It Takes More than Effort to Get Results

Read the title again, carefully. It doesn't say "it takes more effort to get results." It says "it takes more than effort to get results." Ah, the difference a word can make.

In the world I grew up and live in, hard work is considered a high virtue. I've read children's books that spoke of the value of hard work. I grew up on a farm and was proud to work hard. Few compliments will be viewed as highly as, "They are a hard worker." And most people I know consider persistence a highly valued trait.

And I suspect your world is much the same.

As I continue to learn and observe the world around me, I'm quite sure this is the whole story.

That doesn't mean I don't think effort is required, that work is necessary, or that action helps us reach our goals. Of course, we need to take action to get results. Of course work is required to achieve anything of value. The quarrel I have is not with the word "work." It's with the word "hard."

Of course some things are hard work and always will be. However hard work, taken to the extreme leads us to the equivalent of bashing our head against a concrete wall, figuring that eventually the wall will crack, and we will break through. Can we break through the concrete wall and reach our objective using our head? Perhaps, but I believe there are better ways to break through the wall!

While this analogy may be simple, and somewhat painful, I believe it holds an important element of truth for us all. Why? We all know there are better ways to break through a concrete wall than using our head. As you read this I'm sure you can think of many tools that would allow you to us that while more easily and successfully while creating less pain and agony for yourself.

But unfortunately often people feel that hard work is necessary and that sacrifice is required for them to reach the things they desire.

The truth is, what we really need to do is work intelligently. There are many things we can do to work more intelligently, including building our skills, our capacities, our network, and our experience. All of these things are important. But none of them are the most important.

What is the Most Important?

The most important key to reaching our objectives, with less "hard" work is within ourselves. The most important key are the natural gifts and talents that lie within us, largely untapped and unrecognized.

In my experience there are two ways to mop the floor: on your hands and knees using a rag or standing in using a mop. When we celebrate hard work, it's like we are celebrating the rag. If all you have is a rag, you can certainly get the floor clean. On the other hand, if you knew there was a mop would you choose the rag?

So it is with our own natural gifts. We have the mop, but we don't often think about it or recognize it and therefore don't use it.

Three Things You Can Do

Here are three things you can do today to begin to work more intelligently.

Identify your gifts and strengths. In order to use the mop, you must know the mop exists. In order for us to take advantage of our unique talents, abilities, strengths, and gifts we must know they are there. This requires us to think about our strengths and ask others what our strengths are. It will require time for reflection. It will require time. This task itself will require some effort. But the effort is worth it. Every time we use the mop, we gain time, save energy and complete a task more rapidly. It's time to find your mop!

Allow yourself to use them. Once we know we have a mop, we have to allow ourselves to use it. Maybe your mentor used a rag. Maybe your mother used a rag. While that might be the most successful way for them, that doesn't necessarily mean it is for you. Once you identified your gifts and talents, you must allow yourself to use them. You must take the opportunity to use your unique gifts, because in using them, your results will seemingly flow from you.

Work on building them. Many of us when reviewing our skills will identify a list of both strengths and weaknesses. This is an excellent exercise. While it is important for us to recognize our weaknesses and work in many cases to improve them, it is equally important to continue to nurture and strengthen our greatest gifts and strengths. Consider spending at least as much time nurturing and building your strengths as you do on improving or fixing your areas of weakness. Again, you will get greater results for these efforts because they will come easier and more naturally.

When you do these three things, you'll begin to make your work easier and more enjoyable. At the same time, you will most likely find that your results will come sooner and more completely.

What could be better than that? The results we want, with less effort and more enjoyment.

Remember, it takes more than effort to get results; it takes intelligent, informed, enlightened, effort.

It's time to get to work.

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Why People Fail

Some people don't really know what it is they want. Many define what they want by stating what they don't want. The result, they get exactly what they don't want. Why because instead of focusing on what they do want they are focused on what they don't want. I recently discovered this while having a disciplinary discussion with our eleven year old daughter. The discussion was about her behavior and why it is wrong. What's funny about this is we had this exact same discussion less than sixty days prior.

