I am sitting on this plane thinking about what makes the most successful people consistently stand out from the people around them.
As we enter what I hope will be the best year of our life so far, I have developed 35 recommendations that I invite you to focus on.
Share them, reflect on them, post them where you can see them and let them become part of your mindset.
- Remember that the quality of your life is determined by the quality of your thoughts.
- Keep the promises you make to others, and to yourself.
- The project that scares you the most is the project you need to do first.
- Small daily improvements are the key to impressive long-term results.
- Stop being busy being busy. This new year, clear away the distractions of life+work and focus single-mindedly on the few things that matter.
- Read “The Art of War”.
- Watch “The Wrestler”.
- In a world where technology is causing some of us to forget how to act humanely, become the most polite person you know.
- Remember that all great ideas were ridiculed at first.
- Remember that critics are dreamers who got scared.
- Be like Apple in your obsession with getting the details right.
- Take 60 minutes every weekend to draw up the map for the next seven days. As Saul Bellow once said: “A plan frees you from the torment of deciding.”
- Free yourself from the need to be liked this new year. You cannot be a visionary if you crave to be liked.
- Interrupt and be interrupted.
- Hire a personal trainer to get you into the best shape of your life. Superstars focus on the value they receive over the cost of the service.
- Give your colleagues, clients and family one of the best gifts of all: the gift of your attention (and presence).
- Every morning ask yourself: “How can I serve the greatest number of people better?”
- Every night ask yourself: “What 5 good things happened to me today?”
- Do not spend your most valuable hours (the morning) doing low-value work.
- Leave every project you touch better than you found it.
- Your job is not just to work. Your job is to leave a trail of leaders behind you.
- A job is not “just a job”. Every job is a splendid vehicle for expressing your gifts and talents, and for modelling something exceptional in everything around you.
- The fears you do not face will become your limits.
- Get up at 5 am and take 60 minutes to prepare your mind, body, emotions and spirit to be exceptional during the hours that follow. Being a superstar is not the domain of the virtuous but of the prepared.
- Write love letters to your family.
- Smile at strangers.
- Drink more water.
- Keep a journal. The story of your life deserves to be recorded.
- Do more than you are paid to do, and do work that leaves your colleagues breathless.
- Leave your ego at the door every morning.
- Set 5 daily goals every morning. Those small wins will lead you to 2000 small wins by the end of the year.
- Say “please” and “thank you”.
- Remember that the secret of happiness is doing work that matters and that is an instrument of service.
- Do not be the richest person in the graveyard. Health is wealth.
- Life is short. The biggest risk is a life without risk. And settling for the pack.
Stay great,
Robin.
This article steps outside the technical line of the site, but I consider it a good starting point for all of us to create great things in our life this year.
Juan – zoperman