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Always remember it’s just as easy to cultivate good habits as it is to cultivate bad habits. The good habits are the ones that move you in the right direction. We (the pleasure seekers) tend to associated good habits with work, and bad habits with pleasure. But I hope you can see how destructive this is.

Think about your goals and get fired up again. Feel the passion. And then, give your goals a whole-assed approach! A half-assed approach means you’re “working” toward your goals by: doing the work that’s easy and fun, but only until you don’t feel like it any more; by justifying putting off certain tasks because you think they’re hard or unpleasant. Well, of course you know I’m going to say this – a half-assed approach is going to get you half-assed results! Engage both cheeks for best results!

1. Set your standards high. Have some pride in what you do and really rise to your potential. Don’t waste your energy on busywork! Work in short bursts of intense focus rather than slogging through an entire day full of daydreaming, distractions and half-assed efforts.
2. Do the work that showcases your talents and skills. Delegate the rest and don’t waste time doing things you’re not good at. If you’re a photographer who hates sitting at the computer editing and manipulating images and you think you have to do it all… why? In the long run it’s cheaper to hire someone who loves that sort of thing, so that you can focus your energies on what you love and what you’re good at – taking incredible photographs.
3. Which brings us to point 3. As much as humanly possible, do what you love. Do a little more of what you love this week than you did last week. And next week, do a little more than you did this week. Ever notice that doing what you love doesn’t feel like work, even if it’s mentally or physically extremely demanding? It’s fun, right?
4. Keep raising the bar. Don’t get complacent when you learn a skill. Improve on it. Set even higher standards for yourself as you progress.
5. Commit to your high standards. Be selective about the company you keep, the situations you’re in, the work you do – if they’re not aligned with your goals, set them free.
6. Embrace “kaizen” – the principle of continuous improvement. Work smarter, not just harder. “What can I do this time to improve on what I did last time?” Even small improvements add up. Do your best, and keep improving on that.
7. Keep motivation and self-esteem high by delivering high value, and don’t be a martyr by giving more than you receive. The ideal is a fair exchange of value and compensation. Put yourself – your highest self – into your work and don’t reject receiving. This may require some digging into deeply-seated beliefs about scarcity, lack and self-worth. The easiest way to feel good about receiving fair compensation is to respect your work. Ask yourself, “would I buy this?” If you know you’re not doing your best, subconsciously you will reject abundance because of our hard-wired standards of fairness.
8. Make a bigger contribution today than you did yesterday; and make tomorrow’s contribution bigger than today’s.
9. Steve Pavlina said it best: “On the surface it may appear that hard work is in conflict with freedom. But the truth is that in order to extract real value from your freedom, you must make a serious effort. Freedom is a blank canvas. Hard work makes it a masterpiece.”

Working toward what you want, and doing work you love, does not feel like work. It feels like PURPOSE. That is the mind-set that will allow you to achieve great things.

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Inspired by Steve Pavlina’s blog at www.stevepavlina.com/blog

I’ve found that it’s far easier to identify and eliminate negative beliefs when you are in a group situation.  The reason for this is, that we are all so good at helping people solve their problems but not our own (think back to a time when you’ve helped a friend through any sort of personal crisis.)  We can see right through another person’s negative self-talk.  We hear what they say and we can point out that they’re coming from a place of lack and doubt.  We see what their actions are and we can help them redirect toward more productive actions.

But doing that for ourselves is nearly impossible.  We see what we want to see.  Our beliefs are so much a part of us that we don’t even realize they can be anything but what they are.  Since those beliefs came from past experiences and from the teachings of people close to us, they must be true… right?  Wrong!  If two people look at exactly the same current situation, they will have two very different perspectives.  Maybe one person has had a lifelong struggle with money; and the other person has always been surrounded by plenty.  Maybe one person was told they were incompetent and stupid; and the other person was too, yet there was something along their life journey that made them realize they aren’t stupid and incompetent, and their belief system changed accordingly.

We all choose to believe something (no matter the source).  It’s those choices that are readily visible to others, and practically invisible to ourselves.  We just think, “that’s the way it is” and don’t realize that we chose to feel a certain way, or to think and behave a certain way.

Maybe you’ve had a terrible experience as a salesperson, and that has clouded your perception of what it takes to be successful.  Someone in your group may have a way of selling your product or services, that you hadn’t even thought of, a way that really speaks to your comfort zone, something you believe is achievable…

Maybe you were always taught that “you can’t make money as an artist” or some such rubbish.  But you chose to believe it, because everyone around you was chanting the same tune.  So it must be true, right?

Maybe you’ve never been able to crack that elusive athletic barrier, and you chalk it up to some sort of physical limitations (because your parents/coaches/peers said something like, “oh, you’re just not that body type” or something like that?).  What if someone in your group can prove, just by his or her own experience, that what you hold as “absolute truth” is nothing but “absolutely nothing more than the way I choose to perceive this?”

Are you beginning to see how a group of individuals with the same goal in mind – that is, the achievement of their own personal goal(s) – can help each other?  You can call this your success group.

A success group isn’t there to point out each other’s shortcomings or belittle each other.  They are there to assist each other in several ways:  to illuminate what is holding you back; brainstorm with you on ways to overcome those self-imposed limitations; to support and encourage each other to grow, explore alternative ways to think/act, to hold each other accountable, and to help each other stay focused on success.

It doesn’t matter if everyone in your group has a goal that’s completely different from yours.  The bottom line is, in order to achieve something you haven’t achieved before, you must become the person who can.  That’s what groups are for.  Take several individuals, with completely different backgrounds, experiences, beliefs and “limitations”; bring them together under the guidance of a coach for the purpose of helping each other; and you have a powerful recipe for success.  Experiences and ideas are exchanged.  Empathy is built – “hey, I’ve been there too, and here’s what I did that really helped me…”  And you are surrounded by a group of people who believe very strongly in their dreams.  This supportive atmosphere will accelerate your achievements much faster than if you were to go it alone.

A stick is easily broken on its own, but a bundle cannot be broken.  If you’ve ever supported a friend or loved one, in any capacity, you know how powerful it is to have the support of others.  Think about the power of group consciousness and what it can do for your own success – and how extraordinarily rewarding it is to help others achieve their own success!