During this discussion I realized that my daughter did not think she was doing anything wrong, she believed she was acting according to what was acceptable for an eleven year old. I had to think about this for a bit because she did not understand that it is not ok to misbehave. I got the idea to use an example and ask her what she thought about it.

I said, "A person robs a bank, is caught and goes to jail. As soon as that person gets out they rob another bank is caught and goes to jail again. Gets out robs yet another bank and goes to jail. What do you think about this?" "There's a problem," was her answer. Then I said to her, "You are the person robbing the bank". The look on her face was utter devastation. I then explained to her that when she misbehaves it's like the person robbing the bank. The robber did not want to go to jail but that is what he/she got, exactly what they didn't want. That's what you get every time you misbehave; you get everything that you don't want. The logic was inescapable.

If you focus on the things you don't want, you are going to get what you focus on. Now that might seem like it's backwards but in reality that is exactly what many people do and they don't understand why they continually get the results they get. Your mind attracts to you that which is the center of your focus. If your focus is on what you don't want you will get that which you focus on. While the above example is a bit extreme the point is you attract to you what you think about. My daughter said she was always thinking about not getting into trouble, what did she get?

It is extremely important to be specific about what you want as well. It is not enough to say you want more money; you must be specific about the amount of more money you want. If you make $40,000 a year, yoursubconscious mind thinks that $40,001 is more money which it is and therefore you have reached your goal. Your efforts to get more fail because you're now thinking I don't want $40,001 I want more. If you want to lose weight,loosing 1 pound to your subconscious mind is achieving your goal, you lost weight.

Now you might be thinking "I want to make more money and in the back of your mind more money means $50,000 a year, but all you say is more money. See the difference? You must be specific and say next year I want to make $50,000 or I want to lose 20 pounds in three months. You must know exactly what it is you want or you will fail to get it.

How to make your dreams a reality.

You must know exactly what it is you want.
You must know every detail, how having what you want will make you feel. What having what you want will do for you, give you more status, more prestige, raise your standard of living. You must know every detail or you will stumble along the way and feel like a failure.


You must have a time frame in mind.
You need to set a date by which you expect to have gained the object of your focus. If you desire to fit those designer jeans by springtime and you need to lose 15 pounds, set a date by which you expect to have lost the weight. Then using a series of smaller goals, affirm to lose 1 to 2 pounds pre week by mapping out a diet to cut out 500 calories a day.

Your desire must be measurable.
First start out with the end result clearly in mind. You should start out with a series of smaller obtainable goals. Success with these smaller goals fuels your confidence towards achieving a larger goal. Then have something to gage your success by. Starting with the end result, work backwards in detail until you get to the starting point where you will set out to achieve you goal. This gives you the exact steps you need to take to achieve your goal. Each step should lead you closer to obtaining your desired result. This becomes your ruler, check to see if you are on course.

Always write out your goals.
Writing your goals out is another way to check if you have strayed from the course. It gives you something to follow. Write your goals out and read them daily. We have billions of thoughts per day and a goal is just another thought. Writing it down helps to keep that thought in mind instead of it being replaced by one of the other billions of thoughts. It also helps with your commitment to your goal. Seeing it daily reaffirms it in your mind.

Get a success partner.
One way to insure success with obtaining any goal is to have a partner. Someone who will encourage you and help you stay on course. It's important to have someone who will stand by you and not someone who will try to discourage you. Champions Evolution is a coaching service that helps people set goals and achieve them. They deal with confidence and self-esteem issues and they show you how to believe you can have what you want.

Evaluate your progress.
Are you making headway? If not, why not? Adjust your plan to meet your long-term goal. Are you meeting your weekly or monthly weight loss goals? If not, determine what might be the problem. Add another half hour of walking each week or cut out second helpings.

