Seize the Day

Seven Powerful Habits

If you want to change your life something has to change. How about starting by changing your habits? Replace a bad habit with a good one. Keep going until you have acquired these seven powerful habits. These habits will take you anywhere you want to go as long as you know where you want to go. Start today. Today is the day. Seize the day!

1.      Reading. Reading the right books is one of the most powerful habits. Why not learn from the experience of others to expand our minds?

2.      Listening. Listening to audio recordings and listening to wise people is another great habit. Listening is a different form of learning from reading. Why not listen to great information instead of listening to talk radio or music?

3.      Associating. The power of association has been proven over and over for so many successful people. We become who we associate with. Associate with people having the results you would like to have in your life. Why not choosing who we associate with?

4.      Working. There is a reason why this nugget is at the center of the other six. All of us want a great harvest but the question is, are we willing to do the work to deserve reaping what we sowed? Nothing takes place of doing the work. Success takes hard and smart work over time. Hard work always comes first. It is proven that to be an expert in any field it takes at least 10,000 hour of deliberate practice. Working is where the rubber meets the road. Nothing lasting and worthwhile happens unless you get out there and make things happens. Why not decide to start now to be a master in your profession?

5.      Writing. Writing is a powerful habit because it crystalizes our thinking. It takes time and discipline to be a good writer. Immerse yourself into writing and you will start loving it. Writing is a wonderful way to express your creativity. Why not start writing to articulate your ideas and experiences?

6.      Speaking. Public speaking is feared by most living humans. Yet public speaking is a skill that can be learned and used by anyone. Great leaders are great communicators. Why not starting to become a great public speaker so you can communicate your ideas?

7.      Thinking. Thinking is hard work; no wonder so few people do it. It is easier just to let our minds be idle than it is to practice disciplined thinking. We become what we think; we are the product of our own thinking. Why not take a few minutes a day to dump the faulty thinking and start learning how to think properly?

You can be part of the needed leadership revolution by sharing these nuggets with others.

We make a living by what we get; we make a life by what we give. Be a giver in a world of takers.

Be blessed and be a blessing to others.

Carlos Fontana, President of Phalanx

Co-author of the book Follow to Lead (The 7 Principles to Being a Great Follower)

Author of the book PRICELESS (Sixty-Six Simple Stories of Reflection, Love, and Legacy)

Time # Money

Time Is Not Equal To Money

Lost money can be earned again; lost time is gone forever. Failing to plan is planning to fail. Lack of time comes from failure to plan. Time being equal to money is a big lie. Time is not equal to money. Time is more important than money. Effective people live by their priorities, not their obligations. Be great at prioritizing and planning then focus on your priorities and you will bring home the good bacon.

1.      Learn to earn. Your most valuable asset is your ability to give and to receive (earning). When you help enough people get what they want you will get all that you want. Are you a better learner now than a year ago?

2.      Focus. Before you start something new, stop doing something old and unproductive. Is what you are doing taking you closer or further from your dreams and goals?

3.      Live by your priorities. The quality of your life is determined by your ability to set and live by your priorities. Look at where you are spending your time. Does your schedule match your priorities?

4.      Be a great planner. Every minute spent in planning saves ten minutes in execution. Measure twice cut once. How much time are you investing in planning on a weekly basis?

5.      Results count. Ultimately your rewards will always be determined by the results in your live. Mind your life scorecard.What does your life scorecard say?

6.      Important over urgent. There is always enough time to do what is important. How much time are you spending urgent matters compared to important matters?

7.      Learn to deal. The more urgent the need, the worse deal you get in a negotiation. Our ultimate rewards are based on our ability to delay gratification. Are you willing to lose the battle to win the war?

You can be part of the needed leadership revolution by sharing these nuggets with others.

We make a living by what we get; we make a life by what we give. Be a giver in a world of takers.

Be blessed and be a blessing to others.

Carlos Fontana, President of Phalanx

Co-author of the book Follow to Lead (The 7 Principles to Being a Great Follower)

Author of the book PRICELESS (Sixty-Six Simple Stories of Reflection, Love, and Legacy)

The Obedient

Obedience School

Is it time for you to go to obedience school? 

Even the dogs that go to obedience schools live better lives!

1.      Take a chance. Educate yourself in the essentials of life. Be a master of money and relationships in your life.

2.      Make wise choices. The choices you make today will impact the quality of life of your family tree for generations to come. Choices compound either for the positive or for the negative; your choice!

3.      Find your God given purpose. What you are looking for cannot be found outside God’s will. All you need to succeed is buried deep inside you so dig it out.

