• “Sell Without Selling!”
• “Never Sell Again!”
• “Salesless Selling!”

Have you noticed the proliferation of teachings and articles telling you that you don’t need to sell in order to … sell?

I often hear salespeople try and deny they are salespeople.

Examples: “I’m in sales but I don’t really sell…I just help people.” Or, “I don’t consider myself to really be in sales.” This sales-denial is not meant to be dishonest. They really believe it when they say it.

What’s the confusion? Like most things, it goes back to a false premise; in this case, the term “sales” or “selling.”

If you believe that selling is somehow immoral or … yucky, you’ll do practically anything to avoid identifying yourself with it. This makes total sense, doesn’t it? The challenge is – since you know you are in sales – the disconnect is costing you a lot of money in lost business. Just as important, it’s keeping a lot of people who would have benefited from your product or service from doing so.

There are several false definitions of selling that, unfortunately, far too many people accept and believe. Selling is not about talking people into buying something they don’t want or need; it’s finding out what they do want or need and helping them to get it.

Selling is not taking advantage of others, but giving them more advantage through your excellent products or services (assuming it genuinely meets their needs and can benefit them).

Selling is not about taking but about giving. In fact, the Old English root of the word “sell”, “sellan” meant… “to give.”

Semantics or Not?

And, exactly what do you give when you sell? You give time, attention, counsel, education and empathy. And, most of all, you give value.
You should be proud of that; proud to be in sales, and proud to say that you are a sales professional.

Of course, what the “non-selling’ claims at the beginning of this article and others we often see are trying to communicate is “selling without using manipulative tactics.” I understand. And, of course, I agree.

And, again, I’ll go back to the premise: If you really believe that selling is based on “tactics of manipulation” (actually, this describes a con-artist, not a professional salesperson) and you are an honest person, then that false definition is hurting your sales. After all, how do you effectively do something that — in your gut — you feel is wrong?

You don’t!

So, reframe, my salesperson friend. And, do this by understanding what selling is and — just as importantly — what it isn’t. Focus on providing your exceptional value to the lives of many, and thrive.

Oh, and do products ever actually “sell themselves?” No. That’s why you are so badly needed.

Why it is Called “Selling,” Not “Order-Taking”

Earlier, we saw that selling is finding out what people want and helping them to get it. But, that brings up a good question: “If someone wants or needs something, can’t they just tell you? I mean, are people so stupid that they can’t figure these things out for themselves?”

Actually, it has very little to do with being stupid or smart. It has much more to do with simply not necessarily knowing what is available and/or possible. That’s why part of a professional salesperson’s job is to educate, and do so correctly.

Please understand that practically all of the helpful, useful and valuable inventions that today we take for granted first had to be sold to the public.

The brilliant 18th Century German philosopher, Arthur Schopenhauer is quoted as saying, “all truth passes through three stages: First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as self-evident.”

And, sometimes…it’s simply ignored!

In his excellent book, “The Purple Cow,” marketing authority Seth Godin shares the story of the person who literally invented sliced bread. We’ve all heard the saying that something is “the best thing to come along since sliced bread.” So, obviously, the man responsible for its creation saw the world rushing to his door, correct?

Umm, not exactly. According to Godin:

“In 1912, Otto Frederick Rohwedder invented this simple machine that could take a loaf of bread and actually slice it. And, the machine was a complete failure. This was the beginning of the advertising age, and that meant a good product with lousy marketing had very little chance of success. It wasn’t until about twenty years later — when a new brand called Wonder started marketing sliced bread that the invention caught on. It was the packaging and the advertising of WonderBread — builds strong bodies twelve ways — that worked, not the sheer convenience and innovation of pre-sliced bread.”

The point is, regardless of whether it’s a huge, multinational conglomerate paying big bucks to advertise or the salesperson or small business owner hitting the pavement, the Internet, or both, selling on some level must take place.

Sure, the McDonald’s customer doesn’t have to be sold on the burger (though originally he/she was), or maybe even the fries and soft drink. But the person behind the counter who knows how to gently, effectively and consistently upsell the hot, delicious apple pie brings in a lot more money for the store, and has a happier (if not lighter) customer.

Yep, even great ideas usually need to be sold. And, they are sold by salespeople. That’s why sales is called “sales” and selling is called “selling.” Neither are called order-taking.

Of course, that salesperson need not literally be a sales professional, but may instead take the shape of a parent, a friend, a teacher or a coach. In other words, someone who sells another on doing what will be in the best interest of the buyer.

And that might simply be spreading the peanut butter on one pre-sliced piece of bread and jelly on the other.

[Ed. Note: Bob Burg is coauthor of the International Bestseller, The Go-Giver. The book has been published in 21 languages and has sold over 250,000 copies. Check out this brief and entertaining, recently-released overview of the book at www.burg.com/tgg. And, of course, feel free to share it with others.]

I was sitting in the school cafeteria with my friend Daryl eating lunch. I’m pretty sure I was eating peanut butter and jelly, unless it was during one of those “healthy” periods when my mom was sending us to school with carrot and raisin sandwiches (long story).

I believe I was also eating a yogurt. And when I realized I had forgotten a spoon, I walked up to the front of the cafeteria, got one, and brought it back to my seat.

For some reason, I got it in my head that trying to bend the spoon would be a funny thing to do. I’m not sure if I had seen someone on TV do that or if I was working on a magic trick (I was a magic trick nerd as a kid) involving spoon bending.

At any rate, I tried to bend the spoon. And wouldn’t you know it, it didn’t bend.

Instead, it broke… in two pieces.

I started laughing that nervous kind of laugh you do when you’re not sure what to do next. My “friend” looked over at me and said something like, “I’m going to tell the cafeteria ladies that you broke the spoon…”

At that point, my memory is blank. I really have no idea what happened after that. The power of the fear that hit me in the moment I thought I would be “reported to the authorities” was enough to blank everything out.

To the best of my knowledge, the fear I first felt that day has never left me.

Friend, Foe or Companion?

Over the years, my relationship with fear has changed. At first, I was completely unaware that it was running my life.

My fear of the future kept me from taking actions I should have taken and it compelled me to take other actions I shouldn’t have taken.

Fear controlled me like a puppet. It pulled the strings. Walk here, say that, do this.

As I grew older, I began to treat fear as an adversary. Something to be fought, controlled, managed, and overcome.

As a musician working his butt off towards a career of performing, I was filled with fear just about every day of my life. Saturday nights were fear days because I had to play for church in the morning. Sunday nights were fear days when I had to play in organ class on Monday. Then there were the funerals, and the weddings and the concerts, recitals and competitions.

I can say that fear has been a companion in my life longer than any person. It is always there, at some level, reminding me of things I need to learn.

The worst thing about fear isn’t that you walk around with some level of dread in your gut. The worst thing about fear is that, if granted permission, it will silently rob you of enjoying the gift of life that you’ve been given.

You look out at the world, but you forget to enjoy the fullness of the world looking back at you. You are able to exist but you are not able to truly live.

How to Deal with Fear

First, get clear on what fear is at its most basic level. Fear is little more than energy. It is the same energy that powers every other part of your body and your life. This is neither good nor bad.

Second, understand that fear does not mean that you are “broken.” You are not broken. You are not a piece of factory garbage that somehow made it out of the quality control department without inspection. Who you are is the person you were intended to be.

Fear is part of that person. It is a part of who you are. So investing time and effort “trying to get rid of it” doesn’t totally make sense. In my experience, it also doesn’t work. In fact, the harder you try, the worse it gets. That’s because by directing more energy at the issue, you are only feeding it.

Third, if you are filled with fear, understand what that means about the stores of energy you have available to you to move forward towards your goals.

The fact is, you have enormous stores of energy available to you for your journey. Fear is proof that is true. Fear is an enormous source of energy. The trick is to use that consciously rather than unconsciously.

So what’s to be done about fear?

As Robert Frost says, “the best way out is always through.”

When it comes to dealing with fear, I finally realized there is nothing to fight. There is nothing to resist. There is nothing to “get rid of.” There is only the choice to accept what is or to struggle with what is.

When you accept fear as a companion, you stop fighting it. When you stop fighting it, you stop feeding it. And when you are no longer feeding that ball of whirling energy, it can be put to uses that are far more important to you.

You don’t need to kill fear or “get rid of it.” After all, it’s part of you. Instead, you need to look directly at it and say, “that is part of who I am at this moment.” OWN that. Accept it.  And then move forward in the direction of your goals.

Stop looking for relief from fear and simply start living your life.

[Ed. Note: Jason Leister is a direct response copywriter, internet entrepreneur and editor of the daily e-letter, The Client Letter, where he empowers independent professionals who work with clients. He has six kids and lives and works by the lake in Minnesota.]

There are rolling hills where my father planted corn, flat stretches of fields where he grew his soybeans, a small bush of maple trees where he kept a shack and a few trails for snowmobiling, and a winding little stream that cuts through the heart of it all, separating the main homestead into almost equal rectangles of land.

It’s a wonderful place to spend a spring day, watching Mother Nature renew herself each year. As winter comes to an end bringing April showers and causing the last bastions of snow to melt, we’re treated to the annual spring runoff. Water builds up in puddles upon the top of the hills, and then breaks through the soft, lush topsoil and hurtles down towards the riverbank. There it joins the raging river that the otherwise soft-spoken stream becomes for just a few days each year.

On it goes during the cold, damp, grey days in late March and early April, with the runoff creating deep ruts in the mud. The steeper the hill, the stronger the rush of the water as it seeks its lowest point, and the deeper the rut it creates in the land. Over time, it carves out temporary scars in the landscape that won’t be healed until the spring plow.

That’s the power of consistent concentration and focus. It’s Mother Nature’s demonstration of the power of sustained pressure.

Our habits work the same way, particularly our bad habits. And the longer you follow your bad habits, the deeper the cut you get into. Soon you find yourself stuck deep in the muck of poor decisions, with banks built so high on either side you feel as if there is little hope of escaping.

