Dealing with Failure

The purpose of the 7 Daily Nuggets is to teach you what you need to live a prosperous life; the things that you may not have learned at church, school, home or at work. 

Apply what you learn here and share 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.

Enjoy today’s nuggets on how to deal with failure.

Failure is a pre-requisite for lasting success.

We all have to go through failure to develop the resilience, the tenacity that is needed to achieve success.

If you want to double your rate of success, double your rate of failure.

It is in failure that we find the seeds of success.

Look at failure as an event and not as a reflection of who you are.

Every single successful person took healthy doses of failure before savoring the taste of victory.

Before every victory comes a dream and plenty of struggles. True victory is fully earned. There is no such thing as instant success.

Here are 7 things to keep in mind every time you fail:

1.      Expect failure. Mentally prepare ahead of time. Mental toughness only comes from learning how to deal with failure.

2.      Find out why you failed. Learn from failure. Immediately take time to reflect, ponder on what lead to failure. Document the lessons so you are better prepared to deal with the next failure.

3.      Find humor failure. Failure plus time equals humor. Make the time as short as possible. Stories of failure provide the best teachable moments for you and others. Laughter is the best way to deal with the tension created by failure.

4.      Ignore how others view you. It is your life at stake, not theirs. The people who care and respect you will be there for you. The majority of so called friends will actually think less of you after failures when in reality they should learn from you.

5.      Stay focused. It is easy to fall in the trap of having a petty party. Get back on track as fast as possible. Make proper adjustments to reach your goals.

6.      Listen to your positive inner voice. The voice of failure will scream at you. Don’t listen to it. Only listen to your quiet positive inner voice.

7.      Re-frame the experience. Lessons are repeated until lessons are learned. As long as you are learning you are not failing; and getting closer to your victory.

He who has not failed will not experience success. 

Be a victor and not a victim of failure by turning rejection and failure into positive energy.

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)

How Mentally Fit Are You?

There are many important questions in life all of us would like to have answers.

Questions like:

Am I living the life I always wanted to live?

Am I mentally fit to take on whatever challenges come my way?

Do I know the right questions to ask and do I know how to seek the right answers?

Here are 7 other very important questions to ask:

1.      Do you know what your purpose in life is?

2.      Do you have a crystal clear vision of where you are going in life?

3.      Are you keeping score in the important areas of your life?

4.      Do you know how to resolve conflicts?

5.      Do you know how to deal with adversity?

6.      Are you applying the right financial principles when it comes to money?

7.      What is your legacy going to be?

You can find the answers to these and several other questions in a clear and concise way in 13 important areas of your life:

Purpose, Character, Attitude, Vision, Planning and Doing, Keeping Score, Friendship, Finance, Leadership, Conflict Resolution, Handling Adversity, System Thinking, and Legacy.

I challenge you to take the 90-Day Mental Fitness Challenge. The Challenge will simply transform your life by giving you clarity of thinking so you can make better decisions.

Imagine being prepared to take on whatever challenges you are facing.

Imagine being prepared to take advantage of the opportunities waiting for you.

Imagine being able to effectively deal with the fast rate of changes going on in your world today.

Imagine earning that next promotion at work or having better relationships at home.

Do what tens of thousands of people have done already, enroll and take the mental fitness challenge.

It will be the best investment you have ever made in you. 

Go on and have fun and make a difference in your life and the life of your loved ones. 

Here is the link.

               .. 

http://www.mental-fitness-challenge.com/Home.aspx?ln=61236411

 "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."

I will provide one hour of life coaching for free for those taking the 90-Day Mental Fitness Challenge before June 20, 2013.

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)

Success 101

The purpose of the 7 Daily Nuggets is to teach you what you need to know to live a prosperous life; the things that you may not have learned at church, school, home or at work. 

Apply what you learn here and share 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.

Enjoy today’s nuggets on the basics of success!

How can you succeed in a fast paced competitive world?

What are the qualities of mind required to win your race?

Success does not happen by accident. Success is intentional. Success is a quality of mind. Success comes from the quality of our learning and the speed of acting on the right information. Success is an attack on status quo. 

When we think correctly we realize that success is simple; simple but not easy because what is easy to do is even easier not to do.

Here are a few thoughts to get you started:

1.      Work hard and then work ingenuously smart. Have patience in an impatient world. Hard work always comes first. Shortcuts will only lead you to traps later on. Continuously seek and refine ideas. Spend time with successful people and mirror them while you are acquiring and refining skills.

2.      Have the courage to act on your convictions. True success comes when you are free to be who you were created to be. Be you, the best you. Do the right things right. Integrity is not enough; you must develop the courage that goes along with integrity.

3.      Have the vision to see clearly where you are going. Seek with your mind. Use your ears to help create your vision. If you cannot create your success in your mind first, you will have a difficult time to physically create it.

4.      Sacrifice the good on the way to get the great. Don’t settle for comfort at the first few victories on your way to greatness. Keep the inertia, the momentum going. Camping after a few victories is very enticing; don’t fall for it and keep on climbing your mountain.

5.      Have persistence, the tenacity to finish your race. Are you willing to face rejection and even ridicule as you run your race. Learn from failure and from setbacks; in them you will find the lessons you need to succeed. Turn your failures into positive energy.

6.      Develop a love for people. Have grace under pressure and take responsibility where others flounder and fumble. Be there to uplift others when they fall.

