7 Steps to Achievement

7 Steps to Achievement

If you are not happy and you know it, do something about it. If you are not living the life you’ve always wanted, definitely do something about it. If you feel trapped, get some urgency and do something about it. If you feel suffocating pain by the circumstances you are in, hang in there, greatness may on your horizon. Here are a few things to think and act upon.

1.      Awareness. Awareness is the 1^st step on the road to achievement. We often have to get mad before any change can occur. We only change when the pain to stay the same is greater than the pain to change. No pain, no change; no change, no progress.

2.      Reflection. We must pay attention to what we are unhappy about. Understand that happiness comes from within. Take some time to define the changes you want to see in your life.

3.      Listening. If you are not happy with the results you are getting in life, perhaps it’s time to stop listening to yourself and the wrong sources of information. Those negative thoughts embedded in our subconscious mind are deeply rooted and must be overridden with positive thoughts and emotions.

4.      Unplug. Unplug to the wrong sources of information and stop listening to people that don’t have the results you are looking for. Plug into the right sources with the right information, from people with the results you are looking for; learn to think and act like they do.

5.      Faith. Strong faith is the foundation of all positive change. We don’t lack potential, we lack faith. Faith is present when we believe before we see. Surrender to the truth and be disciplined to exude faith in who you are and all you do.

6.      Action. Write your own “book of acts”. Be known for taking action in the midst of chaos and despair. The road to failure is full of fools that were victims of analysis paralysis. Keep your scoreboard in front of you and make continuous adjustments to get to your desired destination. A great life is always comprised of many small victories compounded over time.

7.      Lead. Let your character be the compass for all your actions. Look at your life’s scoreboard to check your results and make adjustments. Deeply care about those around your and be a master at building relationship. Treat your customers like diamonds.

Thank you for reading and reflecting on today’s nuggets. Share them with others.   

Be blessed and be a blessing to others

Carlos Fontana

Author of the book Priceless, Co-author of the book Follow to Lead

www.tatepublishing.com/bookstore/book.php?w=978-1-61346-494-6

"The future belongs to those who can see and pursue opportunities before they are obvious."

"Those that take swift action will always leave those that don't breathing the dust."

I would love to do a podcast or a blog interview and share my Nuggets with your audience!

In Thanksgiving

In Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Day is the day we take the time to thank our Creator for all the blessings bestowed upon us. What are you thankful for? Take 10 minutes to write down your list; I assure you, the act will be a great investment of your time. We can pray anytime and anywhere for who we would like to become. Not knowing the truth makes us slaves of the lies the world bombards us with.

Here is my list:

1.      My success for I can remain humble.

2.      My failures for I can grow in wisdom.

3.      My vision for I can see with my mind.

4.      My God for His forgiveness of my sins.

5.      My suffering for I can clarify my purpose.

6.      My health for I can work and serve others.

7.      My opportunities for I can fulfill my potential.

8.      My freedom for I can help others become free.

9.      My mission for I can share the truth with others.

10.  My faith for I can prepare for better days to come.

11.  My time and treasure for I can put them to a great cause.

12.  My family and friends for living life with deeper meaning.

Have a blessed Thanksgiving everyone who got reading this far J

Thank you for reading and reflecting on today’s nuggets. Share them with others.   

Be blessed and be a blessing to others

Carlos Fontana

Author of the book Priceless, Co-author of the book Follow to Lead

www.tatepublishing.com/bookstore/book.php?w=978-1-61346-494-6

"The future belongs to those who can see and pursue opportunities before they are obvious."

"Those that take swift action will always leave those that don't breathing the dust."

I would love to do a podcast or a blog interview and share my Nuggets with your audience!

Are you a leader?

Are you a leader?

If you google the word leadership, in a fraction of a second you get over 460 million hits. There is so much information about leadership yet there is so little understanding about true leadership. No wonder there is a severe shortage of leaders in the world today. Leadership is influence in a positive driven direction. Everyone can become a leader because everyone can have influence. Leadership is a choice. Leadership can be learned but it cannot be taught. Leadership is a personal choice. One has to have the hunger, the strong desire to become a leader. Hope the following add to the understanding of leadership.

1.      Leaders put their character in motion.

2.      Leaders are followers and have followers.

3.      Leaders act by the courage of their convictions.

4.      Leaders are always working to improve themselves.

5.      Leaders leverage their character, tasks, and relationships.

6.      Leaders influence other to become who they were born to be.

7.      Leaders are daytime dreamers energized by their vision of a bright future.

Thank you for reading and reflecting on today’s nuggets. Share them with others.   