That’s the problem with habits.

Perhaps you’ve built up a morning routine that is negatively impacting almost every aspect of your life.

It all started with an innocent visit to Dunkin’ Donuts for your morning java. One day you decide to treat yourself to a calorie-laden breakfast sandwich. Just this once, you think, even though it is overpriced, bulges your belly, and leaves you so sleepy that you find yourself in desperate need of another coffee in just ninety minutes.

A few days later, standing in line again and having missed out on your breakfast at home, you think to yourself, “One more won’t hurt.” Two weeks later it’s a daily habit. Then it’s a 7-year addiction and the chief reason you’re tired, overweight and unhealthy, and wasting money on unnecessary calories rather than eating healthier and lighter at home.

But this routine is so ingrained in your daily behavior that you can’t break free.

That’s the problem with habit.

The longer you do something the harder it is to stop.

It’s not unlike the rain and snow combining forces out on the farm to create the deep ruts in the muck. Once a path is chosen, the rut gets deeper faster than it gets wider. Consistency only makes it worse.

Not only do your habits – both good and bad – become automatic, done-for-you actions that eliminate thinking and the stress of decision making, they also becomes a part of your identity.

You’re a Dunkin’ Donuts person. You’re an on-the-go-and-too-busy-to-eat-

It was one of those weird “sunny-rainy-snowy-back-to-sunny” days that only April can deliver.

Around 4 p.m. the weather seemed fine, and so it was time to walk old Bally the Dog before his dinner. Sure, some clouds were coming over the horizon out there on the farm, but I didn’t think much of it. After all, we had been rained on every morning all week, so what was another late afternoon shower?

As we got 50 steps from the house, the rain turned to ice pellets. At 100 yards from home, we heard thunder.

And then – the lightning bolt struck directly ahead of me.

It was perhaps fifty feet away at most, but I swear it was much closer – maybe only twenty feet from where I stood as Bally the Dog sniffed at the ground. It was both terrifying and amazing at the same time.

(But no, my life didn’t flash before my eyes…or at least if it did, it didn’t show all of the good parts!)

I stood there for a moment being pelted by ice and wind, trying to process what had just happened. Finally I snapped out of it, pulled on Bally the Dog, and we turned and sprinted for the safety of home.

Had I not taken an extra 30 seconds to find an old pair of running shoes for the walk, would it have been a direct hit?

Is that the head-shaking way that I would have gone out?

Would this have been the headline the next day in the local paper?

“Local man, aged 37, dies after being struck by lightning while stupidly walking his dog in a storm”

If so, I’d have been very, very disappointed.

That’s not how I want to go out.

And so, that left me with the question…

What did that lightning bolt mean?

Was it just a random act of nature? Or should I take it as a sign from the heavens? Was it luck? Or Fate? A signal to check the weather before my next dog walk? Or a signal to start making REAL changes in my life?

I thought about this. A lot.

Finally, it hit me. (Not the lightning bolt, of course, but “what it meant to me.”)

It’s time for me to grow up.

It’s time for a big transformation.

It’s time to make changes in my life.

Do you feel the same way?

What if it had been you out there in the storm?

What would have gone through your mind if lightning crashed only a few feet away from you?

Would your thoughts have turned to your family? Your health?

What part of your life would you felt most dissatisfied with?

Where do you need to make big changes?

I realized that my family and money skills have taken a back seat to my business and health. Not that either of them are really, really bad, but…

…knowing what – and who I know – I could certainly be doing better. I can give more attention to both of these matters – and I decided to transform that day.

It’s time for a change.

I’m dedicating the next 12 weeks of my life to make a massive transformation in both areas of my life. I’ll be documenting these changes on my blog and in my Transformation Journal over at the TT Members site.

The timing is perfect, because the last day to enter my 17th Turbulence Training Transformation Contest is Monday, May 20th. I’ll be joining all of my readers – and hopefully YOU, too – in making BIG changes over the next few months.

Sure, almost everyone in the 17th TT Transformation Contest will be working to lose fat with the world’s best fat loss workouts, but we’re all in this TRANSFORMATION together.

We’ll all be harnessing the power of the Four Pillars of Success – Accountability, Social Support, Incentives, and The Deadline – to take MASSIVE ACTION in our lives.

So what about you?

Is it time for you to make changes?

Maybe you have the perfect family life but you’ve let your health and fitness get away from you…and now you just don’t have the energy to keep up with your kids or to get your health and vitality back as you hit your late 40′s or even early 50′s. It’s never too late.

So let’s change. Let’s help you Transform your life, your health, and your body. Let’s do this – today!

It’s time for a brand NEW start – for both of us.

It doesn’t matter what we’ve done in the past. We can’t change that.

In fact, all we can do is look back and LEARN positive lessons from our mistakes. That’s the right attitude. And then we take those lessons and apply them to future SUCCESS.

Past failures aren’t bad. Failure isn’t final. Failure is just practice!

Listen, if there is one thing I know after having observed this crazy world for 37 years, it’s that you can SURVIVE almost anything and come back better and stronger than ever before. Don’t let the fear of failure stop you from achieving the success you deserve.

I’m going to take my past failures and use them as guiding lessons to change my life. I’m calling this my, “Craig’s Time to Grow Up Transformation”.

It’s time to take life a little more seriously.

After all, I’ve been extremely fortunate and lucky in life.

I was born with virtually no limits on what I could achieve. There has been nothing in the way of my success in life but me.

And so with a little hard work and a lot of luck (and great people supporting me along the way), I’ve been able to build up this beautiful Turbulence Training world.

It really is a beautiful thing what we have here in these emails that I can share with you, in the community we have at TTMembers.com, on the TT Facebook page, with the new Home Workout Revolution System, and with all of the Certified TT Trainers and the Summit.

It really is fantastic and MORE than I ever thought possible when I starting working on this idea back in 1999. It’s a beautiful life.

Plus, there’s Early to Rise. This is literally the business of my dreams because it will allow me to help more people than ever before…and more ways than I ever could have done on my own…with a team of incredible people that believe in my vision.

It’s amazing. I’m a very lucky man.

My work world is everything that I could possibly ask for. But of course, that’s not all that life is about.

So it’s time for me to grow up and dedicate my efforts to helping more people – just like you – make changes in their lives.

As a reader of ETR, you’re part of family. I wake up thinking about how to help you every day. I think about you on almost every single dog walk I take out on the farm or in the big city of Toronto.

And family helps out one another in anyway that they can. That means delivering to you the Four Pillars of Success. Those are Accountability, Social Support, Incentives, and The Deadline.

These are available to all of us. No matter what YOU want to change.

Tell me what you’re going to change. I’ll be right here TRANSFORMING with you.

You CAN do it.

I can do it.

We can all do it.

We’re in this together.

We can all make dramatic Transformations in our lives.

We can become better in any area.

I know I will.

And I know you will too.

I invite you to join me on this Transformation Journey.

It doesn’t matter what you choose to change…I just want you to choose to join us.

Don’t wait for a sign from the heavens.

Just do it.

Let’s go.

Join me and harness the Power of the Four Pillars of Success in the TT Contest here:

www.TurbulenceTrainingContest.com 

[Ed. Note: Craig Ballantyne is the editor of Early to Rise and the author of Financial Independence Monthly and Turbulence Training. His most recent innovation, the Home Workout Revolution System makes it easy to use only use your body weight to get into great shape with 4-minute workouts. Learn more in the Home Workout Revolution Livecast where Craig will interview nutrition expert Joel Marion and show you how to develop the body you desire. Join the Livecast here.]

Most people think they’re good at this skill, but in reality they make one simple mistake that ruins them.

What skill am I talking about?

Negotiating.

Most people botch major negotiations for one major reason.

John D. Rockefeller had a difficult childhood.  His family bounced between poverty and comfort because his father was a con-artist. The elder Rockefeller traveled the countryside of upstate New York selling patent medicine which was often simply “snake-oil.”  The Rockefellers didn’t exactly fit in where they lived in the small New York village.

Just like most small towns, everybody knew each other.  Gossip and rumor spread like wildfire. And the village scorned Rockefeller’s father who they correctly thought was a snake-oil salesman.  Whispers followed the family, they were excluded from social life and young John could not help but hear the vicious things the villagers said about his family.

Because they were ostracized, Rockefeller quickly developed a thick skin and a calm demeanor that helped him ignore the verbal barbs from the villagers who thought the sins of the father should blemish his son.
People commented on the boy’s almost Buddhist detachment from events that kept him from getting angry or flustered, even when his father committed the ultimate sin and abandoned their family.

Throughout his childhood, Rockefeller built a fortress of calm.

And this fortress served him on his journey to remarkable success.  You see, when Rockefeller sat down to negotiate, it was impossible for people to emotionally manipulate him. Even when he sat in front of a hostile Congress who wanted to destroy the company he built, Rockefeller remained calm and composed during the crisis.
Nothing could faze him.

Now I’m going to show you how you can get calm like Rockefeller before you enter into any negotiation during your life.  This could be buying a new car, trying to close on a house, or simply convincing your spouse to do something for you.

Most people, when faced with any negotiation, let their emotions rule.  That’s the major mistake. If you let your emotions reign during a negotiation, I promise you will be crushed.

But it’s hard to remain calm especially when you’re trying to get something that you really want.

Think back to the last time you had a major negotiation.  You probably felt nervous and anxious. You may have struggled to say the right thing without stammering. You may have felt clammy or even a little nauseous.

That’s okay. It’s normal to feel like that when the stakes are high. But you can work around those feelings using this simple Rockefeller trick.
When you enter a negotiation of any kind, before you start talking, take a moment of quiet to compose yourself.  Be silent for a second.  Don’t rush into things or tip your hand.  Take a deep breath and enjoy the silence for a moment.

Rockefeller would enter a negotiation softly.  He waited a moment before he said anything. If you follow his example, you will immediately feel calmer.

