Dan Waldschmidt's Blog, page 25

Trading Lies For Awesome.

You say you’re working hard enough. But are you?

You say you care about other people. But do you? Really?

You say that you’re continuing to learn and grow and evolve. But are you?

Or are you just telling yourself lies to feel better about the state of your life?

Maybe you’ve given up already.

Maybe you’ve decided that no matter what you do, things are never going to turn around.

You’re not sure you’re ever going to get to where you want to be.

And since you’re convinced that none of it works and that all of it is a sham, you’ve gotten really good at making excuses to others and lying yourself.

You know all the buzz words. You know where to go and who to associate with in order to seem like a high performer.

You know all the tricks.

You’ve mastered the craft of appearing like you’ve got it all going on.

From the outside, you appear to be destined for breakthrough.

But you know. It’s not that way inside your head. Where it matters, deep down in your soul, you’ve given up. It’s all a lie.

You’ve almost convinced yourself that you’re playing the game. You’ve been telling yourself these things for so long that you almost believe yourself.

You wonder why things aren’t working out.

Because it’s not true. You’re not all in. You’re not committed and focused, driven, resilient, and unstoppably stubborn.

But you could be. All those things. And more.

It doesn’t need to be a lie. You don’t need to take it easy on yourself.

Stop hedging your bets. Stop giving up on yourself every time it looks to you like you might fail.

Be the person you’re pretending to be. Do the things you’re pretending to do.

Turn all the effort around appearing to be awesome into the real thing.

The post Trading Lies For Awesome. appeared first on Dan Waldschmidt: Author of EDGY Conversations.

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Other than that, all rights are reserved to you to change your life. If you are ready to be amazing, now is the time to get started. Onward...

11 Ideas To Make Your Idea Awesome.

Just because there’s no evidence that your idea will work doesn’t mean you shouldn’t start working on it. Try something.
If you can’t get passionate about what you’re doing or where you’re heading with your life, you are doing the wrong thing.
There’s always somebody who will tell you that you’re unrealistic or unreasonable. Ignore them.
Nothing works right the first time unless you get lucky. Persistence and precision ultimately determine success.
There isn’t a fast or cheap or easy solution to unparalleled long-term success. Avoid anything that is too good to be true.
Just because it didn’t work before for you, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take another try at making it work right now. 
Being around negative people is the fastest way to lose your motivation, creativity, and the will to continue.
The most annoying problems provide the best ideas for you to make the most money and change the world.
Anyone can do something that is awesome. Ideas aren’t limited to people with college degrees or years of experience — or how old you are.
The best ideas come when you’re already working — not those times you’re frustrated, waiting on inspiration to find you.
There are no stupid ideas. There are many ideas that seem stupid because no one had the resolve to turn them into success.

The post 11 Ideas To Make Your Idea Awesome. appeared first on Dan Waldschmidt: Author of EDGY Conversations.

Copyright by Waldschmidt Partners Intl... Not sure that all that legal stuff really matters. If you want to share this material, do so. Just don't charge for it and don't tell people you wrote it. Both of those are uncool.

Other than that, all rights are reserved to you to change your life. If you are ready to be amazing, now is the time to get started. Onward...

Try Being Surprisingly Delightful.

One of the most powerful strategies for business is also the simplest. And most overlooked.

Companies who continue to massively grow and scale and drive success focus intently on creating surprise and delight.

In their industry. With existing customers. To their target prospects and ideal customers.

It has a massive impact.

The emotional impact and financial gain caused by being surprised and delighted have a return on investment much greater than just about any other businesses strategies you can execute.

Customers stick around longer when they are delighted. They spend more money. They tell more people. They put up with more mistakes and give you the benefit of the doubt.

That’s the power of moving beyond transactional business.

You end up winning bigger.

When you’re just trading dollars for service or money for a product, you find yourself struggling to maintain energy and build revenue momentum.

Surprise and delight deliver an exponential growth factor. You’re not like everybody else. You’re the delightful option.

You’re the surprise your customer found that they want to share with their friends.  The rules don’t apply to you.

Think about that as you build out your strategy for the coming year or analyze your progress for where you are now.

Are you focused on being awesome?

What are you doing to be surprisingly awesome? How are you delivering delight magnificently?

And by the way, if both of those questions seem crazy to you, you aren’t winning your industry.

With some deliberate intention and a whole lot of fun, you can change that.

The post Try Being Surprisingly Delightful. appeared first on Dan Waldschmidt: Author of EDGY Conversations.

Copyright by Waldschmidt Partners Intl... Not sure that all that legal stuff really matters. If you want to share this material, do so. Just don't charge for it and don't tell people you wrote it. Both of those are uncool.

Other than that, all rights are reserved to you to change your life. If you are ready to be amazing, now is the time to get started. Onward...

