The Official Personal Mastery Mindset Blog
Every once in a while I get an e-mail from a client that is so powerful that I have to share it with you. This one’s anonymous for obvious reasons. It puts things in perspective because UNLESS YOU take note of your own progress, you might not realise HOW MUCH YOU ARE ACTUALLY DOING…
This e-mail response is only slightly edited: Read More »»
Below is a quick chart that a lot of people can relate to. I call it the Then and Now Chart. It’s not meant to be a value judgment, just a realisation some people have about some of the disappointments they have.
Someone very wise drew this for me in my early twenties (and I can’t for the life of me remember who it was…). I’ve quite a few really good mentors and I didn’t note who said what – I just committed WHAT they ALL said to memory…
Dr Marc Dussault - Then And Now
But here’s the thing…
This weekend, I’ve been on e-mail with a friend who’s struggling to have a breakthrough at work and I told him this story which I just had to share with you. It’s how I made $500,000 in one weekend back in 1988. it was Victoria Weekend, May 21, 22 and 23.
I started my first company in February of that year. I was so successful that we were operating 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. I had to do something. I decided to automate the digital printing process for CAD (Computer Aided Drafting) files.
I worked 44 hours over 3 days. Literally only stopping to sleep and eat.
44 hours over 3 days. That’s +/- 15 hours a day over a 3-day long weekend.
My friends at the time spent the LONG WEEKEND going out, partying, sleeping in, going to dinner with family, cleaning out the garage, washing their cars, shopping, etc.
I invested in myself and my company. It didn’t kill me (since I am alive to tell the story).
The moral of the story is that I invested 44 hours that weekend and over the next 3 years I sold my ‘SuperCad System’ to over 50 companies across North America that generated more than $500,000 in sales from that ONE WEEKEND OF EFFORT.
7 years after-the-fact I reviewed the SOURCE CODE files and 90% of the files had NEVER BEEN UPDATED = that’s how good the programming was THAT WEEKEND.
What does this mean to you and my friend who is struggling to get a breakthrough?
I was talking to someone recently who was overwhelmed with too many things on his plate and I told him something that I thought was worth repeating here…
Juggling 10 Balls and dropping 6 is not the same as juggling 4 balls
Juggling 10 balls and dropping 6 is not like juggling 4 balls.
First of all it’s a lot harder and you don’t look very good dropping the 6 balls even though most people can’t even juggle 3 balls. That’s the point – PUT THE BALLS DOWN AND JUGGLE THE ONES you can handle THEN and ONLY THEN do you toss another ball in the air.
Successful people juggle a lot of balls and the less successful think it’s the way to go – doing MULTIPLE things at a time.
It’s not. It’s a recipe for disaster and makes you look foolish.
Stop it! Re-gain your compose, reduce your stress and improve your results.
That’s it for today – short and sweet.
Many people try to do New Year’s Resolutions, but very few actually achieve them. Today’s posts explains part of the reason that happens or should I say doesn’t happen – you Reticular Activation System (RAS)…
First and foremost, you need to WRITE your new year’s resolutions down on paper. Then you need to expand on each one to make sure YOU are clear about each one means.
I published a poll on Linked In that asked what an extra hour per day is worth and these are the results which although not scientific, do reflect my anecdotal experience…
The results say quite a bit about how much and how little people value their time.
I am not much of a golfer, I have played a TOTAL of 20 rounds of 18 in my entire lifetime…
But I can usually play a round under 100 which is better than most social golfers.
That is a blog post for another day.
I wrote about the concept of stop doing what’s holding you back in a previous post on my Internet Mastery Blog.
Today’s lesson is the lesson of aiming for the center of the green instead of the hole.
Watch this video to fully grasp the meaning of NOT doing this.
Phil Mickelson is one of the all-time great golfers which proves that even the best struggle with this simple concept.
I often hear of people trying to thread the needle when they can’t even HOLD the needle let alone the thread in their fingers.
Simple examples include:
I won my match today. Decisively. 9-0, 9-2, 9-2.
Today’s lesson is so simple but so powerful it’s a classic.
STRATEGY will beat TACTICS 9 times out of 10.