The worst thing you can do when negotiating is try to rush things.
Don’t forget that during your brief silence, the other person will feel just as uncomfortable as you.

After you collect your thoughts, compose your first sentence and speak it calmly and confidently.  Don’t worry about moving fast.  If you do rush, it immediately sends the signal that you’re nervous, scared and overwhelmed.  That’s not the impression you want to make.

A calm tone and a slow pace is your friend here.

Later in his career, Rockefeller surprised people he met because he was so calm and genial, even during hostile negotiations. They expected that the king of the Robber Barons would bluster and rage.  But he didn’t.

He simply stayed still.

And he spoke calmly, quietly and never rushed.

It’s a rule in negotiations that if you lose your cool then you won’t get the deal you want.

Stay calm and you’ll be just fine.

Beyond learning to stay calm, Rockefeller learned another valuable lesson early in his career: threats don’t work. Businessman lost their cool during a negotiation and made threats when things weren’t working in their favor. This destructive behavior almost always damaged the budding relationship and cost the bully dearly.

Threats ruin relationships. And a rich life and career is built on great relationships.

Machiavelli got it wrong when he said, “It’s better to be feared than loved.”

Rockefeller never made threats, even when he was the richest and most powerful business owner in the world. In fact, Rockefeller was happy to slightly overpay for things in order to maintain and build relationships.

Take these two valuable lessons from Rockefeller:

1. Take a moment before you start any negotiation to clear your mind and remain calm.
2. Don’t ever make threats.  They don’t work long-term.

If you work on remaining calm during the negotiation, you’ll notice that you become more persuasive, more rational and more likely to get what you want.  It’s one of the most valuable skills for living a rich life.

So keep calm and negotiate it.

Start today.

[Ed. Note: Richard Saunders is the editor of ETR's newest publication: Ben Franklin's Wealth and Power Insider. In each issue, he shares a valuable lesson from the past that you can apply today to live a richer life. In the latest issue he shows you Rockefeller's in-depth negotiation strategy that you can use to get what you want. You'll learn how Rockefeller prepared for major negotiations and how you can use his simple strategy to save money when you buy a car, get a better deal on a house and become more persuasive almost overnight. Click here to get immediate access to the latest issue called How to Negotiation Like a Robber Baron.]

Despite my less-than-stellar early education, I went on to graduate college magna cum laude. I earned a master’s degree, and stopped just short of my dissertation for a Ph.D. I’ve written and published more than a dozen books – including three best-sellers – won awards for writing, and have used the skills I learned in school to help build several multimillion-dollar businesses.

All that said, because of my deeply seeded irrational fear, I had a negative idea of what I could accomplish early in my business career.
But that didn’t stop me.

In “The Power of Positive Thinking,” Norman Vincent Peale says that unless you have a positive attitude about yourself and your abilities, “you cannot be successful or happy.”

I believe he is half right.

Yes, you need a positive attitude to be happy. But you can be quite successful by most conventional measurements simply by applying my success formula with persistence:

• Decide exactly what it is you want.
• Make it a primary goal.
• Establish a series of yearly, monthly, weekly, and daily objectives to achieve that goal.
• Resist the urge to give up along the way

My own experience proves that, by doing this, you can achieve almost anything you want in life – even if you don’t have much faith in your own abilities. And it has been proven to me dozens of times over by others – people I’ve known personally, people I’ve heard about from friends and colleagues, and even people I’ve read about.

But what if you want happiness? Or what if, in fact, happiness and equanimity are integral to your definition of success? Well, then you need to follow Peale’s advice and start thinking positive thoughts about yourself.

Lack of self-confidence, Peale said, “is one of the great problems besetting people today.” He makes reference to a survey of college students indicating that for 75 percent of them, confidence was the thing most lacking in their life.

Who could argue with that? If you’ve ever choked up in an interview, forgotten your lines in a play, blown a free throw, or been verbally stifled by a rude comment, you know too well the effect that a lack of self-confidence has on performance.

“The blows of life, the accumulation of difficulties, the multiplication of problems tend to sap energy and leave you spent and discouraged,” Peale says. In such situations, “it is easy to lose track of your abilities and powers” – but by re-appraising your personal assets, you can convince yourself that “you are less defeated than you think you are.”

As an example, Peale tells how he counseled a 52-year-old man who came to him “in great despondency.” Everything in his life, the man said, had been “swept away” by a recent business setback. “Everything I built up over a lifetime is gone.”

Peale recognized that although the man had indeed experienced a serious setback, his chief problem was the way he viewed it.

“Suppose we take a piece of paper and write down the values you have left,” he suggested. And so they did. Among other things, the list included these personal assets:

• a wonderful wife – and a 30-year marriage
• three devoted children
• admiring friends, happy to help
• good physical health
• integrity

That’s not a bad list. And, if you’re feeling down, I would hope that focusing on positive personal assets like these could help you overcome the worst feelings you could possibly have about yourself.

Let me tell you a story…

About 20 years ago, I became friendly with a man, about my own age, who had all of the above mentioned assets – plus a very successful printing business, plus a significant personal fortune. He was a very charismatic guy – always good-natured, upbeat, full of good fun, and easy to like. Then, one day, his business collapsed. I don’t remember the details but, suddenly, he was bankrupt.

I heard about it soon after it happened. When I called to console him, it was too late. Sobbing, his wife told me that he had killed himself.

I couldn’t understand why he did it. He had had so many other things going for him that, in my eyes, his business and the wealth it produced was just gravy. Apparently, he didn’t see it that way.

If my friend had read Peale’s advice – and had taken it to heart – he’d be alive today and enjoying all the wonderful things he had, including the love of his wife, children, and friends. He’d also, I’m quite sure, have made back all the money he lost, plus plenty more.

[Ed. Note: Mark Morgan Ford was the creator of Early To Rise. In 2011, Mark retired from ETR and now writes the Palm Beach Letter. His advice, in our opinion, continues to get better and better with every essay, particularly in the controversial ones we have shared today. We encourage you to read everything you can that has been written by Mark.]

That’s the prototypical busy executive’s schedule these days. And it’s virtually all wrong.

Up at 6 a.m., they drag themselves out of bed to hit the road for an hour of jogging. That’s followed with a rushed breakfast, often full of caffeine, sugar, and other processed foods, and then it’s rush, rush, rush off to a traffic filled commute. Then it’s a full day of back-to-back email sessions, marathon meetings, and of course, more email.

These “warriors” are in for a rude awakening.

Why?

Research shows the non-stop action, no-rest-for-the-wicked lifestyle is going to be their undoing.

Start early. Work late. Go home. Drop dead… literally.

The Japanese have a term for this phenomenon called “karoshi,” which means death caused by overwork.
All in the name of getting more done, I suppose. But as mentioned, research shows this approach is not the optimal path to success.

In fact, it may be one of the worst ways to tackle work, fitness, and almost all other aspects of living.

In health and fitness, the marathon approach to exercise has set back weight loss research and program design by decades, keeping many doctors and trainers stuck in the 1970s with their ineffective long, slow cardio approaches.

Today you’ll see “all night hack-a-thon” business building weekends popping up, which rarely leads to good ideas, but has become a badge of honor for wannabe entrepreneurs. This too is the wrong approach to optimal performance.

Finally, there’s the “no vacation” culture that is infecting America, and other countries around the world. Creating an oversupply of burnt out, frustrated employees that have no chance to recharge, rejuvenate and regenerate.

Short-term results may be achieved this way, but it’s certainly at a cost of long-term progress.

Fortunately, there is a better way.

I first read about this better approach to successful living over a decade ago in the book, “The Power of Full Engagement,” by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz. The authors proposed something radical (back then), insisting that our workday should be a series of sprints, not a marathon. Within your day there should be recovery periods. These should also occur within your weeks, months, and calendar year. There must be built-in time for rejuvenation, much like an athlete takes rests and has a pre-ordained off-season schedule.

But this book and the several similar theories that have come from other experts have failed to make a dramatic impact on the American culture of work. We’re still a continent of nose-to-the-grindstone and don’t stop until you’re dead employees.

But something’s gotta give. And it will.

Schwartz recently published an excellent article in the “NY Times” about his concept of energy management being more important than the ubiquitous idea of time management. It’s a concept that I’ve followed since 2003, when I first contacted his co-author, Jim Loehr, to review one of my earliest books, “The Executive Lifestyle Manual.”

In his research of corporate employee performance, Schwartz has uncovered startling facts about the common ways companies sabotage their results. In one study, employees sleeping less than six hours per night were found to have the greatest on-the-job burn-out. A Harvard study suggested that this on-going sleep deprivation accumulated by American companies costs the economy over $63 billion in lost productivity each year.

Furthermore, the anti-vacation culture that has seeped into corporate America is also hurting our economy. We mistakenly believe that less vacation time will help us keep our jobs, but Schwartz quotes a 2006 study that found, “for each additional 10 hours of vacation employees took, their year-end performance ratings from supervisors (on a scale of one to five) improved by 8 percent.” Yet our actions in regard to this knowledge border on depressing. Schwartz writes, “a recent survey by Harris Interactive found that Americans left an average of 9.2 vacation days unused in 2012 — up from 6.2 days in 2011.”

All of this might be killing our performance, if not literally killing us at the same time.

“Relax! You’ll be more productive,” Schwartz wrote in the NY Times article. Amongst the techniques Schwartz recommends for improving employee performance and health are “daytime workouts, short afternoon naps, longer sleep hours, more time away from the office, and longer, more frequent vacations.”

As I mentioned earlier, my workday is only eight hours long, yet to be frank, it feels longer. That’s because it’s interrupted several times by dog walks, a visit to the gym, meals away from the desk, and even short bursts of watching comedy videos from Netflix. These strategically scheduled breaks foster my creativity and enhance my energy, allowing me to get more done while feeling like I’ve done less.

