Directions to Success

Copyright © 2010 by Maximillion Williams

Maximum Results Publishing trade paperback edition

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A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S

First and foremost, I want to thank my Creator, without whom I would not even be here. Thanks Daddy!

I love my family and I’m very appreciative for the foundation they laid for my success. I never would have made it from Bushrod Park to SUCCESS without each of you. I love you all more than I can possibly explain.

Thank you to my Freedom Movement family for always believing in me.

I am grateful to all of the mentors and teachers who have helped me to learn and apply these truths, especially Josh, Michael, Son, and Duke.

The bestseller you are about to read is the synergistic product of many individuals. The all-star team at Maximum Results Publishing always works so hard and does such an excellent job on my books. I must give a special thanks to Toni (transcriber), Michelle and Nina (editors), who multiply my time and influence through their work. Finally, I want you to know, this book was written for you. Yes, YOU! It is not by chance that you are holding this book. Our Creator desires for you to know the “Directions to Success” so that you can have overflowing abundance in your life. Then you may become a blessing to those who are in need. I look forward to seeing you in the land of SUCCESS.

C O N T E N T S

Don’t Just Read, Succeed!

Introduction

1) Thoughts………………………14

2) Choices………………………...23

3) Actions………………………... 28

4) Habits………………………….40

5) Success………………………...47

-----------­­­­­ Don’t Just Read, Succeed! -------------

“Be ye a doer of the word, not a hearer only”

One of my mentors taught me that, in order to reach success in my life, I needed to correct some of the false philosophies that I had picked up over the years. The first correction was this “knowledge is NOT power”, rather applied knowledge is power.

Recently, a friend of mine moved into her dream home. A few weeks ago she invited some friends over. She wrote very detailed directions for them, with landmarks, number of lights, etc. She even customized the directions to where they would be coming from – since none of them had been to her new home yet. A few people admitted they thought they’d just wing it. Needless to say, they got lost, because they didn’t follow the directions! When trying to reach a destination that you’ve never been to before, it is crucial that you follow the directions.

Like my friend, I have been blessed to live in a destination that few people have been to before, called SUCCESS. Therefore, I have written this book to give you the Directions to Success. I implore you not to just read this book, because “knowledge is NOT power”. Rather, apply these directions to your life, so you can make it to the land of SUCCESS.

------------­­­­­ Introduction ---------------

“Success is not something you pursue, it’s what you attract by the person you become”

I was 19 years old, working for a company in San

Francisco, called Digital Island. We had an office over

in London which I had to fly to for business. I

remember, waiting at the airport with my co-worker

Karen, who was coming with me. She had her fiancé with her and they

were saying goodbye and doing the whole kissy-lovey thing. Finally, we

began to board the plane. Once we stored away our carry-on luggage,

we sat down and strapped ourselves in. I was looking for the exit right

away. (I don’t know about you, but I want to know where I go if

something happens) Fortunately, I was sitting right by one. I was like,

“Thank you Jesus!”

Eventually the plane takes off. It was a smooth ride but that’s a

long flight! There was an option. You could take a lay-over in New York,

or you could take a direct flight there. I chose to fly straight there, not

knowing that it was a 13 hour flight. When I found that out I was like,

“Man!” Plus, I have a slight case of claustrophobia and I hate being stuck

in small places. So being on that plane, for what seemed like forever, was

not fun. My knees were hurting, because I was sitting down for too long.

I tried to stand up, but I couldn’t really go anywhere. I was so

uncomfortable, it sucked. I was ready to get off that plane.

We finally got to Heathrow Airport out there in London. When I

got off that plane, I had never been so happy to touch the ground in my

life. I was just so excited to finally get off that plane. Then we had to go

through customs. Now, when you go through customs, you have to

declare your stuff, so I was a little bit nervous. We had about $20,000

worth of computer and networking equipment inside of our bags. Being

young and naïve’, I thought they were going to think I was a terrorist, so I

was kind of scared, but luckily they let me through without any problems.

We got our luggage and everybody went their separate way.

That was my experience in my flight to London when I was 19

years old. I know some people who are reading this is thinking, “Man,

what in the world does that have to do with any kind of success? What

are you talking about? What does that have to do with my money at

all?”

Looking back, that flight defined for me what it takes to become

successful. See, London in that scenario, represents success. We flew to

the same city but everybody went to different destinations in the city.

Some went to Buckingham Palace, some went to the Tower of London,

some went to the Big Ben Clock Tower, etc. See, we all have different

dreams and purposes in life but we all want to get to this town called

“Success.”

At the airport in San Francisco everybody was saying goodbye to

their loved ones as they got on the plane to take their ride to success.

Sometimes when you leave for success, you have to say goodbye to some

loved ones. Sometimes when you go on your journey to success, there

are some people who you love, who may be trying to hold you back.

Therefore you got to say goodbye to them for a while. For that thirteen-

hour flight I could not communicate with some people. In life, you’ve got

to limit communication with some folks who may be messing up your

dreams and goals.

Remember, when we got on the plane, the first thing I did was

start to look for the exits on the plane. Oftentimes, when we go on our

journey to success, the first thing we do is start looking for excuses to

quit. What you have to do is stop looking for excuses and enjoy the ride,

even if there is turbulence. Accept this truth, in life, there will always be

turbulence. There will always be problems, issues, and negative

situations. There will always be things that will shake you. There will

always be moments that’ll have you thinking you are about to die, but

you got to understand that if you just fly a little bit higher, you go past

the turbulence. The pilots don’t fly straight through the turbulence; they

fly over the turbulence. So now when you go through issues, instead of

whining about it, just go up. See, if you just go through something, you

will die. But if you grow through it, you overcome it.

When you are on your way to success, sometimes you got to stop

and check your motives. See, when you go through customs the first

thing they ask you is, “What is your reason for visiting the country?”

Likewise, before you even get to the land of success, you must first define

your reason for coming there. What are your motives? Why do you want

to be successful?

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After we got through customs, we were able to collect our

baggage. Noticed I did not fly with my baggage. My baggage had to get

checked back in San Francisco. I picked up my baggage once I got to

London. See, on your way to success, you have to check your baggage.

You can carry on a couple of small things, but those big things that hold

you back, you need to check those. Sometimes we wonder “Why can’t I

get any closer to my dream – my goal?” Answer: because you have too

much baggage! The airline wouldn’t even let you on the plane with those

bags. That baggage, that hurt, that disappointment, that anger, that

thing that happened to you 5, 10, 20 years ago or yesterday morning –

it’s too big to fit beneath the seat in front of you. So you have a choice to

check it or not take the flight. If you want to go to SUCCESS, you either

get rid of it or you cry about it. Now, you can hold onto it all you want,

that is fine, but you have to hold on to it on the ground. You will not go

up in the plane. Therefore, you have to learn how to just check all that

baggage.

Here’s another profound point, I had no idea how to get to

London. I could look at a globe, I could tell you where San Francisco is, I

could point to where London is, but if you gave me a flight map, I cannot

navigate it. I do not know the directions, but the pilot knew how to get

there.

On your way to success, you do not have to know how

to get there yourself, but you need to have a pilot. You

must have somebody with you who can give you the

directions on how to get to where you are going. That’s

why it is important to have mentors in your life. Like a pilot flying

passengers to London, mentors can guide you through your journey to

SUCCESS.

I just thank my Creator that nine years ago, I met someone who

gave me the directions to get to my success. Now, I want to share with

you the Directions to Success. So if you’re ready say, “I’m ready!”

------------­­­­­ Thoughts ---------------

“If you will change, everything will change for you”

The first step to the direction to success is “thoughts

influence choices.” The journey to success starts

with our thoughts. Why? Because in order for you

to reach success, you must have a vision for what

SUCCESS is for you. And the clearer the vision is, the easier it is to get

there. What is your dream? What is your goal? What is your purpose in

life? You can never achieve what you do not first define. What is it for

you?

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For many of us it may be, “I want to make X amount of money.”

For many of us it may be, “I want to retire myself…I want to retire my

loved ones.” For many of us, it may be, “I want to become a professional

athlete.” For many of us it is, “I want to become an entertainer.” We all

have different goals and purposes in life. The first thing you want to do if

you want to achieve your success is have a vision of what it is, and the

vision must be as clear as possible.

Can you imagine if we just said we are going to London and that

was it? What if there was no clear picture of where London was? What if

no one could find it on the map? Where is your map? Can you draw out

where you are going? When you look at your vision, when you write it

down, is it one sentence or a page? If it is just one sentence then it is not

that clear. Therefore you may end up in Europe but you would not get to

London. So you must have a clear vision of where you want to go. Once

you have that vision, that picture of success, then you can start moving

towards it.

