When I enrolled, three days after turning 18, I wanted to play football at Kent State University I thought, “Why not?”  I’d played quarterback for a pretty darn good high school football team in Ohio. I’d been offered a grant and aid scholarship at Ball State University in Indiana, so why couldn’t I walk on and make the team? I’ll tell you why. I was 5 feet 7 inches tall, weighed 135 pounds and while I thought I was fast, the linemen that made the team were faster.
In short, it was totally unrealistic for me to think I could play at that level.

You know from reading my book “Build Your Dream: 12 Essential Tools for Successful Living” that I encourage you to dream big and “go for the gold”, but I think it’s unrealistic to set totally impossible goals. Note I said “totally impossible” not impossible.

We can turn possibility into reality as I said on January 29, but we must be intelligent and mature, neither of which I was at age 18.
I know now, that if playing football at that level had been my dream, my passion, my purpose, I’d have found a way to make it happen.

A few years ago I read “Rudy’s Rules“, the story of Daniel ‘Rudy’ Ruettiger, who against all odds made the team and played for Notre Dame. I was so impressed with his story that I called him and arranged to fly to Sacramento, where he was to give a talk, to interview him. His is an inspiring story and I recommend it for those of you who relate to sports examples.

If you set an “impossible” goal for yourself others may call you delusional but here’s the test. Look into your heart and ask yourself, “Is this something I really want and am I willing to devote myself fully to the attainment of that goal?” If your answer is yes, ignore everyone else and go for it. The rewards are incalculable.

Success thought for today:

“Everyone can be anyone they want to be.”
-Rudy Ruettiger

Byron
byronethompson.com

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“Would you be willing to accelerate your progress toward success and happiness?” I asked myself.
My answer to that is probably the same as yours. “Of course!”

I’m living at a time in my life where my greatest enemy is the potential for complacency.
I’m living my dream having used the common sense principles I outline in my soon-to-be-best-selling book ( ) “Build Your Dream: 12 Essential Tools for Successful Living”. So I need a new goal to keep from slipping into that condition I call, Rockin’ Chair Happy. A condition characterized by an attitude of I’m doin’ all right.

My new goal is to write a sequel to my book for people who are ready for a new challenge either because of retirement or boredom with their present circumstance. I’ll call it “Living Your Dream: 12 Essential Tools for the Next Chapter of Your Life”.

I anticipate the reward for undertaking and succeeding at this new goal to be an increased sense of aliveness. It has always been so for me in the past as I’m sure it has been for you. When we are productively and enthusiastically engaged in pursuing what we perceive to be a worthy goal it gets our juices flowing. We’re excited and ideas come to us at all hours of the day and night.
Of course, if you already have a goal that is urging you on, you don’t need to change. But if certain ennui has set in. it’s time to up the ante on yourself and take on something that is worthy of you.

Have a purpose, a reason to get up in the morning. That’s the stuff of meaningful living.

Success thought for today:

“The secret of man’s being is not only to live but to have something to live for.”
-Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Byron
byronethompson.com

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We’ve completed 6 weeks of our 90-day plan. It’s time to sum up and review the progress we’ve made so far and look at what we’ve learned.
I’m having a great time, pursuing my goal of becoming healthier and getting in better shape.

Here’s our assignment for today.

1) Go back to Day 1 and re-read your original goal and your plan.

2) Ask yourself, “Am I still committed to that goal and plan or do I need to adjust them either up or down?”

3) Review your day-to-day activities, as best you can, either from journals, notes or memory and make a list of things that you liked. This is your IGID (I’m Glad I Did) list.

4) Make another list of things you would have liked to have done differently.  This is your IWIH (I Wish I Had) list. Both of these lists are valuable. We grow from our successes and we learn from our failures.

5) Make a new 7-day plan with any changes you feel you need to make to achieve your goal.
Good luck.

Success thought for today:

“THE UNEXAMINED LIFE IS NOT WORTH LIVING.”
-Socrates

Byron
byronethompson.com

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Patricia and I were shopping for house stuff in Tucson one day and when it was time for lunch we went to The Olive Garden restaurant. It was busy, so rather than wait we sat at the bar.
A very friendly, efficient waitress came up to us promptly and greeted us with a big smile and asked what we’d like to drink. We told her and placed our order when she came back. She brought our food in next to no time, which was good, as we were hungry.

This all sounds like a pretty routine occurrence, but she provided exceptional customer service and as we watched her work we could see that she was an above average waitress.
Before we left Patricia and I each complimented her on the outstanding job she was doing. I said to her “Jenny, The Olive Garden is lucky to have you for three reasons. One, you’ve got a ton of energy, two, you’ve got a great smile that makes me feel as though you really do enjoy waiting on us and three, you are really strong as evidenced in the way you hoist those trays around.” Patricia added, “It’s really impressive that you’re able to balance those heavy loads.”
She just beamed and thanked us. “I’ve been doing this a while.” she said.