I have been – albeit unwittingly – following the advice from K. Anders Ericsson at Florida State University who suggests that working in 90-minute focused increments is best for enhancing performance. This helps avoid exhaustion while supporting quality work.

While I’ve yet to include an afternoon nap in my schedule (although I do meditate for approximately 20 minutes each day), Schwartz has uncovered research that supports the performance enhancing benefits of a simple 19 minute nap on mental activities. Alas, instead of harnessing the powers of a healthy nap, corporate America employees instead choose to over-caffeinate and prop themselves up throughout the day with other artificial means.

Like taking on too much financial debt, this energy debt becomes a ticking time bomb. At the minimum it likely leaves you sick with bed rest a couple of times each year, while at worst it culminates in a heart attack in your late 40s or 50s. But it doesn’t have to be this way if you’re willing to insert a few research proven, healthy renewal habits in your life that support energy management.

As Schwartz concludes with his secret to success: “When we’re renewing, we’re truly renewing, so when we’re working, we can really work.”

You might not be in a position of strength (yet) to implement these suggestions. But you must change what is in your control. Start with better nutrition – eliminating excessive caffeine and processed foods – and adding short, burst bouts of bodyweight exercise to your day. With the Home Workout Revolution System that I’ve designed, you now have access to 4-minute no-equipment workouts that you can do anytime, anywhere – perfect for an energetic quick-start to the day or mid-day break to enhance your performance.

As you begin to reap the benefits from these healthy habits, work on improving your sleeping schedule, and experiment with the 90-minute blocks of focused work. Slowly yet surely you’ll become more productive – and you might even feel confident enough to start using up more of your vacation time.

[Ed. Note: Craig Ballantyne is the editor of Early to Rise and the author of Financial Independence Monthly and Turbulence Training. His most recent innovation, the Home Workout Revolution System makes it easy to use only use your body weight to get into great shape with 4-minute workouts. Learn more in the Home Workout Revolution Livecast where Craig will interview nutrition expert Joel Marion and show you how to develop the body you desire. Join the Livecast here.]

I started meditating to bring more calm, focus and patience into my life.

It wasn’t easy. I almost quit – several times – during the first few days in developing this new habit. And this wasn’t the first time I tried to take up meditation. But each time in the past I had failed miserably.

There was the time in 2006 when I tried to use meditation to help deal with my anxiety attacks. I only lasted a week.

Then in 2009 I worked up to 15 sessions in a row before shamefully giving up.

But this time I knew it would be different.

This time I had my 7 step success formula in place.

Before, I went about it in a haphazard, non-serious way.

Each morning, after I’ve written Turbulence Training workout programs or ETR essays for two hours, walked the dog, and finished my Daily Document review (but before I go to the gym), I sit down on my meditation pillow, close my eyes, sit upright with legs crossed, and focus on my breathing.

At first the habit was excruciatingly painful – both mentally and physically. It was almost impossible to turn off my “monkey mind.” My brain would shift from thought to thought to thought, reviewing my to-do list or coming up with other ideas to implement or people to contact.

And frankly, my mind still wanders during each session, even though I’ve made significant breakthroughs in my ability breathe deeply and focus on practically nothing.

I’m getting better every session. I’m not giving up on this habit.

It’s made me more calm during the remainder of the day. I no longer feel a tiny bit of tightness and anxiety in my chest when my schedule becomes overwhelming. I breathe better (sounds silly, I know, but most of us don’t know how to breathe properly). I relax easier. I have more patience – and this was sorely needed.

This simple meditation habit, now almost 90 days strong, has made a big difference in my life. It’s become a success habit. (And I’m going to show you my 7 Step Success System for any area of your life.)

This time I was able to stick to my meditation habit because this time I also listened to my own advice.

Over the past 16 Turbulence Training Transformation Contests, I had been telling you and 90,000 other TT readers that:

“Success is simple once you accept how hard it is.”

Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that success is easy. I’m staying that it is simple. Big difference.

That means, if you understand and accept that success – in any area of life – requires sacrifice, only then you will be psychologically prepared to make those sacrifices. Then, and only then, with the right mindset in place, success simply becomes a matter of following proven blueprints, and never, ever giving up on what is important to you.

Once you accept this fact, you’ll be ready to successfully apply this formula to transform your life.

After reviewing my own success habits, and those of the dozens of winners of my 16 Turbulence Training Transformation Contests, I’ve identified the following 7 Step Success Formula:

SUCCESS = Outcome Goals + Process Goals + Action + Accountability + Support + Incentives + The Deadline

Let’s walk you through those 7 Steps.

1) Outcome Goals – This is simple. If you want to lose 15 pounds in 6 weeks, that’s your Outcome Goal. It’s your Vision. It’s the Destination you want to arrive it in a given time frame. That’s Goal Setting 101.

2) Process Goals – These are a little different, and yet an often forgotten part of a Goal Setting program. Process goals refer to what you are going to do in order to succeed. For me, I had to make time each day to practice meditation. For someone that wants to lose belly fat, your process goals will include 3 Turbulence Training workouts per week plus 90% compliance to your nutrition program. By hitting your process goals, you’ll ultimately achieve your outcome goals.

3) Action – All the optimism and goal-setting in the world does you no good without Action. You must plan and prepare to take action. And then you must force yourself – even on those tough days, for example, when you want to skip your meditation session or workout because you are tired or too busy – to take action. Action takers rule the world.

This formula is powerful.  Brita used it to lose 17 pounds and take 4 inches off her waist. 

However, there’s one Politically Incorrect truth that I must share with you. You need to know this, because if you don’t, you might give up. Worse, you could be giving up just when success was around the corner.

So read this once. Let it sink in. Read it again. And then print it out. Post it on your computer or your fridge.

It’s that important. Here are some of the most important words of wisdom I could ever share with you…

Success comes in spurts.

There will be times when you’ll work and work and work, and you’ll feel like you’re getting nowhere. You might be experiencing this right now. So stay strong and keep on pushing.

Believe me, I know how you feel. Back in 2006 I struggled with an anxiety attack that lasted more than six weeks straight, but I never gave up on looking for solutions.

And what I discovered was that success only happens by taking action every day, strong and steady, by overcoming obstacles and powering through the dips, by trudging onward through tough days and getting energized by great days.

The backbone for your success and persistence will always be a clear vision of what you want to achieve. Make sure that your Outcome and Process Goals are clear. Realize that each action you take is a small victory for you, and each accomplishment is another step closer to your big breakthrough.

Everyone goes through those struggles where it feels like nothing is working, those dips, those stretches where you are seemingly making no progress, and then suddenly…

WHOOOOOSH. Success.

The scale will change by 2-3 pounds seemingly overnight. The person of your dreams will walk into your life. A big break will happen at work. Whatever it is, it WILL happen if you keep taking action.

It happened to me and it will happen to you too. I dealt with the anxiety every single waking moment for six weeks, and then I finally found the answer to my problem. And poof, I was cured almost instantly. Success. It comes in spurts.

Trust me on that.

So never, ever, EVER give up on what is important to you.

But how can you help yourself to stick with your action plan and process goals through these tough times?

The answer is in the Four Pillars of Success, which are also the final four steps of our formula. Once you’ve nailed down the first three steps – you’re ready to use the final four steps to make your transformation stick.  These four steps are Accountability, Social Support, Incentives, and The Deadline.

4) Accountability – Research shows that being accountable to an authority figure increases your chances of success. This might be me, in the TT contests, or your doctor, or your pastor or your supervisor at work. But you need accountability. It can also come from your friends and family too, as we’ll see in the 5th Step.

For my meditation success, I held myself accountable to Matt Smith, my business partner, and my chiropractor, Dr. Michael Sommers. Both of these men have been long-time practitioners of meditation and gave me expert advise on making my sessions better.
Without them, I might have given up.

5) Social Support - Lean on positive people in your life to support you when things are going well, and yes, to give you a kick-in-the-butt to get back on track when you are slipping.

I used the support of other members in the Turbulence Training forums to stay on track with meditation (as I do everyday to stick to my nutrition, as well). And almost every single winner of the TT Transformation Contests has done the same. The more active they are in the forums, the better results they are getting.

You can’t go it alone and expect to succeed. You must find positive people – and research shows that online support groups work as well as ‘real life in-person’ support – to be there when you need a shoulder to lean on.

6) Incentives - There are two ways to implement Incentives into your Success Formula. You can use the “carrot” or the “stick”. The “carrot” approach is based on a reward you’ll give yourself for taking action and hitting your process and outcome goals.

For TT Contest winners, it’s the big cash prizes that motivate them to action every day.

On the other hand, you can motivate yourself with negative consequences. That’s the “stick” method. For example, you can punish yourself for not taking action or for not hitting your outcome goals.
When I quit swearing late last year, I created a virtual swear jar. Each curse word cost me $10 that had to go to a charity I did not want to support. (You can also choose to donate to the political party you don’t support.) I quickly cleaned up my swearing habits in just six days with this approach.

Incentives work!

7) The Deadline - This might be the 2nd most important component after Action. Without The Deadline, we will procrastinate. Our outcome goal of losing 10 pounds of belly fat drags on and on and on without success, unless we say, “I’m going to lose 10 pounds of belly fat by Memorial Day (May 27th, 2013)” and then make this public to our Accountability partners and Social Support while attaching an Incentive to it.

If you do all of those things, I guarantee you’ll have dropped those 10 pounds by the big day.

That’s the power of the Four Pillars of Success. They make you take action, stick to your process goals, and achieve EXACTLY what you want in life.

Put it all together and you have a formula for SUCCESS.

It doesn’t matter if it’s losing belly fat, learning how to meditate, finding the life partner of your dreams, re-establishing your relationship with God, getting a raise, or starting your own business, those 7 Success Steps are a proven blueprint to helping you achieve EXACTLY what you want in life.

Put those 7 Steps for Success into place today, and never, ever, EVER give up on what is important to you.