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said that, “The ancestor of every

action is a thought.” I am going to say it one more time, because it’s so

profound. “The ancestor of every action is a thought.” Once you

understand this you realize, everything that we do starts off with our

thoughts. In fact, I learned a long time ago from my mentor that

everything in this world is created twice. First it is created in our mind, in

our thoughts, then in the physical world. It is always created twice.

Every building that you see was first a thought in the architect’s mind.

Every skyscraper that you see was first a thought in someone else’s mind.

Every organization you see was first a thought in someone’s mind. Every

car you see driving down the road was a thought in the designer’s mind.

Everything that you see was first someone else’s thought.

Everything flows from our thoughts. The Bible says it this way,

“Guard your heart (mind) because out it flow the issues of life.”

Everything that we deal with in life flows from our thoughts. The world

we live in is a manifestation of the world we live inside our minds.

Therefore our thought life is very important when it comes to our journey

to success, because when you take all your thoughts, all your beliefs, all

your intentions, your whole belief system, it forms what we call a

paradigm. And that paradigm is the lens through which we see the whole

world.

On an airplane the pilot cannot see that far ahead. He

has a radar system that shows him what is coming up.

Sometimes it does not matter what they physically see

out there. If their radar says there is another plane

coming, even if they do not see the plane, what will

they believe? They’ll believe that a plane is coming, even if they do not

see it. That is how paradigms work. Our paradigm is the lens through

which we see the world. As we journey to success, what we see through

our paradigm – through our belief system, is what we base our decisions

on. As we actually grow up in life, all the experiences that we have been

through – everything that we have been taught, everything that we have

heard – all those things come together and they gel together to form this

paradigm of how we see the world.

As I began to apply the principles my mentors taught me I became

more and more successful, and was able to meet other successful people.

One thing I realized that amazed me was the fact that most successful

people – almost all of them – think the same way. They have what is

called the success paradigm. Where the average person sees obstacles,

those with the success paradigm see opportunity. Where the average

person sees trouble, those with the success paradigm just see challenges.

When an average person would give up, those with the success paradigm

decide to go up. When an average person would quit, those with the

success paradigm decide to push on. When an average person says, “This

won’t work.” Those with the success paradigm say, “It will.” When an

average person sees all the reasons why it should not work, those with

the success paradigm see the opportunities why it should work. When an

average person focuses on the negative, those with the success paradigm

focus on the positive.

On our way to success, we must first develop the success

paradigm, because all the choices we make will be based on our

paradigm. For example, we make ALL of our financial decisions based on

how we view money and the situation. If someone gives you $100, what

you choose to do with the $100 is based on your paradigm. It is so funny

because that same $100 given to someone with a successful paradigm

would probably choose to do different things with it.

See, as an average person growing up, we do not invest our

money because that is not in our paradigm. I do not remember a teacher

ever telling me to invest my money, and if someone ever did, they didn’t

tell me where to invest it. Once someone gave me a dollar as a little kid,

they told me spend the whole dollar, because it is only a dollar. So when

I got $100 I started to spend what? The whole $100. When I got $1000, I

spent the whole what? $1,000. So it never ended. That is why we live in

a country with so much debt, because we spend more than we have. But

there is 3% in America who owns 97% of all the money, because those

were all the people who learned not to spend the whole dollar. Because

of their paradigm, they made different decisions with their finances than

we do.

It is the same thing with your health. There are some people who

are successful when it comes to health. The difference between them

and some people like us – like myself – who maybe are not successful

with their health is they have a better health paradigm. They make

better decisions when it comes to their health. Whereas with my

paradigm, my belief system and my thought process, I make poor

decisions when it comes to my health.

Some of us have relationships that are suffering right now. We

live in a bad relationship, because either we or our significant other does

not have a good paradigm when it comes to relationships. Therefore, we

have made bad decisions. For example, there is a married man (Bob)

who is out with his friends and they go out to play basketball. Bob told

his wife he would be home at 1 o’clock but here it is 2 o’clock and they

just got through playing and all of his friends say, “We‘re about to go eat,

you want to come?” and Bob says, “Okay.” Bob goes to eat, then gets

home at 4 o’clock, of course his wife is upset, and he wonders why. See,

Bob made the decision to go eat because from his paradigm he did not

think it was a big deal. Many times, we do not make bad decisions

because we are bad people. Instead we make bad decisions because we

have bad paradigms. So if you want to become successful in whatever it

is you are trying to do in life, you must learn how to have a paradigm

shift.

In order to shift over to a success paradigm, we must have a new

influx of correct information inside of us. We must have the experience

of others that we could learn from, so we could start making better

decisions for our future. But more importantly than anything is that on

your journey to success, really we must just be more mindful of our

thoughts. Like Yoda told young Skywalker, “Be mindful of your

thoughts.” Learn to think about what you think about. Watch what you

think about. It is so funny because we live in a nation where we watch

out weight, but we won’t watch our thoughts. It’s just amazing. When is

the last time you’ve thought about what you think about?

So we must take the time to discipline our thoughts, to really start

analyzing our thoughts. Start to think “What is my paradigm and how can

I shift it to make it better?”

So as we go on throughout the rest of this week, let us make it our

goal to really start thinking about what we think about. Let us take the

time to pause every now and then just think about our thought life. Take

the time to pause every now and then and ask yourself a great question,

“Am I even looking at this the right way?”

When emotions start to flare when we get hurt, angry, sad or

depressed or any negative emotion we start to feel, we must first ask our

self, “Am I even looking at this the right way?” When we are having

issues in our life we must ask ourselves, “What are my thoughts about

this issue?” If you are having issues with your finances, what are your

thoughts towards your finances? If you are having issues with a

relationship, what are your thoughts on your relationship? If you are

having issues in school, what are your thoughts towards school?

See, it is funny because I remember when I was in school one of

the things that messed me up was the fact that, in my thought process, it

was okay to do my homework last minute, like the class before the class.

That was my thought process. Obviously, that was a paradigm I needed

to correct if I wanted to be successful in school. In life, we all come to a

point where we need get a better thought process. We need a better

paradigm. We have to get to a point where we look at things a little bit

better and get a little bit keener in our thoughts.

Understand this, when we flew from San Francisco to London, the

pilot never looked back. He did not check the San Francisco weather

patterns; he was checking New York weather patterns. He was not even

concerned with what the weather was behind him, he was concerned

what the weather was ahead of him. So as we journey to success, we

must keep our thoughts on the prize – our thoughts on the destination,

not on the past. We must continue to look forward. As you go out there

this week, keep your thoughts forward. Keep your thoughts on the

future. Keep your thoughts on what you are working on currently or

what is right in front of you. Can you imagine if the pilot kept looking

backwards and was not ever looking at what was right in front of him?

The most accidents happen on the freeway when you drop your

food, text, or do anything that causes you to look down or look back. You

look back for a split second and crash into the car in front of you, because

it does not matter how long you look back for if you do not know what is

in front of you. As we go through the week we have to keep our minds

on the prize. Look at what is right in front of you and then look beyond

that. Imagine you are driving down the freeway, heading towards your

destination. You must look at the car right in front of you and then you

have to learn how to look a hundred yards up the road. You must be able

to do both at the same time. You may be looking at your rear view mirror

every now and then to check. However you cannot drive in your rear

view mirror.

The same thing goes in your life. You have got to learn to live life

where you may check the past, but only to see where you came from.

But you cannot live in the past. As you are living life, you must learn to

look at what is right in front of you and look beyond that. Acknowledge

the here and now and also look toward your future.

Obstacles and issues are what you see when take your eyes off

your success. When you stop looking at the goal is when you see

everything else wrong. There is a story in the Bible that talks about a lady

and her family trying to escape to success. While escaping the wife

looked back and turned to salt. Really the whole story was just there to

illustrate this one single point. As you are moving towards your dreams,

if you look back, you could die. If you spend all your time this week

focusing on things that happened last week or last year, you will feel the

same hurts and pain.

Some of us are living with a lot of emotional guilt. Some of us are

living with low self-esteem because of what somebody else told us 10

years ago. A lot of times all the hurt and pain we go through in life is

really the result of us keep looking in the past. We want to revisit the

past and then wonder why we cannot get to our future. You cannot go

backwards and forward at the same time. That is why they are two

different gears in your car.

