Becoming a champion means that you’re always choosing. Sometimes it’s a low-fat decision rather than a Mayo-slathered one. More often, the choices are bigger and more universal than that. It means choosing less of the things that don’t work and more of what does. So here are 20 simple choices you should make to become a better champion.

Less Fear. More Courage.

Fears are meant to be faced.
To do that takes courage.
Courage is not the absence of fear, but going forward in spite of it.
It means passing through the fog of fear and into the light of possibilities and freedom.

Less Dabbling. More Mastery.

Dabbling won’t make a dent in the world.
It’s so easy, anyone can do it.
Mastery, on the other hand, takes commitment.
If you want to stand out and make a dent, you can’t afford to plod along without improvement.
Commit to mastery (not perfection or plodding) and push through the inevitable plateaus.

Less Complexity. More Simplicity.

Simplicity is the underdog of complexity.
It just doesn’t get the same respect from most people because simple is, well, simple.
And effective.
Simple solutions are elegant and doable.
“Simplicity” as Leonardo da Vinci described it, “is the ultimate sophistication.”

Less Waiting. More Carpe Diem.

Opportunity and inspiration have short shelf-lives.
They won’t wait around forever.
So if you’re waiting for your ship to come in, the Cavalry to come to your rescue, or someone’s permission to be remarkable, STOP!
You don’t need any of those things.
Seize the opportunity–Do it now.

Less Multi-Tasking. More Single-Tasking.

Standing ovations don’t happen for the one-man band.
Neither does fame, unless you happen to count the 10-seconds of attention he gets from tourists.
Excellence happens because of focus and execution, neither of which occur when doing too much.
Single-tasking is way underrated.

Less Complaining. More Gratitude.

Complaints are free and easy.
They also add nothing but subtraction.
Gratitude, however, flavors everything you do by adding value and appreciation.
You’re more creative than the complainer, so find reasons to be grateful.

Less Focusing on Misses. More Celebrating Successes.

Michael Jordan, Thomas Edison, and Abraham Lincoln all missed.
Repeatedly.
They also succeeded in huge ways because they minored on their mistakes and majored on breakthroughs and accomplishments.
Learn from your misses but don’t focus on them.
Instead you should magnify and celebrate every single success.

Less Overwhelm. More Zen.

Breathe more.
Laugh more.
Say “no, not right now” more.
Let go of the unimportant.
Frequently reflect upon what’s really important.
Pray, meditate, reflect more.
Say “Thank you” and “I’m thankful for…” more often.
Give more.

Less Noise. More Signal.

Information overload isn’t the real problem.
If it were, we’d explode after entering a library.
Failure to filter is the issue.
We need more signal and less noise.

Less “Friends.” More Relationships.

In a world of single-click friend accumulation, we need more authentic relationships.
You know the type that’ll help carry your sofa when you move.
Speaking of friends, one posted a reminder on his Facebook wall to “turn off the laptop.”
He’s right–Walking around the neighborhood with my wife and our dogs is much more fulfilling.

Less Talk. More Walk.

Words are a cheap commodity.
Especially when the world is looking at your shoes for proof of action.
So keep on talking.
And use words if necessary.

Less Criticism. More Praise.

Anyone can be a cynic or a critic.
Criticism is actually quite easy, as is mediocrity.
And it really doesn’t take much more effort to hand out heart-felt praise that makes an impact.

Less Polishing. More Shipping.

Get it done.
Out the door.
You can make the next version even better.
But for now, ship the thing and meet the deadline.
Remember that continual polishing towards perfection can become the enemy of DONE.

Less Bedsores. More Callouses.

More people have suffered from bedsores than callouses.
It’s true.
Hard work never harmed anyone, and callouses never killed cowboys.
As Seth Godin says in his book Linchpin, “Do the work. Make a difference.”

Less Ideas. More Execution.

Ideas matter, no mistake.
You need a lot of them (bad ones in fact) in order to get a single great idea.
But when the day is done, the world needs your tangible product or service not your great idea.
It’s the execution that really matters.
It also pays much better.

Less Accidental Actions. More Deliberate Doing.

Destiny is too great a matter to leave to chance.
Live decidedly with purpose and intent.
It’s the everyday actions that add up and make all the difference.

Less Limitations. More Possibilities.

Contrary to popular opinion, being safe isn’t.
Take calculated risks and watch the impossible happen.

Less Pointing Out Problems. More Solution Seeking.

Anyone can point out the problem.
It rarely takes skill and the market’s already flooded with “experts.”
You weren’t hired, followed, or paid to point out the problems.
The world needs your solution not another voice of what won’t work and what’s broken.