[Ed. Note: Craig Ballantyne is the editor of Early to Rise and author of Financial Independence Monthly and Turbulence Training. He is also the co-creator of the Early to Rise $100,000 Transformation Contest. Though this round of the Transformation Contest has closed it's not too late to get access to all the helpful tools and advice that has helped many people make a positive change in their lives. Get started on your major life transformations today.]

I believe that the reason so many people are late for appointments and events is that they compulsively get sidetracked working on projects that are not time sensitive — i.e., things that have nothing to do with the objective of getting themselves out the door and on the way to their destination.  Twitter is not going to disappear if you wait until you return from your appointment to send out one more Tweet.

To ward off this problem, I’ve developed the habit of asking myself, “How important is the project I’m working on?” or “How important is the project I’m about to begin working on?”  Taking it to its logical extreme, an even better question is, “Does this project have to be done at all?”  A task may be interesting, it may be fascinating, it may even add value to my life, but whether it warrants an investment of my time is the real issue.

Which points to the conclusion that the quickest way to finish a project is to simply cross it off your “to do” list.  Does that sound like a vote for inaction?  Not at all.  On the contrary, it’s a vote to take action — action that focuses on the highest-priority project in your life at any given time.  That means refusing to allow yourself to become a slave to non-crucial matters.

All day long, you make choices either to do what is most important at any given moment or to do something that is of lesser importance.  If you’re gainfully employed, you know all too well that there are not enough hours in a day to do everything that needs to be done.  That’s why it makes good sense to spend as little time as possible on projects that aren’t crucial to accomplishing your main objective.

In this regard, people often confuse the means with the end.  Did you ever grind away at a project for hours, then look up and ask yourself, “Why am I doing this?”  More often than not, the reason is that you got caught up in trying to make the details perfect, and in the process lost sight of your original objective.

Don’t allow yourself to become enslaved by the obsession to try to make everything perfect, because perfect is an enemy of action.  It may be difficult for perfectionists to swallow, but I’ve learned the hard way that it’s better to do a subpar job working on the right project than a superior job working on the wrong project.

When it comes to focusing on the crux of the issue, it also helps to have the self-discipline to concentrate on doing what you do best and let others do the rest.  In our zeal to maintain control, it’s easy to forget that we live in a division-of-labor society wherein it not only isn’t necessary to do everything yourself, but it isn’t even necessary to understand how something works in order to use it.

You don’t need an intricate knowledge of computers to surf the Internet.  You don’t need to understand how television signals are transmitted to use a television set.  Ditto with cars, copying machines, smart phones, and just about everything else you use in our day-to-day life.

Time spent working on projects that don’t take advantage of your best talents is time inefficiently used.  The common term is delegation — parceling out jobs to others, whether those others be employees or outside people whom you pay to do the work.

Delegation makes it easier for you to spend most of your time on the crux of the issue, and at the heart of good delegation is the willingness to let go.  Most people make the mistake of trying to battle their deficiencies; instead, they should contract out their deficiencies and nurture their skills.

It usually will cost you a lot more in wasted time not to pay for someone else’s services than it will to do something yourself for which you aren’t qualified.  A perfect example of this is the millions of people who have but a smattering of knowledge of computers, yet insist on trying to solve their computer problems through trial and error rather than paying a qualified technician to do the job.

Focusing on the crux of the issue is not really a complicated proposition:  The more time you spend taking action on low-priority projects, the less time you have to take action on high-priority projects.  A good way to look at it is that one of the most important ways in which the successful person differs from the unsuccessful person is that he has the self-discipline to consistently do the things that need to be done in order to achieve his principal objective, while the unsuccessful person tends to work on lower-priority projects far too much of the time.

The good news is that you have free will, which means you have the power to choose.   Choose wisely by focusing on the crux of the issue.

How are you going to use your time wisely this weekend?

[Ed. Note. Robert Ringer is the author of three #1 bestsellers, two of which have been listed by The New York Times among the 15 best-selling motivational books of all time. Through his books, articles, speeches, and seminars, he has helped more people transform their aspirations and goals into reality than perhaps any other author in history. His articles appear regularly in Early to Rise, A Voice of Sanity, WorldNetDaily, and numerous newspapers nationwide. Gain immediate access to A Dealmaker's Dream and many bonuses for 66% off here.]

Ted’s reaction is not an unusual one when I mentioned to colleagues that I had a standing phone meeting with my top copywriter and marketing strategist at 7:30 in the morning Monday through Friday while I was president of a large financial publishing company. As a matter of fact, we had our morning conversations for about three years straight.

Sure, like Ted, most people thought I was crazy. However, I was well aware of the benefits these morning meetings offered to my business. But just as important, this one-on-one time was deeply critical to my own knowledge and expertise. More than just marketing strategy discussions, these meetings were personal mentoring sessions with one of the smartest and most successful direct response experts in the world.

Did I HAVE to do this? Of course not!

Did I WANT to do this? Of course I did!

What most people to this day just don’t get is that 7:30 in the morning was the perfect time for me. That’s because any time when I could get specific, useful advice and information that would improve my career and business was the perfect time.

The Power of Collective Brilliance

I’ve always been a pretty serious person when it comes to building my knowledge base. I grew up in a fairly modest environment where my parents struggled to maintain a middle class lifestyle. I could see how having an education could help me create a different sort of life for myself. So I set my sights on getting a college education. I knew my parents wouldn’t be able to help me much – if at all. So I started saving for college from the time I was 10 years old. I ended up paying every cent of my own college education.

When I got to college, I did not skip classes to hang out with my friends. I didn’t blow off class to sleep in because I was out late the night before. Instead, I soaked up every word my brain could hold during the day. At night, I reviewed my notes and rewrote them so that the next day I was ready for whatever was coming next.

I did not regret giving up parties or late-night socializing sessions. I was making a time and money investment in myself. I knew that I would be able to put every ounce of knowledge I accumulated to work for myself at some point in the future. Eventually, I was certain, the library in my mind would make me a lot of money.

So it will be no surprise to you that I refused to stop learning even after I’d finished school. I make it a point to try to learn something from every person I meet and every experience I have. I seek out the people who could help me grow my business or advance my career, and ask for their advice. And I have to say, the lessons I’ve learned from these personal success mentors have had a profound impact on my career and life.

Over and over again throughout my career, I’ve discovered the truth in the old saw “two heads are better than one.”

When I’ve had the chance to team up with or learn from the successful people in my industry, I’ve been able to skyrocket my knowledge, my earnings, and my business revenues.

Here are a few examples…

Success Mentor #1: Dick Benson

From the start of my business career I attended conferences and seminars as often as possible. In New York City, there was a plethora to choose from.  In 1985, when I saw that Dick Benson – a legend in the world of direct response marketing – was holding a very intimate roundtable, I knew I had to attend. Well, wouldn’t you know it? We had recently gotten a new VP of Human Resources who wanted to show the higher ups that she could save our company a boat load of money. She thought that $500 for a two-hour session was excessive and would not approve the expense.

This was my first corporate job out of college. I was making a whopping $12,000 a year. But I had a gut feeling that meeting Dick Benson would have a powerful effect on my life. Instead of missing the seminar, I paid for it myself.

That two-hour session changed the course of my career. Sure, I had read every book that Dick Benson had written… In a sense, I’d already read much of what he had to say. But when you are able to ask a guru questions that pertain to your business and your life specifically, you will find that the advice takes on new meaning… and that you can more easily take action and implement the advice you have learned.

That is exactly what I did.

I took one little idea I’d learn from Dick back to my employer. The idea was to include an 800 number on renewal offers. Up until that point, we only included a self-addressed stamped envelope (SASE) in the letters we sent to potential donors.  That one little idea brought in so much incremental revenue that within eight months I was promoted and my salary jumped to $20,000 a year.
But going to see Dick Benson was not only life-changing in that it helped boost my salary and advance my career. It taught me the tremendous value in finding advice from already-successful business people… and implementing that advice in my own life.

Success Mentor #2: Jeff MacDonald

My career went along fantastically in NYC for years. But like many people I suffered a devastating personal loss; my father passed away. Even though he had been ill for quite some time, I was still not prepared for the pain. My desire to escape New York was tremendous. So when an offer came my way to become Vice President of a large publishing company in Boca Raton, Florida, I grabbed it.

Little did I know that my new boss, Jeff McDonald, would have a huge impact on my career. He taught me about business. He introduced me to the works of Peter Drucker, Jim Collins, and Stephen Covey. He showed me how the principles they taught applied to our business.

Each evening we would review a lesson one on one. And it was on one of those evenings that Jeff spoke one little sentence that has stayed with me all these years:  “A good executive has the ability to face the facts.”

This is a mantra I’ve repeated to myself for years. Whether you have to face up to a partnership that’s not good for your business… Or you have to kill a product that’s not making money… Or you have to fire an employee you really like… Jeff’s words have helped me cut my losses and save plenty of money. Once you live that statement, your business will change for the better – forever!

Success Mentor #3: Clayton Makepeace

It was master copywriter and direct response legend Clayton Makepeace who taught me the anatomy of advertising copy. It was Clayton who showed me the importance of digging deep to understand the emotional needs and desires of your prospective customers. It was Clayton who taught me to concentrate on the end result and not get caught up with the reasons why something can’t get done. It was Clayton with whom I spent morning after morning on the phone, going through the needs of our company and how our marketing plans and advertising copy would exceed those needs.

Together, we made beautiful music and our company flourished.

Success Mentor #4: Mark Ford

I’m one of the lucky ones. For nearly four years I spent time one-on-one with business builder and marketing expert Mark Ford. Mark is the person who helped me become a better thinker, a better writer, a better marketer, and a better business person. He was the one person who helped me put it all together. He is the person who taught me the concept of tipping point ideas. Not only how to recognize them, but how to develop them and implement them into your business.