As we wrap up today you guys, just remember this simple phrase,

planes do not fly backwards. Most importantly they never stop. If a plane

stops moving, it will fall out of the sky. So wherever you go through, do

not stop. Whatever happens this week, do not stop. As you are going

after your dreams this week, whatever happens to you, do not stop. No

matter who hates on you, no matter who talked bad about you. No

matter who is disrespecting you, no matter who is hurting you by not

being there for you. No matter who quits on you when you thought they

never would. No matter who did not support you when you thought they

would. No matter what you go through, no matter how negative and bad

it may seem this week, do not stop.

Most importantly just keep looking forward. The rougher it gets,

keep looking forward. Because as long as you can see the future, as long

as you keep your eyes on the prize and you move towards it, you will

eventually get there. Whether it is a 19-hour flight or whether it is a two-

minute drive, you will still get there. Just keep your eyes on the future.

Keep your eyes on the present. Keep your eyes on the things you can

control and not on the things that are in the past.

Get your vision for your week. What is your vision for this week?-

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Get that vision clear in mind right now. “This will be the best

week for me if I make ______ happen.” Get that in your mind right now.

Anything that happens this whole week, keep that vision in your mind.

When something bad happens, close your eyes think about that vision.

Keep your thoughts on that and that is what you will achieve.

------------­­­­­ Choices ---------------

“We have both the ability and the responsibility

to make better choices beginning today.”

In this chapter we're continuing our teaching on the Directions to Success. The first step we discussed was "thoughts influence choices." The second step to the Directions to Success is "choices cause actions." So thoughts influence choices and choices cause actions. There's no story that better illustrates this whole point than the true story of a guy named Joseph.

Thousands of years ago there once was a man named Joseph and he lived in the Egyptian area. When Joseph was growing up he had a dream that one day he would become great and take care of his whole family. As he shared his dream of greatness with his siblings, they all got angry. They were like, “what do you mean we're going to be bowing down to you? What do you mean we're going to follow you? What you mean you're going to take care of us? We're going to take care of you!”

Oftentimes the very people you want to help WON’T believe in you! The greatest teacher who ever walked the earth expressed it this way “Only in his hometown is a prophet without honor.”

In fact, Joseph’s family got so tired of him sharing his dream so

much that one day they went out in the field and actually sold their own brother into slavery. Then took his favorite coat, killed an animal, poured the blood onto the coat, took it back to their dad, and told him a wild beast killed their brother. Meanwhile, Joseph is sold off to slavery. Now imagine this, your own brothers turning their back on you. I mean its one thing for your friends to betray you. It’s one thing for your girlfriend or boyfriend to quit on you, but for your own brother, your own family, your own blood to turn their back on you and sell you out…that’s a wound that leaves a scar.

Some of the deepest wounds we have are the ones when we were hurt by someone who we thought was supposed to love us. Those

are the wounds that hurt the most. So imagine this, Joseph now had been sold into slavery by his own brothers. He ends up a slave in the household of a guy named Potiphar in Egypt. However, although he's a slave, he decides that he's going to be the best slave he could be. Because of his leadership ability and strong work ethic, Potiphar eventually made Joseph manager of his estate. Thus, Joseph had authority over his master’s property, employees, and possessions.

Unfortunately Potiphar was a eunuch, which means that he had

some issues with his private area. So his wife had some needs. I don't want to get too graphic with you guys so pay attention to the story. His wife saw Joseph, this handsome-looking man. He's all ripped up with muscles busting out of his little shirt. She repeatedly tried to sleep with him, like a desperate housewife. She kept hitting on him, trying to get him, saying “come on”, but Joseph kept turning her down again and again and again. I mean it’s one thing to turn something down once, but to repeatedly keep turning down the same bad temptation, gets harder and harder.

One day Joseph was caught in the room alone with Potiphar's wife

and she decides “this is the day”. Her husband wasn’t home, so she just throws herself at Joseph. She grabs him and starts unbuttoning his shirt. Because he was a man full of integrity, runs out of the room, leaving his shirt behind. Imagine how Potiphar's wife feels… scorned and mad. Everybody knows “Hell hath no fury as a woman scorned.” Full of rage, when her husband returned, she told him that Joseph tried to rape her. Joseph gets arrested and thrown into jail. He went from slavery to prison, with a life sentence for something he didn’t even do. Matter of fact, he was trying to do the right thing. Have you ever tried to do the right thing and still got in trouble for it?

Joseph was looking out for Potiphar and Potiphar threw him in prison. So as he is tossed in prison, Joseph made the decision that he is going to be the best prisoner he can be. He becomes the best prisoner there. In fact, the warden ended up putting him in charge of the rest of the prisoners and now he's running the whole prison. It is funny how you can't keep a great leader down.

Joseph became known for having the prophetic gift to accurately interpret dreams. A fellow prisoner of his, the Pharaoh’s former chief cupbearer, came to him for help. Joseph was able to encourage him, letting the cupbearer know that his dream foretold him being put back into the palace in three days. Relieved and grateful, he asked Joseph what he could do to repay him. All that Joseph asked for was “remember me…and mention me to Pharaoh and get me out of this place”. However, when the chief cupbearer was brought back to the palace, he quickly forgot to mention Joseph to the Pharaoh. Have you ever helped someone out with the intention they would help you out when they got to where they were going? So you help them, they get there and they don't give back? They forget all about you. That's a painful thing to happen but you know what, Joseph just kept being the best he could be. Two years later the Pharaoh had these dreams that greatly troubled him, and finally, his chief cupbearer remembered Joseph. He told the Pharaoh there was a man in prison who can interpret dreams. Joseph was immediately brought to see the Pharaoh. He told Joseph what his dream was. Joseph said “there's going to be seven years of plenty and seven years of famine. For the next seven years we will have more than enough but after that, there's going to be seven years of famine. So we better stock up during the seven years of plenty.” Impressed by the wisdom of Joseph, the Pharaoh puts him in charge of all of Egypt to oversee this coming tragedy. The most powerful nation on the planet was placed under the leadership of a 30 year old man, Joseph. If you track the whole story it is about 15 years. Joseph goes from the pit to slavery. He then goes from slavery to prison and from prison to the palace. How’d that happen? See Joseph understood one true thing, choices cause action. In between stimulus and response, always lays choice. In between what happens to us and what we do about it lays choice. No matter what happens, we always have a choice on how we’re going to respond to any situation.

If someone cuts you off on the freeway, you have a choice as to how you respond. You have a choice in everything you do. See, life is nothing but a series of choices. Everything we do in life is a choice that we make, whether conscious or

unconscious. Therefore, the quality of our choices determines the quality of our life. If you want to have a better life, you have to learn how to make better choices. So take your right hand, put it over you left shoulder and give yourself a pat on the back because you are where you are because of the choices you have made. Accepting this brings power, because you can change where you are by making better choices. As human beings sometimes we want to blame the world, blame society, blame our culture, blame our upbringing, and blame our family. We are quick to point out what others have done to us. We use the actions of others as an excuse for ours. Understand this, Joseph did not end up as a slave because of a choice he made. Hear me now. Get this clear everyone. He didn’t end up as a slave because of a choice he made, that was out of his control, but where he went after slavery was based on the choices he made. Life is 10% what happens to us and 90% how we choose to respond. So you can change your path. You can’t control other people, but you

can control how you’re going to respond to the situation. Even when something horrible happens to you, you still have the power to choose your response. When Joseph got sold into slavery he still chose to do his best, and eventually ended up in the palace. We can’t change our past, but our future is determined by the choices we make today. There

are always two choices we can make. The first choice is you can do less than you can and the second choice is you can do all that you can. As we journey to success, we can either read all the books that can affect our thinking in a positive way or we can read some trash. We can read books like “What To Do With $1” or we can read tabloids. We can either attend the classes that will help us grow in life or we can choose not to attend those classes. We can either seek out information or we can sit and complain about not having the information. We can either surround ourselves with successful people or we can continually make a decision to hang out with the people we know are hindering our success.

