June 30, 2018


I Gave Myself Reasons Why...

When I was a kid my family, and I, traveled to Texas to visit some of my parent's friends. My brother, and I, was outside petting some horses that belonged to the family we were visiting. All of a sudden there was a huge explosive sound. The horses jumped and we jumped.

My father ran outside thinking something happened to us. We found out that the sound was an airplane breaking the sound barrier which creates a sonic boom.

Video of planes breaking the sound barrier.

On October 14, 1947 Chuck Yeager surpassed the speed of sound for the first time. Up until that time "experts" believed that terrible things would happen, to the human being, who attempted to reach the speed of sound. The "experts" were proven wrong.

When I look back, at my life, I discovered that in order for me to push through some of the most difficult situations I had to invent some reasons why I needed to do what needed to be done in order to get it done.

I have hundreds of books in my home library and a huge percentage of very successful people do the same thing. They invent reasons (shortcuts) go get them to do the hard stuff.


I am sure you have heard the story of the carrot and the stick . The carrot represents a reward for doing what needs to be done and the stick represents a punishment if what needs to be done is not done. It seems, the successful, create "carrots" in their lives.


Many people, young and old, give themselves mini goals (carrots) to push them through tasks that they really do not want to do in the first place. 

Yes, they (we) play mind games with our own brains to force us to do what is not comfortable or enjoyable at the moment.


Make no mistake, all those successful people you see in the movies and on the sports fields use this same technique. Author Tom Peters calls this Benchmarking.


Often times, the really big goal, you might have, seems way too much to even think you can achieve it. The secret is to give yourself several "mini-whys" that push you through each and every day.

Author Seth Godin writes, "If you need deadlines to do your best work...Make some up.

There's no shame in that. In fact, it's a brilliant hack.

Set up a method of reward or punishment with a third party. Money in escrow that goes to a cause you abhor. Public congratulations. 

Whatever the method, the point is the same: You've been trained since childhood to respond to external deadlines. For many people, that's the only way to feel the magic of accomplishment.

If you need the last minute to be your best self, first go manufacture some last minutes."


Repeating, very few really successful people find their life's work easy. In my research more than ninety percent of successful people use some form of what I am explaining to you.

The Great Tennis Star Billie Jean King said, "Champions keep playing until they get it right."

Author Mark Twain wrote, "The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex, overwhelming tasks into smaller manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one."

It took me a really long time to get past the embarrassment of failing. I thought, at the time, that when I failed it meant I was a failure. Once I started the habit of reading about successful people I realized that all of them failed many more times than they succeeded.

Give yourself, daily, "mini-whys" to do what needs to be done even if you do not feel like doing it. The "experts" will tell you that you're goals cannot be achieved by you.

Prove them wrong!

I Believe in you!




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