Success Mentor #5: Richard Branson

Once I made the decision to start Working Moms Only, my friend Joe Polish invited me to a private brainstorming session with Richard Branson.  However, this invitation did not come cheap.
Even though I have read every book Sir Richard has written, I knew I needed to be at that private meeting. So I paid $10,000 to attend. Yes $10,000 for 60 minutes! And you know what? I would do it again!

There were about 10 of us around a table and we each got to ask Richard his advice about our businesses. When we spoke about my business, not only did he give me some great advice, he also asked that I send him some content for him to review.  Then he directed me to a few people who could help me go forward.  I have since contacted these people and they have been of tremendous value.

The Push You Need to Succeed

As you can see, I have had the opportunity to learn from some of the top marketing and business minds in the world.  Each of these men helped contribute a critical piece of advice or information that helped me climb the ladder of success.

That’s why I take mentorship so seriously. It is 100 percent worthwhile to have a phone conversation at 7:30 each morning or spend $10,000 to get advice from someone who can help you expand your knowledge… build your expertise… or grow your business.

When you seriously consider joining any kind of live membership/mentorship program . . .

First . . .

Know what you want to achieve from the relationship. Have a clear understanding of your purpose and desired results. This ensures that you will find a suitable coach, and that you and your coach will find value in the relationship. This clarity also eliminates any future confusion regarding roles and expectations.

Next . . .

Examine the relationships with the people who have been your coaches in the past. Whether deliberately or not, each of us has had coaches in our lives. Think about those people and the qualities that you appreciated most about them.

Finally . . .

Dissect the potential coaches/mentors track record. Have they achieved GREAT and REPEATABLE success in the area you wish to?

Then . . .

Make a decision and take action.

[Ed. Note: MaryEllen Tribby has found great success in the business world and also manages to maintain her home life. Learn how she finds the time to live the best of both worlds on Working Mom's Only.]

As it turns out, I had stumbled onto THE secret for writing effective copy, which I’ll reveal in just a moment.

While there are countless books written about how to write copy, many of them can be completely overwhelming. So at the risk of underwhelming you, what follows is probably the world’s shortest guide for how to write a salesletter.

It is written with a single focus: to give you a framework to follow, starting just 5 minutes from now, to write a salesletter even if you’re not a copywriter.

One tip before we jump in:

While writing a sales letter is about “writing,” it’s best not to put on your writing cap. Stop trying to “write” and simply transcribe what you would say if you were talking to a single person about what you have. That makes this process much easier.

So let’s get started…

STEP 1: Shine Your Spotlight on the Right Target

Writing effective sales copy is about making a connection, on an emotional level, with your reader. This is difficult to do if you focus only on your own wants and needs.

The way to create an instant connection is to structure what you write from the perspective of your reader. Step into their shoes and stay there.

The goal is to develop a clear understanding of the emotional condition of your reader. What are they feeling? Once you know what that is, practice feeling it yourself. This will inform the way you write and it will allow you to truly understand the perspective of your reader.

Writing a salesletter is about THEM, not YOU. Stop thinking about what you are trying to achieve with the letter and start thinking about what they are trying to achieve in their life. Shine the spotlight on your reader and keep it there.

How are you supposed to get them to want what you have if you’re not shining the spotlight on it?

You don’t have to create desire in your prospects for what you are offering (thank you Mr. Eugene Schwarz). Your prospective buyers already have wants and desires. What are those wants and desires? That’s what you focus on. The trick is to position what you are offering as the vehicle to get them those wants and desires.

Instead of “trying to sell,” the goal is to create an environment where they want to buy.

STEP 2: Uncover the “Big Idea”

Building your salesletter on a single BIG IDEA is how you keep your reader interested. (For a step-by-step process on finding the big idea, read this.) Your copy is focused on the big idea and keeps referring back to it to revitalize the reader’s emotions.

For example, imagine that you design websites for clients to sell their products/services on. This is a small idea. Your potential clients would be far more interested, inspired and excited by the idea of buying “virtual oil wells” that are setup for them to create revenue on demand. Your “web design” becomes a “virtual oil well.” That’s a big idea.

What is THE big idea that your product is built on? If you don’t know yet, figure it out before you start writing.

This clarity helps your writing because it gives you the “main idea” that everything you write about relates back to. It serves as the foundation of your writing because it’s exciting/inspiring/empowering to your reader.

STEP 3: Write a Headline That Conveys Your “Big Idea” in a Way That Prompts Your Reader to HAVE to Know More

If you were walking down the street and your reader was approaching you from the other direction, what would you have to say to the stranger to instantly attract their attention about what you have?

Your headline doesn’t need to solve their problem in one sentence, it simply needs to get their attention. You’re not closing the sale here, you’re simply opening the door.

After you’ve written your headline, step into the shoes of your reader and ask yourself, “Does this make me want to read more or not?”

That will tell you if there’s more work to be done.

STEP 4: Transport Them Somewhere Else

You can’t sell much if no one reads your letter. So the first priority once you earn your reader’s attention is to KEEP that attention.

The beginning of your salesletter is not something you gloss over just to get to the part where you tell them what you have. The beginning of your letter is where you earn (or lose) the opportunity to tell your reader about how you can help them. After the headline, this is the most important part to get right!

If the beginning of the letter bores them or turns them off, you are done.

This is why starting with a story is so effective. People love stories. They love to see how stories end. Stories are a very simple way to draw your reader into a new world and transport them away from what they were just doing.

So start your letter with a story, or a little known fact, or a mystery or something else extremely interesting. This really IS important, so take time on this step.

Ask yourself, “What is the best thing for me to say right now that would make my reader WANT to know more?”

STEP 5: Tell Them What You Have

Once your reader is sold on reading your letter, that’s when you can move into the body of your writing and introduce what you have.

Remember, the goal here isn’t to sell them, it’s to engineer an environment where they can’t help but buy.

This is why positioning what you have as a clear and effective solution to a problem they have is so effective. People already want solutions, so half of your work is done.

The body of your letter is where you tell them what you have. It’s where you mention the features and benefits of your product or service. And it’s where you make promises and claims that you support with PROOF.

The body of the letter has to appeal to your reader’s mind while not losing the connection to their emotions. This is why the BIG IDEA is so important. Referring back to the BIG IDEA rekindles the emotional flame in your reader.

STEP 6: Is Your Offer Good? Is It Great?

At some point in the body of your letter, you’re going to spell out exactly what your buyer will get and for how much. This is called your offer.

Do you think your offer is good enough to sell? That’s the starting point. Good enough is not good enough. Great is where you want to aim. When in doubt, increase the value of your offer.

The goal is to make your offer such a “no-brainer” value that they want to buy it. Great offers make everything else easier.

That way you can get out of the “selling” mindset and into the mindset where you’re simply offering people diamonds in exchange for pennies.

Put yourself in the shoes of your reader (again) and ask, “Would I buy this without even having to think? Is it that good? Or would it be something I’d have to consider?”

STEP 7: Filling in the Holes

Effective copy leaves nothing to chance. Have you left any questions unanswered? Have you left any objections unresolved?

Is there any other information required for your reader to take action?

Have you made it clear what action is to be taken and given a believable reason for that action to be taken sooner than later?

You need to imagine BOTH sides of the conversation. Writing effective sales copy is not about talking AT your reader, it is about having an “imaginary” conversation with them.

The Copywriting Secret I Discovered in My First Salesletter

Back when I wrote that first salesletter for my products, I stumbled upon a big secret to writing effective sales copy.

Here’s the secret:

What you say is much more important than how you say it.

And figuring out what to say has everything to do with the person who’s going to read your letter.

Never take your focus off of that person. And do the work required to truly understand that person on a level deeper than they even understand themselves.

That’s the work to be done.

Does this help you with your salescopy writing skills?

[Ed. Note: Jason Leister is a direct response copywriter, internet entrepreneur and editor of the daily e-letter, The Client Letter, where he empowers independent professionals who work with clients. He has six kids and lives and works by the lake in Minnesota.]

The first man has an ordinary mind. The second, the mind of a natural-born moneymaker.

In The Prime Movers, Edwin A. Locke provides some interesting insights into the way moneymakers think:

He argues that an active, inquisitive mind is a hallmark of the successful entrepreneur. The most successful entrepreneurs in history, he says, had this sort of mind.

• Thomas Edison: He was a “virtual thinking machine. Almost until the day he died, his mind poured forth a torrent of ideas, and he might track as many as 60 experiments at a time in his laboratory.”

• Steve Jobs: He bombarded people with his ideas – his investors, his board of directors, his customers, his subordinates, and his CEO.

• Henry Ford: “He threw himself into every detail, insisting on getting small things absolutely right… But he never lost sight of the ultimate, overall objection. He had a vision of what his new car (the Model T) should look like. From all the improvisation, hard thought, and hard work came a machine that was at once the simplest and the most sophisticated automobile built to date anywhere in the world.”

Take my friend Bernard…

I have a friend, an émigré from Manchester England, who has this kind of moneymaking mind. I have known him for more than twenty years. During that time he has started at least a dozen successful companies. Every company he forms, it seems, becomes successful very quickly. He has become a wealthy man and enjoys a wealthy man’s lifestyle, but his interest in making money has never waned.

In that respect he is very different from me. I became wealthy by making plans and working my ass off. And once I made more than I needed I stopped paying attention to it.

He made his money effortlessly. Or so it always seemed. And he continues to make money because he really enjoys the process.

He makes money not just by starting successful businesses and investing in real estate (my primary vehicles) but by buying and selling exotic cars, boats, antiques and expensive watches. Every time I see him he is driving a new car. One month it’s a Bentley. The next month it’s a Ferrari. He buys slightly used cars and enjoys them and then turns them over for a profit. He has become an expert in barter and countertrade. He never pays full price for anything. He knows how to get the best price for everything. And he loves the game.

Bernard may not have my net worth, but he’s got more than enough for the rest of his life and he seems to enjoy making money much more than I do.