When we went on that plane ride to London, I had to make a choice to get on the plane. If we are going to go to SUCCESS, we must make a choice to go. You cannot stay where you are and get where you want to go. I’ll say that one more time “you cannot stay where

you are and get where you want go”. You must get moving to get where you want to go. You must make a choice to move, to take a step towards success. On the plane I saw some people that were tall and some people that were short. Some people were fat and some people were thin. Some were black, some were white, Asian and Hispanic. Some people were funny and some people were boring. Some people were happy, some were sad. Everybody had differences, but there’s one thing that we all had in common, we were all headed to London. I couldn’t be sitting next to somebody going to Hawaii, if I wanted to get to London, because those are two different directions! Therefore, you must choose to spend time with people who are going in the same direction you want to go. On your journey to success, you may ask yourself “am I travelling with people going in the same direction as me?” Who are the 10 people you spend the most time communicating with? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Are they heading in the direction that you want to go? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

One of my mentors, Jim Rohn, taught me that “Success is easy, but what’s easy to do, is easy NOT to do”. We all know that being healthy is easy. All you have to do is eat the right things and exercise, it’s all simple stuff. It’s easy to walk around the block every morning, but it’s also easy to just sleep an extra 15 minutes. It’s easy to eat real food, but it’s easy to get fast food. It’s sad because we all know that fast food is not good for us, but we still take our kids there. We have to make better choices for the people we are caring for. It hurts me so much when I see an obese child, because their parents made a poor choice for their eating habits. Someone once told me “my baby wants McDonalds”. Your baby didn’t come out of the womb asking for McDonalds! If your child wants McDonalds it is because you made choices for them that got them conditioned to like McDonalds. The choices you make today are affecting your children’s future. Where they get to start in life is based on what you choose to do today. As they get older, they start making their own choices. But between now and then, you can either give them a head start or give them a late start. For many of us, our parents gave us a late start in life. So you’ve had to play catch up your whole life but you know what, you can still win the race. I am a testimony to that! However, I don't want my future children to have to run that hard, and endure that much pain. I want them to run the race, but I would rather give them a head start. Nevertheless, no matter where you start you can still get to SUCCESS. It may take you longer but you can still get there. It took Joseph a long time to finally achieve his dream, because he had to go through so many trials and tribulations. Fortunately Joseph realized that although he couldn’t control what happened to him, he could control how he responded to what happened to him. He could choose to do his best! As you move forward this week and journey toward your success, you must ask yourself “am I striving to do my best?” I will do my best and let my Creator take care of the rest. Our Creator created you with greatness inside. He was not bored when he created you. There was something going on in this world, some kind of tragedy, some kind of issue, some kind of injustice, something that wasn’t right.

So guess what? He created you! We all have a purpose that we have been created and equipped to achieve. What frustrates you in this world? What issues in the world really burn you up inside? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ This is a clue to your Purpose. The reason it bothers you so much is because you were created to solve it. You were born for greatness. The question is will you choose to become great or will you choose to stay mediocre?

------------­­­­­ Actions ---------------

"Faith without action serves no useful purpose."

Now that we understand that thoughts influence choices

and choices cause your actions, we are onto the third

part. Actions develop habits.

A long time ago there lived a young Sheppard boy

named David who used to hang out with a bunch of

sheep. He wasn’t the brightest kid, no one had a lot of

belief in him, no one encouraged him and no one

thought he was going be anything great. His job was to

just take care of the sheep. One day as he was taking care of the sheep a

bear came and tried to kill the sheep! David killed the bear. Another day

a lion came to kill the sheep! David killed the lion. It’s amazing what

you can do when someone attacks someone you love.

The crazy thing was when all these things happened it was all in the field,

away from other people seeing it. Sometimes we do some great things

when no one’s watching us. However, since no one saw us do it, we don’t

get the accolades or respect because we didn’t do it publicly. You can do

some great things in practice but until you do it on the court or in the game

it doesn’t matter yet. People still don’t believe in you. It’s so frustrating

because you could be doing really well in school but until you do well on

the test, no one cares. In a relationship, you could be doing great while

you are courting, but until you are doing great when you are dating and

married it doesn’t make a difference yet.

David lived in a country called Israel and Israel was going to war with the

Philistines. In the Philistine army there was a giant named Goliath who

was about nine feet tall. I must say, that is one a big dude! How many

times have you seen those guys who are like seven feet tall and they’re not

in the NBA because they’re a little bit clumsy? Goliath was not just some

big clumsy guy who didn’t make it to the NBA, he was a nine foot tall

soldier, who was trained for WAR. Picture this, Goliath looking down at

the Israeli army with a massive sword and he starts taunting them. He

says, “Send any man you choose and if he can kill me, we will be your

servants, but if I kill him then you will be our servants”. He was

threatening them all and they weren’t doing anything about it. There will

be times the whole world will talk bad about you and your generation but

what will you do about it? The world may mock people who come from

your neighborhood and people that look like you but what will you do

about it?

David wasn’t in the army, but one day he came by to bring some food for

his brothers. While he was there, he hears this taunting. He’s like, “What

the hell! Who’s this guy? Everybody said, “Ssh! Quiet. He’ll kill you.”

David said, “You all let him talk to you like that?” They then explained

that the king would give a wife to whoever killed him. They would not

only get his daughter’s hand in marriage but they also never had to pay

taxes again. He said, “Hold on. What was that again?” They said, “He’ll

give his daughter’s hand in marriage and you’ll never pay taxes again.”

It’s amazing what we’ll do for a girl and some money.

The problem is if the reason is strong enough, you’ll go against anything.

It may not be a girl for you. That may not be what motivates you. It may

not be money that motivates you. We have to find something that

motivates you whatever that may be. Once you know what motivates you,

you’ll feel like David. As soon as he heard him talking trash, he said,” I’ll

take this dude” even though they told him he would kill him. It’s funny

how you make a decision to do something that would change your life and

people around you will say you can’t do it. Instead, David said, “Yes, I

can.” Sometimes, you have to be bold when it’s something you are

fighting for. So the king said, “If you’re going to do it, you must put my

armor on.” When David put the king’s armor on, it was so heavy he

couldn’t walk, since he had not tested it. It’s interesting how some people

who say they believe in you will only believe in you as long as you do it

their way.

Many of us are caught in this box and we’re headed down this path to

somewhere we don’t want to go because that’s what our parents said we

should do or what our friends said we should do. Sometimes we’re stuck

doing things that we don’t want to do. Some people are in a relationship

they don’t even want to be in right now but everyone is telling you that’s

where you should be. So what happened with David was he said I’m

going to do this my way! After he removed the armor he grabbed his

slingshot and chose five smooth rocks. He walked right up to Goliath and

Goliath looked at him and laughed. “Ha, ha, ha!” On your journey to

success people will actually mock you, laugh at you, make fun of you, and

think you can’t do it. Even though Goliath thought these things about

David, he still ran up on him, cocked back that slingshot and let it fly. The

stone cut straight through the air and struck him right on his forehead and

cracked his skull. Goliath fell to the ground and David ran up on him,

grabbed his sword, since he was not carrying a sword of his own, and

chopped off his head. When the Israeli army saw what he had done they

got bold which scared the Philistines and they chased them off. It took

one man of action to motivate everyone.

Sometimes in life you must act if you want to change something. You

can’t just keep TALKING about it with your friends and family members.

Have you ever had one of those long conversations with your loved ones?

One where your family says we need to change our family legacy, our

community, we have to get better in life, or we deserve more? Sometimes

you have to come to a point where you stop just TALKING to people and

start to ACT. Amelia Earhart once said that, “The most difficult thing is

the decision to act. The rest is merely tenacity.” One of the most difficult

things for us is to actually DO something. That’s what creates miracles in

life, when you come to the point when you act on what you believe. It’s

your action that leads to success. I love when it says faith without works

is dead. It can be so frustrating when you get around people who you love

and they have dreams, aspirations and goals but won’t do anything about

it. Are you one of those people? Do you sit around and just dream or are

you acting? There’s only one kind of dreamer that will make it and that’s

an actor. You have to take your dream and put it into action.

We must come to a point when we will actually go out there and act

because action is the fundamental key to all success. We started off on

that plane ride to London, the plane ride to success. There’s one key thing

that must happen for us to get there—the plane has to keep going. If that

plane stops moving, we’re dead. So at ALL costs you must still be acting.

Even when turbulence comes the plane has to keep flying. It cannot take a

break. Some people will say that they are taking a break which really

means that they are willing to get back to their dream in a week from now

or a month from now.” If you take a break you will fall from the sky,

crash and burn. I want you to understand this. The earth never stops

spinning, therefore, you never stop moving. It feels like you’re standing

still but you’re actually moving. You may not be moving in the direction

you want to go but you ARE moving. If you hit the eject button out of the

airplane, you will still be moving, but instead of going forward, now your

going downward. So now the question is, is it YOUR actions, or are you

letting everyone else dictate your actions? Are you moving forward or are

you moving backward? Are you going up or are you going down? Are you

going to go through it, or under it? Are you going to back up from it?

