Dan Waldschmidt's Blog, page 36
March 28, 2016
Halfway Is No Way.
Halfway isn’t far enough of the way.
It’s not good enough to try some of the time.
You won’t win if you’re not willing to do whatever it takes to be successful.
That applies to work. To your challenges in community and family, your personal health, friendships, and making lots of money.
It’s not good enough to almost do enough.
It’s not good enough to do enough too late.
That’s the problem with halfway. It’s no way.
It looks a lot like the real thing. You’re doing a lot of the same things. But without the epic results you expect.
You never seem to get there. You limp along. Excusing away failures as it “just not being your time” when in reality, it’s never going to be your time.
Not now. Not ever. Not living your life by those rules.
Because almost doing what you need to do isn’t enough.
Almost working hard enough isn’t enough.
Almost making the right business move isn’t enough.
Almost going the extra mile isn’t enough.
Almost making the call you’re afraid to make isn’t enough.
Almost getting up earlier to get things done isn’t enough.
Almost acting like it matters isn’t enough.
Almost being physically and financially fit isn’t enough.
Going half way doesn’t get you half of the prize.
It usually gets you none. Nothing.
Half of the anguish. Half of the pain. Half of the sweat, blood, and tears. None of the glory.
That’s the problem with halfway. It’s no way to live your life.
Be all in. Or be nothing at all. Black. Or white. No shades of gray.
Half way is no way.
The post Halfway Is No Way. 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...
Half Way Is No Way.
Halfway isn’t far enough of the way.
It’s not good enough to try some of the time.
You won’t win if you’re not willing to do whatever it takes to be successful.
That applies to work. To your challenges in community and family, your personal health, friendships, and making lots of money.
It’s not good enough to almost do enough.
It’s not good enough to do enough too late.
That’s the problem with halfway. It’s no way.
It looks a lot like the real thing. You’re doing a lot of the same things. But without the epic results you expect.
You never seem to get there. You limp along. Excusing away failures as it “just not being your time” when in reality, it’s never going to be your time.
Not now. Not ever. Not living your life by those rules.
Because almost doing what you need to do isn’t enough.
Almost working hard enough isn’t enough.
Almost making the right business move isn’t enough.
Almost going the extra mile isn’t enough.
Almost making the call you’re afraid to make isn’t enough.
Almost getting up earlier to get things done isn’t enough.
Almost acting like it matters isn’t enough.
Almost being physically and financially fit isn’t enough.
Going half way doesn’t get you half of the prize.
It usually gets you none. Nothing.
Half of the anguish. Half of the pain. Half of the sweat, blood, and tears. None of the glory.
That’s the problem with halfway. It’s no way to live your life.
Be all in. Or be nothing at all. Black. Or white. No shades of gray.
Half way is no way.
The post Half Way Is No Way. 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...
March 23, 2016
Why Underdogs Win.
There are no miles of progress without inches of fight.
The grit. The grind. That feeling of desperation and rage.
That’s the cost of getting to where you want to be. There are no easier paths. No faster way there.
If you want to win, you have to be willing to get down on your elbows and knees and pull yourself past the obstacles standing in your way.
The negative people who doubt your ideas. The cynics who discredit your motivations. Everyone else who just doesn’t care enough to help.
It’s on you. All of it.
If it’s going to happen, it’s because you make it happen. Against the odds. In spite of screwing up.
Even when you’re tired and beaten down and unsure of what to do next.
You have to find the strength within yourself to put your head down and push. Unrelenting. Determined. With a singular obsessive focus.
Tune out everything else. Stop looking for an option that is faster, cheaper, or better.
Embrace the pain. Reconcile yourself to doing what is uncomfortable.
Remind yourself that what you do matters. That you’re tough enough to do whatever it takes for as long as it takes to turn those inches into miles.
The post Why Underdogs Win. 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...
March 22, 2016
It Doesn’t Need To Make Sense.
Religion isn’t (usually) seen as logical. It’s emotional. Spiritual. And deeply personal.
It’s built on a foundation of beliefs.
Beliefs that are wired into the very soul of the worshiper. Beliefs that are powerful.
They change what you see and feel. They color the lens through which you see everything happening around you.
Religion will make you do some crazy things.
In the Medieval Ages, religion drove kings to destroy and enslave entire regions of the Earth.
Still today, fundamentalists steeped in beliefs they hold to be incontrovertible will willingly strap on a vest of explosives and blow their own body to pieces in the hopes that they take others with them to their grave.
In the name of religion, parents have knowingly turned a blind eye as their underage children fall into the hands of a perverted cult leader. In the name of religion, believers have willingly consumed poison — by the hundreds.
