How Fast Can You Run?

Run, Run, Run

 

Freedom is sacred; freedom is not free. Freedom requires sacrifice. Sacrifice results in the production of sacred things!

1.      Stop whining. Winners get better and whiners get bitter. Winners never quit and quitters never win because they whine about their own lack of courage. Have the courage to overcome your obstacles. Is there anything worse than seeing a healthy person whining, complaining, and criticizing? Why don’t they dump their garbage on their own backyard? Whiners make problems bigger and are very good at creating new problems too. Recognize whiners and run from them. Run, run, run!.

2.      Get on the road. Pain and rejection come to those on the road to greatness. The road to success is paved with rejection and obstacles. The road to failure is full of disguised excuses. Accept rejection as part of learning on how to deal with challenges. The future belongs to the brave not the whiners!

3.      No pain no gain. Pain is the key factor to dignity, humility, and creativity. There is no growth without pain. Endure the pain and little by little you will be enduring a level of pain others will never be able to withstand. One of the biggest problems with people is their lack of accurate self-evaluation. Self-deception and leadership never go together!

4.      Freedom is sacred. At the moment we settle for security we stop pursuing excellence and give up freedom. Never chase security; chase freedom instead. How good is it to squander your time in the pursuit of lesser things? Be encouraged and you will overcome. Be known for your bravery. The world is begging for freedom fighters!

5.      Leverage your strengths. We can all grow out of our sense of inferiority. We all feel inferior at something. Focus on expanding your strengths first and then deal with your weaknesses. It is impossible to erase our old programing. Create new pathways in your brain with the right programing.  Store new programs on top of the old ones! Be bright, be bold, and be brave!

6.      Be productive. Imagine our productivity if we do our work with the same zest we do our favorite hobby? So why don’t you? Are you following the mediocre majority? Over half of the employees just go through their daily grind. They are not fully engaged in their daily drudgery. Chase your dreams and the zest for life will show up!

7.      Think BIG. The size of your achievements will eventually catch up to the size of your dreams. Are your dreams bigger than your obstacles and circumstances? Make your dreams bigger than your obstacles so you never lose sight of your dreams. Never let excuses sneak in and steal your dreams. Dream wide, dream deep, and dream big!

Will you join my cause to fight mediocrity in America? Pass these nuggets on to 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)

Dreams or Fantasies?

Dreaming and Toiling

 

1.      Mind your business not your busyness. Have you ever asked yourself why you are so busy? What are you so busy about? Could the answer be you do not really know where you are going? Busy people rarely know the core reasons they are so busy. Could they already be there and just running in circles?

2.      Discover and live your purpose. What is your mission and purpose in life?  Do you have a vision to accomplish your mission and purpose in life? Examine your life!

3.      Live a great life. Those that lived great lives concluded that life is all about reflection, love and legacy. Life is truly PRICELESS. What are you going to be remembered by?

4.      Surrender. We must surrender who we are to become who we want to be. We cannot take our grubby old selves into a bright new future. Change is required for any achiever. Embrace change and take fast and furious charge to become who you were born to be.

5.      Turn dreams into goals. Dreams remain fantasies until they are broken down and turned into goals. Achievable goals have a game plan and a process to go about achieving them.

6.      Do the work. We must wear and tear the rubber on the road. We must be willing to look bad if we are to get good. Practice does not make it perfect, deliberate practice does. Luck is a lie. Luck is never part of anyone’s long term success. Success is always found on the other side of inconvenience.

7.      Perfect practice. Practice deliberately. Be intentional. Practice while others get entertained, dream while others complain, and endure while others give up. Work and study so that when your moment comes you are ready. A genius has to repeat a task 50 times before really knowing it; the average person, 200 times; and me likely 1,000s of times! How many shots have Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods taken? No wonder they are so great at their crafts.

Will you join my cause to fight mediocrity in America? Pass these nuggets on to 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)

Warrior or worrier

Have a little faith

Choose to be a warrior instead of being a worrier.

1.      You are in command. How about focusing on what you can control? You can control the thoughts you have, the images you visualize, and the actions the take.

2.      Plug in your GPS. Speed up your success journey by connecting with your subconscious mind. Prevent distractions and side trips.

3.      Create the blue prints. Our subconscious mind stores the images, the blueprints of what we are to create in reality.

4.      Create your faith. Choose to accomplish great things with your life instead of resigning to fate. What is your destiny? What is the one phrase that will describe your life? Think about it, create a mental image, and go create it for the world to see so they may believe.

5.      Go for excellence. Raise the bar on yourself. We can only perform to the level we expect ourselves to perform.

6.      Use the right programing. Whose program are you using? If we don’t consciously program our subconscious mind, others gladly will.

7.      Pay the price. We don’t value what we don’t put effort (time and/or money) into it. The cost of failure is much higher than the price of success; you cannot afford not to pay the price of success.

 

Will you join my cause to fight mediocrity in America? Pass these nuggets on to 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)

Just the truth

Truth is sweet to the ears

 

Results in life are not cheap but the price is worth paying for!

1.      Seek wisdom. When wisdom enters the heart knowledge becomes pleasant to the soul. Wisdom is shown from your results in life coming from the application of knowledge.

2.      Take charge. Complaining is the symptom of a deep infection of negativity. Usually the things people complain the most about are the things they are doing. Sounds crazy, complaining about one’s weaknesses and inadequacies? Yes, and people do it all the time without even ralizing that others know what they are doing.

