Clinton Skakun

Photo credit by rcameraw

“The most common road to mediocrity is being realistic.” – Will Smith

Ever notice something about realistic people?

… 90% of the time … they’re broke!

Realistic people can’t stand change. Realistic people are usually cynical about change, paradigm shifts, new ideas and anything that clashes with their secure world. Realistic people will snear at you in the beginning … but loose in the end. Realistic people stay stuck in a frame of mind that only exists in usually the past. Realistic people don’t believe they can ever do anything other than what has already been done. Realistic people are mediocre at best.

Who wants to be realistic?

Let me tell you about unrealistic people. The people who make real differences in this world usually aren’t tallying up the odds, and they aren’t coming up with endless reasons why something can’t work. They don’t care what’s realistic. Let me ask you a question, what the hell in this world is realistic? We wake up every day and do things people would have thought were impossible 20-30 years ago. What if you tried to explain the Internet to someone in 1985? You’d probably have been told your brains are fried. Unrealistic things are happening every day. And if you think being realistic is going to create the kind of life you want, you’re sadly mistaken. Even though things are changing so rapidly every day, we still have the time to sit back and decide what is realistic and what’s not. BS! There is no such thing as realistic and there is no such a thing as unrealistic. The only thing that doesn’t change is your belief of what is “suppose” to happen. Only you can change that.

“The 95% of realistic people in this world work for the 5% of unrealistic people.” – Will Smith

The unrealistic people rule the world. Is it realistic to be the chairman of a top Fortune 500 company? Is it realistic to train your whole life to win a gold medal? Is Open Source software outperforming technology giants realistic? It’s scary to think what the world would be like if some of the great inventors of our time would have been realistic people, who payed close attention to the odds against them. We blame this stuff on luck, or someone who had a fluke opportunity. Even success-minded people fall into this trap. But a few of us know this: when you think unrealistically, it opens a new space in your mind that didn’t exist there before, a higher level of thinking. Albert Einstein said that “a problem can’t be solved at the same level of thinking that it was made at.”

Here’s a question to ask yourself: Am I realistic and in what situations am I realistic? Make sure you pay close attention to the answers you give yourself.

Next time someone tells you something is unrealistic, your answer should be … “Compared to what?”

A good belief to instill in yourself is that nothing is impossible if you really want it bad enough and do whatever it takes. Maybe it takes working late and starting early, a sickening work ethic, relentless repetition until it works. Just take someone who has accomplished something, that you would consider, nearly impossible and use them as a role model. What makes your little challenges so hard to defeat? Are you even giving 10% of what you could?

Burnout occurs through a few different sources. When I was still in high school, working between projects and school at the same time was  a little stressful and demanded that I get up early enough to kick start the day … and work late enough so I wouldn’t have to even later the next day. Those days are kind of a blur and needless to say both grades and projects suffered. Certain activities get really addicting, there’s always that “just one more day of this crazy coding and I’ll have something ready” months, which seem more like weeks, fly by and it seems as if you’re moving backwards. Sometimes you are. Finally you realize that no matter how hard you work you’re still in the same place as last week, and the week before. Unless you change something.

Your body will only allow you to stare at a computer screen for so long until your eyes turn to chock and your memory slips like a skipping disk. In the case of burnout, you probably blank out in the middle of conversation or zone out when someone asks you a question. Basically, when you burn out, your mind is just overworked. Maybe you have a zillian things to do in a few days time and as the days go by your interest diminishes.

I’m not a big advocate of the 4 Hour Work Week type of thinking. Sure life isn’t all work. But when you find yourself broke, don’t look for a “4 Hour Work Week”, just work towards your dreams and choose your hours as you go. Being committed to your dreams means doing what it takes, it takes more than a few hours a week and it often means raising the bar. Too many people are looking for a fast and easy way to be entrepreneurs. It doesn’t often happen. Even Tim Ferris, author of 4 Hour Work Week, had some major lessons to learn early in his entrepreneurial career.

