By Robin Sharma

‘Gu’ simply means ‘darkness’ in Sanskrit and ‘ru’ simply means ‘dispel.’ So the word ‘guru’ simply speaks of one who dispels the darkness and brings more understanding and light.” Nice point. Made me think.

Each day, life will send you little windows of opportunity. Your destiny will ultimately be defined by how you respond to these windows of opportunity. Shrink from them and your life will be small. Feel the fear and run to them anyway, and your life will be big. Life’s just too short to play little.

Big idea: Your days are your life in miniature. As you live your hours, so you create your years. As you live your days, so you craft your life. What you do today is actually creating your future. The words you speak, the thoughts you think, the food you eat and the actions you take are defining your destiny—shaping who you are becoming and what your life will stand for. Small choices lead to giant consequences—over time. There’s no such thing as an unimportant day.

As you live your days, so you craft your life.

Each one of us is called to greatness. Each one of us has an exquisite power within us. Each one of us can have a significant impact on the world around us—if we so choose. But for this power that resides internally to grow, we need to use it. And the more you exercise it, the stronger it gets. 

Henry David Thoreau related to this point well when he wrote: “I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of a human being to elevate their life by conscious endeavor.” Sounds like Orison Swett Marden 

“For every person with the stuff, the one out of a hundred who goes to a rarefied place is the one who says, ‘why not me?’ and goes for it.”

Oliver Wendell Holmes observed: “A mind once stretched by a new idea can never return to its original dimensions.”

Fill your life with knowledge and books

• “Cut back on your rent or cut back on what you spend on food but never worry about investing money in a good book.”
• His philosophy was that all it takes is one idea discovered in a single book to lift you to a whole new level and revolutionize the way you see the world.

I’ve been stumbling toward my best life. Failure is the price of greatness. Failure is an essential ingredient for a high achievement.

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did.” The real risk lies in riskless living.

9 Make Time to Think

• Asked him the secret of his outrageous success. He smiled: “I make the time to think.” Every morning, he spends at least 45 minutes with his eyes closed, deep in reflection. He’s not meditating. He’s not praying. He’s thinking.
• “There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.” – Peter Drucker 
• Alice in Wonderland when he wrote: “‘There’s no use in trying,’ said Alice. ‘One can’t believe impossible things.’ ‘I daresay you haven’t had much practice,’ said the Queen. ‘When I was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.’”

Those among us who craft extraordinary careers and spectacular lives are those who spend most of their time giving their best out on the extra mile. Yes, ordinary people don’t spend much time on the extra mile.

Find Better Models 

• Often, we have weak reference points so we see the limitations of a scenario rather than the opportunities. With world-class reference points, you will realize far more of your potential and life will have more wonder.
• Positive reference points will pull you into a new way of seeing things and introduce you to a new set of possibilities. Doors you never even knew existed will begin to open.
• I’ve been reminded that few things are more important than building relationships. How easy it is to forget that, ultimately, business and life is all about forging human bonds.

BE THE ETERNAL OPTIMIST.

VALUE PEOPLE.

BE AN ORIGINAL.

LAUGH AND HAVE FUN.

If you want to be happier, do more of the things that make you happy.

• I’m not one of those New Age types that believes “it’s all meant to be” and that our lives have been scripted by an invisible set of hands. That kind of talk smacks of “victimspeak” and fear. Fear of failure. Fear of rejection. Fear of not being good enough. Fear of success. That kind of language also lacks any sense of personal responsibility and usually comes from people too afraid to get into the game.
• I believe that we generally get from life what we give to life. I believe that good things happen to those willing to put in the effort, exercise discipline and make the sacrifices that personal and professional greatness requires—no, demands. I’ve also found that actions have consequences and the more good things I do—through good old hard work—the more success I see. Life favors the devoted.
• Focus on any area or skill with a relentless devotion to daily improvement and a passion for excellence and within three to five years, you will be operating at a level of competence (and insight) such that people call you a genius. Focus plus daily improvement plus time equals genius. Understand that formula deeply and your life will never be the same.
• Picasso happily complied and quickly etched out a piece of art for her on the paper provided. He smiled as he handed it back to her, and said, “That will be a million dollars.” “But Mr. Picasso,” the flustered woman replied, “it only took you 30 seconds to do this little masterpiece.” “My good woman,” Picasso laughed, “it took me 30 years to do that masterpiece in 30 seconds.”
• neurologist Donald Calne: “The essential difference between emotion and reason is that emotion leads to action while reason leads to conclusions.” A breathtakingly important point. Human beings move when their emotions are moved.
• Human beings move when their emotions are moved. – Worth repeating 
• People go where they are made to feel cared for, special and good. People buy from a place of emotional engagement. Seems so obvious. Yet most businesses don’t get it.
• Every time you say yes to something that is unimportant, you are saying no to something that is important.
• Great achievement often happens when our backs are up against the wall. Pressure can actually enhance your performance.

