Do you follow the masses or are you on your own path?

If you follow everyone else, you will be just like everyone else; those statistics are scary:

1.    The average American is overweight 

2.       Less than 5% of adults participate in 30 minutes of physical activity each day; only one in three adults receive the recommended amount of physical activity each week

3.    The average American thinks the government's number-one priority should be to help keep and create jobs in America 

4.    The average American watches 2 hours and 49 minutes of television a day.

5.    The average American is Divorced

6.    The average American hasn't finished college

I don’t know about you, but looking at what everyone else does is frightening . In the US we have accepted mediocrity, laziness, and sub par performances as normal; this needs to change.

Everyone says that they want to be rich, beautiful, healthy, and happy but are not willing to work for it!  We have developed a world of instant gratification and laziness and that isn't working. On average our kids will live 5 years less than us, be more broke, and won’t be able to live up to the standard of living they are used to unless we change what average is.  To be better than average we need to work hard, be focused, get off the couch and be role models for the next generation.  

Let’s get the world to see beyond average!

Ken 

Quitting is the easy part.  What comes after is far worse than the pain you were in when you decided to quit.
 
When you quit you are looking for the immediate gratification of the pain stopping, looking for the feeling that you are done and don’t need to keep going on.  And if feels good!  It feels better than anything else; for about 30 min, but what comes next is far worse.
 
Your brain goes into overdrive.  The questions start to come, what could I have done differently, or asked for help on, or just had some more patience. Quitting is often a permanent solution to a temporary problem. The mind or body is saying that you don’t deserve this, or that it is too hard, or why does this only happen to me. When in fact, it happens to everyone.  The comfort zone is a strange thing.  It allows you to exist and  doesn’t want you to push further.  When people get out of their comfort zone the first instinct is to quit; they say this is too hard.  When in fact they haven’t figured out an alternative; many times this is just the beginning to greatness.
 
As a headhunter, coach and athlete I have seen many people, including myself, quit something because it was too hard for the moment.  When in reality it may be too hard for an hour, a day, a month, a year.  But what most people don’t realize is that no matter how bad something is, it will always end.  I can’t tell you how many people I have spoken with that have quit their jobs because their boss wasn’t nice to them, or that they didn’t feel like they were getting compensated enough, or that the work is too hard; but then go through the pain of trying to find another role and can’t.  You know why, because people don’t want to hire quitters.
 
When you go on interview and the hiring manager asks you the reason you aren’t working what do you say?  Think about it.  There is always some excuse, but in reality it is because you didn’t  endure.  You are a quitter and that screws with your psyche.  You no longer have an income, your identity is no longer intact and then you start realize what you had wasn’t that bad.    
 
When you quit, you are no longer in control, you are on defense.  When you are on defense you have lost your power, you become desperate and take a step back, rather than a step forward and settle for something that you wouldn’t normally settle for.  Does it feel good to settle? Does it make you proud to say that you quit?  When you look back on your previous role you begin to realize it wasn’t as bad as you made it out to be. 
 
Think about how good you feel if had endured a hard battle, think about how proud you would feel if you outlasted your boss, your client, or your role.  Right when you are about to quit, realize that many times, that glory is one more step away.  Remember that it is always the darkest before the dawn!  

Ken
​[email protected] 

It’s impossible to be successful by lying in bed. The best of the best are up early, like they say the early bird gets the worm, it can’t be more true.  Taking action early while the brain is fresh, the coffee is hot and house is quiet is the best time in the world to get anything done. There are no distractions and I am already ahead of the curve.

Also it is hard.  Doing the hard things is what makes the journey of life awesome. No one ever felt proud by doing the easy things.  Doing the hard things is what makes you overcome adversity, makes you feel like you have accomplished great things and doing the hard things is what makes life epic. All the greats of life do the hard things, they make the hard decisions, they use discipline for success.  It has been said that discipline creates freedom, that statement couldn’t be more true.  If you are disciplined in all areas of your life and you live to the standards that you set up for yourself you will be victorious but if you don’t ever set your mind up for victory, you will never win. 

Doing the hard things, like getting up at 5am, being authentic, telling someone you love them, stretching, working out, or picking up the phone to make that hard call are difficult at first, but with time they all become easy, they become easier than ever.  Doing the hard things is what makes the journey so much better.  Doing the hard race, or making the hard call, or standing out, or being willing to go first, or sitting at the front of the room or asking the first question or putting yourself out there is how to get things done.  No one ever became successful by just doing the easy things. 

Sweeping the floor is easy, making 7 figures every year is hard. 

​Embrace the hard! 

Ken
[email protected] 

​This is a personal accountability and responsibility question.  If you walked out the door for an interview, sales call, or even a date, this is a question you must ask yourself.

How do you look? Is your story dialed in?  How is your attitude? Are you likable? Are you willing to do what it takes, no matter what? Do you make excuses?  Have you done all of your homework on the hiring manager, company, team? Are all the boxes checked off so that you will be remembered as a person they must hire or do a deal with? 
 
I know it is a different way of thinking, but now it is on your shoulders.  I know for me, this is an opportunity to be better prepared to win.  If I look in the mirror on my way out the door and I am not ready to have a definitive yes, it is time to adjust so that I am. 
 
Before your next interview, sales call, yearly review, or date, ask yourself this very important question,

Would You Hire you?

Ken

Winning in life is key, if you are going into life to not win then why are you here? Life is all about trying to become the best version of you! Everyone thinks that winning if going over the line first, that isn’t it, winning is about being better than you were yesterday. Winning is about pushing yourself to get over your own finish line, winning is about stepping outside of your own comfort zone. That is winning.​
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Believe me, don’t get me wrong, I love to get across the finish line first, my competition is not everyone else, my competition is me, it is about pushing my limits of what I think I can do and taking off the governor. I am not someone that is naturally smart, athletic or gifted. For me to win, I need to work harder, go longer, think more and apply myself more than most. I know that when I don’t do the things that push me forward, I start going backwards; it plays with my mind, body and spirit. I get really pissed off at myself when I lose momentum. In my subconscious I know that what I am doing isn’t working. I know that it is really forcing me backwards when I want to go forward. It makes me feel guilty, anxious and gross. In reality it is real time feedback from my mind and body telling me what I have and haven’t done. That is why it is so much easier to focus on the win rather than focus on being mediocre.