4.      Be obedient. Be obedient to what matters most. God rewards the committed, the obedient. There are miracles in commitment.

5.      Live the truth. Apply as much truth to your life as you can. It is not easy and you will be opposed even ridiculed but you will look back and be glad you did.

6.      Be prepared ahead of time. Learn to anticipate and determine how you will act under tempting situations. Those seconds between stimulus and response determine what you get in life; respond instead of reacting.

7.      Learn to digest. Meditation is to the soul what digestion is to the body. Pray often, pray wide and deep. God’s delays are not His denials.

You can be part of the needed leadership revolution by sharing these nuggets with others.

We make a living by what we get; we make a life by what we give. Be a giver in a world of takers.

Be blessed and be a blessing to others.

Carlos Fontana, President of Phalanx

Co-author of the book Follow to Lead (The 7 Principles to Being a Great Follower)

Author of the book PRICELESS (Sixty-Six Simple Stories of Reflection, Love, and Legacy)

Failure is good

Failure is not final!

1.    Never let failure be final. Keep on failing forward. The greatest risk in life is to quit after a few failures. Failure is necessary and an integral part of success.

2.    There is no competition for a man with a dream. Our dreams are what give us the fuel to keep pressing on. The future belongs to those who can see and pursue opportunities before they are obvious. When the common man can see and understand the opportunity; the opportunity is no longer an opportunity.

3.    We become what we think. People don't suffer from lack of money; they suffer from broken thinking. We don’t lack time; we lack the ability to prioritize and live a life based on our priorities and not on our obligations. Busy and stressed people accumulate obligations.

4.    We are all in the education business. Start investing time in your education and the education of those around you. When you help change someone's life you get a loyal friendship back.

5.    Look for security in the right place. Security today is in the quality of our thinking and speed of our learning and sharing. Choose the right race and go full throttle. Those who take swift action always leave those that don't breathing the dust.

6.    Leave a legacy. We are all on this earth temporarily to reflect, to love and to leave a legacy. Knowing and not doing is like preparing the soil and not planting. Will you just do it?

7.    Follow Him. Eternity is a long time to be wrong. Leaders are precious, followers priceless. 

You can be part of the needed leadership revolution by sharing these nuggets with others.

We make a living by what we get; we make a life by what we give. Be a giver in a world of takers.

Be blessed and be a blessing to others.

Carlos Fontana, President of Phalanx

Co-author of the book Follow to Lead (The 7 Principles to Being a Great Follower)

Author of the book PRICELESS (Sixty-Six Simple Stories of Reflection, Love, and Legacy)

Destination

Destination

1.      Be humble. Learn to walk in your own shoes before you walk in someone else’s.

2.      Find meaning. Life only makes sense once you believe God has a plan for you from today to eternity.

3.      Mind the journey. Your journey is the way it is so your uniqueness is revealed.

4.      Choose the destination. Our journeys have a destination that never ends. Choose wisely and act boldly in the right direction.

5.      Watch for detours. The detours in our lives reveal our identities. 

6.      Welcome challenges. Embrace your challenges for only they make you grow.

7.      Succeed at something that matters. Define your own success and never settle for someone else’s.

You can be part of the needed leadership revolution by sharing these nuggets with others.

We make a living by what we get; we make a life by what we give. Be a giver in a world of takers.

Be blessed and be a blessing to others.

Carlos Fontana, President of Phalanx

Co-author of the book Follow to Lead (The 7 Principles to Being a Great Follower)

Author of the book PRICELESS (Sixty-Six Simple Stories of Reflection, Love, and Legacy)

Will you laugh more+

Will you laugh more?

Laugh out loud, very loud!

1.      Learn to laugh at yourself. Laugh at your inadequacies and you will see a way to overcome them.
2.      Where there is a will there is a way. You don’t lack intelligence you lack will. Where there is a will there is a relative. Be ready; they will show up.
3.      Evaluate people by their questions not their answers. Make your questions greater than your answers.
4.      Choose work over a job. Amazing how much free time one can have once free from a job. Take your job and find a way to get rid of it!
5.      We can have time and money. The only way to have money and free time is to invest money and time instead of spending time and money. As long as you are trading time for money you will not have both.
6.      The greatest risk is not taking one. Insanity is keeping on doing what you are doing and expecting different results.
7.      We can overcome our circumstances. It is not what happens to us that matters; it is what we do with what happens to us that count. Be careful what you tell yourself; the stories you keep telling yourself from what happens to you.

You can be part of the needed leadership revolution by sharing these nuggets with others.

We make a living by what we get; we make a life by what we give. Be a giver in a world of takers.