It’s Easier To Do Nothing.

It’s easier to make excuses for your bad behavior rather than have to fix problems that have been lurking under the surface in your life for years.

It’s easier to question the universe and whine that you don’t get the same breaks that everyone else does rather than just showing up and doing hard work each day.

It’s easier to give up, move on, and try something new rather than to dig your heels in and fight for progress that seems barely noticeable to anybody else.

It’s always easier to do nothing.

Doing nothing requires less friction in your life. It’s smoother. Faster too.

Doing nothing can’t be the default decision you tend to make when you’re up against a difficult decision or when you’re not exactly sure what to do.

Is feels like doing nothing is better than doing the wrong thing. But that’s just your brain playing tricks on you.

The wrong thing is doing nothing.

Doing nothing is the wrong thing. They are the same thing.

The right thing to do is something small. And it often happens just inside your head.

Make the decision to do something about your situation. Put in the hard work and be willing to make tough decisions.

You don’t have to do everything all at one time.

You just have to get started.

You have to head down the path. Do a little bit right now and then keep that momentum moving.

It’s easier to roll over and imagine that your problems are going to take care of themselves automatically.

You don’t have to leave your destiny up to chance.

You can get to where you want to. But you can’t do nothing. Even when it’s easier.

Make small, steady progress towards the finish line you call awesome. Do something. Now.

The post It’s Easier To Do Nothing. appeared first on Dan Waldschmidt: Author of EDGY Conversations.

Copyright by Waldschmidt Partners Intl... Not sure that all that legal stuff really matters. If you want to share this material, do so. Just don't charge for it and don't tell people you wrote it. Both of those are uncool.

Other than that, all rights are reserved to you to change your life. If you are ready to be amazing, now is the time to get started. Onward...

When You’re Finally Dying To Live.

The fear of death has an interesting way of changing your perspective.

It shows you clearly, in an instant, what matters and what doesn’t.

No more games or passive aggressive excuses. No more unhealthy advice from negative friends. No more pretending. Just raw, unfiltered clarity.

You can see the truth. You know what matters.

You can feel it in your soul.

You can easily make the mistake of waiting an entire lifetime to experience that moment of enlightenment and focus.

It’s not often that you get shaken by an experience so profoundly that you change your behavior. That you are willing make permanent changes.

It’s easy to forget the importance of improving as soon as the pain of the moment goes away.

You go back to being mediocre.

You stop eating healthier once the health scare goes away. You stop saving money. You stop practicing kindness and personal development. You give up on your goal to reinvent yourself and follow truth.

And another moment is wasted. Another awakening, caused by fear and terrifying circumstances, goes without permanent results.

You don’t change. You don’t get better. You don’t hold on to that moment of fear and obsession. Wanting to live. Desiring another chance. Wishing you could do it all over again.

These scary moments in your life are that second chance you’ve been waiting for.

Hold on to that moment. Remember that will and wish to live and thrive.

Use that memory as a catalyst to make each moment matter.

Live each day dying to live.

The post When You’re Finally Dying To Live. appeared first on Dan Waldschmidt: Author of EDGY Conversations.

Copyright by Waldschmidt Partners Intl... Not sure that all that legal stuff really matters. If you want to share this material, do so. Just don't charge for it and don't tell people you wrote it. Both of those are uncool.

Other than that, all rights are reserved to you to change your life. If you are ready to be amazing, now is the time to get started. Onward...

What You Do When You’re Afraid.

I can still remember the feeling of outright terror.

Looking back I could see the edge of the sand about 100 yards behind. I was at the beach with my family enjoying a few days of relaxation in the middle of a busy summer. After playing with my kids at the edge of the surf, I had this idea to see how far I could swim out into the ocean.

From the beach, I could see a buoy bobbing in the distance. It didn’t’ seem that far away. That I could see it there was reassuring. Why couldn’t I swim out to it, give it a tap, and swim back to shore?

So I jumped in.

But 100 yards into my swim I was consumed by an overwhelming sense of terror. I felt like I was going to die. I was afraid to drown. I was convinced that a shark was going to pull me under.

I was frantic and irrational. And gave up on my mission. I turned around and swam back to shore — flopping on the sand like I had just finished an Iron Man Triathlon. Fatigued. And beaten.

It’s been more than a decade since that summer afternoon at the beach and I’ve never forgotten that feeling of overwhelming fear and the disappointment that followed.

I gave up when I was afraid.

I was capable of achieving my goal. I had the ability. What stopped me was my fear — which came from a memory in my childhood.

As a young boy, I was at summer camp for a few days when I woke up on the side of the pool looking at the ceiling. The lifeguard was kneeling over me. Asking me if “I was OK”. I didn’t know enough to know that I wasn’t OK. In fact, I didn’t really remember anything.