When we left she was smiling bigger than ever and absolutely glowing. I felt good because we’d given her a gift, the gift of appreciation. It seems in the writing to be a small thing but in retrospect that experience enriched our day and her day and who knows how many other people she may have interacted with later.

Here’s an action for you to take today. Find something good to say to people you meet and observe the effect it has on you and on them. I think you’ll like the result.

Success thought for today:

“THE BEST WAY TO PUT THE LAW OF GIVING INTO OPERATION….IS TO MAKE A DECISION THAT ANY TIME YOU COME INTO CONTACT WITH ANYONE, YOU’LL GIVE THEM SOMETHING. IT DOESN’T HAVE TO BE IN THE FORM OF MATERIAL THINGS; IT COULD BE A FLOWER, A COMPLIMENT, OR A PRAYER….THE GIFTS OF CARING, ATTENTION, AFFECTION, APPRECIATION, AND LOVE ARE SOME OF THE MOST PRECIOUS GIFTS YOU CAN GIVE, AND THEY DON’T COST YOU ANYTHING.”
-Deepak Chopra
-“The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success “

Byron
byronethompson.com

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I re-learned an important lesson from a very minor activity a couple of days ago. It’s a lesson that will benefit you as well.
What I learned was that the same success tools we are using to achieve our 90-day goals, and that are in my book, apply to minor goals as well. And with an extra benefit.

I sat having my morning coffee, thinking about the day ahead, which included a weekly golf game with a group of my buddies. None of us are very good, and I’m one of the worst, always hoping to break 100. But this morning I did something different.

The night before I’d been reading Harvey Penick’s little red book on golf. Harvey said that when you improve in golf, it’s not a stroke at a time, it’s more likely to be an improvement of five strokes. So I decided to PLAN to improve my score for that day’s game to 95.
In order to do that I needed to do something different. Very simply, I decided to concentrate on every shot take a full swing and follow through and take one more club. (I’d been coming up short of the green on my approach shots.)

I amazed my buddies and myself by shooting …..TADAA…..95.

Now I know that those specifics don’t mean anything to you non-golfers but I’ve included them because you’ll benefit by doing the same thing.

There really was no mystery to my success all I did was make a PLAN, VISUALIZE my being successful and BELIEVE that it was going to happen and it did.

The extra benefit was I got practice in goal setting and achieving on a minor, easy to attain goal and now have more confidence in being able to go after the big ones

The same thing will happen for you. Try it for the next week and see.
Select some area where you are constructively discontented but something that is reasonable for you to improve in. Then, follow the same approach I used.
Good luck.

Success thought for today:

“DON’T BE AFRAID TO GIVE YOUR BEST TO WHAT SEEMINGLY ARE SMALL JOBS. EVERY TIME YOU CONQUER ONE, IT MAKES YOU THAT MUCH STRONGER. IF YOU DO THE LITTLE JOBS WELL, THE BIG ONES WILL TEND TO TAKE CARE OF THEMSELVES.”
-Dale Carnegie

Byron
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I’ve already got my answer ready for the question, “To what do you owe your living to be 100 years old?”
In case you are bored by then and have stopped reading this inspirational, potentially life changing blog,” , I’ll give you my answer now.
In addition to my answer to the other question; “How does it feel to be 100 years old?” “It beats the alternative.” Ba dap boom, my answer to the first question is …wait for it…   H.E.A.L.
That’s an acronym I created some time ago to remind me of the importance of taking care of myself.

Health is an important part of living fully and abundantly.
Energy is needed to pursue and achieve ambitious goals.
Appearance is necessary to be effective in making presentations.
Longevity is essential for attaining long-range goals.

I still have a long way to go before I have to answer the questions above but I know I’m going to need all the time I can get.
I suspect that you do too.

Here are some suggestions for us to follow to improve the odds of our being here to answer those questions.

1) Find your purpose in life. That thing that you have been put on this earth to do.

2) Study and follow the state of the art diet and exercise recommendations that are appropriate for your age.

3) Get busy and do something that you deem to be important for the world. Make a difference.

4) Act as if your life matters, because it does. The world needs you.

5) Select your ancestors carefully. They’ll make a big difference.

Success thought for today:

“The poorest man would not part with health for money, but the richest would gladly part with all their money for health.”
-C.C. Colton
“Lacon: or, Many Things in Few Words”

Byron
Byronethompson.com

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Metanoia is an archaic word from the Greek meaning changing one’s mind. Most literally it can be defined as “in the sense of embracing thoughts beyond present limitations or thought patterns”.
If we are to build our dream lives, create a life worth living and a world worth living in, we need to go beyond our present mental and imagining limitations.