Be blessed and be a blessing to others.
Carlos Fontana, President of Phalanx
Co-author of the book Follow to Lead (The 7 Principles to Being a Great Follower)
Author of the book PRICELESS (Sixty-Six Simple Stories of Reflection, Love, and Legacy)

Blessings,
Carlos Fontana
Author of the book Priceless www.pricelessbooksforlife.com
Co-author of the book Follow to Lead www.follow-to-lead.com

"The future belongs to those who can see and pursue opportunities before they are obvious."
"Leadership is about people, management is about numbers; leaders influence people and the people influence numbers."
"Those that take swift action will always leave those that don't breathing the dust."

The Influencer

The Influencer

You are becoming a better leader. Why not inspire others to be better leaders as well.

Here are 7 things you need to get good being an influencer:

1.      Belief. You can only get others to believe in their dreams as much as you believe in yours. Real dreams become an integral part of you. Inspire others to chase their dreams as they see you chase yours.

2.      Attitude. Your attitude determines how well you do all that you do. Attitude truly determines your altitude. Inspire others to have an uplifting positive attitude and the see the attitude you show up with every day.

3.      Decisions. Your effectiveness is dependent on the quality of your thinking and the decisions you make.  Inspire others to make the right decisions as they see you make great decisions.

4.      Leadership. Leadership is always a two way street. Leadership is built on trust. The speed of trust determines the speed of growth in people, in organizations, and in businesses. Inspire others to decide to become leaders by leading them as your duty to restore a decaying society.

5.      Following. You can’t ask others to follow you until you are following yourself. Others will follow you when they see the results you have and they would like to have those results for themselves. People copy only 50% of what you do right and 100% of what you do wrong. Inspire others to be in the 50% group.

6.      Becoming. Leadership is all about becoming a better you every day in every way. Once you become a better you, you become part of all of those that come into your life. Inspire others to become more as they see you learning and growing.

7.      Vision. Completely blind are those who can see and have no vision. How good is it to see and have no vision? Vision is seeing with your mind where you are going. Inspire others to create a crystal clear vision by serving as the example of a visionary leader.

You can be part of the needed leadership revolution by sharing these nuggets with others.

We make a living by what we get; we make a life by what we give. Be a giver in a world of takers.

Be blessed and be a blessing to others.

Carlos Fontana, President of Phalanx

Co-author of the book Follow to Lead (The 7 Principles to Being a Great Follower)

Author of the book PRICELESS (Sixty-Six Simple Stories of Reflection, Love, and Legacy)

The Gift

The Greatest Gift

Be a giver in a world of takers.

1.      Leverage the power of generosity. What we send out comes back multiplied.

2.      Be a creative giver. Jails are full of creative takers.

3.      Invest twice to feed your brain as you do to feed your stomach. How many adults do you know that are doing that?

4.      The most valuable gift you have to offer is the gift of yourself. Choose niceness instead of grumpiness; the rewards are priceless.

5.      When gratitude becomes a habit, generosity follows naturally. Count your blessings.

6.      Ordinary people can make extraordinary difference. All you have to do is to do ordinary things extraordinarily well and do it consistently.

7.      Early in life we focus on getting so later in life we can focus on giving. We all came into this world with nothing and will leave with nothing.

You can be part of the needed leadership revolution by sharing these nuggets with others.

We make a living by what we get; we make a life by what we give. Be a giver in a world of takers.

Be blessed and be a blessing to others.

Carlos Fontana, President of Phalanx

Co-author of the book Follow to Lead (The 7 Principles to Being a Great Follower)

Author of the book PRICELESS (Sixty-Six Simple Stories of Reflection, Love, and Legacy)

LIFE EXTENDER

The Secret Garden

Imagine your soul as a garden. The Bible is the gardener’s owner manual. You choose what you want to grow; virtues are the flowers. Your sins are those devilish weeds. Your prayers are like gentle rains on a calm night. Sacraments are the sunlight providing energy for healthy growth. Why not become a master gardener?

1.      The secrets of life are only revealed to those who pursue them. Are you pursuing your dreams and goals with passion and enthusiasm? Today is the day to start living a new life for the rest of your days. Want to triple the days left in your life? Take three naps a day!

2.      The life you live is based on the amount of value you place on wisdom. Wisdom comes from the application of knowledge. Intelligence is no predictor of success. It takes courage to take action to move in the direction of our dreams. The future always belongs to the courageous.

3.      Your life is transformed when God becomes your partner. He owns it all anyway. Decide the life you want to live. Partner with Him and do your part. Pray like it depends on God, work like it depends on you!