Challenge yourself through adversity.
That means work hard, push yourself and feel a little discomfort if it means helping you reach your goals. Understand and acknowledge that change is not easy. If it were, you would have already achieved your goal. We tend to revert to previous behaviors when change gets difficult. Now is the time to develop new life behaviors.

You have a choice in what you get or don't get. You choose to have success or you choose to have failure. There is nothing in between the two except you. What you choose to think about will be what you get. Focus on failure and no amount of effort will bring you the success you desire. The thing to do is focus your mind on success

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Success

Success has come to mean many things to people in today's changing society, but certain aspects of it remain fundamentally the same. Success whether it be financial, emotional, physical, emotional, or spiritual, involves achievement and a sense of accomplishment and the positive happy feelings associated with creating. Success that is based upon emotional and spiritualwellness, has a center and focus that allows a person to feel in control of their own choices and attitudes on a daily basis, which can both empower them and bring them happiness and joy.

One of the first steps in being successful is setting goals for yourself. In doing this, one of the most important things is to truly allow yourself to dream and come up with ideas and feelings that bring you joy and happiness, so that you can ultimately work towards and receive the benefits that you truly desire in life. It is only you who can limit yourself. This kind of positivity is very hard for most people to embrace.

They are generally swept up in patterns, age-old habits, fears, superstitions, doubts, and concerned with fitting in to the status quo etc of their respective cultures, that they do not dare to truly dream. Dreaming is the first and most important part of being successful. When you allow yourself to dream, you create in yourself the first seeds of that dream coming to fruition. You dare to allow yourself to live that dream. That is the most powerful gift you can ever give yourself: believing in yourself.


Having created that feeling state of happiness, abundance, prosperity, and satisfaction that you desire within you, you can now outline your vision into concrete goals. Writing down your goals, reading them, re-reading them to yourself, repeating them to your friends, colleagues, family, spouse, children and other loved ones, speaking them aloud to yourself, and always keeping your goals close to you, brings them into fruition a lot faster than you would realize. In sending out your heart's desire with focus and determination and positivity, you are sending the seeds of your desire into the world to germinate and flower. You are harnessing the great power and energy of the universe to bring your desire into being.

To achieve your goals, you have to work, sacrifice, and persist. You have to make choices. If there is someone that you admire, study them carefully. See what qualities they possess that you would like to emulate. Believe in yourself and be willing to adapt, to change your thought processes, and above all, yourself.

One of the most important things you can do for yourself is to write your goals down. Only 3% of the world's population writes down goals, of which only 1% write down goals daily! Why not be in that elite one percent if that will bring your heart's desires? If you constantly visualize the attainment of your goals and dreams, you will not only achieve your goals, but you will fully reach the potential you set for yourself. 

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Start With A Baseline

Making changes in your life is great and it is the way we growand develop as people. Change is a constant process and part of being human. When you embark on changing anything in your life you have to start from where you are. Until you know where that is it would be difficult to effectively make the change. You have to start with a baseline.


Starting with a baseline is about honestly figuring out where you are and what you are doing so that you know exactly what needs to be changed. It may sound odd, but many of us are unaware of what we do. When my clients tell me they want to lose weightthe first thing I do is have them keep a food journal for a week just to get a baseline. The next week they share how shocked they were to see not only how much they were eating, but also what they were eating. Many of us are on autopilot and we simply are not aware of what we are doing. When you track it - and this works with anything - you have a real picture of where you are and what needs to change.


I read a statistic once that said most people consistently spend about 10% more than they make. I believe that is true, and it is because what is being spent, especially on a credit card, is not tracked. I once had a client that just didn't have enough time to accomplish everything she needed to do. When she tracked her time for a week she was made painfully aware that she was spending hours in front of the television. The first step in change is awareness. You have to become aware of what you are doing and exactly where you are before you can proceed forward. Keeping track for a week or two will provide you with valuable information that will support your change effort.


Before you embark on any type of change effort you have to know where you are. I liken it to those travel maps that have an X printed next to "You are here." Until you are aware of exactly where you are - and many of us don't have a clue - it will be impossible to make the needed change.