Be blessed and be a blessing to others

Carlos Fontana

Author of the book Priceless, Co-author of the book Follow to Lead

www.tatepublishing.com/bookstore/book.php?w=978-1-61346-494-6

"The future belongs to those who can see and pursue opportunities before they are obvious."

"Those that take swift action will always leave those that don't breathing the dust."

I would love to do a podcast or a blog interview and share my Nuggets with your audience!

KAIZEN Your Life

KAIZEN Your Life

Kaizen is the practice of continuous improvement. The power of kaizen is in the truth that big results come from many small changes accumulated over time. The almost unnoticeable small improvements compounded over time produce powerful results. Take full responsibility for your life. Don’t get fooled by what the world tells you. Just keep being the energizer bunny!

1.      Good habits bring good results. Attack the bad habits and replace them with good habits. There is no magic bullet to cure deep rooted problems; many small problems are contributing to your current situation.

2.      Grasp the current situation. Be brutally honest with yourself. Self-deception is the road to self-destruction. Get data to understand why you are where you are.

3.      Find the truth. Speak with data, manage by facts. Surrender to the truth and the truth will set you free. Denying the truth will negate any efforts towards improvements.

4.      Take action to correct root causes of problems. Take a close look at behaviors. Put urgency towards improving. Time is of the essence. There is no time to completely re-tool your life. List and prioritize the many small changes needed.

5.      Partner with others. Find accountable partners and work as a team. Leverage the different experiences of others. Learn from the mistakes others have made. Be open and accept suggestions for improvements.

6.      Set realistic, small goals. Start making and never stop small improvements. Keep working on multiple small changes at a time instead of a big change. Track progress by keeping an eye on your score card.

7.      Don’t get fooled by the myth of overnight success. Overnight success takes decades in the making. We will all do the work of millionaires during our lifetimes; why not become one?

Thank you for reading and reflecting on today’s nuggets. Share them with others.   

Be blessed and be a blessing to others

Carlos Fontana

Author of the book Priceless, Co-author of the book Follow to Lead

www.tatepublishing.com/bookstore/book.php?w=978-1-61346-494-6

"The future belongs to those who can see and pursue opportunities before they are obvious."

"Those that take swift action will always leave those that don't breathing the dust."

I would love to do a podcast or a blog interview and share my Nuggets with your audience!

Got the Secret?

The Big and Best Kept Secret

The big and best kept secret to success and significance is not a secret and it has not been kept under locks at all. It has been well known for centuries. In our microwave society we are all looking for that silver bullet, for that magic pill, the secret that will bring us instant success and significance. Stop searching for the holy grain, it does not exist, it is a myth. The history of success shows that success is a journey of failures and experiences full of pain and joy. There are principles behind success that when followed will bring lasting prosperity to anyone. Are you willing to learn and apply the following not so secretive principles, certain to rise you above the circumstances you find yourself are at the moment?

1.      Know who you are. Work on yourself above all else.

2.      Desire and hunger. The drivers that propel forward. Choose the right mentors.

3.      Decision and action. Actions behind decisions. Wisely choose your pursuits.

4.      Build relationships and partnerships. The keys to significance.

5.      Work and keep score. Be in a relentless pursuit. Serve and put love at the center of it all.

6.      Friendships and sharing. The keys to fulfillment.

7.      Give honor to our Creator. The real source of power.

Thank you for reading and reflecting on today’s nuggets. Share them with others.   

Be blessed and be a blessing to others

Carlos Fontana

Author of the book Priceless, Co-author of the book Follow to Lead

www.tatepublishing.com/bookstore/book.php?w=978-1-61346-494-6

"The future belongs to those who can see and pursue opportunities before they are obvious."

"Those that take swift action will always leave those that don't breathing the dust."

I would love to do a podcast or a blog interview and share my Nuggets with your audience!

The greatest value on earth

The greatest value on earth

A house without books is like a room without windows. —Heinrich Mann

Imagine investing the cost of a meal to feed our mind instead of feeding our stomachs

Why reading the right books provide the greatest return on your time? The first key to open our brains is what books we should read. Mentors and coaches are great places to start. Read wide and read deep. Among the great books I have read last month are Uncommon Friends by James Newton and The Education of Little Tree by Forrest Carter. What great books have you read in the last month?