I had lied to the lifeguard and told him that I had already passed the swim test — so he let me head to the deep end of the pool. I then made my way up the ladder, past the small diving board, to the highest dive. I jumped off the 15 foot high dive, landed on my head, and had to be rescued by the lifeguard.

Too big a goal for my lack of skill.

And that memory convinced me that I was afraid of deep amounts of water. It paralyzed me. Robbed me of my perspective and will. And I gave up. Which is what happens automatically if you don’t have a plan to tackle it.

Fear about your finances will convince you to take shortcuts and invest in “get rich quick”schemes.
Fear about your relationships will convince you to “get yours” first  — even when you know it will come back to hurt you later.
Fear about your job will convince you that everyone is out to get you, making you belligerent, cynical, and unable to lead.

Fear will wreck your life.

What you do or don’t do when you are afraid indicates exactly what is missing from your life.

What you need to improve.  What is missing from your life. What you need to do to be successful.

For breakthrough, start there.

The post What You Do When You’re Afraid. appeared first on Dan Waldschmidt: Author of EDGY Conversations.

Copyright by Waldschmidt Partners Intl... Not sure that all that legal stuff really matters. If you want to share this material, do so. Just don't charge for it and don't tell people you wrote it. Both of those are uncool.

Other than that, all rights are reserved to you to change your life. If you are ready to be amazing, now is the time to get started. Onward...

What You’re Lacking Is Toughness.

You’ve got to be tough if you’re going to win.

There are no two ways about it. Tough times and hard decisions demand mental toughness. And emotional and financial toughness.

The space in between getting started and crossing the finish line is full of challenges and unexpected setbacks.

The line between “not working” and “not working yet” can get blurry and frustratingly confusing.

That wears on you.

Put butterflies in your stomach.

If you knew that what you were doing was the right thing you would have no problem investing more time and money and emotion in the cause.

Without toughness, you’ll struggle to invest in yourself, even when no one else is willing to take that bet alongside you.

You’ll flail and flounder as the winds of apparent progress shift.

What you’re lacking is toughness.

Not belligerence. Or the handicraft of being a bully.

You develop toughness over time. Part skill. Part experience. It is the result of deliberate and focused stress.

You putting yourself in situations where you have to flex and grow and expand what you believe is possible.

Like a fighter training for a prize match, you’re going to have to get in the ring with somebody who’s there to spar with you.

Beat you about the head and shoulders.

It hurts while you’re developing toughness. But it is what makes you a winner when the contest is on the line.

So don’t shy away from the hard things that make you better. Put yourself in situations where you develop more toughness.

Learn something new each day. Work on new skills each day. Compete against people who are better and faster and smarter than you each day.

Do things that make you awesome.

Tough it out when you feel like nothing is working.

When you avoid being uncomfortable, you lose out on developing the toughness that will make you a winner.

The post What You’re Lacking Is Toughness. appeared first on Dan Waldschmidt: Author of EDGY Conversations.

Copyright by Waldschmidt Partners Intl... Not sure that all that legal stuff really matters. If you want to share this material, do so. Just don't charge for it and don't tell people you wrote it. Both of those are uncool.

Other than that, all rights are reserved to you to change your life. If you are ready to be amazing, now is the time to get started. Onward...

25 Things Successful People Refuse To Do.

Successful people refuse to make excuses for their own mistakes. They learn and grow and improve obsessively.
Successful people refuse to whine when things don’t go their way. They figure out a way to win in spite of setbacks.
Successful people refuse to copy what other people have done to be successful. They ignore the crowd and do their own thing.
Successful people refuse to stay down when they get knocked down or fail. They pull themselves together and come back stronger.
Successful people refuse to avoid doing the hard work that success demands. They sweat, fight, and bleed for their cause.
Successful people refuse to adopt the thinking of the status quo. They do their own research and always think for themselves.
Successful people refuse to ignore their own weaknesses and bad habits. They take steps to fix and improve them.
Successful people refuse to pretend that they are perfect or better than anyone else. They are focused maniacally on improving.
Successful people refuse to look down on others around them who aren’t winners yet. They encourage them to achieve more.
Successful people refuse to overlook the details that drive better results. They are deliberate about being better – even when that hurts.
Successful people refuse to be discouraged that people around them aren’t cheerleading for them. They find inner motivation and drive.
Successful people refuse to spend time correcting everyone else’s perceptions about them. They just focus on being awesome.
Successful people refuse to let money make them arrogant or take stupid risks. They stay financially disciplined. And humble.
Successful people refuse to complain about things that are outside of their control. They focus on action and deliberately ignore the rest.
Successful people refuse to waste their time doing things that don’t matter. They maniacally prioritize how they expend their energy.
Successful people refuse to try to be good at everything at the same time. They focus on doing one thing awesomely at a time.
Successful people refuse to give up when things get tough. They endure the tough times, innovate past obstacles, and keep trying.
Successful people refuse to listen to the doubters, critics, or skeptics. They stay focused and mentally disciplined
Successful people refuse to let anything stop them from following up and following through on what they promise. They deliver.
Successful people refuse to think about defeat or success as final. They continue to set bigger goals no matter their previous outcome.
Successful people refuse to blame other people for their own mistakes. They take responsibility for their actions.
Successful people refuse to let current chaos distract them from future success. They get things done each day regardless of what is happening.
Successful people refuse to put their ego ahead of achieving epic results. They work on staying humble and teachable.
Successful people refuse to lose sight of why they are are doing what they are doing. They stay inspired and motivated.
Successful people refuse to think of themselves as anything other than successful – even if they don’t have big results yet. They reject negativity.