The first step in your change effort is to determine where you are. Keep a log for a week or two. This will give you a realistic idea of what you are doing. You can track anything from how much money you spend to how many hours of sleep you get. Once you know the truth about where you are you can proceed.

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Money Making Idea - Building A Successful You

Okay, this is the first thing you should remember.YOU are the absolute most important factor for building your success to make money, whether your business is online or offline. This is a making money opportunity for everyone to consider. 

I have personally researched successful and unsuccessful people throughout my history of resources and nearly all successful people have important factors in common. The same thing goes for unsuccessful people too. It's all about your business attitude (confidence/competance), business plan, and well-being. 

First of all, you must be willing to take action to change your lifefactors, without depending on others to take care of it for you, or waiting for that special miracle that will most likely NEVER happen. Most every successful person is willing to take action right away. Most unsuccessful people are almost clueless of what to do and often have a "book of excuses" or only wish that they could be successful without making the sacrifice.

That brings us to our first important factor... laziness and unwillingness to succeed. Laziness does not necessarily determine your failure. There are PLENTY of people who are extremely lazy that still have the drive to take it upon themselves and take action to improve their life. Most of the time, the reason is so they could stay just as lazy and still make plenty of money. Hey, whatever gives you the motivation, right? But, don't confuse laziness with unwillingness. Often times, success is generated from being at the right place at the right time. But, I wouldn't wait around to find out if that's the case or not. 

Success is brought by sincere ambition, with the unwillingness to fail. But, don't keep poking at a dead horse hoping that it will kick back. There must be a strong business plan and it must be carefully thought out. BE COMPETANT and careful on what business you are plunging yourself into, before you sink to the bottom with it. Make sure you have a backup plan, even though you shouldn't need it if your business plan has truly been researched appropriately. 

The wrong attitude will not make a business work, I'm here to tell you. Most unsuccessful people will have bad attitudes brought on by personal friends/family, employment, lack of strive to succeed, or for whatever reason. Don't let this take your success away from your future. Everyone is entitled to their fair share of success, but must be willing to make the change. Many will feel that there is not enough time, with everything going on in life, or they just aren't smart enough to do so. That brings us to the next step.


KNOWLEDGE/INFORMATION is the key resource to any business and is absolutely the most valuable commodity that can be obtained. Now, in the "old days" before the internet was accessible, information was very difficult and inconvenient to reach. Now there are no excuses. We have the internet. The whole world is at YOUR fingertips and it's up to you to find it, in the comfort of your own home of course.

Time does play an important role in research, as it does often take much time to find whatever it is you're looking for. But, it's not enough of an excuse to fail. It's up to you to make today and tomorrow count! Opportunity doesn't always knock on everyone's door, so get out there and FIND IT YOURSELF. Find out what works for others and do the research to see if that's what you're looking for. It's MUCH easier to make money than you may think, and I'm not talking about $20 or $50 dollars an hour. I'm speaking of 20, 50, 100 grand a month residual income. In other words, your business works for you, instead of the other way around.

Another important factor that cannot be overlooked is your health. Take care of yourself and yourself may take better care of you. Many things can be sacrificed to bring your success, but sacrificing your health should not be an option. Your success will not be as meaningful and fulfilling, if you can't enjoy it!

So, remember that your steps are to:

Realize that you are in control of your future success to take action now.

Mild laziness is acceptable as long as you are willing to take the necessary steps to further your growth.

Do your research and get the required information to make your business work.

Maintain good health so you can enjoy your future!

But, until next time, please take care and have a wonderful time! 

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ARE YOU FAMOUS OR FOCUSED?

ARE YOU FAMOUS OR FOCUSED?