Yesterday TACTICS won the games, but it might not have worked if I was able to apply my STRATEGY and be 2, 3 or 4% tighter with my shots… The games were not runaway victories…
Today was all about STRATEGY over TACTICS.
My opponent today has a TACTIC that he uses and I am sure it works for him – it’s the TACTIC of intimidation with a bump and grind interference game – the goal is to get in the person’s way as much as possible and get lets and strokes awarded and keep the other guy off his game and make sure he never gets to use his STRATEGY.
That works UNLESS someone has a STRATEGY to counter-act this TACTIC.
Growing up playing competitive Ice Hockey, a little intimidation and a few collisions from time to time brings back very fond memories…
So that TACTIC doesn’t work on me.
AND it works against the person who RELIES ON IT TO WIN, especially one who doesn’t have the talent or STRATEGY to adapt.
So I stuck to my STRATEGY and took the match in what must have been less than 15 minutes in total.
In case you want to know what the strategy is…
Just put the ball away from where you are – LITERALLY. That way he can’t be interfering with you if he’s chasing the ball all over the place! BECAUSE this is his TACTIC, he’s not used to running for the ball, so my shots don’t have to be as accurate which makes it EASIER for me to actually win.
It’s a great feeling when you can turn someone’s TACTIC against them – kind of like in Judo when you use the other person’s weight and momentum against them.
Fun stuff when you’re SMART enough to know the STRATEGY and then good enough to deploy it!
Now that I got the squash stuff out of the way, I guess the lesson for business and life is pretty self-evident, but just in case, here it is.
Whenever someone runs a pattern or TACTIC against you, there usually is a STRATEGY that can counteract it effectively – first, neutralising it and second, leveraging it to your advantage. If a competitor is TACTICAL and aggressive about a particular TACTIC, you can learn to counteract it and USE it to your advantage.
Competitors who are TACTICAL usually have 1, 2 or 3 TACTICS at most. With a STRATEGIC approach, you can easily win the game.
That’s Mastery.
Once achieved, you dictate the game, pace and outcome.
Onward and upward!
Dr Marc Dussault
Australia’s #1 Exponential Growth Strategist
P.S.
As I discuss in my books “Get The Best Grades With The Least Amount Of Effort” and the business person’s edition “Get The Best Business Results With The Least Amount Of Effort“, I play squash to expand my Circle Of Influence™.
As I do that in squash, I begin to see parallels and comparisons in my personal, financial, emotional and business lives that until that moment remained hidden. Those awakenings are priceless lessons in self-awareness that make the journey enlightening and rewarding beyond description.
I get to see and be with the best in the world doing what they do best. As I observe, as an ACTIVE PARTICIPANT in the process, I can extrapolate my own experiences, emotions, thoughts and feelings to other matches and situations as I simultaneously interpolate and interpret other people’s experiences within my own new, expanded Circle Of Influence™.
I urge you to do as I suggested a few days ago that you really should (if you’re not already doing it) engage in something OUTSIDE of work that inspires, motivates and empassions you to become the best at it.
This can be a sport, musical instrument, hobby or body of knowledge.
Start today and take one SMALL ACTION and you’ll soon realise you’re on the path to self-discovery that will embolden and empower you to consider boundless opportunities with timeless abandon.
When you’re ‘there’, someone will have to remind you that you’re “45″ and not a teenager running around a white room chasing a little black ball..
But it won’t matter – you won’t care because you’ll be having the time of your life, living it as you should – to the fullest, care free and with child-like abandon!
Today’s match was disappointing – the best way to put it is even Superman has Kryptonite…
I played an ‘unorthodox’ player today who wasn’t better than me technically, but came up with the non-tradition shots that I couldn’t respond to due to lack of match experience.
This was the one thing I couldn’t avoid this year because I haven’t played a single tournament in the last two years. With my travel schedule with a lot of weekend events, it just wasn’t something that was possible..
I lost in three games, knowing that there is NO CHANCE WHATSOEVER that this will happen again next year. NONE, NADA, ZIP, NYET, ZERO.
This is why competing at ‘this level’ is priceless. This isn’t a squash blog so I won’t bore you with the squash distinctions, instead I’ll give you some ‘life lessons’:
With all that in mind, I leave you with one thought.
I hate to lose, I really do.