Easy times don’t make you better. They make you slower and more complacent and sleepy. Staying in the safety zone—and coasting through life—never made anyone bigger.

• Challenge serves beautifully to introduce you to your best—and most brilliant—self.

The Leader is based on a simple yet powerful concept: The ultimate competitive advantage of your enterprise comes down to a single imperative—your ability to grow and develop leaders faster than your competition.

• • The philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer once observed: “Most people take the limits of their vision to be the limits of the world. A few do not. Join them.”

• The life that you see this very moment isn’t necessarily the life of your future.

• • Remember, we see the world not as it is but as we are.

• Your beliefs truly become self-fulfilling prophecies (because your beliefs drive your actions—and you will never act in a way that is misaligned with your thinking; the size of your life reflects the size of your thinking). If you think something cannot occur in your life, then there’s no way you will take the action required to make that goal a reality. Your “impossibility thinking” manifests itself. Your perceived limitations become the chains that keep you from the greatness you were meant to be.

So push the envelope. Refuse to accept anything remotely close to mediocrity. Let go of the chains that have bound you to the ordinary. And definitely leave the crowd. The only place you’ll reach if you follow the crowd is the exit. Stand for your best. Commit to excellence. Become massively innovative and wear your passion on your sleeve. They might call you different or weird or even crazy. But please remember, every great leader (or visionary or brave thinker) was initially laughed at. Now they are revered.

Reflection 

• I’m less willing to waste my time. Less willing to listen to negative people. Less willing to miss an opportunity to be loving, champion another human being, get closer to my dreams, or have some genuine fun.
• One of the dominant traits of so many of the extraordinary people I’ve worked with as a success coach is the discipline of being more reflective than most of us. So ask profound questions. Good questions lead to excellent answers and greater clarity. And greater clarity is the DNA of authentic success and personal greatness.

5 Big Questions 

• Here are five big questions that I hope will cause you to go deep and become more philosophical about what truly counts in your life.
  • Did I dream richly? 
  • Did I live fully? 
  • Did I learn to let go? 
  • Did I love well? 
  • Did I tread lightly on the earth and leave it better than I found it?

• Being a leader isn’t about being liked. It’s about doing what’s right.
• “Great people build monuments from the stones that their critics throw at them.”
• I don’t know what your life’s Most Important To Do is. That’s for you to figure out (through some deep reflection, introspection and soul-searching; doing that within a journal is a wise idea). But I do know this: When you find the mission that your life will be dedicated to, you’ll wake up each day with that fire in your belly I mentioned. You won’t want to sleep. You’ll be willing to move mountains to make it happen. You’ll find that sense of internal fulfillment that may now be missing from your life.
• I just want to help you shine. All I really care about is doing my part to help you get to your greatness.
• At least one conversation with an interesting person each week to keep my passion high and to surround myself with big ideas. A single conversation can change your life. In an issue of Business 2.0, management consultant Jim Collins revealed that one idea, shared in 30 seconds by a mentor, transformed him.

This very day can be the first day of your new life. It’s all your choice.

The five best ways to build culture are as follows: 

• RITUALS.
• CELEBRATION.
• CONVERSATION. Your people become what the leaders talk about; to get your vision and values into your people’s hearts,
• TRAINING. A mission-critical focus to build culture is employee development.
• STORYTELLING. Great companies have cultures where great stories are told from generation to generation.