Less Distractions. More Focus.

Focusing can be tough.
There are 10,020 ways to be distracted.
I’d look up that stat on Google, but it would interrupt my flow of finishing this blog post.
Get serious about focusing and you’ll accomplish more.
To do that, you first have to reduce the distractions and interruptions.
Hang the “Do Not Disturb” sign on the door.
Turn off the phone.
Unplug from the Internet.
The world won’t implode just because you’re not available.

Less Surviving. More Thriving.

Surviving is one of those words that shouldn’t be part of our casual vocabulary.
Use that word sparingly.
People survive illness and disaster.
That’s not the same as simply enduring hardships
Yet we cheapen the word by surviving work days and traffic delays.
Those are not events to be survived.
They’re difficulties to overcome.
To do that we must learn to thrive.
Grow and flourish even if it’s just one percent each day.

Zig Ziglar is a master of story telling and motivation and an accomplished speaker and businessman. In this three-part video series he gives us the recipe for successful goal setting and achievement. In typical Ziglar fashion, he delivers his goal setting formula with humor, truth, and impact. I’ve summarized what I believe to be the most important take away points for each.

In this first video he talks about the why and how of goal-setting. Zig gives us his own goal setting formula and emphasizes why following a formula is the key to achieving goals.

GOALS are CHOICES

Point number 1- GOALS are CHOICES. Zig refers to himself as choosing to be overweight for twenty-four years. Every day we decide what we will do. As he puts it, “I have never accidentally eaten anything!” So to reach our potential requires that we make smart choices. Goal setting is the best way to decide our destiny.

Point number 2- GOALS are a MUST! You and I absolutely must have goals and then we must choose to act upon those goals each day.

“Give me a stock-clerk with a goal and I’ll give you a man who’ll make history. But give me a man without a goal and I’ll give you a stock-clerk.” ~ J.C. Penny

Point number 3- GOALS require a PLAN! So here’s how Ziglar outlines the steps recipe of successful goal setting.

ZIG ZIGLAR GOAL-SETTING FORMULA:

• You gotta write your goals down.
• Put a date on your goals.
• Identify the obstacles of your goals.
• Identify the people & groups you need to work with to reach your goals.
• Find out what it is you need to know.
• Develop a plan of action and write it down -”What’s in it for me?” What will accomplishing this goal really mean to you?
  

DON’T WAIT. DO IT NOW.

Ziglar shoots straight about procrastination and reminds us that we can’t wait for perfect timing. There’s no such thing. Opportunity won’t wait and goals don’t just happen. “The people who wait for changes to take place somewhere out there before they do the changing inside miss out.”
The simple rule? Do it NOW.

SO WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?

DREAMS, DIRECTION, & DOING MATTERS

“You can’t make it as a one dream generality – you gotta become a meaningful specific. ~ Zig Ziglar”

DIRECTION MAKES THE DIFFERENCE

Ziglar talks about the lack of direction that usually gets in the way of achieving goals. Dreaming and setting dreams as long-range goals keep us busy and directed at the same time without the danger of “confusing activity as accomplishment.”

Here are some key points of this discussion:

1. Lack of time is simply an excuse. We all have 24 hours.
2. Problem is not lack of time but lack of direction.
3. Without direction, we cannot truly Focus.
4. Focus is what gives us the power to move forward and make a dent in the universe.
5. Focus on the goal and the most important next task.

ACTION IS AN ELIXIR

• Logic will not change an emotion, but action will.
• Benefits of goals – hard to be depressed when you’re chasing your dreams.
• Setting goals and taking action creates excitement

You need your dreams! You will never make it as a wandering generality. You must become a meaningful specific.

CHOOSE ACCOMPLISHMENT OVER ACTIVITY & SIGNIFICANCE OVER JUST SOMETHING

Don’t be a processionary caterpillar blindly confusing activity with accomplishment. What you and I do matters and we only have a short time to choose wisely.
So whatever you do, MAKE IT REMARKABLE.

A CONFESSION- “My Goals Suck”

I confess, until recently my goals sucked. Sure at first glance they looked, felt, and even smelled like the real thing. It wasn’t until I actually decided to focus on goal setting itself that I realized just how far off the mark I had been. I’ll explain.

Last week I set a goal. The goal being to dig deeper into what it takes to think and perform like a champion – what winners do and how they think. You know, the things you and I do, right? Hold it.  Group-confession time… what we sometimes do. Anyway, I vowed to do this by taking a single trait of champions and devoting an entire month of study, action, and reflection towards learning and doing all I could to improve it within myself. Then I’d share my discoveries each week in a series of articles. So it only seemed logical to start with goal setting since I had just set a goal.

