Dan Waldschmidt's Blog, page 13

No One Can Do The Work For You.

Progress takes hustle. Momentum requires sweat.

You can’t get from where you are now to where you want to be without massive amounts of hard work. That’s the truth.

Anything that you want to achieve is possible as long as you’re willing to work for it.

You have to work for it. No one can do it for you.

You can’t delegate being awesome. You can’t hire it out. Or reap the healthy consequences of someone else’s effort. It’s on you.

The harder you work the more experience you gain.

Sweat is a multiplier. Your effort and experience and talent become better the harder you work. Which is why no one can do your work for you.

Because you’re not just going through the motions. You’re not just following steps.

You’re rewiring your mind with new experiences and updated strategies for successfully negotiating the world around you.

Failure teaches you. Loss teaches you. Winning teaches you. Every step. Every thought. Every experience. They teach and mold you.

Which is why you have to do the work.

You have to be the person who cares. You have to be the one who obsesses about the details. The one who finds a way when there isn’t a way.

You’re the one who wants the results. So you’re the one who has to do the work.

Progress isn’t easy. Success isn’t free. Winning demands you pay a price.

Get back up. Dust yourself off. Get busy being awesome.

No One Can Do the Work For You.

Progress takes hustle. Momentum requires sweat.

You can’t get from where you are now to where you want to be without massive amounts of hard work. That’s the truth.

Anything that you want to achieve is possible as long as you’re willing to work for it.

You have to work for it. No one can do it for you.

You can’t delegate being awesome. You can’t hire it out. Or reap the healthy consequences of someone else’s effort. It’s on you.

The harder you work the more experience you gain.

Sweat is a multiplier. Your effort and experience and talent become better the harder you work. Which is why no one can do your work for you.

Because you’re not just going through the motions. You’re not just following steps.

You’re rewiring your mind with new experiences and updated strategies for successfully negotiating the world around you.

Failure teaches you. Loss teaches you. Winning teaches you. Every step. Every thought. Every experience. They teach and mold you.

Which is why you have to do the work.

You have to be the person who cares. You have to be the one who obsesses about the details. The one who finds a way when there isn’t a way.

You’re the one who wants the results. So you’re the one who has to do the work.

Progress isn’t easy. Success isn’t free. Winning demands you pay a price.

Get back up. Dust yourself off. Get busy being awesome.

When You Decide To Take Back Control Of Your Life.

Alison Botha looked down on her own mangled body from a place she could only think of as death. Lying in a pool of her own blood, lifeless and unable to move, she asked herself if the peace she felt floating above was easier than fighting for the life below.

Hours earlier, Alison had been a 27-year woman living an ordinary life in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. She had been raised with loving parents and her big brother, Neale. Her life was a picture of happiness and fulfillment. It was hard to find anyone around who something bad to say about her.

Alison was a great friend and was known in the community as someone you could call if you were ever in need. She wasn’t just sweet — she was was smart. After graduating at the top of her class, she set off to travel and see the world. That short trip turned into four years of wonder and adventure.

When she returned home, Alison settled into a promising job selling insurance. She was sure to be as successful in this new venture as she had been in everything else up to this point.

But all that was about to be tested. One unimaginably horrific day.

It was late evening. A few short days before Christmas in 1994.

Alison was searching for a parking space in front of her flat. She had arrived home late many times before, and knew that it was usual for all the good parking spots close to her building to be taken. She finally found a spot under a large oak tree less than forty feet from her front door.

Home, at last. She was tired. Happy though. She had spent an exciting day with friends.

She reached over to the passenger seat to grab her freshly washed laundry. Before she could move, a stranger opened her door. He pointed a knife towards her face. And told her to move over or he would kill her.

Alison moved into the passenger seat holding the laundry so close to her chest she could smell the detergent.

“It was such a familiar and comforting aroma but it seemed so strangely out of place now.”

Alison looked at her knife wielding abductor and hoped that he was telling the truth when he told her that he just needed her car and was not going to hurt her. She thought about jumping out of the car. She even attempted to ask her captor to just let her out — and told him that he could keep the car. He said she had to stay because he wanted the company.

Then she saw it. A police car. Her heart beat with hope that she was going to be safe. She was going to be rescued.

