“In the cold northern wastes there is a mountain a thousand miles long, a thousand miles high. Once each thousand years a small bird flies north. This small bird flies north to sharpen his beak on the cold hard stone of the mountain. When the mountain is thusly worn down, one second of eternity shall have passed.” –Tibetan Poem

May I suggest you sit in a quiet place with your family and add to this list and continue to do it each year. Maybe by the time we all get the list up to 1000, well…we will have gotten this “life” thing down.

Wishing you success and happiness.

1. Life isn’t fair, but it’s still good.
2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.
3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.
4. Your job won’t take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and parents will. Stay in touch.
5. Pay off your credit cards every month.
6. You don’t have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.
7. Cry with someone. It’s more healing than crying alone.
8. It’s okay to get angry with God. He can take it.
9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.
10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.
11. Make peace with your past so it won’t screw up the present.
12. Don’t compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
13. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn’t be in it.
14. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don’t worry – God never blinks.
15. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.
16. Get rid of anything that isn’t useful, beautiful or joyful.
17. Whatever doesn’t kill you really does make you stronger.
18. It’s never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is up to you and no one else.
19. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don’t take no for an answer.
20. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don’t save it for a special occasion. Today is special.
21. Over prepare, then go with the flow.
22. Be eccentric now. Don’t wait for old age to wear purple.
23. The most important sex organ is the brain.
24. No one is in charge of your happiness but you.
25. Frame every so-called disaster with these words, “In five years, will this matter?”
26. Always choose life.
27. Forgive everyone everything.
28. What other people think of you is none of your business.
29. Time heals almost everything. Give time time.
30. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
31. Don’t take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
32. Believe in miracles.
33. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn’t do.
34. Don’t audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.
35. Growing old beats the alternative — dying young.
36. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.
37. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.
38. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else’s, we’d grab ours back.
39. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
40. The best is yet to come.
41. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up, and show up.
42. Yield.
43. Life isn’t tied with a bow, but it’s still a gift.

Let’s take a look at 3 friends…Larry, Moe and Curly. They all live in the same neighborhood, all earn around $50,000 per year, have average health and body weight.

Larry:

o Goes along with his everyday routine.

o He is happy.

o Complains that nothing ever changes.

Moe:

o Makes some small, seemingly insignificant changes that are positive.

o He reads in the evening and listens to 30 minutes of something instructional or motivational.

o He read an article from Doctor Oz and decided to cut 125 calories from his diet each day. Also, he started walking a couple of thousand extra steps a day.

Curly:

o Has made a few bad choices.

o Bought a new big screen TV so he can watch more of his favorite shows.

o Is trying out new fattening recipes from the Food Channel.

o Installed a bar in the family room and added 1 drink/week to his diet.

After 5 months:

No difference seen in the 3.

After 15 months:

Still no noticeable changes.

After 25 months:

Changes showing.

After 27 months:

Expansive differences show up.

After 31 months:

o Changes are startling.

o Curly is fat; Moe is trim. By cutting 125 calories per day, he lost 33 pounds.

o Curly only ate 125 calories more than Moe and gained 33 pounds. Thus, Curly weighs 66 pounds more than Moe now.

o Also, since Moe has been reading, he has a new job, and a happy marriage. Curly is unhappy at work and in his marriage.

o Larry is about the same as before.

You can and must make changes in your financial life immediately. It can be small but the payoff is great.

Ah yes, discipline or regret.

“Some people succeed because they are destined to, but most people succeed because they are determined to.”

He had a unique philosophy and attention to detail. (Like teaching his college players how to properly put on their socks. If done incorrectly, it would lead to blisters and make them unable to play).

He followed a creed for happiness. One of his principles was in a poem:

Making the Most of Oneself

Be true to yourself.
Make each day your masterpiece.
Help others.
Drink deeply from good books.
Make friendship a fine art.
Build shelter against a rainy day.
Pray for guidance and give thanks for your blessings every day.

He had high ideals for excellence and a code of conduct to find happiness. He said happiness comes from making and keeping nine promises:

1. Promise yourself that you will talk health, happiness and prosperity as often as possible.

2. Promise yourself to make all your friends know there is something in them that is special that you value.

3. Promise to think only of the best, to work only for the best and to expect only the best in yourself and others.

4. Promise to be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own.

5. Promise yourself to be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind.

6. Promise to forget the mistakes of the past and press on to greater achievements in the future.

7. Promise to wear a cheerful appearance at all times and give every person you meet a smile.

8. Promise to give so much time improving yourself that you have no time to criticize others.

9. Promise to be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear and too happy to permit trouble to press on you.