In the name of religion, rulers have started world wars and murdered millions.
No part of that is logical or intellectually reasonable.
It’s dark and impossibly twisted.
But it didn’t need to make sense for them. It was their religion. They believed it to be so.
Those beliefs drove them to do things that the rest of the world will forever find incomprehensibly shocking.
Because it was a religion. And it didn’t need to make sense.
They lived by their own rules. And didn’t apologize for their own way of looking at the world.
That’s the same secret to your success.
You must believe. You must make your life a religious endeavor of daily moving closer to where you want to be.
Who cares what they think about you. Who cares that they don’t see it your way. Why cares that you look foolish to everyone around you.
If you believe, that is enough. Do you?
The post It Doesn’t Need To Make Sense. 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...
March 21, 2016
10 Business Lessons You Can’t Afford To Learn The Hard Way.
Hire people you would want to fight alongside if you were heading into battle. When it’s life-or-death, a warrior does whatever it takes to stay alive and win the battle. It’s not good enough to pay people to do a job. You have to build warriors.
It’s not profitable to over-deliver on customers. It makes more immediate sense to pad your bottom line and only deliver what people pay for. But the truth is that you’ll always do better in the long run by delivering an outrageous customer experience.
The best opportunities for growth are always up the high road and deep into the game. Short term success is tempting but is often just a disguise for greed or selfish behavior. Live fit enough to position yourself to be able to win when it’s your time.
Goals matters. Quotas matter less. A mission matters most. If you don’t have a purpose, you won’t do the ridiculously uncomfortable things that separate a champion from everyone else making important sounding excuses.
It’s a waste of time to celebrate the good old days. So is worrying about the future. Make what you’re doing right now matter. Savor it. Obsess about how to do it better. Use the time you have to get closer to where you want to be.
Top performers use coaches to make them even better than they are. They join mastermind groups, seek out wise mentors, and pay for a coach, psychologist or therapist to keep their mind sharp and emotions in check.
Average happens automatically. If you’re doing what everyone else is doing or what you’re told you should be doing, you’re never going to be successful. You’ll chalk up a few wins and do better than some other people, but you’ll never win big.
There are plenty of tech tools to keep you scheduled, to remind you of what needs to be done, and to help you work harder. Find what works for you and use it like a religion. If you have to wonder if you’re forgetting something, you probably are.
What happened is less important than how people feel about what happened. Make people feel awesome. It won’t happen by accident so be deliberate. Have a plan. Turn that plan into a daily process. Breathe that process like oxygen.
The post 10 Business Lessons You Can’t Afford To Learn The Hard Way. 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...
March 15, 2016
How To Make More Money Right Now.
Don’t look for the obvious answers. Look for opportunity.
There’s no money to be made in making something that is already good even better.
Your best return-on-investment is to take something that is awful and make it magical.
That’s the essence of opportunity.
It’s all around you. Disguised in the annoying things that frustrate you most about business, community, church, and everyday life.
Opportunity are those things that don’t make business sense.
Those times where you receive ridiculously poor customer service.
Those interactions that leave you puzzled and looking for more.
It happens to you every day.
The bigger the mess — the more you find yourself frustrated, the more opportunity you have to make a difference. And reap the rewards.
But it also means your journey to success will be messy. And uncomfortable.
You’re going to have to get your hands dirty fixing problems and putting out fires. But if you’re looking for a guaranteed strategy to make tremendous amounts of money look for the biggest opportunity.
Fix the biggest mess in your life.
When you pull it off — charge other people what you would have paid to avoid the problem in the first place.
It never not works.
The post How To Make More Money Right Now. 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...
March 14, 2016
Believe.
Believe that you need to do something different in you’re life if you want something you have never had before.
Believe that within you is enough heart and ability to do whatever needs to be done in order to get to where you want to be.
Believe that no one else has a better formula for success or happiness than you have already figured out for yourself.
Believe that hard work and focused practice trump degrees, certifications, or using technology to work smart.
Believe that doing whatever it takes is the bare minimum for what it takes to get to where you want to be.
Believe that unfair and bad things still happen to good people who don’t deserve those outcomes as the consequences of their actions.
Believe that you wouldn’t be any more successful if the obstacles in your way right now went away automatically.
Believe that breakthrough is a direct result of persistence an unbelievable amount of raw human effort.
Believe that time is the greatest weapon at your disposal. Money and relationships are pretty close behind.
Believe that other people not believing in you doesn’t mean you’re not going to be fabulously successful.