Are you famous or are you focused? Let's start with "famous". When people look at you, what do they say that you are famous for? Are you famous for procrastination…negative words…poor time management…What are you famous for? Let me share with you what I am famous for. I am famous for consistent, structured, focused daily strategies and techniques to live a victorious life. I know…that is a pretty strong statement! You see, I would rather be "focused" than famous. 
I am focused on success. I am focused on assisting you in achieving you dream and discover the greatness that is inside all of you! Forget about being famous, let's be focused. Be focused on your dreams…be focused on providing for your family…be focused on building a huge team…be focused on Finding Your Why! Let's commit today to become focused and start changing people's lives. 
Millions of people world wide watch shows like "Who wants to be a Millionaire" or "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous". The interesting thing is that everyone sitting on the couch with a bag of popcorn watching these shows are broke. Why? Because they are famous for sitting back and watching shows on other people being famous. How about we flick the switch in life from famous to focused. Stop dreaming of other people being famous and start being focused on your own destiny! You must laser-focus in on your success and demolish procrastination and create action. Demolish resolutions and create results! Let's demolish fear and create faith! How is this all possible by simply being focused. How do people become gold medalist, super bowl champions, etc? They take charge of their lives, hire a coach and become focused.

What are you? Who are you? Where are you going? How are you going to get there? More importantly, why are you not focused? Those that know their "Why" are very focused. I am focused on my Why of changing lives of Champions worldwide through my coaching, mentoring, seminars and success library and creating massive success in those Champions lives! Do not allow famous to get in your way of being focused. Make a commitment today to forget fame and become laser-focused! Let's get focused and know your Why! Let's go out and impact the world one heart at a time. Focus creates success and Fame creates problems. It's your decision…become focused and live your dream!!!

Find Your Why & Fly!

John Di Lemme

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How to Start a Blog and Make Money Online

If you are new to the internet and wondering what an earth this blogging craze is all about, or if you already have your own website and you're wondering why everyone keeps advising you to start your own blog, read on. I'm going to explain to you what a blog is, why you need one, how to set it up, promote it and of course, make money from it.

Blog is short for "web log" and is similar to an online diary or journal. The craze of blogging began in the very late 1990s and has started to become more and more popular over the last couple of years. Almost everyone seems to have a blog these days, from CEOs of large companies to webmasters, from world travelers to teenagers. Even my Dad has his own blog now! A blog allows you to communicate informally with people via an online journal, but it's more personal and unstructured than a website and easier and cheaper to set up than a website.

If you have your own website, but haven't yet started a blog you can easily start one using a free service such as Blogger or WordPress. Try to post to your blog at least once or twice a week on topics related to your website. Blogging will help your search engine rankings and open up the communication channels between you and your visitors or customers, encouraging them to interact with you and give them a reason to return to your site in future.

If you don't have your own website and are looking to set up a blog quickly and easily I recommend opening a free account with Blogger. You can blog about anything you like, for example a hobby, a vacation, your home town, something political, a sport or your business. Just be sure to pick something that you are interested in and knowledgeable about. You can host your blog for free on Blogspot – all you need to do is pick a name that is relevant to the topic of your blog. Once you have set up your profile and chosen a template, blogging is as simple as sending an email to a friend.

There are many ways to make money from your blog, but here are a few ideas to get you started.


- Google Adsense - this is free to join and easy to set up. The ads will match the content of your blog and you will get paid every time a visitor clicks on an ad.

- Affiliate Programs – sign up for affiliate programs related to the topic of your blog and display links to related products on your blog. Clickbank, Trade Doubler and Commission Junction are good places to start, or do a Google search for "affiliate program" + the topic of your blog to find more affiliate programs. Whenever someone clicks through your affiliate link and buys a product, you will receive a commission. If you are knowledgeable about your topic you could also write product reviews to help increase your affiliate sales.

- Sell Advertising Space – if you have a popular blog you can charge people to advertise on your blog. This could be in the form of a text link, a banner or a graphic.

You are not going to make money with a blog unless people can find it. As soon as you have started to post to your blog it's time to start promoting it. You can get your blog noticed by…

- Submitting your blog to blog directories – just search for "blog directories" in Google

- Asking other bloggers to exchange links with you – you put a link on your blog in exchange for a link from their blog.

