on your own terms mean to you?

Image in this post from stock.xchng

What’s the single, most destructive distraction on your path to success?

This may surprise you.

It’s not social media. Or the internet. It’s not your phone or your e-mail.

It isn’t music. Or even TV.

It’s worry.

We saw this great photo when we were working on a post about money problems. The author of the note nailed it. Worry keeps you from what’s important.

That’s why it’s the most destructive distraction of them all. Worry is a roadblock on your path to BIGG success.

Worry attracts more of the same

Your mind can work for you or against you. Worry is a distraction that leads to attraction. Unfortunately, it’s won’t attract what you want. Worry will only attract more of what you worry about.

Worry is an actionless activity

Have you ever known someone who only seemed happy when they had something to worry about? How successful were they?

We’ve known good people who were like this. Unfortunately, none of them have ever achieved any significant level of success.

Why do you suppose this is? Could it be that all they did was worry? They never actually did anything to turn their worry on its head.

3 steps to stop worrying

Worrying accomplishes nothing. As a BIGG goal-getter, when you feel yourself start to worry, remember these three steps:

• Focus on what’s important
  

  BIGG success is life on your own terms. If you’re worrying about something that won’t move you forward on your path to BIGG success, stop!
  

• Think solutions, not problems
  

  Here’s something we will guarantee you: If you only think about problems, you’ll get more problems!
  

  Spend the overwhelming majority of your time thinking about solutions. Then you’ll wind up with more solutions.
  

• Act!
  

  Thinking alone won’t do you any good. You have to take action. Once you have a solution that you think will work, act immediately!
  

  Your solution may not work. That’s okay. By acting, you’ll gain valuable insight into the situation. Before you know it, you’ll be back on the path to BIGG success!
  

 Image in this post from Torley

Everybody’s thinking about, talking about, writing about 2011. What your goals are for this year? What are your New Year’s resolutions?

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BIGG success is life on your own terms. There are five elements of BIGG success; one of them is time.

What’s your horizon?
Time has many dimensions. One of them is your horizon.

For many people, the horizon is today. They live in the moment. That’s all well and good. You certainly need to do that sometimes.

However, the people who are already a BIGG success have a longer horizon. They live presently in the future.

Entrepreneuring = a series of projects
As we’ve said, BIGG success is life on your own terms. The “own” in that phrase is very important. You own your life.

You’re more than a manager marketing a brand. You’re not just a CEO who can cash out at any time. You’re the entrepreneur in charge of a very important enterprise – your life.

Any entrepreneurial enterprise can be viewed as a series of projects. You take on projects to get the business launched. You take on projects for customers. You take on projects to build critical infrastructure.

What successful people do
Talk to any really successful person about what they’re working on right now and you’ll probably hear that it is something due late this year or early next. Sure, they’re working today but it’s for a project scheduled to be completed later.

Think about movies … they often take years before we see the finished product. Or even television shows … as we’re watching this season’s Survivor, they’re filming the next season.

If every project in your portfolio is short-term, it’s unlikely you’ll ever reach BIGG success. You must extend your horizon and expand your vision. You must think longer and bigger.

Otherwise, you’ll end up stuck. You’ll never reach the next level of success. 

Sure, you’ll be busy. But, like George Jetson, you’ll be crying: Jane, stop this crazy thing … HELP … Jane!

What projects are in your pipeline?

Little things can make a bigg difference on our path to bigg success. Oftentimes, they’re mostly attitudinal adjustments. We’ll discus six of these little things today.

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Instead of taking an extra fifteen minutes, give an extra fifteen minutes.

Over the course of a year, if you were to show up fifteen minutes earlier and stay fifteen minutes longer, you’d have 120 more hours of productive time. That even allows for four weeks of vacation!

This doesn’t have to be work. It really depends on your objectives. You may get home fifteen minutes earlier, put an extra fifteen minutes into studying for that certification you want, or work on building relationships for an extra fifteen minutes a day.

Instead of telling someone about you, ask about them.

Ask your spouse or significant other about their day. Ask that person you just met about the work they do.

This makes a bigg difference in so many ways. It’s amazing how much we can learn from others. By letting the other person tell you about themselves, you learn about yourself and your world.

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I find this ironic. You seem more interesting when you let the other person talk about themselves. They find you more interesting because you’re letting them talk.

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You always tell me, Mary-Lynn, that the less I talk, the more interesting I am!

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Instead of sitting back, lean forward in your chair.

This is somewhat related to the last one. One benefit is that you’ll stay awake! But the other benefit is that you will be more engaged with the person with whom you’re talking. You appear more interested. So they feel better about themselves.

Instead of walking around with a frown, flash your bigg beautiful smile!

When you smile, it makes people wonder what you’re up to!

Tony Robbins says: “Motion creates emotion.” Even when you don’t feel like smiling, by telling yourself to smile you’ll soon see the world in a different way. Even in the worst of times, we can find something to smile about.

Instead of seeing the bad, see the good.

This applies in so many ways. We’ll just discuss a couple.

How about the people around you – like your co-workers? Look for their good traits. See what they do well. Compliment them on it.

How about your company? Don’t focus on all the things you don’t like about it. Focus on the things your company is doing well.

Along that line …

Instead of focusing on the problem, think about solutions.

There are a lot of problem-finders in the world; we don’t have enough problem-solvers.

It’s easy to find a problem; it’s a lot harder to SOLVE IT. But bigg goal-getters know that’s how you find bigg success!

What little things have made a bigg difference in your life?

We’d love it if you’d share that with us. You can do that by:

• leaving a comment below

• e-mailing us at bigginfo@biggsuccess.com

• calling us at 888.455.BIGG (2444)

Phil Gerbyshak called us with a comment on our Lone Wolf or Lead Wolf show. He said:

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“For a long time, I lived as the lone wolf but, in the last few years, I’ve realized that being the lead wolf is a lot more fun, a lot more rewarding, and a way to get a whole lot more done and experience some bigg success. So thanks for inspiring me with this article and podcast and for all you do to help us be a bigg success. Make it a great day!”

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Thanks Phil! You make it great every time we hear from you!

And thank you for reading our post today. It’s no little thing to us. We hope it makes a bigg difference for you!

Please join us next time when we talk about why, when it comes to your career, the second time’s a charm. Until then, here’s to your bigg success!

Subscribe to The Bigg Success Show in iTunes. 

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Direct link to The Bigg Success Show audio file:
http://media.libsyn.com/media/biggsuccess/00413-061009.mp3

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(Image in today's post from chrissi)