People with weak fundamentals are easily misled. They are inconsistent and can be easily tricked. On the other hand, people with solid fundamentals can easily distinguish between what’s right and what’s wrong. As a result, they are dependable and can stay on track to get important things done.
Just like everyone else, throughout my life I’ve had to learn many things on my own. I realized the power of these lessons. When you focus your effort and your energy, you can build a phenomenal foundation for a successful life.
I can identify fundamentals for you, I can explain fundamentals, I can teach fundamentals to you, but ultimately, they are tools. The way you apply those concepts and beliefs is the way you build your entire life.
Whether you learn them from mentors or from life itself, fundamentals are the building blocks of your story. Greatness comes from the application of fundamentals and the discipline to develop them further than all the rest.
Establish Your Mindset
Image source: https://unsplash.com/photos/IGOBsR93I7Y
The joy of freedom is that you can make your own decisions about what you believe in and what external choices you are going to make. Your thoughts, your mindset, and your actions are truly your own.
Your mind is your most powerful tool. The outcome of anything you do can be predetermined by your mindset. If you don’t think you can do something, you can’t. But that’s the wrong approach.
You’ve got to think right before you can do right. This is the case in every situation and in every age—no exceptions.
Everything won’t always go your way.
You can’t always change the circumstances in a situation. Sometimes you’re just dealt a bad hand. But that doesn’t mean you have to fold. Life is too short to always be quitting and starting over again. Instead of quitting, learn how to play the cards that you were dealt and make positive things happen from them.
Positive thoughts result in positive outcomes.
[bctt tweet=”Positive thoughts result in positive outcomes.” username=”LarryWeidel”]
Take a step back and look at the winners around you. How do they think?
The quarterback of a football team doesn’t think that he’s going to lose the Super Bowl before the game starts. He prepares to win and puts in so much effort that by the time he shows up at the game, he expects to win. This is what gives him the attitude and toughness necessary to overcome obstacles and to ultimately win.
Apply this concept to your own life.
If you have a job interview and you don’t think that you’re going to get the job, you won’t get it. Your body language will give you away. You won’t be as confident. The interviewer will pick up doubt and hesitation, and that will cause them to hold back even if you are right for the position.
When you have an interview, prepare to get it. Study the company, study the position, figure out what they’re looking for, have your answers ready. Look sharp, be on time, put a smile on your face, and tell yourself that you’re going to get the job, the raise, or the promotion. You are the only one who can control your preparation and your thoughts.
Prioritize
Spend your time on what matters in your life. Your priorities might be different than mine.
Nobody can tell you what aspects of your life should be prioritized. You have to decide for yourself.
I used to work 12 hours a day for 6 days a week. This was a burden for myself and for my wife and kids.
So when I was starting my own business and was in control of my schedule, I made time for my biggest priority—my family.
I would spend time with my family during the day, even if it meant I had to go back to work at night. No matter what, I always scheduled time for them.
Your priorities might be different. But you need to take a step back and identify what’s actually important to you.
If your workweek is spent on tasks that aren’t helping you achieve your goals, or worse, tasks which are actively pulling you away from your responsibilities, then your priorities are out of whack. Life should be more than sitting with your nose to the grindstone, hoping your goals will achieve themselves.
It’s not enough to simply work hard. Work for a purpose, work for the things that matter to you, and take steps to make them happen.
Follow Self-Determined Leaders
Subtleties of greatness are caught—not taught. As humans, we tend to mimic behavior we see in others. Make sure to keep your eye on successful people.
Spend time around those who know the things you don’t so that you can get fresh input and keep growing. There’s a lot to learn from following the leader. Specifically, there is a drafting effect that can work to your advantage.
Pay close attention to the way that winners present themselves. Their actions speak much louder than their words. Notice what they think is important and what they ignore. Notice the things they emphasize. Notice how they express themselves. Notice what they do and how they do it. These are clues to adjustments you can make to increase your own productivity.
Consistent effort itself is a fundamental. When a self-determined leader decides to do something, they do it with all of their effort. They never approach something haphazardly, and they don’t take the easy way out.
Winners know what it takes to succeed, and adapting their habits can help you do the same.
When you interact with mentors who are self-determined leaders, allow yourself to be pushed, challenged, and stretched so you can grow. Pressures and challenges are not bad things. They are good things because they force you to dig deeper and respond with strength.