What are you going to do? I heard a guy say once “all you can do is all

you can do but all you can do is always enough.” You must come to a

point when you start to begin to do all that you can do. When you get into

action and you are moving, it’s funny how your life will begin to change

as soon as you decide to do something about it, not complain about it, not

whine about it, not go to sleep mad about it, but do something about it.

We all have moments of regret in our lives. Have you taken a moment to

think about everything that you regret in life? You’ll realize it’s always the

action that you DIDN’T take. We find ourselves saying, “I would have

said this, I would have done this, I would have looked like this, I would

have believed”. To live a life without regret, to become successful at

whatever you’re trying to do, there are actions that you are going to have

to take. If you want to be in a successful relationship with your girlfriend

or with your boyfriend, you must realize it’s your actions that show your

love when you’re spending time with them. If you want to be good in

school, you must begin to study, you must begin to pay attention in class,

ask questions if you don’t understand it. Sometimes in school we go

through a whole class not understanding because we are afraid to raise our

hand. A simple action like that can change your whole entire life. Don’t

be afraid to just raise your hand and ask your question.

But here’s the funny thing. Even when we think we’re not acting we’re

still acting because the action you’re taking of standing still is your action.

If you want to be successful in business and in finances there are certain

actions you must take. You cannot let your money just sit somewhere, it

will never grow. You must take it, apply an action and invest it

somewhere so it will start to multiply. Everything takes action and

movement. We must move around. You can apply this even in the womb,

if a baby stays still you know that it will not survive, it is called a still

birth. But, as long as the baby is moving its’ mama knows it is alive.

Even as an infant we are aware that we must be moving in life. So this

comes to a point when we have to ask ourselves if we are in fact moving

forward because standing still is actually moving backwards since life

keeps going whether we want it to or not. We get older whether we want

to or not. I’ve yet to see the machine that will keep me young. If you

know of one, let me know about it! Imagine this. You are standing still

and everything else is still moving. The earth keeps spinning and time

keeps going. So, in reality if everything is still moving and you are

standing still, really everything is getting farther away from you or in

other words you are getting farther behind. You are either moving

forward or you are moving backwards. There is no standing still.

You have to come to a point when you take a close look at your life. You

have to start looking at this whole thing and ask yourself what actions

could you take this week to get you closer to your goal, to your dream, to

your success? How much money can you set aside for investing? What

investments could you put this money towards this week to start getting

your finances on the right track? What action can you take in school?

What notes can you take and what test can you study for to start improving

your grades in school? What actions can you take with your significant

other? What flowers can you bring her? What phone call can you make?

What text message can you send? What time can you spend with them?

What actions can you take to show your love for her or for him? What

action can you take to bring about the success you want in your life? If

you want to become a professional athlete, what action can you take to

move towards your success in athletics? What training can you do? What

practice can you go to? What free throw can you shoot or laps can you

run? What distance can you run? Can you go to the gym this week? Can

you at least do some pushups in the privacy of your own home? Can you

run at least a block? Can you walk up the stairs instead of taking the

elevator? Can I eat a salad instead of a hotdog? Can I cook? What healthy

choice can I make in my eating pattern to get my health back on track?

What phone calls can you make for your business to get you back on

track? What exposures can you go out there and do for your company for

marketing? What word can you spread about your business to get things

going for yourself? What action, no matter how big or small, can you take

to get better?

It’s funny because sometimes we ask a question like that and some of us

get a blank in our head wondering what we could do. You know you

should be doing something but you don’t know what you should do. This

is where mentors become very important in life. If you don’t know what

actions you should take —find a mentor. If you’re struggling with a

relationship, find someone who has a good relationship and ask them for

advice. If you’re struggling in school, find someone who’s good in school

and ask them for advice. If you’re having problems with finances, find

someone who has already been successful with finances and ask them for

advice. Whatever it is that you are trying to become successful at, find

someone who has been successful at that same thing already and ask them

what actions you could take this week?

Once you get that answer, make the decision on what you are going to do

and take action on it. Just go out there and do what you can. Don’t talk

about the things you can’t do. Don’t have a cry session or a pity party.

You must come to a point where you just do what you can do. Too often

we spend our whole life complaining about what we CAN’T do and ignore

what we CAN do. Let’s come to a point where just for this week you do

something radical. As you go out there this week you need to REALLY

do what you can. If you’re around the house, start by helping out around

the house. You could cook dinner tonight so cook dinner. You could

empty the trash so empty the trash. You could wash some dishes so wash

some dishes. Do what you can do. Do not look for other people to do it.

You do it.

Sometimes in life we can’t get ahead or reach success because we’re

looking for others who would do it for us, or we’re saying that somebody

else is supposed to do it. If they’re supposed to do it but they’re not doing

it, then YOU should do it. We have to come to the point where we do

what we can do and not focus on what everybody else is supposed to be

doing. If you want to have a good relationship, don’t focus on what she’s

not doing for you. Instead, focus on what you can do for her. If you want

to get better in your business don’t focus on what your employees are not

doing for you. Instead, focus on what you could be doing for your

business. This week you are just going to do what you can do. This is a

no excuse and no blame week. Say to yourself right now, “NO

EXCUSES”, and “NO BLAME”.

We’re not going to blame anybody else for anything. We’re going to

come to a point where we’re not going to focus on what other people are

supposed to be doing, we’re not going to make excuses for what we’re not

doing, we’re not going to blame anyone for not picking up on their end.

We’re going to come to a point where we’re going to do what WE can do,

not what everybody else can do. Just go one week. No blame. No

excuses. Just do what you can do. I want you to take a moment right

now and think about this: What can you do this week that will get you a

little bit closer to your goal. What phone call can you make? What

association can you tap into? What resource can you use? What letter can

you write? What flowers can you buy? What room can you clean? What

test can you study for? What can you do? Take a moment. Do you have a

clear vision of all of these things for this week? Get your thoughts

together and make a decision to actually do it.

Now that you have the picture and made your decision, visualize going out

there and doing it. One thing I know to be true in life is that winners win.

They don’t make excuses. They don’t blame. They just win. They go out

there and play hard. Michael Jordan never once complained that his team

wasn’t scoring a point. There was one game when they were down by 20

points and in the fourth quarter, he scored 25 points. He didn’t complain

about what other people weren’t doing, he just went out and did all that

HE could do. This is where greatness comes in. If you want to be great in

life, if you want to have a great relationship, a great marriage, a great

academic GPA, a great business then you must come to a point where you

don’t look to others but you look inward and upward. Look at yourself

and look at our Creator as you go forward. You have to come to a point

this week where you are just going do what you can do. But, guess what?

All you can do is all you can do, but all you can do is always enough.

This is what we need to understand. It may not always look like a lot or

seem like enough, but guess what, it is still enough. So with that, let’s go

forward. Let’s go out there and make it happen. Let’s not look at what we

can’t do, let’s look at what we can do because WINNERS WIN!

------------­­­­­ Habits ---------------

"Faith without action serves no useful purpose."

We started off with understanding that your “thoughts influence

choices.” It is important that we think about what we think about because

our thoughts are what influence everything that we do. Next, “choices

cause our actions.” We now understand that as we make choices in our

life we must recognize that we always have a choice no matter what we go

through. We don’t always get to choose these things but we do get to

choose if we GO through it or if we GROW through it. You make a choice

and take action on it. These “actions develop habits.” It’s important that

we just do our best and let God take care of the rest. You do what you can

do. Now, we are going to discuss how your “habits determine success.”

There’s this story I heard once about a guy who was a lunatic. One day

Jesus came down from a mountain and a father ran up to him and said,

“Jesus would you please help my boy? This boy is a lunatic.” Realize

when he called his son lunatic, he wasn’t making fun of his own child.

The definition of being a lunatic is doing the same thing over and over

again expecting a different result. The boy had no control and he kept

doing the same stupid stuff over and over again. He couldn’t swim but he

kept jumping in the water. He knew he wasn’t fireproof but he kept

jumping near the fire. Sometimes we laugh at the concept and say that’s

kind of crazy, who would do that? Ask yourself if you have you ever kept

doing the same stupid stuff that you knew you couldn’t handle? Jumping

into relationships that you knew you couldn’t take care of? Going out to a

party and putting yourself into a situation that you knew you couldn’t

handle? Putting yourself in situations that you know you can’t control?