Hope was quickly replaced with dread when the police car took a turn onto a side street right before they approached it. Alison’s hijacker pulled over shortly after their close encounter with the police, where he met up with a friend, Teuns. They continued to drive along the familiar roads Alison knew so well.

She had no idea where they were going, but she was hopeful that once they finished what they planned to do, she would be set free and could go home unharmed.

As they left the lights of the city and entered the darkness that was Beach Road, she was still hoping for the best.

Even when the car was circling back to a secluded area out of sight from the road, Alison still hoped for the best.

Teuns got out of the car to inspect the area. Alison noticed the trash all over the ground and watched Teuns as he kicked it about. Teuns called to her captor. That’s when she found out his name was Frans and committed it to memory.

Frans told Alison to strip naked. She told herself if they just wanted her body, she would let them use it. Alison convinced herself that compliance would equal safety and she let her mind disconnect from her body.

With a knife to her head and a threat that he would kill her if she tried anything smart, Frans began to rape her. Again. And again. And again. Grabbing her by the hair, he told her that he had had enough — and passed her to his friend, Teuns, as if he was offering the last bite of his sandwich.

Alison let her mind escape as her personal hell continued. And then it was over.

Alison slowly put her own clothes back on and sat quietly while the two talked of their plans for her.

Frans asked Alison if she would call the police if they left her there. She lied, and said no. Frans and Teuns talked about leaving her there naked. So when Frans ordered Alison to remove her clothes again, Alison complied, thankful that they were going to let her live.

Alison sat in the car with nothing on but her sandals and her rings. Frans noticed the rings and ordered Teuns to take them off her fingers. He did. Alison breathed a sigh of relief that neither had noticed her sandals. She knew that would make her walk a little easier when she was finally released from the hell they had her in.

Just as the idea of freedom was starting to sink in, Frans jumped from his seat to Alison’s, straddling her body and squeezing her neck with a twisted ferocity.

Alison managed to utter the words, “Please don’t kill me.”

As he looked into her eyes, with his hands still firmly gripping her throat, Frans simply said, “Sorry.” And the world went black.

When Alison became conscious, she was laying on the trash filled ground with one of the men on top of her repeatedly slicing at her throat with the knife they had threatened her with earlier. Her mind was filled with terror and her ears were filled with the gurgling sound of blood.

She didn’t know what the noise was as she watched the men walk away talking of how sure they were that she was dead. When she realized the noise was coming from her throat, she tried to hold her breath so they would not know she was still alive. But the gurgling continued from her sliced airway.

Barely conscious, Alison used her hand to try to quiet the bubbling noise coming from her throat, but as she reached up to cover her wound, her hand slipped right past where her neck used to be and was inside of her throat. The noise stopped. But she knew in an instant that she was close to death.

The warmth of her blood covering her hand like a winter coat.

Alison heard the familiar sound of her car’s engine revving up and driving away. They were finally gone. It was finally over. She was alive, but she didn’t know for how long.

She mustered up the strength to write her attackers names in the bloody sand beneath her. And a final “I love mom.”

With all the remaining strength left in her beaten body, Alison raised up on all fours to crawl to the distant road. She felt something slimy in her hands, when she looked down, she saw her intestines outside of her body. She tried to scoop them up in her hands but it was like trying to pick up water balloons from a bucket of oil. She felt around for something — anything — that would help. Finally her outstretched fingers found the shirt she had been wearing.

She used it to gather up her intestines.

As she crawled to safety, she felt a heaviness in her head. Her attackers had viciously slashed through all the muscles in her neck. Her chin bounced awkwardly against her chest as she tried to pull herself towards safety.

Alison wanted to die. She knew death would be easier and less painful than what she was going through right now. But she couldn’t give up. She wouldn’t give up. She hadn’t yet lived the life she promised herself she wanted to live.

She forced her body to move. It was inches at a time. And then a few feet. She was losing too much blood and crawling was taking too long. Alison knew she needed to get to the road.

Driven by an overwhelming sense of desperation, she stood up and started to walk.

But everything went black. She was conscious, but in darkness.

Her head had tilted back so far, it was almost resting on her back. She had to use one hand to hold her severed head in place and the other to keep her intestines in her body.