Doing things to the best of your ability allows you to be proud of what you do. Be proud of everything that you put your name on.
Remember, a kite rises against the wind.
Take Responsibility
Image source: https://pilotonline.com/sports/college/article_7d23e82d-9b1d-5740-83fc-6b77065798e3.html
Everyone makes mistakes.
You’ve made mistakes in the past, and you’re going to make more in the future. This is unavoidable. But what happens after something goes wrong is completely up to you.
It’s easy to take credit for something when it goes according to plan. If your team wins, you can step up and say that your performance paved the way to success. But winners don’t need that type of credit and recognition.
When your team loses, will you step up to the plate and own your mistakes? This is a basic fundamental that underlies all success. It yields responsible behavior and the type of leadership that others will respect.
[bctt tweet=”When your team loses, will you step up to the plate and own your mistakes? This is a basic fundamental that underlies all success.” username=”LarryWeidel”]
The ball is in your court . . . you can either accept reality and organize your life around truth, or live in denial and suffer the consequences.
Put Knowledge to Action
The world is full of facts.
In today’s day and age, the internet has made it easier than ever to learn new information about nearly anything you could imagine. But it’s up to you to decide what’s important to act upon.
Don’t live your life in a vacuum.
What will you do with the knowledge you collect? How will it change the way you live your life?
You make the play.
Consider the following statistic: 1 of 6 American children are chronically hungry.
You can choose to be aware of this fact and do nothing, or you could choose to donate your money or time to help feed children in your local area.
Consider your resources, your passions, and the needs in your community. Then put your knowledge to work.
Educate Yourself
You must educate yourself about the world you operate in. This can be applied to both professional and personal circles.
Sure, maybe you were qualified to the get the job, but that doesn’t mean that you should stop learning. If you’re good at something, figure out how to improve at it. I’d rather grow and learn new things than rely on old things that may not be as effective in an ever-changing world.
Don’t just go through the motions at work or at home. Bring 110 percent of your effort to overcome your daily challenges.
Further your education. That doesn’t necessarily mean you need to go back to school, but you can hone or expand your skills on the job or in your free time. Choose to learn, and seek opportunities to take tangible steps to set yourself up for success.
What are you going to do when you go home? Learn the habits of highly confident people.
Furthering your education can even go beyond your job title. I’ll give you an example.
Let’s say you own a few rental properties as a stream of income. Your goal is to minimize maintenance expenses, but when something needs to be fixed in one of your units, you call someone to do it for you again and again.
These costs add up quickly.
Call someone once, and then learn how to do it yourself in the future. Watch the professional fix the leaky sink, broken circuit, or window latch. Ask questions. After they complete the work, do your own research.
Then the next time it happens, you’ll be able to do it yourself, or at least troubleshoot common problems before calling an expert. With diligence, you can lower the cost of your maintenance expenses over time, perhaps even permanently.
A teachable attitude and a desire to learn, along with hard work, will help you succeed.
Overcome Fear
What are you afraid of?
Everyone has fears. But you can manage and overcome your fears.
Take a look at the top 10 fears of 2018, according to a recent survey.
Nearly all the fears on this list are out of your control.
It’s OK to be afraid of things. But it’s unhealthy to let these feelings hold you back from achieving your goals.
“Face your fears,” people say. Anyone can tell you to overcome your fears, but they can’t actually teach you to do it.
You must choose to face them every day, and walk through them on your own to get to where you want to be. You need to step outside of your comfort zone.
If it were easy, everyone would do it. But the reality is, overcoming fear is hard. It involves acting against your emotions, and it requires you to change yourself to move forward.
Successful people develop strategies for coping with fear, and they believe they are capable of changing for the better. This motivates them to continue to act despite their fear.
Encountering obstacles like fear often indicates that you are moving in the right direction. So push back when you encounter fear, and keep moving forward.
Develop Your Instincts
Greatness comes from combining and applying these fundamentals to your life in positive and powerful ways.
Be consistent. Stay true to your fundamentals so that you can quickly increase the results that you get from your hard work. You’ll find that success patterns begin to form and that you can trust your instincts more and more.
Life is short, and knowing the fundamentals that work for you will help you eliminate the guesswork of how to be productive and achieve the things that you want in your life. Fundamentals are your foundation and your friends, and you can use them to achieve great things.