3.      Eliminate limiting beliefs. When you defend your limiting beliefs they become your reality. Listen to people with the results you want in life. Why would anyone listen to someone with broken thinking and no results? Yet a lot of people do.

4.      Love them anyway. Love people and people will eventually love what they do. The paradoxical commandments say it all about the crazyness of dealing with people. People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered. Love people anyway. If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives. Do good anyway. If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies. Succeed anyway. The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway. Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable. Be honest and frank anyway.  People really need help but may attack you if you help them. Help people anyway. Give the world the best you have and you’ll get kicked in the teeth. Give the world the best you have anyway.

5.      Self-deception comes from the fear of change. We only change when the pain to stay the same is greater than the pain to change. It is a lot easier to complain, blame, criticize, or condemn, then to take a look at the mirror and change. Self-deception is the enemy of significance.

6.      Perform a daily attitude check. The reason for failure is not the lack of talent but poor attitude. A great attitude comes from gratitude.

7.      Keep the bucks. When you pass the buck your leadership goes with it. Leadership is character in motion. Leadership is not given it is taken. Leadership is not for the faint hearted or the mentally weak.  At any moment you may be called to lead. Are you ready to lead? If so welcome to the world of leadership.

 

Will you join my cause to fight mediocrity in America? Pass these nuggets on to 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)

Reason or Excuse?

Excusitis

Excusitis is the real killer disease!

1.      Never make excuses. The moment we make excuses we become victims. Most of the reasons people give for not pursuing their dreams and goals are pure excuses not reasons. The reasons from doing great things in life are found in our excuses. Example – the reason I cannot do something new is - I don’t have time and money. Those are precisely the reasons you need to do something different if you ever want to have time and money. Doing the same old things and expecting different results is pure insanity.

2.      Control your attitude. Every morning we have a choice about the attitude we embrace for that day. Embrace a positive uplifting attitude every day. Who wants to be around someone with a sour attitude?

3.      Respond. Life is all about how we respond than what happens to us. The secret to a great life is found in the seconds between stimulus and response. Get this nugget and apply it and you will live a great life. Animals react, not wise people like you.

4.      Don’t curse. Never curse obstacles; they may be a blessing in disguise. Never let your circumstances define who you are. Be not at the mercy of your circumstances.

5.      Be a problem solver. Identify problems then focus on finding solutions. People that change the world are the fastest from problem identified to problem solved.

6.      Re-frame. Leaders are great at re-framing their life events by seeing the positive in them. Take advantage of what happens to and in you. Never waste a crisis.

7.      Control your thoughts. Negative thoughts are like a noxious weed seeds, never let them germinate in your mind and grow with deep roots. And, in case they germinate, it is easy to pull them while they are young and tender.

 

Let me know if you need treatment for excusitis, the killer disease. I have a very effective

tool to pull those noxious weeds out of your garden of life.

Will you join my cause to fight mediocrity in America? Pass these nuggets on to 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 Greatest CEO

The Greatest CEO

Think of CEO as Chief Encouragement Officer

 

1.      Deal with rejection. Learn how to turn rejections into positive energy to move forward. Most people stay where they are at because they cannot deal with rejection. Rejection is part of the life of a great achiever.

2.      Stay focused. Make sure you know when and why you are drifting away. Never let yourself drift away for long. Live by your priorities not your obligations.

3.      Recalculate. Learn to redirect towards your destination and do it fast. Learn to plug into your subconscious mind. Picture your destination in clear pictures.

4.      Be the CEO. Who is your Chief Encouragement Officer? Be your own CEO and watch what happens. How can others believe in you if you don’t believe in yourself? Remember that belief is all or nothing. Never let a bit of doubt creep in.

5.      Follow the GPS. Be careful, we are trained to go with the crowd and be mediocre. Program your GPS to your destination and follow the instructions. Ignoring the system instructions is common and fatal.

6.      Picture it. Do you have a clear picture of what your victory looks like? We only get what we picture. Don't just go through the motions. Only go on purpose. We can use our subconscious mind to be there before we get there. When we arrive we realize we have been there many times before.

7.      Savor solitude. Solitude is the garden of our hearts. Spend time in solitude. Cultivate the garden of your mind. Pull out all the weeds that pop up as soon as you notice them. It is a lot easier to kill those problems before they are deep rooted in our mind.

Will you join my cause to fight mediocrity in America? Pass these nuggets on to 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 Clues

Act like it!

1.      Be the example. We must work on becoming a person others want to be around. What kind of example would you like to be?

2.      Change you first. Ask, if other people could change me, what would they change about me? What would they like to see in me? Then go on and change into that kind of you.

3.      Be likable. People tend to believe in you if they like you. Why are you likable?

4.      Act like it. If our true friends could change the way we act and talk, they would; unfortunately it is up to us to change. Do you have the courage to change? Could you be stopping you from getting where you want to go? Get out of your own way. Ouch!

5.      Make new mistakes. When we reflect on our worst times they can become our best times. Why keep going on in life repeating the same mistakes while there are so many new mistakes to be made?

6.      Take action. Work on the above and you will have an incredible future ahead of you. Work on you before working on anything else. If changing ourselves is hard, imagine changing others? Be known for your actions.

7.      Success leaves clues. What are the clues others can find about your success journey? Show your tail lights.

Will you join my cause to fight mediocrity in America? Pass these nuggets on to 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)