There are a few things you can leverage to decrease burnout and get more done. They don’t mean that you’ll never be tired again, but you’ll be able to operate at a much higher level and get more juice out of life. My explanation for burnout is running your engine and never changing the oil. The first one is to simplify, organize and eliminate. Much of burnout is just inability to focus well on everything from things that aren’t important to average importance. Don’t decide to start a business, go to college, work a full time job and become an author all at the same time. Decide what’s good in your life and what’s great and choose between the two. You can’t have one or the other and be a success. Will Smith calls it, paraphrased … “being focused, not being in 100 different things at the same time, mastery takes laser like strong focus.” For example, I said no to learning to play guitar, to going to college and to a number of other things. All of these were “good” but I chose to focus on the “great” which was worth much more to me … Say no to more people more often. Schedule your time and set priorities. Don’t give your direct phone number to every client(especially if you have a large client base). Be like an executive at a large organization: checking every activity, finding ways to cut out steps, measuring the gains and the costs, outsourcing to save time and money–innovating to run at a higher level with lower maintenance. Put weight only on the valuable tasks. Put time where it’s valued. Three hours of social networking won’t be the best return on your time. Checking e-mail every 15 minutes will turn a 8 hour day into a 16 hour day. Get rid of access projects and worthless activities.

The second is to take care of your health and rest often. Things like smoking, consuming too much sugar, not taking breaks from staring at a screen for long periods of time or sitting at a desk all day will eventually take its toll on your health. Maybe you don’t exercise enough, maybe you don’t take the weekends off, maybe you don’t socialize enough. This is all vital, not only to your physical health but also to your mental health. Studies show that Americans are one of the most sleep impoverished people in the world. On top of that we don’t get enough oxygen, not breathing deeply enough and not going out side and we don’t drink enough water. And…we literally eat shit, called fast food. It’s an amazement our minds can still function! High productivity calls for high energy, high energy comes from putting the right things in your body.

Scheduling the weekends off to do something fun is something we should all consider non-negotiable. First thoughts are always, “I can’t afford to miss two days of work” … hey, you can’t afford NOT to! Great ideas come on the weekends, the ground work is done on the week days. Keeping the big picture in mind is key to knowing whether your actions are worth doing. And that brings us to number three…constantly reviewing the destination.

It’s easy to just work away like a crazed ape, burn out and crash, and then find out that what you were doing had nothing to do with what you were trying to accomplish. Setting goals is simple, even though most people never do it. If you can manage to join the minority that sets goals, you’re closer but it’s not enough: you actually have to follow through. The second mistake is that people follow through but fail to assess their actions and end up in the wrong direction, or fall short. Constantly tracking yourself is critical in knowing how far you are. Every night ask yourself, what did I do today and how much closer am I to my destination?

You must have reasons enough to trigger that drive inside of you. Some people live off that drive alone. If you can find strong enough reasons to do something you’ll most likely do it with a lot of passion.

The following post was written by Glenn Danker

Picture taken from Microsoft Clipart

In the world today, the most influential people, the highest income people and the most loved people are all leaders with powerful leadership. Without leaders, organizations cannot run or move efficiently and effectively. Without powerful leadership, there will be chaos and people will be lost. Only powerful leaders can lead the lost and bring the light to direct them to the right directions. Therefore, leaders are needed everywhere to lead people in the organization to the common goal … which the leader and their followers share.

Before you read on, ask yourself these 2 questions:

#1 Would you be interested to know how ordinary people like you and me can be powerful leaders and have powerful leadership?

#2 Would you want to know tips which you can get started to grow and become into a powerful leader overtime? (notice I used the word overtime and not overnight)

In this blog post, I will be sharing the hidden truth behind powerful leadership.

Before I get started, I would like to clarify something. Leadership is a skill which you and everyone can learn. Some people have it shown more obviously while others may not show it so much but it is perfectly alright as you can learn step by step.

Since you will be reading more later, would it be okay if I share why I wrote this blog post?
(Oh well, I am going to share it anyways! Haha!)

I was watching this video by the faculty member Patricia Fripp and I was so inspired thus, I decided to share what I learned. To know more information where I watch the videos, Click Here

So I have been using the word “Leadership” so I covered the importance of Leadership above, so what exactly is the definition of Leadership?

Leadership means the ability to know what have to be done and then get people to do it. Through this definition, it explains that Leadership is a combination of 3 elements; Clarity (Know what has to be done) and Teamwork (working in a team of more than 1 person) and Leverage (Getting results through other people).