Champions have it down and everywhere we go we hear over and over again the virtues of goal-setting, writing them down, breaking them into actionable chunks, and then knocking down the targets to those goals. Simple stuff. Or so it seems. Why then do we still fail to achieve many of our dreams? If you’re anything like me, there’s room for improvement. Here’s what I’m discovering about goal setting and achievement:

FUZZY, UNSHAVEN GOALS NEED A RAZOR

I’ve noticed a tendency to have vague, fuzzy goals. The kind that look like they just woke up and haven’t shaved in weeks.

Goals need hard, clean lines to them. Otherwise they’re as functional as an unemployed guy holding out for a management job for 10 years. They just don’t work!

They need to be recognizable not hidden behind the stubble of vagueness. If a goal can be misinterpreted, it’s a sure sign it’s too vague. So shave that fuzzy goal. Redefine it for clarity and to ensure it can be measured.

Repeat after me, “FUZZY GOALS Suck.”

Keep rewriting and adjusting them until there can be no chance of misinterpretation. Leave no wiggle room for compromise. By the way, whatever happened to Hai Karate aftershave?
Ah, but I digress. Let’s get back on track by restating  what should now be obvious:

FUZZY GOALS Suck. I’ve said it before.
SHAVED GOALS  kick butt like Chuck Norris clean shaven and wearing Hai Karate!

I’ve listed a couple of goals that I had as of last week that sucked and the new and improved version for each.

More Goal Setting Articles:
Goal Setting part 2: Rock n Roll Goal Setting Lessons
Goal Setting part 3: Got Tools For Your Goals?
Goal Setting part 4: Zig Ziglar Goal Setting Formula

We’ve all been told to “never give up” but “never” is one of those words that rarely fits. Truth is, sometimes giving up is exactly what we need to do. So here’s an incomplete list of things that are more than okay to GIVE UP:

• BLAMING
  Work on yourself instead.
• EXCUSES
  “Excuses are the nails used… to build a house of failure.” ~Don Wilder
• JUSTIFYING
  Stop justifying poor results.
• COMPLAINING
  Quit complaining about what isn’t working.
• NONPRODUCTIVE TASKS
  Cut out the nonproductive tasks that really don’t matter, instead practice the 80/20 principle where 20% of what you do produces 80% of the results.
• QUITTING
  It’s okay to quit; just make sure you start again.  Seriously, if you are going to quit something quit the quitting.
• SAYING YES
  Say “no” more frequently. You’ll find it easier and less stressful to follow through when you become pickier about your commitments.
• THE COMFORT ZONE
  Embrace change and fall in love with growth and learning. Continually stretch yourself.
• INACTION
  Do something to move closer to your target goal. Even 15 minutes is progress compared to inaction and that’s usually  all it takes to kill the inertia of inaction.
• OVER-ANALYSIS
  You’ve done some research, now start! There will always be more analysis that could have be done before you begin, but it’s much better to get started.
• SELF DOUBT
  We’ve all been there. The key is deciding to move away from self doubt toward self encouragement, positive actions, and reminders of what you have already accomplished. Become your own coach, cheerleader, and friend. Ask yourself, “if you spoke to your best friend the way you speak to yourself would they still be your best friend?”
• NEGATIVE INNER DIALOGUE
  Like self doubt, the negative words and images about ourselves strip us of our potential. Rewrite the scripts. What would your  inner coach say to empower you?
• PASSIVITY
  Believing that someone else holds the key to unlocking your potential for success, capabilities, and opportunities will leave you waiting and disappointed. It’s up to you to take action!
• SURVIVAL
  Most of us already have everything we need to “survive” (we have the basic necessities of life covered) so we need to focus our intent upon THRIVING not surviving.
• FEAR
  Fear was meant to be conquered by facing it directly with courage. If we do not, our dreams are blocked. So recognize what you are afraid to do and do it anyway.
• SOMEDAY SYNDROME
  Someday Syndrome can easily lead to missed opportunities and regrets. If it’s truly important to you take the first step… research that travel destination you’ve dreamed about visiting, outline that book you want to write… take the leap.
• REPETITION
  If what you’re doing isn’t working, take a chance and do something different. It’s been said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Do something different and expect different results.
• WISHFUL THINKING
  Replace wishful thinking with determined action.
• IGNORANCE
  Know yourself, know what you want, know your strengths and pasions, and remain hungry for knowledge, wisdom, and growth.
• TALKING / DREAMING WITHOUT DOING
  Vaporous talking and dreaming produce nothing. This is not a dress rehearsal, this is your one shot at the life you’ve been given. What have you been talking most about but doing little? Flip it around. Do more. Talk less.
• ANYTHING THAT LACKS EXCELLENCE
  Who said you must finish that mediocre book or mundane movie? Just because something has a designer brand on it or was stamped “best seller” doesn’t make it excellent. Look for excellence and cultivate the distinction between good and best. Then become the best… YOU. Become excellent in all you do.