- Writing an article related to the topic of your blog and posting it to article directories. Remember to include an author's resource box with a link to your blog.

- Pinging blog ping services every time you make a new post – pingomatic.com and pingoat.com are two sites you can use to do this.

- Participating in forums related to the topic of your blog. Put a link to your blog in your forum signature.

Finally, once you have your blog monetized and you have started promoting it don't forget to post regularly. The most important aspect of every successful blog is frequent posting, so be sure not to let the virtual dust gather over your blog! 

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Persistence is Key

Once, there was a dog named Manty. She was a typical house pet in a typical middle-income family. The family lived in a rather small house. So, home to Manty was the backyard, which was rather small too.

Manty's world revolved around the four corners of this small backyard, which was likewise used as the laundry area. Peculiar as it may seem, Manty had a favorite area in this backyard where it slept and stayed. This was the area under the sink, where most of the laundry work was being done.

Manty shared its favorite space with the laundry woman. The laundry woman stored all sorts of soapboxes, pails, basins and tools under the sink, which created obstructions for the poor dog. But still, Manty would be found crawling under its favorite area and making itself comfortable amidst these objects. At times, the laundry woman stored heavy objects in Manty's favorite spot that the poor dog had to struggle to move these objects aside just to be able to squeeze itself in. Manty could hardly move; but somehow, it still liked the spot very much.

All sorts of combinations have been done to discourage the dog from sleeping under the sink; but still, the dog always managed to squeeze itself in. When Manty found it difficult to fit itself into the spot, she would sit for a while looking at its favorite spot as if contemplating and thinking of a way to get itself into it. And in each of its attempts, it succeeded. 

Aren't you amazed at such a display of persistence? To think that Manty is just a dog makes it more amazing!

If a dog has such level of persistence, why can't we humans have the same? If we meet obstacles, we easily wave the white flag of surrender. This shows our lack of persistence, determination, and tenacity in pursuing our goals. 


It takes persistence to move forward to progress. If we stop somewhere along the road towards success in life, it is like starting from the top again. When we give up, we lose everything we worked hard for: time, effort, money, and most especially, the opportunity to succeed in life.

We will never know how close we are to success if we surrender somewhere in-between. It is a choice between success and failure. Surrendering is accepting failure. Persistence to continue, despite obstacles, is the way to success.

We can accept failures, why not? Our mindset must be programmed to perceive failures as temporary. Failure is a pre-requisite to success and it is only temporary. When we fail, it is time to assess and learn from our mistakes. Then, we must find another way and still move on until we reach the door of success, never wavering to whatever obstacles that may hinder us.

We should open our minds and expect instances when we will be confronted with obstacles that would result to making a decision whether to continue or not. We may be undecided which course of action to take next. The best way is to examine the options and alternatives available to us. From there, we can move forward and continue to our journey towards the achievement of our goals.

Success is never easy, and failure is part of success. The sad part is that most of us are deterred by the mere thought of failure, and this paralyzes us from taking the right course of action.

We see many people who easily give up and are satisfied with their own meager sense of accomplishment. They simply sit back and watch successful people enjoy life while they engage in self-pity, regretting that they have given up too soon.

The choice is ours to make. 

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You Have to Be First at the River to Get a Drink

While on vacation in the Serengeti Plains of Africa, I sat on a riverbank for three hours watching a herd of wildebeest (or gnu) build up the courage to drink from the water. This herd was part of the Great Migration that happens like clockwork every summer. More than 1,000,000 wildebeest move northward from the arid Serengeti into the wetlands of the Masai Mara.

The migration is a long, dry and arduous journey. Frequently the only available water is the Grumeti River. Crisscrossing the wildebeest migration route through the Serengeti, the Grumeti represents both life and death to the herds. Unlike some creatures that can take their moisture from the grass they eat, the wildebeest must drink from the river to live. Although they can survive up to five days without water, they try to drink twice a day.

