Last week my wife “crossed over.” She closed the door to her 30s and strode gracefully into her 40s.

Curious what life is like on “the other side,” since I am still a mere adolescent in my 30s (for eight more months), I asked her what newfound wisdom she has gathered from the many best wishes messages, cards and conversations she has had with those already living in “the beyond.”

I was so intrigued and inspired by her discoveries, I asked her if she would share her collected pearls of wisdom with you here on this blog. She agreed (if I washed her car—she’s a tough negotiator!).

Advice from the ‘Other Side’ by Georgia Hardy

If I had a nickel for every time someone told me that “life begins at 40,” I could buy the world a martini. I just crossed a very important threshold in my life and spent the most glorious 40th birthday celebration weekend with my most cherished friends and family. And though there was a wide range of ages and generations represented, many of them told me similar things about being 40 and how “life happens” in one’s 40s.

What does this mean? Does this mean that I haven’t really been living? Does it mean that my 20s and 30s were just dress rehearsals for my grand 40s? Well, I asked these very questions, and though the responses were varied, they were all very interesting.

Imperfection Is Perfect

In a conversation with my friend Valerie, she shared two important realizations that have made a difference in her life. First, she described transitioning into her 40s as a sort of read more »

Review: INTRO, GETTING READY & Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15

“I think there is something more important than believing: action! The world is full of dreamers, there aren’t enough who will move ahead and begin to take concrete steps to actualize their vision.” —W. Clement Stone

The Final Step: Action—Yes, You Have to Actually Work

Contrary to movie lore, you can’t just sit on your tush on your couch and imagine checks coming into your mailbox. If you do, you won’t have that couch for long. You have to act on your plans. You have to get off the couch, walk out your door and work that tush off to get what you want in life. Doing must follow planning.

All the planning, pondering and philosophizing in the world won’t produce your desired results. All the contemplation, envisioning, affirmations, chanting, positive thinking and meditation won’t materialize your goals if you do not take action.

“Affirmation without action leads to delusion.” —Jim Rohn

Napoleon Hill once asked an audience, “What is the average number of times that a person tries to achieve a new goal before they give up?” After several guesses from the audience, he gave the answer: read more »

Review: INTRO, GETTING READY & Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14

As we head into the final stretch of this incredible journey, I want to offer you one final gift. It’s one of my greatest strategies for creating extraordinary success, and now–if you choose– it can be your success strategy, as well.

Regardless of your experience, skill level, or even the quality of your competition, with enough time, the following principle will allow you to win at almost everything, every time!

In fact, the only thing that can stop you now from accomplishing all the goals you have set is not utilizing this principle…. And that is the No. 1 reason why incredibly talented, intensely motivated people fail to attain what they want in life.

I used to get frustrated when I would start a new venture and I’d see the competition leap out in front and get off to a fast and successful start. Then I found the single discipline that gives me the advantage to beat anybody at almost anything—CONSISTENCY.

A lot of people become gung-ho about new goals or achievements, and they charge out of the gate in an explosion of activity—but their intensity and commitment quickly fizzle. Meanwhile, those who begin the journey with less flash but a greater commitment to consistency eventually catch up to their flamboyant peers and leave them in the dust. Do what most people don’t: Stay consistent.

Lack of consistency is the subtle stealer of dreams. The stop and start process kills progress in any pursuit. In fact, inconsistency is one of the biggest reasons people don’t achieve their goals, and instead end up living a life of frustration and disappointment.

When you start thinking about slacking off on your action plan, routines and rhythms, consider the massive cost of inconsistency. It is not the loss of the single action and the tiny results it creates; it is the utter collapse and loss of momentum your entire progress will suffer.

Zig Ziglar uses the analogy of a hand-pumped water well. The water table is 25 feet below the ground. A pipe runs down to the water table, and you have to pump the lever to create the suction that brings the water above the ground and out of the spout.

When most people start a new endeavor, they grab the lever and start pumping really hard, they are excited, committed and resolute…. They pump and pump and pump, and after a few minutes (or a few weeks), when they don’t see any water (results), they give up pumping the lever altogether.

The first few people they showed the product to didn’t buy. After two weeks on their new health plan, they haven’t lost one pound. They didn’t meet anyone at the first two networking events they attended.

People expect instant results, and when they don’t see progress, they quit… before success has a chance to show itself. Wise people continue to pump.

If they persevere and continue to pump and pump the lever, eventually a few drops of water will appear. At this point, a lot of people say, “You’ve got to be kidding! All this pumping, and for what? A few drops of water? Forget it!”

Eight weeks of working out at the gym, and they don’t look like a Victoria’s Secret or Calvin Klein underwear model. They didn’t make $10,000 their first 90 days in their new business. Again, they don’t see the results they were expecting. They think their plan isn’t working, and they quit. But the wise person persists.

If you continue to pump, eventually, you will get a full and steady stream of water. Congratulations, success!