Now I will share the 7 Hidden Truths of Powerful Leadership

1st Hidden Truth of Powerful Leadership
-The Principle of Leadership is the Same and Timeless.
-This means what powerful leaders or successful leaders use are the same whether it is in the past, present or future.
-This means you can learn from powerful leaders in the past like Winston Churchill, in the present like Edward Kennedy.
-You can follow the basic principles which are taught about Leadership by various leaders like John C Maxwell.

2nd Hidden Truth of Powerful Leadership
-Good Environment
-You will need to provide a good environment for people if you wish to lead them
-An example would be to have a clean and safe environment for people to work in as this will be provide the people with an incentive to want to follow you
-I believe people will only follow your leadership if you have them in mind

3rd Hidden Truth of Powerful Leadership
-Your Expectations
-Tell the people whom you will lead about your expectations.
-By letting them know, you give them clarity thus the expectations which you state will give them something to think about before following you.
-They will think whether the expectations which you state are what they believe in or what they want
-What they will be doing, who will they doing it for and why they are doing it.

4th Hidden Truth of Powerful Leadership
-Talking to people to improve your Leadership
-As a powerful leader, you should talk to people in your company or organization or even leaders of other organization.
-You should not only talk to leaders in your company but also to what we call as the “real people”. The “real people” are people who work for you and they do most of the work like calling of clients, administrative and even cleaning. These people give you insights and pointers on how effective your leadership is, whether they are satisfied with how you lead, the decisions you make.
-Talking to other leaders will give you a perspective on how they lead and you can learn a thing or two from them as well

5th Hidden Truth of Powerful Leadership
-Model
-What is a better way to lead than to be a living example of what you expect and your values.
-People will follow your Leadership if you actually practise what you say.
-What do you think?

6th Hidden Truth of Powerful Leadership
-Encourage
-The power of encouragement is so important.
-Do not underestimate the power of encouragement as it can motivate your employees, followers to work even harder for you.

7th Hidden Truth of Powerful Leadership
-Let happen
-Let happen means things must happen, action must be taken.
-With all the talk of direction, it will be nothing but an illusion if no action is taken.
-Therefore, a powerful leader should not only Talk the Talk but Walk the Walk.

Now you know the 7 Hidden Truths Behind Powerful Leadership and how you can become a powerful leader. If you are looking to become a very powerful leader and a successful leader as well,  you need to look at other leadership secrets which are not discussed in this short blog post. We have briefly discussed the hidden truths of powerful leadership and for more information on tips on leadership secrets, please visit our website. Click Here to find out more…

About the Author: This is blog post is written by GlennDanker. Glenn started a blog to teach people about finance, personal and business development. Glenn explains that the reason why he writes is because “On many occasions, my parents quarreled on this topic of ‘Money’. Issues like not having enough money, who to pay which bills…these are the main issues which caused my family to fall apart.“ and his love for teaching others drives him to teach others so that, as he explains it, “to share with my readers personal development and business education so that they would be able to improve their business or their relationships. I do not want another people to share the same fate as me.“ Glenn obviously has the talent and the passion to change other people’s lives and has the experience and the “WHY” the back it up. Click Here to Visit GlennDanker’s Blog and learn more about him.

What determines the shoulds vs. musts in your life? Why do you put up with garbage in one area of life but refuse it in another? Why are there people who have every reason to make something of themselves yet go no where, while there are people who have every excuse, every reason not to, yet still somehow make it?

We could say that the difference is in their mind-set, the goals they set and so on. All this makes a difference. However the biggest difference is the standards people set for themselves. Standards play a massive role in success. We don’t always get our goals, but we always live up to our standards. Standards are musts. Some people’s musts are to provide for their family, and other’s might be, not only to be a provider, but to build wealth for generations to come. What people really mean when they say, “I have to” is that it’s a standard they’ve set for themselves and anything lower means massive pain.

When I started recognizing this I started setting looking at what I did differently. Before the fact I was purely a possibility person. I didn’t have enough musts but I had a lot of shoulds, and there’s a world of difference. See most middle-class people’s musts are “pay the bills, save for retirement, provide for family, spend a few quality hours a day with kids.” The difference between the middle-class and the world-class, is not only that they think differently, but that they set higher standards. See before my mentality was, “all I NEED is enough to get by, but I WANT to be wealthy.” What’s the problem here? Income was only a should, and as a result, I was broke. After setting a high income as a must, things changed over night.