The post 25 Things Successful People Refuse To Do. appeared first on Dan Waldschmidt: Author of EDGY Conversations.

Copyright by Waldschmidt Partners Intl... Not sure that all that legal stuff really matters. If you want to share this material, do so. Just don't charge for it and don't tell people you wrote it. Both of those are uncool.

Other than that, all rights are reserved to you to change your life. If you are ready to be amazing, now is the time to get started. Onward...

It’s All Going To Be Okay.

It might not feel like it right now, but it’s all going to be okay.

Things are going to work out.

You’re going to figure it out. Your situation is not as gloomy and dour as it feels right now.

You’ve got problems.

But you can handle them.

The challenges you face aren’t permanent. You got this.

There isn’t anyone anywhere who is better prepared to turn your situation around.

So get to work.

Believe in yourself a little bit more. Put in a little bit more effort. Do a few more of those hard things that you’ve been avoiding.

You’ve got this.

The end result is predetermined. Shaped by your belief and focused by your effort and will.

When you believe that it’s all going to work out, you find a way to make that come true.

Your creativity is on full display. Your efficiency is tuned to a high performance level.

Your capacity to handle pain and fear and chaos is never more full.

You’re a maniac.

That’s because you believe that your effort matters. You believe that in the end you’re going to win.

You just know it. It’s a gut instinct.

It’s all going to work out in the end. So you work to make that happen.

It’s all going to be okay. Better than that — it’s going to be awesome.

So get your head up and act like a champion.

The post It’s All Going To Be Okay. appeared first on Dan Waldschmidt: Author of EDGY Conversations.

Copyright by Waldschmidt Partners Intl... Not sure that all that legal stuff really matters. If you want to share this material, do so. Just don't charge for it and don't tell people you wrote it. Both of those are uncool.

Other than that, all rights are reserved to you to change your life. If you are ready to be amazing, now is the time to get started. Onward...

Why Can’t You Have That Too?

There isn’t anything you can’t do. It’s that simple.

Make no mistake, you will have limitations in your way.

Physical qualities will challenge you as a human. Financial obstacles will require your attention. Politics and changing economics around the world will demand that you adjust.

But just because things change and you’re required to do hard things doesn’t mean that you can’t get to where you want to be.

It’s a choice.

Hard times and tough decisions have always been a threat to people like you who want more for themselves.

It’s always been that way and will continue to be that way long after you leave this earth. You don’t have it any harder than anyone else has had it.

Your problems are different. The way you view the challenges in your way is different. But problems are universal.

Heartache and fear shake all of us.

The only way past those obstacles is to embrace the struggle. To welcome the battle. To be willing to do whatever it takes for as long as it takes until you get to where you want to be.

Look around you. Every day, someone just like you is losing weight. Someone just like you is getting wealthy. Someone just like you is getting promoted.

It’s all around you. People like you are pursuing and achieving their dreams.

They aren’t special.

They don’t have anything you don’t have.

They just believe that there isn’t anything they can’t do if they’re willing to work hard enough for long enough.

And so they work and fight and believe. Always dreaming. Always rebounding. Always believing in themselves in spite of what their situation looks to everyone else around them.

Always dreaming. Always rebounding. Always believing in themselves in spite of what their situation looks to everyone else around them.

Why can’t you have that too?

You have everything you need to make that happen. You have the skills and the will and the heart and the hustle.

Now you have to get to work.

You have to dream and believe — and then work like it matters. Because it does. Because anything is possible.

The post Why Can’t You Have That Too? appeared first on Dan Waldschmidt: Author of EDGY Conversations.

Copyright by Waldschmidt Partners Intl... Not sure that all that legal stuff really matters. If you want to share this material, do so. Just don't charge for it and don't tell people you wrote it. Both of those are uncool.

Other than that, all rights are reserved to you to change your life. If you are ready to be amazing, now is the time to get started. Onward...