I admire that about him. I like talking to him about all his recent deals. His excitement gets me excited. It also embarrasses me when I discover that he pays a fraction of what I pay for just about everything.

What if you don’t have the Mind?

I have another friend, Jeff, who used to be my partner. He was making $400,000 a year when he suddenly sold his business and retired. Today he makes a living teaching Tai Chi. His income is modest, but he lives in a beautiful house, belongs to a private yacht club and takes vacations every two months.

Like Bernard, Jeff enjoys his life. He works when he wants to, rests when he wants to and enjoys the best that life has to offer.

Jeff’s secret is that he knows how to buy the best of everything for pennies on the dollar. I am always amazed at how he and his wife can meet us in Chicago, Nicaragua or China, stay at fine hotels and do everything we do but on a budget.

I’m convinced that Jeff and Bernard both have very special brains minds. Like Edison, Jobs and Ford, they think differently than I do.

Raw intelligence is not the issue. These guys are smart but don’t think they are any smarter than I am. And anyway, if it were a matter of intelligence, Einstein and a slew of other geniuses would have been wealthy men.

I call what Bernard and Jeff have the multimillionaire’s mindset. I’ve also called it the Rich Mind.

This is the first of several essays I’ll be writing on this point: how to think like a multimillionaire.

And here’s the goal: to discover exactly how they do what they do by figuring out how they think. If you study this and subsequent essays seriously – and implement the suggestions I’ll be making – you may be able to “upgrade” your brain to one that will allow you to have the kind of life they enjoy.

I’m not doing this for you. I’m doing it for myself. I’ve mastered one part of the equation: making money through entrepreneurship. But the other part – enjoying a multimillionaire’s lifestyle on a limited budget – has so far eluded me.

Some Preliminary Observations

To get started, here are some observations I’ve made from studying my two friends and from reading about great wealth builders like Jobs and Edison and Ford.

1. A “normal” person is concerned with protecting his ego. When dealing with a problem he doesn’t really understand, he pretends he understands the contributing factors and doesn’t try to find out what anyone else thinks. A person with a multimillionaire mind asks questions inces-santly. He has no ego when it comes to learning. He knows that knowledge is power.

2. A “normal” person has a consumer mentality. He looks at a hot new product and thinks about how he would like to own one. A person with a multimillionaire mind has an entrepreneurial men-tality. He looks at it and thinks, “How can I produce this or something similar in my own industry?”

3. A “normal” person is wish-focused. He daydreams about making gobs of money. A person with a multimillionaire mind is reality-based. He is always analyzing his own success and the success of others and wondering how he could learn from it.

4. A “normal” person, when confronted with a challenging idea, thinks of all the reasons why it might not work. A person with a multimillionaire mind sees the potential in it and disregards the problems until he has a clear vision of how it might succeed.

5. A “normal” person resists change. A person with a multimillionaire mind embraces it.

6. A “normal” person accepts the status quo. A person with a multimillionaire mind is always looking to make things – even good things – better.

7. A “normal” person reacts. A person with a multimillionaire mind is proactive.

8. A “normal” person looks at a successful business owner and thinks, “That guy’s lucky.” Or “That guy’s a shyster.” A person with a multimillionaire mind thinks, “What’s his secret?” And, “How can I do that?”

Most importantly, a person with a multimillionaire’s mind likes living like a multimillionaire. He doesn’t shortchange himself when it comes to comfort and luxury. Rather than believing always that pain leads to gain, he thinks, “If I’m smart I can have my cake and eat it too.

You can start your mental transformation by studying this list and assessing your own impulses. Be honest. Identify the habits you don’t have and try to develop them. Rather than think of this process as work, think of it as fun.

[Ed. Note: Mark Morgan Ford was the creator of Early To Rise. In 2011, Mark retired from ETR and now writes the Palm Beach Letter. His advice, in our opinion, continues to get better and better with every essay, particularly in the controversial ones we have shared today. We encourage you to read everything you can that has been written by Mark.]

What’s the most awesome thing about Craig Ballantyne is during our mastermind sessions he’s been there and done that, and he helps our clients get their first sale and their 5,000th sale. There’s nobody else who’s got that kind of experience in the industry other than Craig Ballantyne that I know of, that I would trust with my business.

–Bedros Keuilian

President, Fit Body Boot Camp

– Elissa Elliott

To me the Grandest compliment I can give anyone is, Craig, I feel SAFE with YOU, I really feel you have my best interest at heart. Many times I feel your articles are speaking directly to me, such a profound gift you have.

I wish you continued blessings, beyond your wildest imagination.

From My Heart to Your Heart,

Tammy Lee Schumacher

I hear this comment a lot from readers of my fitness and Internet business newsletters, but the truth is I have the same 24 hours in the day as anyone else does, and it’s not all devoted to my businesses. I’m not a workaholic.

My workday is between 7–9 hours, just like most people. I sleep 7–8 hours, and I’m outside on the farm or at the beach with my dog up to 2 hours per day. Add to that my 2–hour morning workout excursion (includes the round–trip commute to the gym plus my stretching and my training). And finally, like you, I have some downtime with meals, reading and relaxing, and time with friends. There you go, the day is done.

So how do I get so much done?

My presentation on that early Friday morning was called, “The Right Habits of Success”, and included an essential section on how to triple your productivity. That’s not hype. You literally can triple your productivity thanks to a simple, yet powerful technique that I discovered the hard way back in 2004.

But it wasn’t until 2006 that I truly harnessed the power of this trouble–free method. Since then, I’ve been perfecting my daily schedule and today I’m running on all cylinders thanks to this little secret along with my ability to resist my email inbox well into the workday.

What’s the secret to tripling productivity?

I call it my Magic Time.

And the good news is that you have your own version of it, too.

Everyone does.

Let me explain.

We all have a time in our day when we are literally THREE times as productive as any other time of day. All you have to do is identify that time, recognize its importance, free up that time, and then ruthlessly protect it from the time vampires who try to suck it away from you.

Back in 2004 I discovered that my magic time was early in the morning. Each day at 4:30am I would get up and work on my Internet business for twenty minutes before hopping in the shower and racing to catch the city bus into downtown Toronto where I was a personal trainer to CEO’s and entrepreneurs.

Each morning it became harder and harder to pull myself away from the project I was working on before my real job began. I even worked on the bus ride downtown, and in the few minutes I had between clients.

After several months I was faced with a decision. Do I continue on with this ‘scrimping’ of magic time, or do I make sacrifices to free up the magic time so that I could take giant steps toward my ultimate goal of financial freedom through my Internet business?

You can guess the answer.

I made up my mind to sacrifice income in the short term (by introducing my clients to other trainers who could service them with the same attention to detail as I did) so that I could have more of my magic time devoted to my long–term goals.

This decision made all the difference in the world.

I could write articles in fifteen minutes in the morning, but these articles would take me three or four times as long later in the day. I kept my afternoon clients (when I was unproductive as a writer), and spent my mornings creating products and inspirational messages for my fitness email readers.

It hurt me at first, but paid off handsomely in the long run, and it can for you, too.

First you have to identify your magic time. It’s not hard to do, but it just requires a little exercise I learned from George Ross, Donald Trump’s right hand man and long–time business lawyer.

Years ago, at a Dan Kennedy SuperConference, George was one of the keynote speakers. It was in that speech that he introduced me to Donald Trump’s time journaling method. It’s a simple little task that will help you identify your magic time, as well as the habits that rob you of your time each day.

All you need to do is get a journal or notebook and write down your workday in fifteen minute increments on each line. For example, if your workday starts at 8am, you’ll have a line dedicated to 8:00, 8:15, 8:30, and so on, all the way to the end of your day (and I actually recommend doing this for all of your waking hours).

Your next task is to simply record what you are doing in each of those fifteen minute increments. If you find yourself surfing the web aimlessly at 9:15am, write that down. That’s one of the bad time habits you’ll need to fix.

More importantly, you’ll also begin to identify your most productive work time. For example, you might find that you can really crank out the work in the final two hours of the day. That might be your magic time. Once you identify it, the next step then becomes crucial.

Now you must foster it and protect it. You’ll need to take your phone off the ringer, shut down your email alerts, keep yourself blocked from the Internet, and avoid all distractions.

Your magic time is priority number one, because you can truly triple your productivity in this time.

It’s so simple, yet powerful. If you can use this to get more done in the limited time you have for work, it will mean freeing up more time for the activities you enjoy and the people that matter the most to you. Take your Magic Time very, very seriously.

Identify your magic time. Work it. And guard it like my dog, Bally, guards his dinner dish. Don’t let anyone else get their greedy lil’ paws on your Magic Time. Protect it ruthlessly and you will prosper.

[Ed. Note. Craig Ballantyne is the editor of Early to Rise and author of Financial Independence Monthly and Turbulence Training. He is also the co-creator of the Early to Rise $100,000 Transformation Contest. Though this round of the Transformation Contest has closed it's not too late to get access to all the helpful tools and advice that has helped many people make a positive change in their lives. Get started on your major life transformations today.]

Of course, this raises the questions: Who is “rich” and what is “fair”?

Answers are largely a matter of opinion. But here is a fact: IRS figures show that the top 10% of income earners make 43% of all the income and pay 70% of all the taxes. Is that fair? If not, how much should they pay: 75%… 90%… all of it? And how about the now widely recognized fact – thanks to Mitt Romney’s secret videographer – that 47% of Americans don’t pay any income taxes. Is that fair? Opinions will vary.

According to the IRS, the top 2% of income earners – the ones that just had their marginal tax rate raised 13% to 39.6% – already pay approximately half of all income taxes. President Obama says it’s about time these folks “chipped in.” What a kidder.

And who is “rich”?

For today’s discussion, I’ll leave aside the truism that you are rich if you enjoy good health, a loving family, close friends, and varied interests. Politicians (and most voters, apparently) seem to believe that a person’s wealth can be determined by his or her income. I would argue that you determine real wealth by looking at a balance sheet, not an income statement. But why not look at both?

