Jim Rohn, one of my mentors, described success as, “a few simple disciplines practiced every day.”  He also said that failure was a result of, “a few errors in judgement repeated every day.”  His point is that it’s just simple little things that add up and determine the direction of your life.  It’s not big, singular events that are life-changing, it’s the culmination of the little decisions we make every day. 

An example of this is the apple-a-day analogy he likes to use.  If an apple-a-day really lead to good health (which I’m sure it does), then why doesn’t everyone do it?  It’s pretty easy to eat an apple a day, they are plentiful and cheap.  So why doesn’t everyone eat one?  It’s easy NOT to do.  It really is that simple.  The difference between success and failure is not huge, it’s small things as easy as the apple-a-day.  The keys to becoming successful are easy to do.  The problem is that they are easy NOT to do as well. 

It’s very easy to make a few wrong decisions and slowly drift off track.  You wouldn’t let yourself be jolted way off track all at once, but you will (without even knowing it) let yourself be nudged off track, ever so slightly with bad choices.  Over time, you wind up a long way away from where you set out to go.  It’s like the frog in the boiling water story.  If you dropped a frog into boiling water, he would immediately jump out!  (If he survived.)  But if you put a frog in a pot of water and slowly heated it, he would stay there until he boiled to death.  You get the idea.

Many of us make these errors in judgement on a daily basis regarding our health, our weight, our family and our finances.  The problem is we don’t get immediate results for our actions.  The guy says I didn’t eat an apple today and tonight I’m not ill.  That’s a very short sighted and foolish philosophy.  Another bad philosophy is that I will eat 7 apples on Sunday and be o.k.  No, it’s consistency that counts.   An apple A DAY.  Everyday.  If we did get immediate results for our actions, we would change our behaviors in a hurry!

Just like being fit, and eating healthy.  I’m sure the contestents on the T.V. show The Biggest Loser would agree that they would never choose to be fat.  But they DID choose to be fat, over time with the compounding of their poor habits (errors in judgement repeated every day.) 

The good news is that to start a new discipline is easy.  Eat an apple.  Go for a walk around the block.  It really is that simple to make a change in your direction.  Every new discipline you start will also increase your self-confidence.  That’s a great benefit.  Every lack of doing your best errodes your confidence and self-worth, but every new discipline increases your self-confidence.  The worst thing you can do is to do less than your best.  That starts the disease of self-doubt and low self-esteem.  Pick a few new disciplines to start, and get going on making the changes in your life that you desire. 

Life is brief.  Whatever you are going to do, get at it.  The passing of time only takes us drifting, and you can’t drift your way to your goals or success.  Take action and start today.

If you have watched the show before, you know that all of the contestants are severely obese when starting the show.   Not only are they subjected to rigorous physical exercise and a complete diet/nutrition overhaul, but the contestants are also pushed to overcome the reasons they became obese in the first place. 

Many times, the underlying reason for their lack of self-confidence and poor self-image is pain brought on by their parents divorcing or one parent leaving them.  Not feeling valuable.  It’s a recurring theme that we see over and over with kids, who grow into adults and have trouble liking themselves. 

We need to pay more attention to this and correct the problem BEFORE it develops.  How?  Create a loving and strong family where both parents are involved and committed.  Dadsworld.com is committed to promoting and encouraging involved Dads.  Dads matter.  Be a Dad for life!

Our new t-shirt comes out next week, and it has that slogan.  Dad for Life.  Get one and be a proud, involved Dad. 

I believe in absolutes.  There is a right and a wrong.  There is good and evil.  There is truth in the world.  I don’t buy into the sliding scale of ethics.  It doesn’t matter how it affects me personally, that is not a determination of right or wrong.  Many times the right path is the harder path, and the easier path is the wrong path.  Convenience and ease don’t relate to ethics.

I’m not saying you have to live perfectly, I don’t know anyone who is perfect.  But I am saying that we make choices normally based on how they affect ourselves, and we know what’s right and what’s wrong.  To benefit oneself at the expense of another is wrong.  Many people don’t think much about these things, I guess because it would mean facing up to the fact that they are living life by abusing others.  Some people probably don’t care, others avoid reality by immursing themselves in distracting activites.

I used to do sales and personal development trainings all over the country, and many people would come up to me and say that they didn’t like themselves very much.  They drank too much, or didn’t spend enough time with their families, or cheated on their spouses, or treated their bodies like “woodsheds instead of temples,” or gave up on their dreams.  Professional, “successful,” adults would routinely tell me stories like this. 

I was always amazed at the fact that people have been given the power of free-will and choice, and yet they choose to undermine themselves!  For me, it all boils down to how you feel about yourself.  Your self-image.  If you routinely do the right thing, your self-image will improve and your personal power will get stronger.  If you put off doing what’s right, and instead partake in what’s fun and easy the majority of the time, your self-image will suffer.  BOTH of these paths have a snowball effect, taking you higher or lower.  Zig Ziglar said it well, “If you are hard on yourself, life will be easy on you.  If you are easy on yourself, life will be very hard on you.”  I remember a quote from the NBA great Dr. J (Julius Erving) who when asked how he was so consistently successful at basketball, he responded “I demand more from myself than anyone else could ever dream of.”  Good advice.  Take the right path in life, not necessarily the easy one.

If you are raising a family, your own actions will have dramatic effects on the lives of other people (your kids and their kids).  So be true, and be sincere.  The more little things you accomplish, the better you will feel and that will start the snowball.