• People want to go to work each day and feel they are a part of a community. One of the deepest psychological needs of a human being is the need for belonging.

Deepest Values 

• There can be no authentic success and lasting happiness if your daily schedule is misaligned with your deepest values.
• If there is a gap between what you do and who you are, you are out of integrity. I call it The Integrity Gap. The greater the chasm between your daily commitments and your deepest values, the less your life will work (and the less happiness you will feel).
• Here’s a tool for you that comes from my home. Each night before my kids go to sleep, I make four statements to them. “You can do whatever you want to do when you grow up.” “Never give up.” “Whatever you do, do it well.” And “Remember how much your dad loves you.”

Be a Merchant of Wow

Enjoy The Climb, But Never Take Your Eyes Off The Summit 

• It’s a balance, I’ve realized. I call it The Mandela Balance. Nelson Mandela, a man I greatly admire, once said: “After climbing a great hill, one finds that there are many more hills to climb. I have taken a moment here to rest, to steal a view of the glorious vista that surrounds me, to look back on the distance I have come. But I can only rest for a moment, for with freedom comes responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk has not yet ended.”
• So love what you have. And then go for what you want. Enjoy the climb up the mountain. But never take your eyes off the summit.
• Take personal responsibility for the success of your business. Show up like an entrepreneur. Grow sales. Cut costs. Get good stuff done.
• Ralph Waldo Emerson once said: “Every great and commanding movement in the annals of the world is due to the triumph of enthusiasm.”
  • “Years may wrinkle the skin but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul.”

Basics of Excellence 

• Success isn’t sexy. It’s all about working the basics of excellence with a passionate consistency. I love that word. Consistency. It’s amazing how far you will get by just staying with something long enough. Most people give up too early. Their fears are bigger than their faith, I guess.
• What are those fundamentals? Things like being positive, taking responsibility for your role in what’s not working in your life, treating people well, working hard, being an innovator rather than a follower, getting up early, setting your goals, speaking your truth, being self-disciplined, saving your money, caring for your health and valuing your family.
• “The smallest of actions is always better than the noblest of intentions.”
• Don’t complicate things. Getting to your best life is simple. Not easy but simple. It just takes focus and effort.

“Then why did 5000 people come to your dad’s funeral?” I had to ask. Another long pause. “They came because my father was a man who always had a smile on his face. He was the kind of person who was always the first to help someone in need. He always treated people incredibly well and was unfailingly polite. He walked the earth ever so lightly. Five thousand people showed up at my dad’s funeral because he was good.” – Something to think about 

Grace under pressure. That’s what separates leaders from followers.

• Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said in a speech: “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”
• The wisest among us have a remarkable ability to maintain grounded when times get tough.
• No one gets through life without experiencing this stuff. But you and I have the power to choose to rise above our external circumstances. We always have the choice to be strong and positive when things fall apart. We have the right to use our stumbling blocks as stepping stones to our greatest life.

Today, take a moment and think about the people in your life who need to be cherished, appreciated and told that their support has been helpful.

• To me, a life well lived is mostly about being surrounded by people I love, staying healthy and happy (no one’s happy all the time, except in the movies, by the way), stepping toward my highest potential each day, doing work I love and having an impact on the world around me.
• Connecting to the fact that life is short and no one knows when it will end is a great personal habit to stay centered on your highest priorities. Waking up each morning and asking yourself, “How would I show up today if this day was my last?” *Better question is “How would I show up at this moment if it was my last moment?” Live with Arete! 

Die Daily

• I have a gentle challenge for you: Die daily. Connect with your mortality each morning. Then give yourself over to life. Live like tomorrow will not come. Take some risks. Open your heart a little wider. Speak your truth. Show your respect for the gift of life that’s been given to you. Shine brightly today. Chase your dreams.

Take Responsibility

• Mother Teresa said it so much better than I ever could: “If each of us would only sweep our own doorstep, the whole world would be clean.”
• “By leadership I mean taking complete responsibility for an organization’s well-being and growth, and changing it for the better. Real leadership is not about prestige, power or status. It is about responsibility.”
• Big question for you: “What are you doing to help build a new and better world?”
• What don’t you like about your life or the organization you work for or the country you live in? Make a list. Write it down. Shout it out. And then do something to improve things. Anything. Start small or go big. Just do something.