But here’s the real secret…

Once the water is flowing, you no longer need to pump the lever as hard or as quickly. It’s easy to keep the pressure steady by just pumping the lever CONSISTENTLY.

Now, what happens if you let go of the lever for too long? The water falls back down into the ground, and you’re back to square one. If you come back and pump the lever easily and steadily, you still won’t get any water. You have lost the vacuum, or the momentum of your compounded effort. The only way to get the water flowing again is to pump the lever really hard all over again.

The problem with most people’s lives is that they work really hard to get the water flowing and then take a break. Wham-o! They have to pump like crazy again just to get back to even. Living life in a constant state of fits and starts is frustrating and demoralizing.

People start up a routine of making 10 new prospecting calls a day, strike a little gold, and then don’t dial for a couple of weeks. People get excited about their new “date night” routine with their spouse, but in a few weeks, it’s back to Netflix and microwave popcorn on the couch Friday nights. I see people buy a new book, sign up for a new program or seminar and go like crazy for a couple of weeks or months. Then they stop and end up right back where they started—sound familiar?

Consistency is one of the most important principles of success.

Here are a few ways lack of consistency can negatively impact your life…
If you miss a couple weeks of workouts, or affectionate gestures to your wife, or slack off on your prospecting routine, you don’t just lose the results those two weeks could have produced. If that is all you lost, not much damage would be done. What people don’t realize is that by breaking their rhythm, they kill Mo (Momentum)—and that is the real tragedy. The cost to revive momentum is an enormous amount of time, energy and effort—not to advance, but to get back to where you started.

Committing to the principle of applying consistent effort to your goals will forever alter how you (could) live your life. One moment of inconsistency, a single poor choice, temporary inaction, a brief lapse of discipline doesn’t simply result in the loss of that one action—it breaks your momentum. Your Mo has left the building.

It’s not how you or your competition start; it’s how you continue. If you stay consistent, even slowly (the tortoise), ultimately, you will beat the most talented of competitors (the hare). CONSISTENCY is why the tortoise beats the hare every time.

At the start of this program, I gave you this all-important axiom, your key to the obtainment of any goal, dream or desire you can envision: Commitment is doing the thing you said you were going to do, long after the mood you said it in has left you.

Suggestion: Strategize how you will keep your commitment and consistency steadfast. Ask your friends, family, boss, co-workers, gym mates or mentor to help remind you and push you forward. Set a series of appointments with yourself to keep you on track with what you need to be doing– regularly. Publish your Weekly Rhythm Register on your refrigerator, bathroom mirror, on the wall at the office, or on your blog. Design ways to continually herd yourself back into the rhythms, routines and disciplines you need to stay consistent on in order to accomplish your big goals.

Thoughts, questions, supporting ideas to share with the group? Leave your comments in the section below.

Review: INTRO, GETTING READY & Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13

If you are going to achieve goals you have never achieved before, you must be willing to do what you have never done before.

One of those things is to allow, no actually push, yourself to FAIL. And if you want to succeed big, you have to fail big. There is no way around it.

When I was only 20 years old, I got into residential real estate sales. It was the early ’90s, and the real estate market was as tough as it is right now. I knew nothing about the real estate business; I had no prior experience, clientele or even credibility—I wasn’t even old enough to drink! But in just 90 days, I was outselling (new listings and pending escrows) an entire office of 44 veteran agents—combined!

The strategy I am going to reveal to you made that possible and is one of my personal-achievement secret weapons. I now offer it to you…

When I went to my first real estate seminar, I asked the lecturer to lunch. I asked him for his best tip on being successful in real estate. His answer was, “Go fail—a lot.”

“What?!” I said. “I thought the whole idea of success was to avoid failure.” “Quite the opposite,” he said. Then he told me a quote from Tom Watson of IBM: “The key to success is massive failure.” He said, “Your goal is to out-fail your competition. Whoever can fail the most, the fastest and the biggest wins.”

I was still perplexed.

Then he drew this analogy out on a cocktail napkin. He said, read more »

Review: INTRO, GETTING READY & Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

We are human. We cannot be 100 percent 100 percent of the time. We cannot improve every area of our life simultaneously. We cannot do everything at the same time. When we try is when we fail, burn out or blow up.

Nature works in cycles. As with the seasons, there is a time to learn, a time to produce, a time to harvest and a time to rest. Farmers, schoolchildren, and even professional athletes operate in seasons. That approach to life can help you excel, too.

I want to explain an advanced achievement strategy that will help you make greater progress toward your goals—faster.

It’s a concept called: Working in Success Cycles.

Let me give you an example. Let’s say you and I are going to race from Los Angeles to New York City. We both have planes. You have a 747, which travels at a cruising speed of 875 mph. I have a mere Learjet, which travels at 400 mph. Now, if I fly straight through, but you have to land and take off in the 10 states in between—taxiing, parking and going through your preflight checklist before taking off again—who is going to win? read more »