7.      Know timing. Implement ideas whose times have come. Know what trees to cut from the forest and replant new trees.

The mediocre will never know the sweet taste of true success. Your struggles and failures will fine tune your taste buds and prepare you to savor the awesome taste of the freedom. Start sprouting those seeds of greatness inside you, nurture them and you never have to feel the pain of regret.

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)

FINANCIAL FREEDOM 101

The purpose of the 7 Daily Nuggets is to teach you what you need to live a prosperous life; the things that you may not have learned at church, school, home or at work. 

Apply what you learn here and share 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.

Enjoy today’s nuggets on personal finance.

1.      Invest in yourself first and foremost. You are the most powerful asset you have. Invest at least 5% of your earnings in you. Focus on continuous self-education to get better and make better decisions. Your earning power is directly proportional to the investments you make in yourself.

2.      Pay all your debts and only borrow if you must. Never mortgage your future for something you can do without today. Debt can eat you up like cancer does.

3.      Be a saver by paying yourself first and do it automatically. Diversify your investments. If you put all your eggs in a basket you better keep a constant eye on it. Cost averaging is a smart way to invest instead of trying to outsmart the markets.  

4.      Delay gratification. Buy with cash. If you don’t have cash to buy you have not earned it yet. We are emotional beings so careful with buying binges when you are on an emotional roller-coaster. Delay large purchases a few days to give you time to logically justify them.

5.      Do it with less. Control spending. Live a simple lifestyle early on if you want a better lifestyle later in life. Put the power of compounding to work for you, not against you.

6.      Be a generous giver. Help others that are less fortunate than you and you will be blessed with more. Give without expectations of return and you will be blessed with more of what matters most.

7.      Practice prevention and protection. Build up your savings account until you have enough for six months of living expenses. When it comes to money expect the unexpected. Cars and things breakdown. Don’t be caught without money to take care of your family emergencies.  

If you make $30,000 per year and you spend $30,000 per year you are broke. If you make $300,000 per year and spend $300,000 per year you are broke and stressed. If you make $50,000 per year and save $10,000 per year and invest it wisely you are on your way to financial freedom.

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)

Living Your Priorities

The purpose of the 7 Daily Nuggets is to teach you what you need to know to live a prosperous life. Here you will learn the things that you may not have learned at church, school, home or at work. Remember, success has no age!

Success is a choice and continuous self-directed education is a choice. The knowledge is free; its application is your choice. Application of knowledge is what leads to lasting success. Apply what you learn here and share 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. 

Enjoy today’s nuggets on living by your priorities.

Most people live by their obligations instead of their priorities; thus the reason for people to be so busy. The world crowds us with unnecessary things.

The key question to ask ourselves is “what am I so busy about?”

Busyness just gets us tired, not where we want to go.

Our priorities must come from our purpose, mission, vision, and values in life.

What is the compass, the GPS that guides your priorities?

Here are 7 nuggets for reflection on priorities:

1.      Successful people live by their priorities not their obligations. If time is the most important resource we have then we must guard our time as if it were a real treasure.

2.      Faith in God and love for country ought to come before all other priorities. Let’s get this priority right. Eternity is a long time to be wrong! How would you like to lived in a Godless country ruled by a dictator?

3.      The better we set and live by priorities in our lives, the more freedom we have. We can get our time back by investing time in the right priorities instead of spending time in our obligations.

4.     Important vs urgent.  Missing friend’s wedding is less important than being there for their marriage. Friends need us more during their marriage than during their wedding.

5.      Making good decisions and managing those decisions (example - financial decisions) is very important. Money is not the most important thing but in order of priorities it ranks just below oxygen.

6.      Building quality relationships ought to be up there in our priorities. Everything boils down to relationships, be it at work or at home, be it in business or charity.

7.      Consistency in living the right priorities is what others look for in a leader. People are begging for leaders to follow so they can see a living example to emulate.

Are you living by your priorities or your obligations? 

Build your live on a rock solid foundation. 

What are the pillars upon which you are building your life?

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 Changing

Personal change is not easy, it is painful and yet it is through pain that we change.

Pain is the messenger of what we need to change in our lives.  

We all would like to change our lives for the better. What stops us from making the changes we know we need to make?

Here are things we can do that will make a big difference:

1.      Have the courage to change and grow. It takes intentional effort to live life intentionally for excellence.

2.      Have faith. Believe in a better future. Most people don’t lack capability they lack faith.

3.      Find and live the truth. Know what you value, value what you know.

4.      Have compassion. Help those less fortunate than you.

5.      Develop the art of friendship. It takes effort to develop great friendships.

6.      Have a strong family life. The family unit is the foundation where strong individual grow.

7.      Apply common sense. Do the common things with uncommon love.

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)

Self-Esteem

90% of people suffer from low self-esteem and 10% have an attitude problem!

How can a person raise her/his self-esteem?

Here are 7 things all of us can do:

1.      Raise self-awareness. Focus on your surroundings and what lies inside you.

2.      Decide to get better. Getting better is a personal choice that only you can make.

3.      Accept who we are. This is the first step to greatness. Start wherever you are.

4.      Take responsibility for your lives. Another choice that you can make at any time.

5.      Live your purpose. In your uniqueness you will find your greatness.

6.      Grow your character. Integrity and courage are learned. Demonstrate courage. 

7.      Plan, do, check, and adjust all that you do. Keep a scorecard for what is important to you.

Live a life of no regrets, a life of adventure, a life that matters!

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)