1.      Expand our minds and stretch our thinking.

Expand our ideas for thinking wider and deeper. Create images for a better future. Feed the growth of our soul and our spirit. Education from reading is a bridge from misery and despair to hope and a bright future.

2.      Introduce us to ourselves.

The more we know others the more we know ourselves. Most people have no idea the potential inside them. Great books are the best books we can give to ourselves and to others because we can keep opening them over and over again.

3.      Borrow the experience of others.

Leverage the experience of others to compound our own experiences. The more we read the freer we are.

4.      Reduce stress.

Find true meaning in our lives. Stress comes from fear of the unknown. Wisdom eliminates stress.

5.      Gain empathy and humility.

Realize how truly blessed we are. When we read we know we are not alone.

6.      Improve the functioning of our brains.

Improve memory and increase our response time. Read to remember and not to forget.

7.      Exercise our brains.

Keep our minds young and delay the onset of illnesses. We must feed our brains continuously with the right foods, the right information that is.

Thank you for reading and reflecting on today’s nuggets. Share them with others.   

Be blessed and be a blessing to others

Carlos Fontana

Author of the book Priceless, Co-author of the book Follow to Lead

www.tatepublishing.com/bookstore/book.php?w=978-1-61346-494-6

"The future belongs to those who can see and pursue opportunities before they are obvious."

"Those that take swift action will always leave those that don't breathing the dust."

I would love to do a podcast or a blog interview and share my Nuggets with your audience!

Equitable Inequality

Why such inequality in an equitable system?

How unfair is the world? The sun and the rain shines and pours on everyone. How can we explain that the top one percent own the equivalent of the bottom 40% in our society? In the information age it is critical we get the right information from the right sources. Hope the following helps to explain such inequality. Please don’t take it personally. I am not referring to you. I am referring to people you know J Beware these folks would love for you to join their club for they love pity parties! If you are not satisfied, then study the lives of the top one percent. You may be surprised what you find. I can assure you will not find them as members of any of the following clubs:

1.      The SFNC. The Something For Nothing Club. The members want the results but are not willing to put in the effort to achieve those results. The members of this club believe they are entitled to things without having to work for them. Please tell them the world knows who they are. Stop expecting others to provide for you and start taking responsibility for your upkeep.

2.      The AEC. The All Excuses Club. The members of this club suffer from chronic excusitis, the failure disease where self-deception rules their lives. Please tell them we know their reasons are viewed by others as excuses. Stop paying your dues with your excuses and start looking for reasons for doing something productive.

3.      The IAAVC. The I Am A Victim Club. The members of this club cannot wait to see you so they can tell you all about the things that happened to them. These members carry a healthy dose of negativity with them. Please tell them we know who they are. Stop thinking that your circumstance happen to you and start thinking circumstances happen for you so you can leave the club and live a better life.

4.      The AKANAC. The All Knowledge And No Action Club. This is still one of the largest clubs out there. These know it all members are full of ideas loaded with smoke and no fire. Please tell them that in life doing is more important than knowing. Start finishing and stop quitting the endeavors your endeavors.

5.      The MNRC. The Me No Read Club. These members never have time to read. They are always busy. Please tell them that if they ready 15 minutes per day they will read 1,000 books in their lifetime. Leverage the compounding effect of applied knowledge and you will live and love your life. Stop watching TV and start reading great books.

6.      The AADC. The All About Distractions Club. This club has experienced the fastest growth thanks to the social media. They are the Facebook lovers who are interested in everything about everything. They love noise. They know a lot about nothing. Facebook loves them and their money ($15 million of profit per day! So unfair; FB is making money on us!). Who build and keeps building FB and working for free? Please tell them we don’t need to know when their parrot had a bleeding foot. Stop with selfies and self-aggrandizing and start coming up with something of substance and value.

7.      The AAEC. The All About Entertainment Club.  Members of this club also consume a healthy dose of social beverages. Please tell them they are easy to spot. They have love affairs with the lives of others. Stop keeping score in the lives of others and start keeping score in your life.

Be part of the EBC (a very prestigious club); the Excuses Begone Club!

Thank you for reading and reflecting on today’s nuggets. Share them with others.   

Be blessed and be a blessing to others

Carlos Fontana

Author of the book Priceless, Co-author of the book Follow to Lead

www.tatepublishing.com/bookstore/book.php?w=978-1-61346-494-6

"The future belongs to those who can see and pursue opportunities before they are obvious."

