Post #4 - My Success Ideas-Responsibility

Well after a lengthy break I am back with another post. Today I am going to talk about the third pillar of success. If you have been reading along then you will know that the first pillar was "attitude" and that the second pillar was "decisions". Well I believe that the third necessary pillar to be successful in life is responsibility. What I mean by responsibility is not only being dependable in your day to day life, although that is certainly important,but more importantly I mean taking responsibility for your own life. I mean looking in the mirror and being totally honest with yourself. Too many people I believe blame the problems in their life on other people or on outside events. I believe that before we can become successful we need to learn that the only one we have to blame for things that aren't the way we would like them to be is OURSELVES. Until we learn that we can not move forward. We can not take the next step until we accept that the reason that we are where we are in life right now, right at this moment, is because of the decisions and the actions that we ourselves have taken. Nobody else is to blame! If you are not happy with some aspect of your life right now, be it financial, health , relationship, then it is because of you, no one else is to blame, it is all on you. It is not your employers fault for not paying you enough, it is not your girlfriends fault for dumping you, it is not your parents fault for not raising you correctly.....it is your fault. We need to accept this fact. If this seems a little harsh there is an important reason for this. For once we accept, and I mean truly accept that we are the reason why we are where we are at right now, then we can move forward. And here is the exciting part. Once you realize that it is all on you up to this point,then that also means that your future is also all on you! This means that no one else can determine your future for you!! This means that the decisions and the actions that you take from this moment forward are going to determine where you will be one month from now, one year from now and ultimately 5, 10 or 2o years from now. We shape our own future.We are all responsible for our own lives. If we make good decisions and have a good attitude and take positive actions then I can guarantee you that you are going to be better off in the future, but before we can do that, we have to accept responsibility for where we are right now. This is one of those things that is so easy to say but so hard to do. It is human nature to blame someone else or something else for our shortcomings, but this is a recipe for failure. You can't go through life blaming everyone else. I am trying to teach this to my kids right now but it is easier said than done. When I ask them why they are not doing as well as they could be in school they have a thousand excuses, but it is never their fault. I was the same, but as soon as I realized that I was responsible for my own life. For my health, my relationships, my finances, my career well then everything changed. It no longer mattered what the weather was, whether I had a supportive family or if the economy was good or bad because I was in control of my own life. I was no longer relying on anyone else, I was finally taking responsibility for my own life. I went back to school and upgraded my education, got my pilots license, met and married the woman of my dreams, bought a house, bought an apartment building etc etc. I have never looked back. I believe we all need to look in the mirror every so often and see how we are doing. How's your health and fitness? How's your relationship? How's your finances? If the answer to any of these questions is "not so good" then take responsibility. It is up to you and no one else. Accept that where you are is because of you and more importantly where you are going is also up to you. The past is over, it doesn't matter ! What matters is the future!!! So I encourage you to take responsibility for your future. If you don't know where to start that is o.k. I am going to share with you exactly what works for me.For now just realize that it is all up to you and that if you are willing to accept that responsibility then you are well on your way to a promising future.

Post #3 - My Success Ideas - Decisions

Well I am back again. Today I am going to share with you what I believe to be the second pillar, or second requirement that you must posses in order to be successful. If you have read my first two posts you will know that I believe that to be successful in life then there are four qualities you must work on before moving on to the specifics of success. In my last post I described these qualities as the pillars that provide the support for a building. It goes without saying that before you can build a tall building you need a strong base to support it. Well last post I told you that the first pillar was your "attitude"and how important it is that you have the right attitude. I believe the second pillar required for success is decisions or decision making. What do I mean by this? Well again I am drawing on what I have witnessed in my life up to this point, and time and again I have seen the importance of decision making in peoples life. Now I don't mean that you necessarily have to make the perfect decision every time, in fact you don't even have to make the right decision ( although that would certainly help), but you do have to make a decision and preferably a well thought out decision. I am not talking about decisions such as what to have for diner tonight, although that is a start and can certainly be important for your health, but instead I am talking about the bigger decisions we are faced with in life. Many people I come across in life are afraid of making decisions and instead wind up just drifting along trying to think as little as possible. In my experience these people end up ultimately unhappy with some or all of the aspects of their life. They are either overweight, broke, in an unfulfilling relationship or perhaps some combination of all of these and they have no idea why. Think for a moment how powerful a decision can be. Just one simple decision can change the course of your whole life ! I don't know about you but I find that exciting. If you were to make a decision tomorrow, a REAL decision not an "I'll try" or a"maybe", but if you were to make a decision tomorrow that you are going to be fit and healthy from this moment on, that you are going to watch what you eat and that you are going to follow a fitness plan ( don't worry as I will share my health and fitness plan with you in a later post) . If you were to genuinely make that decision tomorrow, well what kind of difference do you think that might make in your life. If you ate healthy foods and worked out on a regular basis and thus were full of energy and proud of the way you felt and looked then don't you think that would effect the rest of your life. Not just today, but five years from now, ten years from now even 20 years from now. Of course it would!! And it all started with a decision. Not a spur of the moment type, but a well thought out decision weighing the pros and cons of continuing on your current path or of committing to a new path. I cannot emphasize how important decisions can be and this is in just one area of your life that we are talking about. What if you were to make similar decisions for all the areas of your life? For your finances, your relationships and your career? What kind of a difference do you think those decisions might have on your life? I'll tell you - they would make a HUGE difference! When I was 19 years old I wanted to be a pilot but unfortunately my family couldn't afford the cost of flying school so I made a decision and I joined the military. Now before I could become a pilot I first had to become a military officer. Now a big part of being a military officer and being able to lead others is being able to make decisions. I remember that they would take us out into the field and they would put one of us in charge and then call over whoever was in charge and give them their "orders" . It usually involved some sort of task that had to be completed within a certain time frame. It may have been building a bridge over a creek or setting up camp for the night. At the time we all thought that we were being graded on the finished task. On how well the bridge or the camp looked and functioned when it was complete.When I look back now however I can see what it is that they really wanted to see. They wanted to see if we could make a decision and then follow it through. It may not have been the perfect solution to the tasks that were given,but those that gave it some thought, made a decision and then provided direction to complete their decision did well. Those that hummed and hawed and asked everyone else what they thought and then changed their minds numerous times did not make it through. I was fortunate to receive this training at a young age and was able to apply it to other areas of my life. This has proven to be invaluable in my life. What I am saying to you is that we have to consciously decide what it is we want in life and then have the discipline to follow through. Life is filled with decisions from what shall I have for breakfast to shall I buy a house or rent one? If we become aware of these decisions, and make good decisions more often than not and develop the discipline to follow through we are well on our way to becoming successful. If we choose the fruit and the oatmeal for breakfast more than we choose the bacon and eggs then the cumulative effect over a lifetime can be great. Decisions are a powerful tool, they can literally change your life in an instant, for better or for worse. If tomorrow you decide to be successful, not wish, not want but truly decide then I promise you your life will change for the better. Again I know it sounds simple, and again it is simple, the key is to make sure that you don't just float through life but that you actually take the time to sit down and make some real decisions. So again the second pillar is decisions and when you combine this with the first pillar, which was attitude, then you are well on your way. I believe the secrets to success are not really secrets at all but are just a matter of doing the simple things on a regular basis. So I encourage to sit down now and make some decisions....give it some thought and then decide what you want for your life, it really is one decision that could change your entire life. And if you do decide that you want to be successful and that you want to change certain areas of your life, then come back again, because next I will share with you the last two pillars of the base of success that we are building. After that I plan to I share with you what I do in each area of my life specifically that has helped me to become successful. Thanks for reading.....

Ian