But what I hate more than losing is NOT WINNING. Winning requires that you lose to learn the lessons that make you better. Once you let go of your ego (yes, I know that is not an easy thing to do…) and re-direct your focus to IMPROVEMENT, then and only then can you get back on the ‘winning track’.
I was speaking to a top grade player and she mentioned that everytime she got to the next higher grade, she had to run around like crazy all over again because what worked previously no longer worked at the new, higher standard… That is a priceless insight that’s hard to find anywhere else but at a world-class competition, straight from the mouth of a champion!
That means I have to MAINTAIN my fitness BECAUSE I am going to need it when I get to the next ‘level’!
Onward and upward!
Dr Marc Dussault
Australia’s #1 Exponential Growth Strategist
P.S.
If you know me well, you know today has been a tough day for me, but what keeps me resilient and always ’setting a new standard’ as Tony Robbins says is that with excellence (outstandingness or extraordinariness in Tony’s terms) comes a sense of confidence that mastery gives you the ability to DICTATE the game.
That is what I am striving for and I know without a doubt I have the talent and ability to ascend to that level.
On a day like today, that’s what keeps me going. I feel the pain, hurt and disappointment like anyone else would – I wanted to win today, but I lost.
I lost because I didn’t have the level of mastery to DICTATE the game.
But I know what I need to do to get that level of Mastery. That’s what I came to discover and it’s CRYSTAL CLEAR to me know – and yes the crystal was green today… very funny!
If you’re a squash fan or addict – the reason I know what I need to do is because at championships like these, there are seeded players and unseeded players. In the first rounds, seeds play players with a lot less talent and ability – yet the ‘unorthodox’ shots don’t win the game BECAUSE they do things SPECIFICALLY to counter-act them…
That is what I didn’t know I didn’t know that I need to know!
By the way, using a metaphor like Superman and Krytonite helps me deal with the situation as I evaluate and assess my progress.
Without metaphors, the Vortex Of Mediocrity™ can have a devastating and debilitationg effect.
Today was one of those surreal experiences – we’ve all had them. Kind of like a time warp.
One minute, I’m fine tuning our Marketing Autopsy that allows people to self-diagnose where they’re at with their marketing and the next minute I’m on the court, playing at the World Masters Squash Championships…
Weird.
Today’s lessons are that I learnt that I was able to win and dominate my opponent today BECAUSE I made a conscious decision MONTHS AGO to gauge where I was THEN and where I wanted to be NOW. Winning decisively tonight (9-0, 9-2, 9-0) was only possible BECAUSE I consciously made improvements in my game, strategy, mindset and EXECUTION.
I have to admit I’m pretty happy with myself right now, but I also have a serene sense of confidence that I can repeat this tomorrow and the day after that.
My Physics teacher in high school, “Mr Lancione” made a point of this that has stayed with me ever since. “The mark of a true professional is consistency.”
I saw that on the courts tonight – even at the WORLD CLASS LEVEL.
I see it in business every day. People going about their business with a hit and miss approach and ‘hoping for the best’. That just isn’t a recipe for success.
I would much rather put in the effort (investment) that pays off for a lifetime.
But then again, that’s just me.
Onward and upward!
Dr Marc Dussault
Australia’s #1 Exponential Growth Strategist
P.S.
I am really enjoying having this conversation with you on a DAILY basis. I hope you’re enjoying it as much as I am. This is an exciting experience for me and it’s part of my ‘Voluntary Simplexity‘ Philosophy of establishing balance in life.
Life is too short not to be lived to its fullest. Go ahead and do something you’ve been putting off and give it a go this week. Just have fun with it and see where it takes you.
You might be surprised where that path may lead!
Most importantly – ENJOY the journey, that’s what life is all about. We all end up in the same place at the end.
One friend says to another at their best friend’s funeral “I wonder how much he left behind?” to which the other responded “ALL of it.”
By the way, if you want to do the Marketing Autopsy, you can go ahead and do it online as my GIFT to you.
Australia's #1 Exponential Growth Strategist Millionaire and A-Grade competitive squash player finally reveals:
"58 minutes of giggling fun learning 29 easy-to-understand squash metaphor lessons that will SIMPLIFY complex, intricate and sophisticated strategies that you can deploy to make money in your business TODAY!"