According to the Tax Policy Center, if your annual household income is $107,628, you are in the top 20% of income earners. If your income exceeds $148,687, you are in the top 10%. You are in the top 5% if it is $208,810. And if your household income is $521,411, congratulations. You are in the top 1%… and perhaps demonized by those who view hard work and risk-taking as a matter of good genes and good fortune.

However, net worth is a far better measure of wealth, in my view. According to the Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances, a net worth of $415,700 puts you in the top 20% of American households. You are in the top 10% if your net worth is $952,200. (This jives with the findings of Dr. Thomas J. Stanley – author of The Millionaire Next Door – that one in eight American households has a net worth of $1 million or more.)

If your nest egg totals $1,863,800, you are in the top 5%. And – trumpets please – if you have a household net worth of $6,816,200, you are again in the top 1%… and possibly frowned upon by redistributionists who resent folks that live beneath their means, save regularly and handle their financial affairs prudently.

How do you get rich if you aren’t currently?

The basic formula is pretty simple: Maximize your income (by upgrading your education or job skills). Minimize your outgo (by living beneath your means). Religiously save the difference. (Easier said than done.) And follow proven investment principles.

Most millionaires – folks with liquid assets of one million dollars or more – are not big spenders. Quite the opposite, in fact.

According to extensive surveys by Dr. Stanley, the most productive accumulators of wealth spend far less than they can afford on homes, cars, clothing, vacations, food, beverages, and entertainment.

The wanna-be’s, on the other hand, (people with higher-than-average incomes but not much net worth) are merely “aspirational.” They buy expensive clothes, top-shelf wines and liquors, luxury cars, powerboats, all kinds of bling, and often more house than they can comfortably afford. Their problem, in essence, is that they’re trying to look rich. This prevents them from ever becoming rich.

It surprises many, but the vast majority of millionaires in the United States:

• Live in a house that costs less than $400,000.
• Are more likely to wear a Timex than a Rolex.
• Generally pay $15 or less for a bottle of wine.
• Have never paid more than $400 for a suit.
• Are more likely to drive a Nissan than a BMW.
• Spend very little on prestige brands and luxury items.

Yes, they’re frugal. But they’re also happy, not to mention financially free. They are not dependent on their families, their employers, or the federal government. What a feeling.

Some can’t abide by this important lesson, but the bottom line is clear: If you want to be rich, you have to stop acting rich… and start living like a real millionaire.

[Ed. Note. Alex Green is the author of excellent books like, The Secret of Shelter Island: Money and What Matters, and Beyond Wealth, that show you how to lead a "rich" life during trying economic times.]

That’s just a metaphor.

But this metaphor filters the way you see the world. And it might be blinding you to the actions you should be taking.

Stay with me for a minute while I set this up. I think you’ll be surprised.

In modern Western culture, we typically associate “work” with “time”. It’s become customary for employees to be paid by the hour, for professionals like lawyers to work with “billable hours”, for hotel room rates to be charged based on time, etc. You get the picture.

We tend to think of time this way, whether we’re conscious of it or not.

We act as if time is a commodity. A resource. And so we use expressions like:

•    You’re wasting my time.
•    How did you spend your time?
•    You’re living on borrowed time.
•    I lost a lot of time when I hurt my knee.
•    That mistake cost us three hours.

Sounds familiar, right? I bet you use these expressions without even thinking about them.

They highlight an aspect of time that’s centrally important to our culture. A core value that many of us—especially those of us who are entrepreneurs—hold true.

But here’s the thing…

These metaphors also hide other core realities about time. And that unconscious filter influences our actions and our decisions.

Time isn’t really money.

Unlike money, if you spend your time on something that isn’t aligned to your life’s purpose or goals, you can’t refund it or earn it back. You can’t save time in a bank. If I give a you a lot of my time, you can’t give me that same time back.

When we act as though time is a commodity that we can harvest, save, spend or invest and reap more of, we miss one very important realization:

In choosing to do one thing, you’re also choosing NOT to do many other things.

It seems obvious when you state it, but it never occurred to me until I’d spent nearly 20 years studying martial arts—and not much else.

When I chose to dedicate my time and energy to martial arts at the age of 15, I also unwittingly gave up a lot of other experiences. Don’t get me wrong, I’m thankful for everything the martial arts taught me. And it made a profound difference in my life. But would I have taken it that far if I knew the price of what I was giving up to get it?

It was an important revelation, because it made me very conscious of everything I commit to. All those small day to day things that might pull me off-purpose. All those things that could move me away from my goals.

I think most people take the opposite approach.

They strive to do “more” without ever stopping to think about exactly what or how much they need to meet their goals. And in the process they risk getting caught up in someone else’s agenda—their boss’s or the company’s or someone else’s goals—while losing site of why they started on that track in the first place.

Unfortunately, you can never get that time back.

But don’t worry. There’s a very simple way around this trap.

Learn how to say, “I’m sorry, I can’t commit to that right now.”

Stay focused on the “North star” that orients the direction of your life. Choose in favor of actions that take you towards your Purpose.

Sure, it took a while for me to get comfortable saying “No”. I was one of those people who hated to see work left undone, and who always piled more on my plate. And as a result, I got a lot of stuff done for other people. But my goals were treading water, and I wasn’t much closer to fulfilling my dreams.

Focus your efforts—like I did—by learning to say, “I’m sorry, I can’t commit to that.”

You’ll become much more conscious of what you DO agree to—to others and to yourself. And you’ll stop saying yes to things you have no intention of doing, just to get yourself off the hook.

I don’t mean that you should never commit to anything again. What I’m suggesting is that you take a close look at what you do agree to, because you’re going to have to follow through on those things.

Don’t get yourself into situations that drag you away from your purpose simply because you spoke without thinking. Get in the habit of thinking first, before you open your mouth. Evaluate those requests or opportunities, and hold them up against the measuring stick of your Purpose. And then decide.

Time is not money. That’s just a metaphor.

But time IS irreplaceable. Choose wisely.

[Ed. Note. Ryan Murdock is the author of Personal Freedom: A Guide to Creating the Life of Your Dreams. When not helping people find their own brand of personal freedom, Ryan travels the world's marginal places as Editor-at-Large (Europe) for Outpost magazine. He recently released his first travel book, called Vagabond Dreams: Road Wisdom from Central America.]

At the time, no one had ever run a sub-4 minute mile. No one. In fact, many so-called authorities said it simply couldn’t be done. But Roger didn’t seem to care.

You see, Bannister was disappointed after his performance in the 1952 Olympics.   As one of the top runners in England, it was humiliating to not even win a bronze medal for the old empire.

But instead of giving up, Bannister set out to do something that no one had done before.  He trained, prepared, and sacrificed. One day, on May 6, 1954, to be exact, Bannister took the train from Paddington Station to Oxford where he was going to try and break the 4-minute barrier.

He almost didn’t run that day because the weather looked bad: winds blew more than 25 miles an hour and the rain fell hard and heavy across the damp English countryside.  But just before the race started, the wind died down and the rain stopped.  Perhaps it was meant to be.

Bannister and five other runners lined up and dug in their spikes. The gun fired and off they went – with one man running his way into the history books.  After 3 laps, Bannister trailed another runner even as they rounded the final turn.  Then, Bannister’s training, willpower and self-belief kicked in. He sped up, passed everyone and won the race.

More important, he finished the race with a time of 3 minutes 59.4 seconds.

He was the first man to run a mile in less than 4 minutes.

Since that time, thousands of track athletes have run the mile in less than 4 minutes, and what’s most interesting is that the sub-4 minute times came rolling in almost immediately after Roger first accomplished it.

Why then had no one ever accomplished it before?

For years and years, no one, not a single person, was able to do it. Was it because they lacked ability? We don’t think so. Nothing magical happened in 1954 to make human beings instantly faster.

You see, the limitation was 100% mental.

And it took someone like Roger who didn’t pay attention to what others thought was possible or impossible to remove that limit.

And with that mental block removed, in came an INFLUX of sub-4 minute times.

In a more recent years, no one thought that a 6’5″ lanky sprinter could ever be a true Olympic competitor (sprinters are naturally short and stocky). But although he didn’t fit the typical sprinter build, Jamaican Usain Bolt set his mind on being an Olympic Champion at a young age.

And in the 2008 Olympic games in Beijing, Usain Bolt not only accomplished his dream of winning Olympic gold, but he did it while completely annihilating world records in both the 100 and 200 meters. And again he reigned #1 in 2012.

Stories like this really inspire me, because they remind me that truly anything is possible.

Sometimes we are surrounded by so much negativity with the people around us placing limits on what we can accomplish, achieve, or be.

You may be someone who has always struggled with your body, and maybe even your family has a long history of obesity. But you don’t have to buy into that. Break the mold. Remove the limitations – those that others have tried to place on you, and most importantly, those that you’ve placed on yourself.

I dare you.

See what happens.

The fact is this: You are special. There is greatness inside of you. Wherever you are at, you can achieve more. A LOT more.

And here’s another truth: The limitations that others have placed on you can only become reality if you believe them, too.

Are self-limiting beliefs holding YOU back from achieving your best? Or even going after your best?

Don’t let it happen.

You’re better than that.

You’re BIGGER than that.

And you can achieve more.

We KNOW this is true for you, and we believe in you. Now it’s your turn to believe in yourself.

Today marks the day where you start thinking like Roger Bannister and Usain Bolt. You are in control of what you can and will achieve…no one else is. Think of the life you truly WANT to have. Now believe it’s possible, because it is.

See yourself OWNING that life, because that’s exactly where you are headed, starting right now.

I believe in you. Get started toward the “impossible” today. You can do it.

[Ed. Note: Joel Marion, co-founder of Bio Trust has become an authority in the fitness world. His books and articles have changed many people's bodies and lives for the better. Find out more about Joel and his Bio Trust program here.]