I believe that to be at your best, you’ve got to practice the fundamentals of personal development.

Think about it, a top Olympic sports star, trains for many hours each day to be the best and to earn the gold medal.

Typically, they train on fundamentals – the basics – and perfect their moves over a long period of time. Just like a sculptor hammering away at a stone to create a work of art, the top athlete hones their skills with perfect practice over time.

I believe we are created to live an extraordinary life, but have been trained to be ordinary. The path of least resistance is the ordinary path. The path of focused effort toward a worthy goal, is the extraordinary path.

So I’d like to encourage you to take the extraordinary path today and pick up a book that can help hone your thinking…

I’m going to list a few here so that you can choose the one that “fits you” right now.

For the mindset of success in business: “No BS Wealth Attraction For Entrepreneurs” by Dan Kennedy

For understanding how the little daily habits can either make you or break you: “The Compound Effect” by Darren Hardy

For learning about the truly wealthy and the mindset that got them there: “The Millionaire Next Door” by Thomas Stanley and William Danko.

For understanding the world of marketing and how to excel at it:

Successful people think differently than unsuccessful people. And one of the best ways to learn how to think differently is to read about success or to read successful people’s books and biographies.

It will re-orient and re-contextualize your mind to thinking successful thoughts.

It’s worked for me, and I know it will work for you too!

Goals – Begin With The End In Mind

All successful people do this – they begin with the end in mind. They see success and their desired end result before they ever begin their project.

In fact, you could almost draw a parallel with how much this skill relates to personal success.

Those who have the ability to begin with the end in mind can “see” their success ahead of time and can continue to strive toward that “picture”; the end result that they see so clearly.

Of course, it is entirely possible that you could lose that picture through lack of focus or lack of desire for that outcome but that is entirely up to you and your own ability to hold on to that thought of success.

Think about it, in your job, who are the highest paid people at the top of the corporate ladder?

I would suggest that many of them are not the most talented when it comes to the nuts and bolts of manufacturing, technology or the day-to-day operations of the company, but many of the top corporate executives and entrepreneurs ARE able to think and plan and visualize the successful execution of a larger goal. In fact, some of the better ones could be called “visionaries”.

A great example of a visionary is Walt Disney. I remember reading a great story about Mr. Disney… (paraphrased)

Mr. Disney passed away during the construction of Tomorrowland.

The story goes that at the Grand Opening of Tomorrowland, Mrs. Disney was asked, “Isn’t it too bad that Walt can’t be here to see this?”

To which Mrs. Disney assured them, “He has seen it.”

See, Walt Disney had seen it – way before construction even began on that project.

He had a clear, concise picture in his mind of what he wanted to accomplish and then set the wheels in motion to create his vision.

What do you want to accomplish in 2013?

Do you have a clear, concise mental picture of what you want?

Is it laser-tuned specific or is it vague and general?

Have you taken time to write out all of your game plan for 2013 – and beyond?

Do it today!

Game Planning For Success

The word “Goals” and the practice of writing goals down is almost a cliché nowadays.

As you know, I am a student of success in business and have attended hundreds of seminars, read thousands of books and listened to days of audios and videos on success. I know the power of goal setting and the effect that it has had on my success.

However, I believe there is something even more powerful than goal setting and I call it “Game planning”.

If you have any experience in sports, then you have a clear idea of what I’m talking about.

It has more to do with the actual strategy and logistics of what you want to accomplish than the actual end result itself.

In sports we call these “plays” or, put more simply, the steps you must execute in order to reach the goal line or to win the game.

Game planning involves goal setting but takes it to the next step. This next step is one of actually creating a plan to accomplish the end result (goal) and a timeline in which to accomplish each step. It is literally a step-by-step plan of accomplishment!

This is the way the mind responds best to a goal – it must have a plan to get to its goal and then – everything moves a LOT more smoothly!

Take some time TODAY. (no procrastinating, remember it’s a New Year – Just do it!)

Set your eBay business game plan and develop strategies to accomplish your end result.

By having A PLAN in place, (it doesn’t have to be perfect) you will more easily move forward and you know what? Moving forward is the very first step to success.

It is the ability to get yourself off of square one that is probably the most important step – once you do that, you have forward momentum and it is much easier to keep going than it is to stop! – Get on it!

Include Your Family And Friends In Your Game Plans For This Year

You need to know something.

All this talk about success in business will be utterly worthless if you don’t have family and friends to share it with.

I believe that you can spend all of your time building success and that, at the end of the day, if you don’t have loved ones to share your excitement and wealth with, it will all be hollow.

The real joy in life is in healthy, fulfilling, well-balanced relationships – relationships with God, Family, Friends and Associates.

My last (but certainly not least) recommendation for success in 2013 is that you work hard to build or enrich these important relationships in your life.

I realize that some of your friends or family may not understand or even support your business goals and that’s ok.

You still need to be able to Game Plan time with God, time with your family, time with your friends and yes, even time with your employees or people you work with!

By doing this, you will be extracting more “juice” out of life.

You will enjoy your life a lot more and you will have richness to your life that few other people do. It will add dimension to your monetary success and will make your life much fuller.

Just stop and think about financially successful people who isolated themselves:

• Elvis Presley
• Howard Hughes
• Kurt Cobain
• Jim Morrison
• Marylyn Monroe
• etc.

These people were rich and famous but, because they isolated themselves from people, they ended up among some of the tragedies of history.

Be sure you make time to be with friends and family – at the end of the line, our relationships will far out value our business net worth.