How many of us have acted like a lunatic in our life? You know that it is

wrong and yet you do it again next week, and the week after that and we

continue to go out and do the same stupid stuff over and over and over

again. Every year we often have the same New Year’s resolution that we

had the year before. We keep repeating the same dumb stuff and if we are

honest with ourselves we will finally look in the mirror and say “I am a

lunatic.” As a matter of fact, get up and look at yourself in the mirror right

now or look at the palm of your hand and say “This person is a lunatic.”

Why is it that you keep doing stupid stuff over and over and over again?

After the father asked Jesus if he could please heal his boy from his

lunacy, the first thing that Jesus said was “Man, how long do I have to

deal with this kind of stuff? This is a faithless generation.” Jesus then

went along and healed the boy.

There are some key things that happened in this story that explain how to

get you over your lunacy. Would you like to know how to stop being

crazy? Take the time right now and think about the negative habits that

you have in your life. These negative habits are the things that are holding

you back. There are certain times we can try and blame the world for

what’s going on but we also know there are certain things that we’re doing

that are holding us back.

Some people speak too much and it clouds their judgment which holds

them back. Some people do drugs and that holds them back. Some people

drink too much and that holds them back. Some are professional liars and

that holds them back. Some people are just lazy as hell and that holds

them back. Some people are just excuse prone and that holds them back.

Some people just analyze, analyze, analyze and get paralysis of analysis

and that holds them back. Some people don’t show their affection and

therefore they have problems with their relationship and that holds them

back. What about the habit of spending too much money? Who has that

problem? Everybody in this country spends too much. Take the time to

write down all of the negative habits you have in your life right now.

The first thing you need to understand is when Jesus said “this is a

faithless generation” because the first key is that you MUST have more

faith. You must have faith in your destination. When we were on that

airplane, I knew without a shadow of a doubt that we were heading to

London. You need to have that same faith in your destination to success.

When you are on that plane, you know there are certain things that you

cannot do if you want to reach your destination. No matter how bad you

want to do these things, you can’t, ESPECIALLY if you are flying the

plane.

You then have to ask yourself this question, “Are you trying to get a ride

to success or are you trying to apply it to success? Are you hitching a ride

on your friends coat tail or are you the one trying to drive? See, if you’re

hitching a ride, you can be an idiot, that’s what an entourage is for. But if

you’re trying to be the successful one and you’re trying to fly the plane,

there are some things that you cannot do. For example, they do sell

alcohol on the plane but the pilot can’t drink. They used to have a

smoking section on the plane but the pilot couldn’t smoke. So, you have

to ask yourself if you are just a passenger on your friend’s journey to

success, or are you piloting your own success? What are you doing? If

you are about to try and become successful, the first thing you have to

realize is that you are trying to go somewhere. If you’re going to

overcome any negative habits you have in life, you must first get a vision

of where you are going.

You must understand that you have a purpose in life. You are heading

somewhere. It’s almost impossible to overcome the negative habits that

are really holding us back without a true purpose for why we need to

overcome them. Until you have a reason why not to, you won’t stop doing

it. Overcoming bad habits is really very simple. I’ll give you an example.

Take the time right now to set this book down, and I want you to fold your

arms. Now, I want you to unfold your arms and fold them the opposite

way. Feels weird doesn’t it? Keep holding your arms there. When you

overcome a habit, sometimes it feels uncomfortable at first. When you

start doing the right thing sometimes it doesn’t always feel right. But,

really it’s because we had a habit of doing the wrong thing. For you it’s

easy to overcome habits. It’s as simple as folding arms the opposite way.

You can choose to overcome any habit as long as you choose to do it. It

must become a conscious choice to make the action opposite. In order to

overcome a bad habit you must be replace it with good habit. For

instance, a family member of mine smoked way too much, she was always

high. She came to a point where she realized what this was doing and how

it was negatively affecting her life. It was holding her back from her

purpose in life and so she made a decision to change.

She replaced that bad habit with a good habit. She started running to get

another experience, a runner’s high. When you start running long

distances, the chemicals in your brain will actually give you a natural high

that feels great. She started running on a consistent basis and listening to

some good audios that were changing her thought processes and giving

her a better paradigm. So, you can overcome any habit as long as you

replace it with another habit. Some people have a bad habit of lying all

the time, well what if you replaced that with a habit of telling the truth all

the time? Some people have a habit of being lazy, well what if you

develop a habit of working hard? At first it won’t feel right, just like

folding your arms the opposite way, but if you do it long enough,

repeatedly, that new way will feel right. Don’t do bad things that feel

good, instead learn to do good things that feel bad. Aristotle once said,

“we are what we do repeatedly.” Excellence then, is not an act but a habit.

Those words still ring true a thousand years later that this is the truth.

Once you understand that not only is excellence a habit, but health is a

habit too. Wealth is also a habit. You become wealthy by instituting

wealthy habits in your life. You learn to give to those in need, save,

invest, and live off the rest. Once you define these wealthy habits, they

will be what will lead to your wealth. Your health is the result of your

eating habits. Eating the right way makes you healthy. If you are

unhealthy it’s a habit of not eating right. It’s not a fluke, it’s not

something you’re born with; it’s a habit that you have developed. If you

want to change this bad habit, all you have to do is replace it with a good

habit. At first when you eat salad instead of pork, it’s going to taste a

little bad or weird. It’s crazy, but just like how my sister replaced her

smoking high with a runner’s high, you can replace pork chops with salad.

There are things you can do that are good habits to replace your bad

habits. The truth is, if health is a habit, happiness is a habit. Being happy

is a habit. Do you know anyone who is mad all the time? No matter

what’s going on they’re always mad. You wonder if they could just crack

a smile, even just fake it! When they walk in the room, you can feel the

energy go down or even disappear. Sometimes, when someone is so

happy they actually get on your nerves. It’s so interesting because the

thing that irritates us about other people is really just something that

irritates us about ourselves. You’re just mad at them because they’re

happy. But, since happiness is a habit, it can be developed.

Love is also a habit. I wish I could’ve learned this one earlier on in life,

but it takes a lot of pain in relationships in order to learn this one. Some

people say love is a feeling…no it’s a habit. Some people will say love is

an action…kind of. Some will say love is just a word that describes

emotion…sort of. Love is a habit because if I tell you I love you today but

I hate you tomorrow, it was never love. It was infatuation. Love requires

consistency and consistency is a habit. In life there are certain habits we

must develop. We must develop the habit of love to where we have a

habit of always doing good towards others. Loving not just our significant

others but loving ALL of the people around us… Loving our friends and

family, loving the people on the street, and loving those who are less

fortunate than us. Now, love doesn’t always mean that you have to stop

and do what your loved ones want you to do. Sometimes the biggest thing

you can do to show love for somebody is to say “I love you”, give them a

kiss, give them a hug, and get on a plane and fly to your success.

I remember when I finally landed I called my fiancé and I said, “Hey

baby, How are you doing?” I couldn’t talk to her while I was flying. Now

I’m not saying that you can’t talk to your loved ones on your journey to

success. I’m saying that there are certain people, certain times, certain

situations where you must make a decision that in order to love them, you

must do what’s best for you and them. You must continue, and pursue

your success despite all of their stress. Do you have a loved one that tries

to stress you out? You have to come to the point where despite all of the

stress people are giving you, you must continue to pursue your success.

Once you understand that it all comes down to developing good habits and

recognize that if you want to be successful in life it really is just

determined by your habits.

We have to understand that where we get in life is all because of the

choices that we make. If where we get in life is determined by the choices

that we make, we understand that habits are just a repeated choice that we

make on a consistent basis therefore we get to where we are based on our

habits. You become wealthy by developing wealthy habits. You have a

good relationship by developing good relational habits. You have the

habit of listening more than talking. You have the habit of loving. You

have the habit of love, not just affection; these are two different things.

You have the habit of working hard at your sport. You have the habit of

studying, taking notes and paying attention in school. You get good

grades by having good habits. You become successful in life by having

successful habits.

This is why it was so important back in the first chapter when we

discussed your success paradigm. People are successful because they have

a successful paradigm which means they make consistent choices,

therefore, they have successful habits. It’s their habits I learned from their

success. No one went from point A to point B for no reason. It was their

habits that got them there. If you want to become successful it is

successful habits that will get you there. You must start developing better

habits NOW so you are prepared when the situation comes up. Some

people will say stupid stuff sometimes. Some people will say when I

marry her, “I’ll treat her like this.” Well, if you don’t treat her right she

may never marry your butt! “When the final comes, I’ll study”. They will

wait until the last minute. Seriously, it’s little by little, inch by inch, it all

makes a difference. It’s the consistency and persistency that you stick

with that will get you to your success. Some people will be wondering

what in the world are the successful habits that I need to develop? If you

are asking yourself that question, I’m so excited for you because the

moment you start to question is the moment you start to change. You now

have the opportunity to learn these successful habits.