Play 

• I dropped off my son, Colby, at his friend’s house this past weekend. When his buddy walked up to our car to greet him, I asked: “What are you guys going to do?” The reply came in one big word: “Play.” Perfect answer.
• What would your life look like if there was more play? What would your experience of work be like if you had more fun doing your job, no matter what job you do? What would your relationships look like with more spontaneity, laughter, festivity and youthful—no, wild—abandon?

4 Reasons We Don’t Change 

• Here are the four things that keep us from making the changes we want to make: 
  • FEAR. People fear leaving their safe harbor of the known and venturing off into the unknown. Human beings crave certainty—even when it limits them.
  • FAILURE. No one wants to fail. So most of us don’t even try. Sad. We don’t even take that first step to improve our health or to deepen our working relationships or to realize a dream. In my mind, the only failure in life is the failure to try.
  • FORGETTING. Sure we leave the seminar room after an inspirational workshop ready to change the world. But then we get to the office the next day and reality sets in. Keep your commitments top of mind. Heighten your awareness around them. Better awareness—Better choices. Better choices—Better results. Keep your self-promises front and center. Don’t forget them. Put them on a three-by-five-inch card that you post on your bathroom mirror and read every morning. Seems silly, works beautifully. (You should see my bathroom mirror.) Talk about them a lot (you become what you talk about). Write about them each morning in your journal.
  • FAITH. Too many people have no faith. They are cynical. “This leadership training and personal development stuff doesn’t work.” Or “I’m too old to change.” Cynicism stems from disappointment. Cynical and faithless people were not always like that.

• Problems are servants. Problems bring possibilities. They help you grow and lead to better things, both in your organization and within your life. Inside every problem lies a precious opportunity to improve things. Every challenge is nothing more than a chance to make things better. To avoid them is to avoid growth and progress. To resist them is to decline greatness. *Everyone is an Ally 

Love Your Irritations 

• The things that drive you crazy are actually giant opportunities. The people who press your buttons are actually your greatest teachers. The issues that make you angry are actually your biggest gifts. Be grateful for them. Love them.
• The people or circumstances that take you out of your power have extraordinary value: They reveal your limiting beliefs, fears and false assumptions. * KEY to understand what and who takes you out of you peak states 
• Carl Jung once said: “Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.”
• How much would you pay someone who promised that they could pinpoint exactly what is holding you back from your greatest life? – I’m genuinely curious what that would be worth to you, let me know [email protected] 

• As you begin to shed light on your personal weaknesses and take responsibility for them, you actually begin the very process of shedding them. Shadows exposed to the light begin to disappear.

Speak like a Superstar 

• The words you use determine the way you feel. The language you choose shapes the way you perceive reality. Your vocabulary drives meaning in your life. Please think about this idea. I believe it’s a big one. Tony Robbins hits on this HERE
• The words you use influence the life you live. Select them wisely.

“If you eat three times a day you’ll be fed. But if you read three times a day you’ll be wise.”

• One idea discovered in one book can change the way you see the world. One idea read in one book could transform the way you communicate with people. One idea found in one book could help you live longer or be happier or drive your business to remarkable success.

Simple Tactics for Superb Relationships

• Be the most positive person you know. Be candid and speak truthfully. Be on time. Say please and thank you. Under-promise and over-deliver. Leave people better than you found them. Be friendly and caring. Be a world-class listener. Become passionately interested in other people. Smile a lot.

True innovators have a mantra: “The enemy of the best is the good.”

• They live out of their imaginations—not their memories. They live to challenge the commonly accepted. They assume nothing. They see no limits. To them, everything’s possible.
• If you want to be a leader, I have a simple suggestion: Just keep innovating. Innovate at work. Innovate at home. Innovate in your relationships. Innovate in the way you run your life. Innovate in terms of the way you see the world. To become stagnant is to begin to die. Growth, evolution and reinvention sustain life.
• There’s no safety in being the same person today that you were yesterday. That’s just an illusion that ends up breaking your heart when you get to the end of your life and realize that you missed out on living it boldly. Lasting fulfillment lives out in the unknown.
  • my dad used to tell me: “Robin, it’s risky out on the limb. But, son—that’s where all the fruit is.” And to play out on the skinny branch, you need to innovate. Daily. Relentlessly.