Asked how long it took to achieve Excellence, IBM’s legendary boss Tom Watson is said to have answered more or less as follows: “A minute. You ‘achieve’ Excellence by promising yourself right now that you’ll never again knowingly do anything that’s not Excellent—regardless of any pressure to do otherwise by any boss or situation.”

Using a spoon is frustrating.
We’ve been told “Know your weaknesses and work on them.” It certainly makes sense to recognize and eradicate them where possible, but like anyone who has tried to row a boat with a spoon can tell you, it’s a lot of hard work! Inadequacies have a way of zapping the passion from us while rendering our efforts all but futile. We put so much in yet get so little out.

Champions focus on what they CAN, not what they CAN NOT.
They spend less time breaking their backs mastering weaknesses and dedicate more of themselves to their strengths. Weakness are not ignored. No, they are ruthlessly worked on for improvement but not at the expense of strengths. Focusing on our weaknesses can be daunting because we invest so much effort yet progress so little. It’s the inverse of the 80/20 rule. It expends 80% of our capacity just to return a mere 20% results. Even more important than tempering our weak areas is building upon our strengths, for therein lies the real leverage for accomplishment. This is where we see exponential growth. But to do that we must know ourselves well.

English Writer Jonathan Swift likened the search for strength to mining for treasure when he remarked that “men are accused of not knowing their own weakness, yet perhaps few know their own strength. It is in men as in soils, where sometimes there is a vein of gold which the owner knows not of.”

In every single one of us there’s hidden treasure and ores of strength. The point is to discover them. We must dig into the mine of our abilities to unearth our strengths – those veins of gold – and look for ways to extract and use them to our advantage. Zig Ziglar reminds us that we already have all the characteristics necessary for success, if we recognize, claim, develop and use them. Easier said than done? Keep in mind that no success comes without effort, but champions become what they are by exerting their efforts in the right places –  their strengths.  Mine it and you’ll find it. Here’s how:

KNOW THE MINE.
Take careful note of what you enjoy and the areas where you excel. This is where you’ll discover gold. What classes did you get the most A’s? What games and activities do you find most fun and fulfilling? That addictive exhilaration that we get from winning a game, solving a problem, or finishing an artistic endeavor is the combination of a strength fueled by passion. When you find that mine by all means stake your claim and explore it.

QUARRY.
Try new things, explore new possibilities. No explorer has discovered new territory by staying put in the homeland. No athlete gets better in the game by practicing within their comfort zone. Get out there, embrace change, and you might just surprise yourself in what you find. You may discover hidden gems of talent, new realms of passion, or forgotten areas of interest. Embrace the adventure!

POLISH THE GEMS.
Dusty, uncut, and unpolished ore are but gems of strengths intermingled with weaknesses. They are treasures that too often go undervalued. It’s up to you to do the work, to polish and bring out the best from what you’ve discovered. Look for ways to continuously improve your craft. In doing so, your strengths will outshine your weaknesses.

COMPLEMENT.
Set your gems in the right metals, accentuate their highlights. It’s true that inspecting our capabilities opens our eyes both to our weaknesses and strengths and allows us to find ways to overcome weaknesses by maximizing the value our of strengths. What’s important afterward is that you put your strengths on display. Share them with the world. Only then will their true value be realized.

“A box without hinges, key, or lid, yet golden treasure inside is hid.”   ~ J.R.R. Tolkien

What golden strengths should you be sharing with the world?
What’s holding you back?
What strengths have you discovered recently?
What gems of talent are you polishing to perfection?
[explore more championship traits here]

Success Questions To Ask Yourself

Questions are meant to be answered. It’s no different if those questions happen to be self-directed. So here are some questions to ask (and answer) to stretch yourself.

Success Questions to Ask Yourself

1. What do I really want?
2. How can I better define the desire in more detail?
3. What can I do to nurture the dream?
4. What are the obstacles and challenges (real and perceived)?
5. What am I willing to give/do in order to make it happen?
6. Who can help me reach this goal?
7. What one thing if done well and done consistently will make the most impact toward reaching my goal?
8. How can I become a better coach and encourager for myself and others during this process?
9. Where will I go for inspiration to combat the doubt and overcome the struggles?
10. Who will share in the success once the goal has been reached?

Man’s mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions. ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes