How To Reach Your Goals: Pt 1

Teammates, how do you stay Fired UP? It’s a great question and one that I hear all the time. News flash – you’re not going to be Fired UP all the time…yep it’s true, "I'm sorry to say so but, sadly it's true that bang-ups and hang-ups can happen to you." Dr. Seuss continues,"unslumping yourself is hard to do.” This quotation is from one of my favorite all-time books Oh, the Places You'll Go by Dr. Seuss: it acknowledges what every one of us will deal with in life…and some of us will have more “bang-ups and hang-ups” as we dare to do things differently and we challenge ourselves in new ways. When you push the envelope in whatever you do – you will fail – failing is a fact of life – the key is understanding that you only ever fail if you never learn from your “failure". Thomas Edison once said he learned over 5,000 ways not to invent a light bulb – I learned 1,475,000 dollars worth of how NOT to launch a fitness product – in other words, you’re not learning if you’re not Failing!

So really, the key question is how do you stay Fired UP to keep trying – to keep doing – to keep persevering – to keep from quitting – to keep from giving up – to keep persisting – to keep pressing on after you’ve had your failures, or as Dr. Seuss would say, “your hang-ups and bang-ups.”?

Having failed many more times in life than I’ve succeeded, I humbly offer you my three “secrets” for staying Fired UP in the face of adversity – here goes:

1. When you set your goal – the thing you want to accomplish and are willing to devote time to it – first take the time to understand and visualize why this particular goal is important to you. Literally define the goal’s purpose – example: I want to create a fitness company – its purpose to me is: working in an industry that will always be a part of my daily life and the joy I receive from helping others take control of their bodies is immeasurable – furthermore, I want financial freedom and scheduling freedom to be with my family during the most precious years of their young adult lives. I’ve linked this purpose so strongly to my goal that failure to achieve isn’t an option – it’s a similar linkage I had when conducting SEAL training, my attitude was they (the instructors) would have to kill me before I’d quit. I promise you, if you spend the time creating this linkage of purpose with your goal and you visualize both the pleasure of achieving it with the pain of not achieving it, you will have a created a foundation for tireless perseverance and there will be no brick wall thick enough or tall enough to stop you.

Part 2: Secrets 2 and 3 to staying Fired Up in the face of adversity.

CHARLIE MIKE – (Continue Mission in military speak!) ALDEN

Get Fired Up for 2010!

Teammates, I want you to Get Fired Up for 2010 - and prove it by dreaming up some stretch goals. Set three goals - personal, professional, and physical. Here are mine:

* Personal - write a book;
* Professional - launch Perfect in 6 countries;
* Physical - my wife and I are going to do an Olympic length triathlon.

Don't miss this opportunity to start the New Year off on the right foot - write'em down - make a plan, and TAKE ACTION!

What are yours? I've heard from Joe and AKO -- check in and put up your resolutions!

HAPPY NEW YEAR TEAMMATES!

CHARLIE MIKE -- ALDEN

Are You There For Yourself?

Guest blogger: Tom Rancich

A friend of mine came up to me at a party once and said—“You saved my marriage.” I was fairly surprised as I hadn’t realized that I had made an attempt to do so. I asked—“How so?” She said, words to the effect of, well, “We were talking one night and blah blah blah and then you (Tom) asked me," “Where is he?” I said---"He is at home" and you replied, "No—he is there". My friend continued, "And you were right—he was there and always was there----and all of his imperfections and annoyances became less important than the fact that he was there---always." What she had realized was that he could have been anywhere but he chose---and continues to choose--to be with her in their life. That is worth a lot in a man’s view of the world.

So, what does that have to do with anything—well—mostly just this---are you there? Are you there for yourself? Do you stand up for yourself? Are you the friend to yourself that you always wanted to have at your side?

I know that might sound a bit huggy feely—even to the point of cheesy, but it is an important question to answer—because at the end of the day, or even the beginning, if you are not there for yourself then the day is lost.

So why wouldn’t you be there for yourself? I ask that as a serious question---but at BUD/S I saw it over and over---men walking away from themselves because they had decided that they weren’t worth the effort---and back then I didn’t care---good riddance to the quitters—but not anymore. I see the fallacy in that emotion---people need to understand that success starts and ends with ego. Ego is not something we are born with, it is something that develops---and for most of us our egos get developed around the things that embarrassed us—the things we fail at. I mean, I won hundreds of races that I don’t recall---but I certainly recall the one I lost by 2 one hundredths of a second. So here is the point---in my lectures I call it active introspection: Actively, consciously and periodically ask yourself what, why and how you are doing things… take time to define for yourself your:
a)Formative Experiences-Those experiences or events that formed the way you think, act, react, view your-self etc.
b)Definitive experiences- Those experiences that define the way you think, act, react, view your-self etc.

So through active introspection you can understand why you are making the decisions that you are making---if you are honest—and begin to sculpt how you make decisions to better achieve your true goals. I tried to start a tradition at BUD/S whereby the class leader from the class that had just made it through Hellweek would talk to the class about to go through Hellweek---my talk was pretty simple—“If you quit during Hellweek it is not because you can’t make it or because you are too cold or because all along you really wanted to be a teacher (actual excuse given to me from a quitter)—it is because you are willing to walk away from your brother when he is struggling for his life dream”. Okay a little harsh perhaps but I did have two people from my boat crew quit during log PT (4 people carrying log a lot harder than 6). Point is, that if you spend some time to know why you make decisions—honestly—you will start to see that a lot of decisions are made on old biases and are counter to your goals---oh, and doing this allows you to make bad decisions if you want to---just not lie to yourself about it!

If you are not there for yourself—no one is. If you are not thinking--actively and introspectively--about why you are doing things then you are not there for yourself. And if you are beating yourself up because you are short or fat or old or ugly---then you are not there for yourself. I told one of my dearest friends in the world once, “If anyone talked about you the way you talked about yourself, I would break their nose.” Don’t let your ego prevent you from being your friend.

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Lt. Commander Thomas Rancich, US Navy SEAL (Ret.) is the co-founder of VRHabilis, a disabled veteran-owned small business that seeks to employ the highly trained and motivated veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars for work in construction and related fields. Rancich and co-founder Elliott Adler are pioneering the concept of using adaptive technology to bridge the gap between industrial and medical technology. Their company contributes proceeds to two worthy causes: a fund for the development of adaptive technology that will allow disabled veterans to pursue their desired career path and the EOD Wounded Warrior Fund.





Through his consulting firm, Off-Shore Consulting, Tom provides professional advice on leadership and team building, often as a motivational speaker, in addition to being an expert consultant to the entertainment industry.

Alden Mills and Charlie Mike blogger Tom Rancich served together in the Teams.

Giving Thanks -- My Favorite Holiday

My favorite holiday of the year - Thanksgiving, it just edges out Fourth of July in my book because of what it stands for – Giving Thanks. Teammates ask me all time – what gives with the constant Fired Up Attitude Alden??? Some who don’t know me throw the bullshit flag at me and call it false motivation until we spend about 2 minutes together – which should be about how long it takes you to read what I’m about to write…in my book Attitude is the number one thing you need to control before you tackle any goal you have in mind – especially if you’re looking to work on your body – Attitude is 100% up to you – no matter how powerfully positive or miserably negative you are – you’ve made that decision and you’ve made it based on a perspective that you’ve allowed your brain to accept. Your perspective in life fuels your Attitude – think you’re gonna fail, then you will; think you’re fat, then no matter what anyone tells you – you’ll remained focused on being fat; conversely, think about winning, then you’ll be thinking about how to win, and you’ll be on your way to victory; want to lose 10lbs, then you’ll determine how to lose it, and make it happen…no matter what it is, how you view your challenge is directly dependent on what perspective you adopt, and that perspective is your Attitude’s foundation.

So what’s this got to do with Thanksgiving? Everything! It’s about everything that’s TRULY important about your perspective in life – I give thanks for being able to move, to see, to feel, and especially to love my family and friends. We ALL get caught up in the rat race of life and when we do, we usually lose our perspective on the things that REALLY matter versus the things that seem to matter at the moment.

This Thanksgiving – take a moment to give thanks to the things that matter most in your life, and once you do, you’ll realize that you’ve discovered the power source to your own Fired UP Attitude…and if you’re struggling to figure out what thanks you should give – drop down and push’em out – then give thanks to the fact you can do a push-up – I know whole bunch of veterans that wish they could do what you CAN do.

Happy ThanksGiving – CHARLIE MIKE - ALDEN