And when she was almost ready to give up and give in, she recognized the familiar sight of the road. Taking a few more halting steps, she knew she just had to go a little further into the road, where she knew her body would be seen.

As she would explain her story later, “We are not always going to be able to choose what happens to us, but we can choose how we handle it.”

She only needed one person to help. So she lay there. In the middle of the road. Waiting. Dying.

A veterinary student on vacation from Johannesburg spotted Alison in the road and stopped to help her.

He didn’t even think she was alive — but after realizing she was, he called an ambulance.

Talking to her to keep her awake.

At the hospital, the doctors couldn’t believe the horrific condition that Alison was in. They had a hard time convincing themselves that she would even survive surgery. But after after three hours of surgery and three weeks in the hospital recovering, Alison was able to return home.

During her stay in the hospital, news of her horrific abduction, rape, and torture had circulated throughout the country. Cards and letters of support poured in. She had touched the lives of millions of people.

It was her story of survival. It was her spirit of never giving up. It was her inspiring belief that she was in control of her life — regardless of the horrific actions of others.

So what’s your excuse?

Why are you still blaming your past and other people for where you are right now?

You don’t get to decide what happens to you.

Life happens. Bad people will take advantage of you. The poor choices of other people will impact you in painful ways that cost you money and distract you from getting to where you want to be.

You might lose your job. Or your savings. No fault of your own. Sickness might steal those you love the most. Those you trust will let you down.

You going to feel helpless and hopeless at time. Beaten down and scared.

Remember that you are in control of your life. You get to decide your attitude. You get to choose what you do.

No one can force you to give up on your dreams. No one can make you be angry, bitter, depressed, or passive aggressive.

When you decide to take back control of your life, you become truly unstoppable.

Years later, Alison is a single mother of two small boys. Despite the vicious assault by her attackers, she again found personal triumph. Twice.

She has traveled to 30 countries “inspiring others to realise that their lives are actually fully in their control.”

As she explains it: “I believe just by being human, you’re in control. You get to decide your attitude and choices.”

The Wonder Of Getting Started.

The great pyramids of Egypt were started by a single stone, placed by a single worker on that first day.

That single stone didn’t amount to much of anything. The slave worker who placed it there didn’t get a bonus. There wasn’t a celebration to commemorate the occasion.

Most likely no one cared — or stopped to notice.

It wasn’t anything worthy of a second thought. But that start — that first stone — became a monument we call one of the great wonders of the world. Millions of people around the world travel to see the work started by the placement of that first stone.

That is the power of beginnings.

Getting started is the hardest thing you’ll do.

Once you have momentum, progress is easy. Almost automatic.

It’s that “getting started” part of the equation that demands so much effort and courage.

If you’re not careful, you will spend too much time thinking about getting started and planning to get started, without ever getting started. It’s terribly easy to get excited about planning the plan. It feels like you’re doing something important.

But you’re not.

Success isn’t about how you feel. It’s what you’ve accomplished. Specific milestones.

Whatever great thing you want to accomplish begins with placing that first stone. Real effort. Real movement.

It won’t look like much. Nothing to celebrate. No awards to win. No crowd cheering or finish line to cross.

But it’s a start. Just the thing you need to create the wonder of your success.

The Fiction You Feel.

Just because you’re afraid doesn’t mean that you can’t be a high performer.

In truth, the greatest competitors are always fearful. They know the stakes. They appreciate the cost of losing. They don’t want to experience the pain of losing.

They are afraid of what could happen.

You might assume that winners are massively confident people who just drive relentlessly forward to achieve success.

But that isn’t the case.

You’re not an emotionless robot, driven only by logic and reason. And neither are they.

Fear is natural. It’s helpful. It keeps you alive. Keeps you away from unnecessarily dangerous situations.

But high performers look at the fear differently. They talk themselves through their feelings. They know something very valuable about being afraid.

Fear is a feeling. Not a fact.

What you are feeling isn’t reality. It’s your perception of what could happen in the future. It’s always the worse case scenario.

Not the best, better, or even good.

Anthony Middleton, a former Special Forces Operator and the author of SAS: Who Dares Wins writes personally about the impact of fear. He was the point man and lead scout for his elite military team. He also served as an expert sniper in the Royal Marines. But that didn’t make him fearless:

“When I was in the military and I would go on a mission and I would assault a compound, I would get up to the door and find myself in a bubble of fear. I didn’t want to die. I didn’t want someone on my team to die or get injured.