“The middle-class’s shoulds are the world-class’s musts!” – Clinton Skakun

To get a clearer picture about this let me give you a classic example: If you work a job, and work morning shifts, chances are you set your alarm early. Has there ever been a time when you woke up 5 minutes before you had to be somewhere. Did you lay there and try to convince yourself to get up? No…you probably panicked and jumped out of bed, ran to get dressed and ran out the door. Getting to work on time was a must for you and for a few reasons(mad boss, work ethic, etc). Now what happens on a day where you “should” get out of bed? You reach over and hit “snooze” and then wake up two hours later. What would you do if you knew that at 8:00am your bed was going to burst into flames? You’d probably get up before your alarm went off, now that hitting “snooze” might mean death! Now if staying alive isn’t a must for you, I don’t know what is.

“You don’t use your full capabilities, you only rise to your personal standards.” – Clinton Skakun

So what’s the real difference between a must and a should? Well, a must is something that you must do to be who you are…your identity. Why do people have trouble quitting smoking? Because usually they just focus on behavior, or cravings…but in their gut they still view themselves as a “smoker.” As long as they see themselves as a smoker, changing behavior will be extremely painful and they’ll keep coming back. Why? Because we always act consistent with our identity. But if you smoke a few cigarettes, and you say, “I’m not this type of person! I’m not a smoker!” then you will most likely take action to stop smoking, because of your subconscious need to stay consistent with your identity. People stay consistent with their identities whether their identities are negative or not. The labels you hold to yourself, will mean you will have to act in consistency with those labels. Have you ever believed that you’re “stupid”, “not a hard worker”, “someone who can never get a hot girl on a date”, “not tech savy”? You see … it’s not apart of your capabilities, it’s apart of your identity. I’ll give you an example: most, if not everyone, is capable of murder, but not everyone murders. Why not? Why wouldn’t you murder someone? You might say, “Well, I’m just not that type of person, I’d never do that.” It’s not apart of your identity, you don’t view yourself as a murderer, and so you don’t think or act like a murderer. The amazing thing is that you can change your identity by giving yourself different labels through, for instance, the roles you play in life(e.g. “I’m a scientist”), your emotions(e.g. “I’m mostly a happy person”), your talents(e.g. “I’m great at computers”) and so on and so forth. The thing to remember is, we act on who we feel we are in our gut. That has to be a gut level change, not just an intellectual one.

“Our identity can be grafted to allow us fuller access to our capabilities. If you don’t choose your own identity, someone else will, and your life will be colored by someone else, not you.” – Clinton Skakun

Here’s some action steps for you to take: find out which areas of your life are suffering because your standards are just too low. It could be anywhere in your life from how you spend your time to how you spend your money. Set new standards, throw away your shoulds. Quit “shoulding” all over your self! Saying, “I could/should be making $10k a month where I work but…” is completely different then “I’m going to make $10k this month if it takes 10 hours a day or 20 hours a day.” What happened if you had a son who needed surgery, and he only had 2 months to live, would you sit around and say, “well you know I should try to get him into surgery but I just don’t have enough time this week” Are you kidding? You’d search all over the world for a surgeon would could perform the operation, you’d even take out a loan, even if you had to re-mortgage your house, to get this surgery done! It wouldn’t be a should, it would be an absolute must! Isn’t that true? So what standards have you set in your life? For me, mediocrity was living way below my standard. Financial independence is a must, and even though I’m not there yet, I work towards it constantly. Because a picture of me at 50 years old, working a regular job is the worst kind of pain imaginable. Why is that so bad? Because I won’t be able to take care of my parents, I won’t be able to provide for my future family in a way that meet my standards(there’s that work again) and all those possibilities will be out of my reach. It’s all in what standards you set for yourself. Because, you always live up to your standards, not always your goals. Set big goals, and then set high standards to meet them. So, who are you? A few questions to ask yourself.

“You must demand more of yourself than anyone else could ever ask of you.” – Clinton Skakun

Please read this post a few times. In my opinion this is one of the most important blog posts I’ve ever written. Your life doesn’t get really juicy until you start demanding more from yourself. And you start at your identity and the standards you set for yourself. Why you do anything else really depends on who you are.