Arguing for our limitations is a common malady that is systematically impeding our own and civilization’s progress and growth. If we all were to realize how great and capable we were, we would all be contributing much more toward not only our own economic and personal success but also that of our families, communities, and that of the world’s.
I base these opinions on my 40 years of training people excel in their lives and observing the dynamic and dramatic changes that took place in their lives and their circumstances.

I talk about thinking in “Build Your Dream: 12 Essential Tools for Successful Living.” The longer I live the more convinced I become that the size and quality of our thinking is the main determinant in living productive, successful, happy lives.
You and I can do the same by heeding the words of Spanish philosopher, Ignacio Gomez de Liano, who said in “Illuminated Philosophies” “…to strip off the armor of thoughts that have covered our way of seeing things. We don’t notice the extent to which words and word structures, that are ideologies, become prisons we can’t get out of. To expand those confines is one of the ends of philosophy.”
I would like that to be a goal for you and me, to expand the confines of our thinking and become all we are capable of being and to thus impact the rest of the world.

Here are 3 steps we can take starting today to strip off that limiting armor that is impeding our growth.

1) Take an inventory of our thinking. Ask ourselves “what do I spend my time thinking about?”

2) Evaluate the quality of your thoughts. This is most easily accomplished by reviewing the conversations you’ve had at the end of the day. Small minds talk about people. Average minds talk about events. Great minds talk about ideas. We all do some of each of these each day. The goal is to limit gossiping and increase the amount of time we spend discussing the meaning of the information we acquire each day and how to use it in a practical way.

3) Read worthwhile books that will expand your thinking. Books that challenge your present opinions are the most worthwhile.

Success thought for today:

“You can’t have a world fit to live in until you have a self fit to live with.”
-Reverend Bill Alexander
The Church of Tomorrow

Byron
byronethompson.com

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I am 30 days into a 90-day process to become healthier and more physically fit, while working on marketing my first book and writing its sequel. I am overlaying, as a template, the 12 tools I detailed in the book, which is being very well received.

The creation of this blog is a part of that process, with the intention of making it available to any one who cares to follow these proven success principles. These tools or principles were the ones I discovered and learned from my clients in my career as a Dale Carnegie business owner and instructor. They enable me to take my very ordinary talents and education and create a life of fulfillment and satisfaction.

Here’s the point and what it has to do with you. I’ve been turning my vision into a reality by using the  “Thinking” tool.* How do you do it? Just follow the suggestions in today’s success thought.
*This is one of the 12 Essential Tools.

The success thought for today:

“WHATEVER YOU VIVIDLY DESIRE, SINCERELY BELIEVE, AND ENTHUSIASTICALLY ACT UPON, MUST INEVITABLY COME TO PASS.”
-Paul J Meyer

Byron
byronethompson.com

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This is a good time to consider our progress to date and to correct our direction if we’ve been blown off course.

I talked recently to Deborah Larson, author of “The White” about her writing habits and schedule. She said, “I want to be on a regular schedule to write 4 hours a day but things are always coming up and getting in the way.”
I totally related to her and I imagine you do too.

Let’s go back to the beginning and assess our gains by asking ourselves; “What’s worked in pursuing my goal?” and “What do I need to do differently this next week to stay on course?”

Success thought for today:

“The doors we open and close each day decide the lives we live.”
-Flora Whittemore

Byron
Byronethompson.com

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Chi Newman, author of “Farewell My Beijing”, gave a wonderful talk at the Tubac Forum last week.
She told one fascinating story after another all drawn from her extraordinary life. Born to a life of privilege in pre-Communist China, she and her twin sister were forced to leave at the age of 13 to escape the Communists. What followed was a life of ups and downs all detailed in her very interesting memoir.

One of the most enduring influences of her early life was that of the conviction of the oneness of life, expressed as the Taoist philosophy of Yin and Yang. She wears the Taijitu, the ancient symbol of the Yin and Yang on a charm around her neck as a reminder of the veritable vicissitudes of life. In plain English, life’s events are ever changing and mutually complementary. So when those things we might label as good or bad occur we know that they are part of the whole and not permanent.
This philosophyhas sustained Chi throughout her life and is a valuable lesson for us.

Failure to understand this fundamental principle is the cause of much of the angst and unhappiness that so many people experience.
When once I quoted the couplet I used in the attitude chapter of my book: “Two men looked out from prison bars, one saw the mud the other the stars”
to my friend Bob James, he said “No wonder they’re both in jail. Life does not consist of all mud or all stars. We cannot have one with out the other. I think the duality that we all experience in life is a gift because we can appreciate what we have in contrast to what we do not have.”

Success thought for today:

“Whole sight; or all the rest is desolation.”
-John Fowles

Byron
byronethompson.com

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