As we continue, take a moment to pick one habit that you know has been

holding you back. Once you have that one habit, think about it. You have

to clear your mind right now and get a vision of that habit. Now ask

yourself, what is the opposite positive habit I can replace this one with?

Now once you have that new positive habit in mind, I want you to really

visualize it, get a clear picture in your mind and make a decision this week

to take action on putting that action in place. Now I know that new habit

won’t be a habit right now, it will be an action. But, that action will

develop into a habit and that habit will determine your success in that area.

This week, I’m going to have the habit of… and fill in the blank with

whatever habit you’re going to have and be tenacious about it. Don’t give

up easily on it. Understand that it is not going to be easy, it’s going to be

hard. You will have obstacles that’ll come up; you’re going to have

temptation after temptation. It’s interesting when you come to a point to

where you want to develop a new habit, you will then be tempted, and

then you will be tempted some more, and some people will wonder why

they get tempted so much. Have you ever tried to develop a good habit

and wondered why you kept getting tempted by it? The moment you stop

smoking, everybody has a cigarette. The moment you stop drinking,

everybody has booze. The moment you stop womanizing, every girl starts

looking at you. The moment you decide to do good in school, every party

comes up that week. The moment you decide to start investing your

money all the new cool stuff comes out. You see that new watch, that new

skirt, those new shoes…whatever it is, you say “I need those”. The

moment you decide to develop a good habit it’s amazing how you will get

tempted.

But here is something that I have learned over time is when you are

getting tempted to go back to that old habit, understands this, that you

don’t want that habit to attach itself to you. I remember this one movie

where these boys came out a lake and they had leeches on them. They had

to take out a lighter to burn the leeches off. See those bad habits are

leeches. They’ve been sucking your dream out of your life and they’re

stuck on you. If you want to get that habit off of you, you have to burn it

off. The flames of temptation have come to purify the leech off of you.

You must go through the temptation, you must starve it to death, you must

stop feeding that nasty beast that has been eating all your dreams and you

must let it suffer and die or you will die.

What do you want? Will you choose your dreams or your habits? One of

them must starve today. You can’t feed them both. You don’t have

enough food in your kitchen, you don’t have enough action in your

heart… you don’t have enough time in the day to feed them both. You

must make the choice right now for this week, are you going to feed your

dream or feed your bad habit? Behold I set before you life and death,

bless it or curse it. Behold I set before you your dream and your bad habit.

This week choose your dream. This week, choose to develop a good

habit. This week, choose your dream over that bad habit. This week,

choose to put it to action, as you must learn how to decide. Like my friend

John Anderson said, “decide is like the words, homicide and suicide;

something “died”, as deciding means the death of all other options.” Once

you decide to have your good habit, your bad habit will die. It’s death of

the other option. But, you can’t kill that option until you decide on

another option.

This week decide to develop a good habit and kill that old habit. You

have to get bold and tenacious. I don’t know if you’ve ever had a guy

who likes you or a girl who likes you that just wouldn’t let you go. They

kept trying to talk to you even when you didn’t want to talk to them.

Sometimes you can only be nice for so long before you finally need to tell

them “I don’t like you.” There are times you have to be bold to get your

point across. This little bad habit is going to keep sneaking around you,

rubbing up against you, looking you in the eye like a puppy dog saying “I

miss you.” That bad habit is going to be smiling at you. It is going to

want you so bad that it’s going to start looking so good, but you have to

come to a point where you get bold with that bad habit and say” I don’t

like you no more.” It’s over. Say “it’s over”.

So you have to come to the point in life where you must learn how to end

a relationship. There’s no other way to end it other than to say it’s over.

You can try and fandangle it, you can try and be all smooth with it, but

miscommunication always happens. Have you ever tried to end a

relationship with somebody and you explained everything except for what

you really thought so they just weren’t getting it and you wondered why.

They weren’t getting it because you didn’t tell them what you were really

feeling. It’s the same thing with a bad habit, you have to get bold with it.

You can’t say, “I know you do taste good or you do kind of feel good.”

You can’t do that. You have to look at that bad habit and say, “It’s over.

You’re done. We aren’t even cool any more. I don’t even know you fool.

Who are you?”

It comes to the point where you pack up all the trash and throw it out.

You can’t break up with somebody and keep their pictures in your house.

You can’t break up with somebody and still have all their clothes hanging

in your closet. If you’re going to stop smoking, get rid of cigarettes. If

you want to stop drinking, get rid of alcohol. If you’re going to stop lying,

get rid of all the excuses. Whatever your negative habit is you have to get

rid of everything that goes with it. You can make that decision this week

starting today. You have to come to the point where you can truly go out

there and achieve your success. Remember the key to your success is the

habits that you develop today and if you can develop successful habits,

you will achieve what? Success. But, you have to choose this week

between your dream or your bad habit. I hope you take the time right now

whatever that good habit is, to start this week. Whatever bad habit you’re

going to overcome this week, make the decision to overcome it.

Overcome it and make it happen so you can start developing success in

that habit.

------------­­­­­ SUCCESS ---------------

"Faith without action serves no useful purpose."

So often in life people have all these dreams and aspirations yet very few

of them will ask me how to actually achieve them. Sometimes we

recognize that we need help to get our dream done, but we won’t actually

go seek the help. For all of you who have decided to read this book and

start getting the help that you need to achieve your dream…

Congratulations!

The final part of Directions to Success, to summarize, is that success is a

destination. The analogy that I have been using is it’s like the plane ride

to London and London is the success. Once we get there we may all go to

different burrows and different parts of London, and we all may have

different things that we consider to be successful but we all live in Success

City.

Therefore, London is the Success City. It is a journey to get there since

you can’t walk there tomorrow. You must have the right directions,

otherwise you could walk for your whole life and never end up there since

you were following the wrong directions. Many of us work really hard

and spin our wheels and never actually get to our success. The first

direction we are headed is that your thoughts influence your choices. You

have to be mindful of what you are thinking about. Your thoughts control

everything in your whole body and everything you do as they are all based

on what you think about.

Once you know your thoughts then you start to have your choices, and

your choices cause your actions. Even the way you feel and your whole

attitude is a choice. So once you have your choices, they dictate your

actions and your actions will then develop habits. So we have to be

careful on what actions we take. We have to do what we can and do the

best we can.

Once you understand that, then you understand your habits determine your

success. You want to become successful so you must have successful

habits. Whatever type of success you are striving for, you must acquire

the habit that it takes to be successful in that area. Sometimes you don't

know what these successful habits are that it will take to become

successful in that industry or in that dream or in that field. That’s why it is

important for you to have mentorship where you can start learning those

successful habits.

Now we have come to the fifth and final piece of these success directions.

You have landed and arrived at your destination. You have reached

success. Here is the fifth and final direction. Success is when you have

what you want. On your journey to success only once you actually

achieve what you want have you truly achieved success. But here’s the

key thing, what are you wanting? The reason I ask this is because success

and happiness are two different things. Some people will think you can’t

be successful without being happy. Well yeah, you can. If you gave me a

math test and I get 100% then I was successful on that math test. Whether

it made me happy or not is different. If you achieve your goal, you are

successful however if you enjoy success, that is different. Some people

are having success that they don't enjoy. They are doing things they don't

even love and really what good is success without love. The greatest

teacher that ever lived once asked this question, what will it profit a man

to gain the whole world but lose his soul?

Once you get to Success City I'm going to be your tour guide.

Congratulations! Welcome to the town. I'm glad you came to visit. We

have a beautiful city here. I believe some of you came to town to see the

financial bridge and some of you came here to see the spiritual overpass.

There are also some of you who came to see the field of friends, some of

you who came to see the college hall, some of you who came to see the

academic accolades and some of you who came to see one of the other

different sites but you all came for a specific reason.

Your success was specific. You had a certain goal, a certain vision, and a

certain purpose. What I'm going to ask you while you are here in Success

City is to please visit the whole city. If you are here already you might as

well see everything else that is here. If you come to Success City and you

only go see that one little site, you really have never seen Success City.

You have only seen that one little part. Some people will know what it is

like to achieve a part of success, but will never know what it is to achieve

total success.