OAD: Obsessive Attention to Detail. 

• The best organizations I’ve worked with sweat the small stuff.

TAKE PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY (and do it fast).

• What practices get you to your best? What rituals throw you into your best game mode? What tactics inspire you to really get going to let your bright light shine? We all need what I call Success Structures scheduled into our weeks to ensure we stay at our highest. We all need systems installed into our days to ensure consistency of results, order and superb outcomes.
• Václav Havel once observed: “Vision is not enough; it must be combined with venture. It is not enough to stare up to the step; we must step up the stairs.”
• Don’t postpone your greatness. Your time is now. And if not now, then when?

• Big idea: Why wait to get old to become experienced? I want the experience of an old man while I’m still young. And I think I’ve figured out a way to get it: Collapse the timeline.

• By engaging in these and other experience-building pursuits at a dramatically accelerated rate, I figure I could get 10 years’ worth of learning and lessons in a quarter of the time. Just collapse the timeline by doing more important stuff faster and sooner. Just stay focused and committed. Just put more living into each of my days.
• By getting clear on what you want out of life, you heighten your awareness around what’s most important. With better awareness comes better choices. And with better choices you’ll see better results. Clarity breeds success.
• So don’t wait until the end of your life to become experienced. Collapse the timeline. Get clear on what you need to experience to have a fulfilling life—and then start doing it now.

Cellist Gaspar Cassadó, in his wonderful book The Art of Possibility: “I’m so sorry for you; your lives have been so easy. You can’t play great music unless your heart’s been broken.”

Constantly reinventing. 

• Relentlessly innovating. Endlessly improving. They have one hit record that drives their name—their brand, sorry—into the public consciousness and then extend their line into clothes, books, movies, colognes, etc. Study the way they build community, cement loyalty and tattoo what they stand for onto people’s brain cells.

“I cursed the fact I had no shoes until I met a man who had no feet.” – Persian proverb.

SET BHAGS. 

• Jim Collins coined the term “BHAGs,” meaning Big Hairy Audacious Goals, in his book Built to Last. Goals breathe life and energy into your days. Most people don’t get up early because they have no reason to. The secret of passion (and getting up early) is purpose.
• We were built to be great. And high achievement is simply a reflection of creativity in action. The more worthwhile things you are doing, the more of your natural creativity you are unleashing.

Get Great at Life 

• Life is a skill. And like any other skill, once you know the ground rules and make the time to practice, you can get better.

PAY ATTENTION TO LIFE. 

• Make the time to reflect on what you want your life to stand for, what you have learned from your years and what your legacy will be. Time slips through our fingers—like grains of sand—never to return again. Use your days to realize your talents.

• Erma Bombeck: “When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left and could say, ‘I used everything you gave me.”

• Try to write in a journal each morning before you walk out into your world. Think about what goals you need to accomplish for you to feel the day has been a success—and write them down. Think about your most closely held values. Think about what lessons you’ve learned from the previous day.

ENGAGE IN LIFE. 

• Angelina Jolie spoke truth when she said: “The only way to have a life is to commit to it like crazy.” I’ve learned something as I’ve grown older: Life returns what you give it. Donate your best.

ENJOY LIFE. 

• We take life so seriously. But at the end, the billionaire gets buried next to the street sweeper. We all end up as dust. So let’s have some fun. “Few of us write great novels,” observed Mignon McLaughlin. “But all of us can live them.”
• Steve Jobs asks himself an unforgettable question every time he is faced with a big choice: “What would I do if this was the last night of my life?”
• What’s missing from my authenticity? What’s missing from my greatest life? Awareness precedes choice and choice precedes results.
• With better awareness of what needs to improve in your life, you can make better choices. And with better choices, you will see better results. We truly cannot eliminate weaknesses we don’t even know about.