I had a sensory overload of fear and dread and it just goes through the roof. You have to harness it. You have to bring it back down. Because if not, fear will absolutely destroy you.

It’s a horrible feeling to have, but it does drive you through the door, it forces you to succeed.”

Fear isn’t a fact.

The dread and chaos and panic that consumes you in those important moments in your life isn’t a guaranteed outcome. What you imagine, in all the worst ways, isn’t your future. It’s not a fact.

It’s the fiction you feel. The story of a crippled perspective.

Rise up. Take a deep breath. Rewrite the story of your awesomeness with the sweat-stained footprints of your effort.

You got this. Fear less.

You’ve Got Success And Being Rich All Wrong.

Money doesn’t equal success. Having more money provides more options, but it does not automatically make you more successful. 

There are rich thieves. There are rich scam artists. There are people who have more money than you right now because they were willing to take advantage of others or cut corners. 

Get this straight: success isn’t automatically measured by the amount of money you have in your bank account. 

Money can’t buy you happiness or a feeling of contentment.

It can’t buy you time or true friendship. 

Stop automatically associating people that have money with the success that you want for yourself. 

Money follows success. Not the other way around.
Money follows happiness. Not the other way around.
Money follows freedom. Not the other way around. 
Money follows good choices. Not the other way around. 

It’s a deadly trap to pursue money so that you can live the rest of your life successfully.

You won’t ever get enough money if that’s your plan. And no matter how much money you do have, you won’t know how to manage it.

You will always feel stuck. You will always feel constrained.

That’s because money doesn’t automatically buy success.

Rich people are not automatically happy or content. Stop being jealous of them. Stop building your life simply around a plan to get more money.

Instead, be passionate about something that truly matters to you. It has to be about more than the money to gain wealth.

Passion and purpose are the beginning of that.

What is it that truly drives you?

What is the subject that inflames your soul and gets you excited?

You’ve often heard people ask the question: “What would you do if money weren’t an issue?”. How would you answer that?

It doesn’t take wealth to be a great father. You don’t have to be rich to be honest, kind, and a leader worth following. Your bank account doesn’t have to be overflowing for you to live a life that is physically, mentally, and financially fit.

That’s the essence of real success — you pursuing a better life for yourself on your own terms.

So don’t be jealous of rich people. Don’t waste your emotion on envy. Pursue success on your own terms.

You might be surprised at how quickly the wealth you’ve been looking for follows.

18 Things Winners Believe.

Winners see the world differently than everyone else. They aren’t perfect. And they don’t get an easier version of life than you do.

But they always seem to bounce forward.

No matter what obstacles push them down. No matter what problems stand in their way. No matter how loud the skeptics doubt or the critics sneer.

They find a way to win.

How? They believe a few very important things that make the difference in their battle for success. To them, these beliefs aren’t just motivational quotes they read one time in a book.

What winners believe has an impact on every part of their daily existence.

Here are a few of them:

Anything you have to make an excuse to avoid doing is something you should be doing.
Nothing is impossible if you’re willing to put in enough time and effort.
The most honest advice you’ll ever get is from people who like you the least.
The person who wants it most is the one who ends up winning.
Whatever it takes is usually what is takes to get what you want in life.
Being around negative people is the single greatest way to keep on losing.
Worry, fear, action, and gratitude are all choices you get to make.
If you aren’t willing to master the details, you aren’t likely to win.
Apathy is the enemy of achieving something awesome.
Just because it didn’t work out the last time you tried isn’t a good reason to stop trying.
No matter how bad your situation might be, you can make it if you want to.
No one gets to decide anything for you. Every decision is completely yours to make.
Today is that second chance you have always been asking for. Use it.
The speed of your progress is directly related to the intensity of your effort.
You won’t get better if you’re not willing to listen and learn.
The things you do when no one else is watching determine your ultimate trajectory.
 Just because the critics are loud doesn’t mean that they are right.
Any solution that is fast, easy, or guaranteed isn’t going to work out in the long run.

Winners believe in their soul that nothing — absolutely nothing — is impossible.