Understand the totality of success. Total success is not just in finances or

professional means, but also in our relationships and in our health. This

applies to all of our relationships such as our relationship with our Creator,

our relationship with family, and our relationship with our friends or loved

ones. Also, what good would it be to have all the money and all the

friends if you die tomorrow because you are unhealthy? What good would

there be to have your health and live to be 102 with no friends and no

relationships? What good would there be to have great relationships and

have a long life but struggle with having never having choices, freedom,

or time to spend with your loved ones? Some people say they don't need

money, instead they need love. What if you gave them plenty of love but

you didn’t give them any money, how much time would you have to spend

with the people you love?

It’s a funny thing when we starting knocking the importance of all three,

the finances, the relationships and the health. All three are intertwined.

All three are parts of Success City. If you want to be successful you must

start to embrace the whole city. You must embrace this whole totality of

success unless you only want partial success. So many people are running

around in the world with partial success and that’s why you don't see

people who are truly happy.

You want to be moving towards having totality of success. I want you to

come to a point where you don't just achieve your purpose in life but you

also achieve a totality of success in life. The truth is it will be hard to

achieve your purpose without reaching success first. Becoming successful

is on the way to your purpose. Your purpose lasts a whole lifetime

otherwise why would our Creator have you here? As long as you’re alive

you have a purpose still. Some people will say that they want to see their

purpose first then they’ll take care of everything else. No. The purpose is

a lifetime journey. Take care of everything on your way through the

journey.

Some people will say when they become wealthy, they’ll start working out

and taking care of their health. But who’s to say you won’t have a cardio

vascular disaster and you won’t ever get to see your wealth. Some people

will say they don't have time for relationships right now and although

there can be some truth to that sometimes, you can’t neglect every

relationship you have on your way to success. So you would achieve

your finances and you would have perfect health but you roasted all your

relationships on the way there, so they’re no longer around. You end up

sitting in a huge mansion with these huge biceps and no one to enjoy

them. Instead, you have a huge rental bill. You’ll be renting movies and

ordering pizza and living the whole lifestyle but you can’t enjoy it because

you have no relationships.

Many people say they want to take care of their relationships so they

spend all their time with their kids and family now. They say they’ll take

care of their health but their finances don't matter right now. But, all of

sudden next thing you know as you get out of school and you get older

now you’re spinning because you didn’t take care of your finances when

you were young. So now you’re 30 or 40 years old and you have to spend

10 hours of your day dedicated to work: 8 hours of work, an hour for

break, a half hour to get home and half hour to get dressed and undressed.

You only have about 16 waking hours and you spend 10 to 11 of those

hours on work which means you only have about 5 hours for your family.

So, because you didn’t take care of your finances when you were younger

and you spent your whole 12 hours with your loved-ones, with your girl or

with your boy or with your family and only had 2 hours to worry about

money. Now if you flip-flop and you’re 30 or 40 years old and you have

to spend 12 hours working for money, you only get 4 hours for your loved

ones.

Once you understand how all of this is intertwined, it will come to a point

where you realize that on your journey to achieving your purpose you

must take care of all these areas. You must take care of your health. You

must manage your finances properly so you can achieve time freedom.

You must spend some time with your loved ones and you have to cultivate

and maintain the relationships that you currently have. Once you

understand your relationship with our Creator, your relationships with

your loved ones, your health and your finances and you have achieved

success in all areas, you can truly say you have been to Success City.

Some people will say I’ve been to the Bay area but you know what I’ve

been in San Francisco but all you knew was to go to Bay Bridge, you

never saw Golden Gate Bridge. We went to period 39, we never saw the

Matreon. We went downtown, but never saw the hills. We went to the

play but we never saw the beach. Until you experience the whole city, you

still haven’t experienced the city. Until you get all the success, you don’t

really have success. Once you understand this, I encourage you this week

to focus on the area of Success City that you have been ignoring.

I remember when I was 19 years old and I went on a business trip to

Hawaii and I was fortunate to have my best friend and my cousin come

with me. We had SO much fun when we were there. We went to the

beach, we went to the clubs, we ate at incredible restaurants and we did

some off the hook shopping. We came back from our trip and people

started asking us about all the things that they expected that we would

have seen while we were there. They were asking about Diamond Head

Mountain which is a volcano mountain and at the very top is one of the

most beautiful sights you could possibly see in your life. They asked if we

saw it? I said no, we didn’t see it. Then they asked if we went

snorkeling? Again I had to say no. They started naming all of these

different things and every time I had to answer, no. I realized when I

came back that I THOUGHT I experienced Hawaii but really I didn’t

experience it at all.

I didn’t see everything that there was to see because before I left I did not

take the time to even go get a book on Hawaii. I could have purchased a

book and opened it up and it would have told me every sight to go see if I

wanted to truly experience Hawaii. I didn’t take the time to even go get a

simple book that I could flip through to make goals so when I got there I

could make sure I experienced the whole thing. This applies the same way

with your success. I want all of us to take time on our journey to success,

or your journey to Hawaii, or your journey to London to experience it all.

Take the time NOW to plan to see the whole city. Plan to have good

health. Plan to have relationships and plan to have the finances. Plan to

have all three and start working towards them all. I want you to take a

moment now and just really think about it while you journey towards

success. I know you have your initial purpose and dream, or why you

have that burning passion inside that you are trying to achieve. In the

midst of that, take a moment right now to also realize what other areas of

success are you neglecting? Take a moment right now and really think

about that.

What are you neglecting? Are there relationships that you’ve been

neglecting? Have your finances been something that you have been

holding off on? Is your health something that you have been neglecting?

What is it that you have been neglecting? Think about this now and

visualize this week with no more neglecting but actually moving towards a

positive action. What goal can you set this week that will get you to start

experiencing the whole city of success, not just one little part of the city of

success? Not just your purpose but the experience in the whole town.

What can you do this week?

I know you have goals with your purpose. Whatever purpose you have,

you have your goals for that and you need to keep those. But what else

can you do this one week? What other little goal can you set to help you

to experience a little bit more success? What health goal can you set for

yourself? What financial goal can you set for yourself? Some people will

question the financial goal thinking they have to make a million dollars

this week but maybe you can put away only $1 and set it as an investment.

A dollar doesn’t sound like much but it’s better than zero. I mean my

goodness people! Zero compounded everyday for a year equals zero. A

penny compounded everyday for 30 days ends up being over a million

dollars.

So here is the question you have to ask yourself. What financial goal can

you set for yourself this week for paying our Creator, paying yourself,

investing and living off the rest? What health goal can you set this week

for yourself? Could you exercise this week? Maybe you could just walk

around the block. Tell yourself when you go home today you will actually

walk up the stairs, instead of taking the elevator. When you go to the store

later, park at the back of the parking lot instead of the front. Isn’t it crazy

when we will drive around for 5 to10 minutes looking for a parking spot in

the front just because we are too freakin’ lazy to walk?

What goal can you set today? Take a moment right now. What goal can

you set this week to help you experience a little bit more success? Will it

be a financial goal? A relationship goal? A health goal? What goal can

you set this week? I want you to take a moment and just really visualize

yourself achieving that this week. See yourself put that money aside. See

yourself invest that money. See yourself walking or running or lifting or

doing whatever it is that you are going to as some kind of work. See

yourself as you’re eating good meals. See yourself having no fast food for

the week. See yourself as you make a phone call to tell your mom, dad,

grandma, or a loved one that you love them. See yourself sending an

email or text message or whatever it takes to cultivate some relationships

that you may of let slip away. See yourself doing whatever it is that you

plan on doing to experience a little bit more of success.

This week go out there and make it happen. Go sightseeing in your town

this week and plan it out. Go see the other side of town. Did you know

some people don’t go outside a 20-minute radius of their home? They

drive 20 minutes away and they don't know where the heck they’re at.

They are completely lost. We live on a humongous planet yet we only

live in a 20-minute world. So, this week decide to go out there and

experience the rest of the city of success. Not just the 20 minutes around

us, and not just our purpose around us. Surround yourself with all the

people who are headed in the same direction and have the same purpose.

The good thing about doing this is you get the opportunity to be around

other people and other industries and other dreams but you’re all headed to

the same city of success.

Go out there and reach your goals. As you start sightseeing this week it

will be amazing how when you come back home how much sweeter it is.

Your purpose becomes so much more enjoyable when you take care of

your finances, health, and relationships. If your purpose has to do with a

financial goal right now and you take care of your physical health, you’ll

be amazed how much better it feels when you work on your business. If

your relationships are in line, you’ll be amazed how much better

everything else works in your life. So let’s go out there, let's really go out

there and focus on doing something to help us in all three areas this week

and in doing so we will come to a point where we will truly , truly have

success.

Well thank you everyone. God bless.