"Those that take swift action will always leave those that don't breathing the dust."

I would love to do a podcast or a blog interview and share my Nuggets with your audience!

Freedom vs Justice

Freedom vs Justice

The justice or the equality camp demands their rights to share the wealth. The freedom camp fights for a system that protects the entrepreneurs to produce the wealth. Which one is more important? Both are important in a free society. Which one comes first? Freedom does. Without freedom there is no justice. Can you find a country in the world that is not free but has justice for its citizens? The cycle of democracy starts with great moral courage to obtain freedom. Justice and prosperity cannot exist in a nation that is not free, no matter how we dictate, demand or legislate. A deep division between these two camps has been promoted in nations around the world for centuries. America does not have immunity against it. Divided camps will not stand for long since demanding justice in a system where freedoms are being eroded every day is futile. Isn’t the freedom to produce more important than the demanding a share from the wealth created by freedom? History shows that the masses are much more responsive to justice than they are to freedom. It resonates with them because it requires little from them, except for protesting, occupying, rioting, etc. We must swim against the current and have deep courage to fight for freedom that will benefit everyone. Which camp are you? How about leaving the camp and becoming a climber on the freedom mountain?

Thank you for reading and reflecting on today’s nuggets. Share them with others.   

Be blessed and be a blessing to others

Carlos Fontana

Author of the book Priceless, Co-author of the book Follow to Lead

www.tatepublishing.com/bookstore/book.php?w=978-1-61346-494-6

"The future belongs to those who can see and pursue opportunities before they are obvious."

"Those that take swift action will always leave those that don't breathing the dust."

I would love to do a podcast or a blog interview and share my Nuggets with your audience!

Can you see them?

Can you see them?

By definition an opportunity is a set of circumstances that makes it possible for us to do something about it. The educated mind can see the positive outcomes coming from a set of circumstances.

Opportunities abound and they are everywhere. What is the problem then? The problem is that we only see the problems and not the opportunities that come with them.

1.      Why. Opportunities always look better from the back than from the front end.

2.      Where. The best opportunities live right in our neighborhoods.

3.      Who. Great opportunities are only seen by the minds of the risk takers.

4.      How. Opportunities whisper, problems scream at us.

5.      When. Opportunities come when we least expect.

6.      What. The optimist sees opportunities as fun work; the pessimists see them as drudgery.

7.      Which. Do you know which opportunities are right for you? It is a lot easier to prioritize opportunities when you know your purpose in life.

Leaders pursue opportunities before they become obvious to everyone else. Don’t live a life full of regrets for the opportunities you did not take.

Thank you for reading and reflecting on today’s nuggets. Share them with others.   

Be blessed and be a blessing to others

Carlos Fontana

Author of the book Priceless, Co-author of the book Follow to Lead

www.tatepublishing.com/bookstore/book.php?w=978-1-61346-494-6

"The future belongs to those who can see and pursue opportunities before they are obvious."

"Those that take swift action will always leave those that don't breathing the dust."

I would love to do a podcast or a blog interview and share my Nuggets with your audience!

How can I succeed?

Entrepreneurship

Why entrepreneurs success?

How can I succeed as an entrepreneur?

Here is how the successful ones do:

1.      Know the why. Focus on what matters. Be passionate about your purpose, vision, and cause. Focus on doing something bigger than yourself. The outside world can see they are on a quest. They can see a bright future ahead of others.

2.      Provide value. Respect for customers. Concern about delivering value.

3.      Build trust. Trust their partners. Learn from and value the experience of others. Team builders putting people first.

4.      Respect capital. Plan and put relentless action behind their plans. Keep score. Understand and mitigate risk.

5.      Relentless growth. Always growing in financial, personal, and professional wisdom. Become true professionals in their business. Become the best at their craft.

6.      Lead the way. Creative, innovative, and ingenious. Persistent optimism is part of their being.

7.      Tenacious. Learn from failures and never give up. Continuously and systematically improve what they do.

Thank you for reading and reflecting on today’s nuggets. Share them with others.   

Be blessed and be a blessing to others

Carlos Fontana

Author of the book Priceless, Co-author of the book Follow to Lead

www.tatepublishing.com/bookstore/book.php?w=978-1-61346-494-6

"The future belongs to those who can see and pursue opportunities before they are obvious."

"Those that take swift action will always leave those that don't breathing the dust."

I would love to do a podcast or a blog interview and share my Nuggets with your audience!