They might not know “how” they will win. But they believe that they will figure it out. They know that effort is the great equalizer. If they don’t already know what to do, they will learn it. And perfect it.

What you believe will change your life.

Which is why it’s time to stop and think about truly drives you. What do you believe?

Do you believe that life is unfair? Do you believe that things are harder for you than everyone else? Are you waiting for a lucky break? Are you always looking for someone else to blame?

Winner own it all. They own their actions. They own their attitude. They own their beliefs.

They don’t see limits. They believe in opportunity. How about you?

Getting A Clear Picture Of Success.

Take a moment to breathe.

You might be surprised at what a fresh perspective can do for you.

The stakes are high. But they’ve always been that way.

You’re left bothered by where you are.

You’re concerned by all the places you need to be and the progress you need to make.

In truth, there is no amount of hustle or charm that can speed things up faster than they are going to move.

If you’re doing all you could do, the only thing left to adjust is your perspective.

Your vantage point. The way you look at the situation.

That’s not a small thing to fix either.

It means that you’re willing to change.

You’re humble enough to admit there might be a better way that you had not already considered.

You’re resilient and tenacious, but also curious. You are learning and growing each day.

Not because life forces you to adapt due to the horrific consequences of your mistakes, but because you’re going out of your way to evolve and expand and be a better version of you.

So take a deep breath and think about what uncomfortable thing you need to do in order to get a better view of where you want to end up.

Who is that person you need to ask for help? What is that new skill you need to learn?

The only thing standing between you and a clear picture of success is where you’re standing.

I Make Way Too Many Excuses.

I’ve finally come to a starting realization — I make too many excuses.

I hate it when my team tells me that something isn’t possible. Yet I’ll tell myself that a big goal I want to achieve isn’t really a possibility.

I make an excuse. I pave the way to let myself down gently when I fail.

I don’t let my kids make excuses. Not without me yelling at them. “Just get it done,” I tell them. “I don’t want to hear it,” I say as I cut them off with the wave of my hand.

Yet I’ll listen to my own excuses. I won’t just listen to them, I’ll think about them. It’s a whole bit of internal drama.

How ridiculous is that?

I fight it each day. Especially with big goals and a lot of people looking at me for support.

I don’t want to let anyone down. I don’t want to let myself down. But these excuses are killing me.

They’re probably killing you too.

No one else knows. Just you. You can feel it happening inside you — when you’re stressed and tired, beaten down, and unsure of what to do.

Make no mistake, I’m going to get to where I want to be. I will persist. I will achieve greatness. I will win.

That’s what I do. I fight and struggle, hustle, wage war, and put in the work. One of those struggles is to make fewer excuses. To do my best and just let the chips fall where they may. Without the need to make excuses or explain.

You can either make excuses or progress. Not both.

Maybe you’re fighting the same battle. Maybe you struggle with making excuses as well. Maybe we hold each other accountable.

No more excuses. No more defending. Just a single-minded focus on achieving something awesome.

What You Put Into You.

What you put into yourself is what you get out. Happiness in. Happiness out. Anger in. Anger out.

You’re going to have bad days where you do things you’re not proud of. But as a rule, your output is directly related to your input.

If you are like most people, you will spend a significant amount of time thinking – sometimes even obsessing – about how to get better results, without ever giving much thought to the quality of content that is fueling those results.

Your thoughts lead to feelings.

Those feelings drive your actions. Your actions dictate your results. And ultimately your lifestyle.

Your thoughts don’t occur magically. Or automatically. They are the result of thousands of things that you have fed into the giant computer processing the world around you – your brain.

Angry, caustic political news shows make you bitter and jaded.
Reality television shows give you a warped sense of reality.
Negative people make you more fearful than you need to be.

Looking honestly at your own life, you can see a direct link between the sources of information you put into your mind and your perspective on the world around you.

You are what you think about.

And because there is a clear cause and effect, you can adapt and adjust to get to where you want to be.

If you don’t like where you are right now, you can change the inputs.

Hack your operating system.

You can swap your soul-crushing morning news shows for a YouTube video of TD Jakes preaching a message of inspiration. You can trade your nightly television entertainment for an online video series about new ideas for taking your business to the next level.

Being happy is a skill. It’s earned. Not something that’s owed to you.