Make Time To Think

• One of our biggest regrets on our deathbeds is that we were not reflective enough. That we didn’t spend enough time thinking, in deep contemplation. Don’t let that happen to you. Make the time to think. Ask yourself what needs to improve in your life. Ask yourself what needs to get done. Ask yourself what values you need to live. Ask yourself how exceptional are you, how “plugged in” are you, how interesting (and interested) are you—how cool are you? Then make your life your message. And don’t let anything be missing from your coolness.

The Seven Forms of Wealth

• INNER WEALTH. This includes a positive mindset, high self-respect, internal peace and a strong spiritual connection.
• PHYSICAL WEALTH. Your health is your wealth. What’s the point of getting to a great place in your career if you get sick doing it? Why be the best businessperson in the hospital ward? Why be the richest person in the graveyard?
• FAMILY AND SOCIAL WEALTH.
• CAREER WEALTH. Actualizing your highest potential by reaching for your best in your career is incredibly important.
• ECONOMIC WEALTH. Yes, money is important. Not the most important thing in life but very important. It absolutely makes life easier and better.
• ADVENTURE WEALTH. To be fulfilled, each of us needs mystery in our lives. Challenge is necessary for happiness. The human brain craves novelty.
• IMPACT WEALTH. Perhaps the deepest longing of the human heart is to live for something greater than itself.

Richard Bach once wrote: “Here is the test to find whether your mission on earth is finished: If you’re alive, it isn’t.”

• Feel like you are coming—never that you’ve arrived. Strive for mastery and brilliance and excellence, in all that you

Best Life

• Today, rather than looking for the worst in people, I encourage you to look for what’s best within them.
• To get to your best life, I suggest you ensure the heart of your house is nice and tidy. Do you have a “business model” for your life? Do you have a strategic plan for your dreams? Have you recorded your most closely cherished values and your life’s most important priorities on a piece of paper, which you then review every morning to keep you locked onto what’s most important? These are all aspects of “the heart of the house,” your internal operations process that will direct and govern your external results.
• “Robin, I loved your presentation,” she said, full of emotion. I asked why. “I’m not really sure. I guess you just inspired me to be a better human being.”

We can curse the darkness or we can light a candle. And our world needs more light. Shine. Today.

When I met Shimon Peres, I asked him what he believed the purpose of life to be. He replied without hesitation: “To find a cause that’s larger than yourself and then to give your life to it.” What would this world of ours look like if each of us had found our cause or life’s purpose and were then passionately pursuing it?

In my mind, there are six big reasons for you to set goals: Focus, Growth, Intentionality, Measurement, Alignment and Inspiration.

Remember the Boomerang Effect Big idea: the very thing you most want to see more of in your life is the very thing you need to give away. Want more credit for all you do and who you are? Be the one who gives credit to others. Spread it like wildfire. Give away what you most want. This will create a space in the minds and hearts of all those around you to give more credit. Give out what you most want to come back.

• People do business with people who make them feel good.

Commit to First Class 

• One of the personal habits I’ve consistently observed in the star performers and extraordinary leaders I’ve coached is their commitment to ensuring that their surroundings reflect their devotion to being world class.
• Their philosophy generally seems to be, “I stand for being the best so it only makes sense that I should invest in the best.” Now here’s the big idea: They held that belief even when they were not successful.
• Greatness is, above all else, a state of mind. You need to believe in your potential and power before you can bring them to life. You need to feel like you are extraordinary before you can become extraordinary.
• I call this “emotional blueprinting.” To see spectacular results in your external life, you have to emotionally—viscerally—create a blueprint of your vision within your inner life.
• One of the best ways I’ve discovered to achieve this feeling is to ensure that everything you surround yourself with is at the highest level.
• Your surroundings shape the way you feel. And the way you feel drives what you do. Feel world class and you’ll behave world class.
• Rewarding yourself with good things sends a message to the deepest—and highest–part of you. One that says “I’m worth it—and I deserve it.” Invest in the best. Buy the highest quality goods you can possibly afford.
• I love the line: “Quality is remembered long after price is forgotten.”
• “My tastes are simple—I just want the best.”

My Clean Sweep involved getting a will, getting rid of a lot of things I hadn’t used for a while, putting a financial plan in place, tidying up my physical spaces, saying goodbye to pursuits that were not aligned with my personal and professional strategic objectives (goals), installing systems to be more efficient and spending a lot of time refining the model of my business. Guess what? It worked—beautifully.