4.      Joy is sure to be yours when you see God everywhere you look. Start looking! Those who seek will find it. Start digging in your own backyard! The greatest treasures are usually right in front of us. The problem is we cannot see them due to the many color lenses we are looking through.

5.      The problem is not the lack of knowledge. The problem is the lack of application of knowledge. This is the reason why there are so many smart people without results. Will you do something so the world can benefit from your smarts?

6.      Your decisions determine your destiny. Decisions compound over time either on the positive or the negative. Making mistakes is human; repeating the same mistakes over and over is stupidity. The lesson is repeated until the lesson is learned. When the student is ready the teacher will appear! Are you ready to be a student again? Going to the school of LIFE in the second half of life is play joy.

7.      To know and not act is like preparing the field and not planting it. Knowledge without actions leads to a wasted life. Will you do something with the life you have been given? Is what you are doing now going to get all your goals and dreams? 

You can be part of the needed leadership revolution by sharing these nuggets with others.

We make a living by what we get; we make a life by what we give. Be a giver in a world of takers.

Be blessed and be a blessing to others.

Carlos Fontana, President of Phalanx

Co-author of the book Follow to Lead (The 7 Principles to Being a Great Follower)

Author of the book PRICELESS (Sixty-Six Simple Stories of Reflection, Love, and Legacy)

MIGHT AS WELL SURRENDER

Why Surrender?

1.      Look and see. Look around and see all the wonders of creation. Take time to see the greatness of it all. Take deep breaths and take it all in. Fill your brain with beauty and realize how perfect even the simple things are.

2.      Surrender. God is in control so why not surrender to Him completely. He is in control all the way anyway. Partner with Him and follow His clues.

3.      Have patience. Time is only a friend to those who are patient. Patience requires discipline which can be learned. Stop spending time and start investing time wisely.

4.      Pray. Live the discoveries from your prayers. Joy comes to those whose prayers become reality. We become what we pray. Prying is what fuels our souls. The more we pray the higher the octane rating of our prayers.

5.      Nurture your soul. Upon His arrival we will get a new body but keep our soul. Take good care of your soul; it will be with you for eternity. How good is it to get everything else in life but lose our souls?

6.      Stop judging. Let God alone be the judge. If only God can judge our hearts why then are we so judgmental? Before judging take a close look at the mirror and you might learn a few things. Be careful to remove the plank in your eyes so you can see clearly.

7.      He knows. God always gives us more than He asks from us. Stop demanding and count your blessings and more blessings will come your way. Never forget that all we have has been loaned to us by Him. Let’s be a force for good by wisely using His no interest loans.

Be part of the leadership revolution by sharing these nuggets with others.

We make a living by what we get; we make a life by what we give. Be a giver in a world of takers.

Be blessed and be a blessing to others.

Carlos Fontana, President of Phalanx

Co-author of the book Follow to Lead (The 7 Principles to Being a Great Follower)

Author of the book PRICELESS (Sixty-Six Simple Stories of Reflection, Love, and Legacy)

MIGHT AS WELL SURRENDER

Why Surrender?

1.      Look and see. Look around and see all the wonders of creation. Take time to see the greatness of it all. Take deep breaths and take it all in. Fill your brain with beauty and realize how perfect even the simple things are.

2.      Surrender. God is in control so why not surrender to Him completely. He is in control all the way anyway. Partner with Him and follow His clues.

3.      Have patience. Time is only a friend to those who are patient. Patience requires discipline which can be learned. Stop spending time and start investing time wisely.

4.      Pray. Live the discoveries from your prayers. Joy comes to those whose prayers become reality. We become what we pray. Prying is what fuels our souls. The more we pray the higher the octane rating of our prayers.

5.      Nurture your soul. Upon His arrival we will get a new body but keep our soul. Take good care of your soul; it will be with you for eternity. How good is it to get everything else in life but lose our souls?

6.      Stop judging. Let God alone be the judge. if only God can judge our hearts why then are we so judgmental? Before judging take a close look at the mirror and you might learn a few things. Be careful to remove the plunk in your eyes so you can see clearly.

7.      He knows. God always give us more than He asks from us. Stop demanding and count your blessings and more blessings will come your way. Never forget that all we have has been loaned to us by Him. Let’s be a force for good by wisely using His no interest loans.

Be part of the leadership revolution by sharing these nuggets with others.

We make a living by what we get; we make a life by what we give. Be a giver in a world of takers.

Be blessed and be a blessing to others.

Carlos Fontana, President of Phalanx

Co-author of the book Follow to Lead (The 7 Principles to Being a Great Follower)

Author of the book PRICELESS (Sixty-Six Simple Stories of Reflection, Love, and Legacy)