The Life-or-Death Challenge of the Great Migration

Hot from the sun, thirsty from the effort and dry from the dust, the animals arrive at the river. They must drink to survive. Yet the river supports other life, such as scrub brush, trees and fresh, sweet grass along its banks. Some of that life such as the brush provides cover for predators that present a danger to the wildebeest.

Lions wait until the herd is stretched thin, then charge, trapping a gnu with its back to the river. The other wildebeest stampede, raising a dust cloud that obscures the view of those closest to the lions. A kill is almost guaranteed.

Where the water is still enough to form drinking pools, large crocodiles lurk just beneath the surface or sun themselves on the approaches. One day I watched 28 crocodiles feast on an unlucky gnu. Another day a gnu escaped the crocodiles with only lacerations and a broken leg – probably to fall victim to lions later that evening.

Sometimes the rushing water itself presents the danger. The massive weight of the herd may push the leading animals into the current, where they drown or get swept into the jaws of acrocodile.

To Drink or Not to Drink – The Dance of the River Crossing

The wildebeest seem to be aware of these horrific possibilities as they approach a low spot, ideal for crossing or drinking. Animals at the leading edge of the herd inch up to the bank. Individual gnus step forward tentatively, sniff the air, make their distinctive, plaintive "gnu" sound and step back. This dance continues for hours. The herd, smelling water, bunches up behind these "leaders," gradually nudging them toward the water, whether they want to go or not. If it's been a long time since the herd last drank, you feel their desperation. Yet the dance goes on.

On the day I watched for three hours, a young gnu finally stepped ahead of the herd and started drinking. Was it innocence and ignorance of the danger that moved this young gnu into the water or was it simply thirst?


The fearful adults held back until the herd pushed them forward and a number of them began drinking. Moments later the surging masses shoved one gnu further into the water than it was willing to go. It panicked and in turn panicked the others. They all retreated quickly from the water and returned to the migration. Only those that had been brave enough to be at the leading edge of the herd in the first place got a drink. The others, more fearful or perhaps simply mired in the pack, went thirsty.

What kept the rest of the gnus from drinking? Did they know too much? Were they too afraid? Or were they simply too comfortable in the relative safety of the middle of the herd? Whatever the answer, only a few animals got to drink at that crossing.

In ritualistic fashion twice each day the wildebeest line up at the nearest river crossing to start the process all over again. Another afternoon I watched a smaller herd stand on a cliff 30 feet above the river. The vertical drop kept them from reaching their goal. But just 100 yards upstream lay a shallow crossing they could have easily reached. Instead of moving toward their goal, they stood on the cliff, moaning and bleating over the water they couldn't reach.

Lessons from the Wildebeest – Take a Risk to Satisfy Your Thirst

Are you kin to the wildebeest? What keeps you bound to the herd and thirsty for the water of success? Is it fear of the unknown, what might be in the bushes? Or are you lulled by meaningless daily rituals that take you no further toward your life or career goals?

Successful people are risk-takers. They are the ones who get to the river, drink and, admittedly, sometimes get eaten. All of life is risk. When you drive onto the freeway, step into your facility, enter a grocery store or eat in the hospital cafeteria, you face a risk that you won't return home. In the words of T.S. Eliot, "Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find how far one can go."

Lots of people want to get their lives back and do something different. Instead, they stand just out of reach of the water of success, watching others drink while they go thirsty.

Don't let your fears hold you back. Don't wait for the momentum of others to push you forward. You must commit to act. The consequences of your action or inaction are in your hands. Only you have the power to start your new life. One of my favorite quotes is from Katherine Mansfield: "Risk! Risk anything! Care no more for the opinion of others, for those voices. Do the hardest thing on earth for you. Act for yourself." Take a risk – take a drink today and you'll never be thirsty another day in your life. 

READMORE - You Have to Be First at the River to Get a Drink