• Delete what needs to be eliminated from your life—you will feel lighter, happier and your mind will experience more peace.

• “In the North of India, where I’m from, a guest is God. When someone comes to our home, we treat them with the highest of respect and love. Even if we have to miss eating, we make sure they are well fed. That’s our culture. It brings us joy.” Brilliant.

• What would your personal life look like if everyone who visited you and intersected the journey of your days was treated like a god (whether that person was a family member or a stranger on the street)?

DEFINE WHAT THE MOUNTAINTOP LOOKS LIKE. 

• I suggest you articulate, in writing, what success looks like to you. Note what needs to change in your life for you to feel spectacularly successful and what will happen if you don’t improve. Then record your goals for all the key areas of your life. Write out what you want your reality to appear as five years from now. List the values you want to stand for. Clarity precedes success—and awareness precedes transformation. *This exercise is transformational 

START CLIMBING. 

• There’s great power in starting (I call it the Power of a Start). A single act—done now—sets forces into play. It generates momentum. And with the action you begin to experience positive results. That begins a positive feedback loop: more action, more results. And that, in turn, promotes confidence. Momentum Breeds Momentum 

TAKE SMALL STEPS. 

• You can’t get to the top of Everest by jumping up the mountain. You get to the mountaintop by taking incremental steps. Step by step you get to the goal. Every step gets you closer to the dream. Life’s like that too. Small steps each day get you to greatness over time. Why? Because the days really do become weeks and weeks become months and months become years. You’ll get to the end of your life anyway—why not reach that place as an extraordinary human being?
• There’s great power in focusing on what you want. Seems like such an obvious statement, yet most of us miss it.
• The person who tries to do everything accomplishes nothing. Most people try to be all things to everyone. And so they end up nothing to anyone. Confucius nailed the point: “Person who chases two rabbits catches neither.”

Do a “101 Things to Do Before I Die” List

• At the end of our lives, few of us regret not having made more money. Just doesn’t happen. What we truly regret are the places we didn’t visit, the friendships we didn’t nurture, the risks we didn’t take and the things we didn’t do with the people we love. Brings me to the point I need to passionately make: Spend time with your kids.
  • But nothing—and I really do mean nothing—is more important to me than being a great dad. I’ve worked with too many executives who get to the top of the mountain and realized that they lost what mattered most along the way.

• If you had 30 minutes left to live, you’d be reaching for your phone to tell those closest to you how much you love them.

Life’s just too short to be miserable.

Resistance 

• If people don’t laugh at you and your ideas at least once a week, you’re not pushing the envelope.
• Great people run toward their resistances and play out on the edges of their lives. And great companies spend far less time benchmarking others than creating new ways of delivering outrageous value to their customers. –Josh Waitzkin living on the other side of pain 
• “Until I have no breath to breathe, I will continue to do this because I think I was chosen for this, not for money, not for compensation but just to make the quality of life of my fellow human beings better.”
• Papa Wallenda—the great high-wire walker—said it so well: “Life is lived out on the wire. The rest is just waiting.”
• Jeff Bezos once said: “I knew that if I failed I wouldn’t regret that, but I knew the one thing I might regret is not trying.”
• So I’ll rise above any resistance I meet. I’ll keep my eyes on the dream. I’ll stay on message and solidly on mission. Because this world belongs to us dreamers—you and me. And whether we ultimately win or not, we will have made a difference. And that’s good enough for me.
• To live on in the minds and hearts of the generations who will follow you is to cheat death.

Blame or claim—that’s the choice each of us has to make each day. Blame what’s not working or claim the gift in the seemingly negative situation. The world needs more heroes. And heroes spend their days hunting for the best. They see the best amidst adversity. They see the best in others. They dig for the best in themselves. They claim their greatness. And in doing so, they get their best lives.

It’s never too late to become the person you have always dreamed of being. So lay claim to your greatness. Drive a stake into the ground to mark your place under the sun. Stop being a prisoner of your past and become the architect of your future. And remember, it’s never too late to become the person you have always dreamed of being.