Believe that the easy or fast answer is rarely the best way to fix the problems that held you back from success for so long.
Believe that avoiding negative people is the single most important secret to keeping momentum towards your goals.
Believe that your hard work and smart decisions are creating progress in your life even if you don’t see any immediate results.
Believe that you are completely in control of your actions, reactions, and outcomes regardlesss of what happens around you.
Believe that your real competitor is the person you could be, not the person who looks like they are the best right now.
Believe that your dreams are worth not giving up on even when it looks like your situation is worthless.
Believe that worry is a choice. So too are doubt, passive aggression, selfishness, wastefulness, and ignorance.
Believe that you can always improve or learn something new regardless of your experience or how much you have won already.
The post Believe. 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...
March 9, 2016
Owning The Day When The Night Stinks Of Fear
You often hear the concept of fear described as if it is an illness.
Take the right medicine, develop some confidence, and the problem goes away. Problem solved.
It’s not that simple.
Fear isn’t a malady.
It’s not even the thing that keeps you up at night.
Fear is the polite word we use to describe the fright and all-consuming panic that captivates the soul.
Like a torrent of flame it threatens to destroy every good thing in its path. Your ambition. Your dreams. Your relationships.
Left unchecked it will decimate your will and and rob you of your destiny.
There is no escaping the darkness.
Through the valley you must pass if you wish to make it to the mountaintop. Before the dawn, there is the night.
So it is with a steady hand and determined mind you must resolve each day that despite the fear and panic and fright you will not be detoured.
You will not stop. You will not quit. You will continue.
Alone perhaps, but continue none the less.
You conquer fear by continuing. Your progress forward is what denies panic its victory.
No matter how dark the night, own the day.
Stand tall. Step forward. Strive.
The post Owning The Day When The Night Stinks Of Fear 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...
March 8, 2016
The Warrior’s Morning.
Don’t pray to the Almighty for the fight to go away.
Ask for the courage and stamina to meet the day with the mindset of a warrior and a stomach ready for battle.
Calm your nerves. Steady your hands.
Move toward the front lines.
The enemy is just as nervous as you are. Just as tired. Just as doubtful.
He’s waiting to see how you will appear.
Hoping he has more to bring to the fight than you do. Clinging desperately to the chance that his last bit of stamina will be enough to overwhelm your fatigue and frustration.
Stand still for a moment.
Let your results swell into a tidal wave of fury.
How dare the enemy think you to be weak.
Today is not a day for you to die. It is a chance to show the enemy that your spirit is immortal.
You will not be stopped. You will not back down.
Your cause is too important to back away from.
Your duty is too great to give up now.
Shine your shield until it blinds the eyes of the oncoming onslaught.
Sharpen your blade with the precision of a surgeon.
Gird your armor tight upon you.
Breathe deeply into this moment.
Savor the silence of expected catastrophe.
Today is a day that you will conquer.
Fight on.
The post The Warrior’s Morning. 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...
March 7, 2016
What Do You Want To Do With Your Life?
What is it that you want? Not right now. Not today.
Overall. Ask yourself the hard question: “What is it that you want?”
When was the last time you asked yourself that?
It’s easy to be overwhelmed by the tidal wave of daily life.
The stress. The fear. The panic.
It can be all consuming.
Survival is all you think about. You want out. Away from the chaos of the moment.
You’re so focused on surviving that you don’t plan to thrive.
It doesn’t take you doing much right now to change the arc of your results.
Need more money? Save more than feels comfortable. Invest all you can. Live painfully frugal. Wait 24 hours before making big purchases.
Need more knowledge? Trade television for books. Spend your free time learning a new skill. Teach someone else something you want to learn yourself.
Need more time? Be purposeful with the time you already have. Get up an hour earlier each day. Say “NO” more times than not. Be pragmatic.
Need more fulfillment? Do things that are meaningful. Be valuable to others. Give to a cause that has meaning for you. Smile more.
Need more respect? Give respect to others. Do the right thing. Be kind and thoughtful even when you have the leverage to not need to care
Need more experience? Sign up for tough assignments. Get the help of mentors. Stretch beyond your comfort zone by trying new things.
Things have to change. You have to be the one changing them.
If you want something different you have to do something different.
It’s that simple.
Your life won’t get better all on it’s own.
There isn’t some magic wand you can wave over your past bad decisions to make the consequences go away.
There isn’t some secret formula or all-knowing guru who can instantly catapult you past the hard work and sleepless nights.
You have to know what you want to do with your life. How you want to spend your time. What you want to be known for.
Spend every day obsessing about it.
The post What Do You Want To Do With Your Life? 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...