John suggested everyone should recite these every day and he believed that you will have lifetime happiness. John is now deceased but I can still say…Thanks, Coach.

“You cannot win if you do not begin.”

I remember, many years ago, when Ross Perot was running for President of the United States. He uttered one line that stuck with me …”Give me an immigrant (legal); I’ll back him financially, and, we will both become millionaires.” In my own lifetime personal studies, I have found the further away (number of generations) Americans are from their immigrant ancestors….the fatter and happier they are (I do not mean waist measurement). So, take a look at being a banker via Microfinance.

There are about 4,000 registered microfinance banks that make small loans to entrepreneurs in developing nations (many times, comprised of women in small villages who cannot get money from traditional banks). The purpose of the loan is so they can start up a new business or expand an existing one. The business may be as simple as sewing clothes, raising chickens or selling food in a local market.

The interest rates charged by microbanks may be in the range of 30% to 40% because of the high costs to service the small loans. Although these rates seem high by our standards…they are much less than black market “loan shark” rates.

As the loans are repaid …and… they are…the microbanks put the money back to work and pay out a reasonable return to you, the investor. There is about a 5% default rate, so, 95% of the loans are repaid. The interest paid out to investors is in the mid to high single digits.

Here are some examples:

• A 5-year note by MicroVest paying 6%.
• A senior tranche by FINCA was paying 7.5%.
• Those with, say, only $1,000, can take advantage of Community Investment notes offered by the Calvert Foundation.
• You may want to look at the Global Impact Investing Network (GINN).

Do your research online. There are a host of avenues in which your money can help another person, in a remote place in the world, and have a chance to improve their lives.

I have worked with many successful people; people who have achieved the kinds of lives they have dreamed about. I have also worked with many people who are not anywhere near where they want to be in life. Many times those who are not successful resent those who are and believe that somehow success was handed to those who have achieved much.

What I have found however is that actually the reverse is true. Those who have achieved much have worked much HARDER than those who are not successful. You wouldn’t believe the stories of struggle that I hear from those who now appear to be on “top of the heap.” Yes, they are successful, but no, it wasn’t handed to them! And I find that most of the unsuccessful people who come to me actually haven’t been tenacious at all. I find that with many of the people I speak to who complain about their lack of success simply have not persevered and have not been tenacious. When I ask them questions I usually get excuses. Yes, there are exceptions on both sides, but I find this to be almost universally true.

If you are one who finds yourself dreaming of a better life, or looking at someone who “has it made,” I would ask you to take a long, deep look inward and at your life to find whether or not you have actually been tenacious in pursuit of your dreams. How long have you gone for it? Many people who achieve much go for YEARS before they achieve what their hearts long for? How hard have you gone for it? Most people who achieve much have given up much. They have sacrificed much. They strive valiantly for what it is that resides deep in their dreams. They just plain ol’ work hard!

So what are the principles of tenacity? What do you need to know in order to take your turn at the tenacious? Here are some thoughts to start your fire and get you going!

1. Sometimes you just have to outlast the others.

“Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go.” — William Feather

I have found that many people start on their dreams but most never finish. Then those who stop resent those who make it. The truth is that most people who become successful have simply mastered the art of keeping on keeping on! I myself can remember early on in my career when I would get discouraged and I literally said to myself, “One more week. Just give it one more week.” Quite frankly, this is what got me through a couple of years of my work early on. I hung on as others let go.

It is easy to get disheartened. Ask those who have achieved success if they ever got disheartened and you will find some of the most amazing stories you have ever heard. Give it a try: Go to the most successful person you know and ask them if they ever thought about quitting. Ask them how they kept on going. You will be amazed at what you hear.

2. Sometimes you just have to hold on at the end.

“When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.” — Franklin Roosevelt

I wonder how many people have quit just as they would have begun their entrance into success? Sure there are many who quit at the first sign of hard work, but what about those who, after the tenth time of trial then give up, just as fate would have seen them go through one last hurdle and then into the promised land? How many people were on their last hurdle and decided not to jump? How many people had just one more mountain pass to go? Or just one more river to cross?

Of course we will never know, but certainly some of the people who quit are doing so on what would have been their last trial, right?

So what does this mean for you? For me it means I do not quit because I would hate to find out later that all I needed was just one last effort and I would have achieved my goal. What if it isn’t my last trial? That’s okay because as long as I keep going, eventually I will get to my last trial, I will overcome it, and I will enter the Winner’s Circle.

3. Sometimes the most beautiful results come from dull things under pressure.

“Diamonds are nothing more than chunks of coal that stuck to their jobs.” — Malcolm Forbes

If coal wasn’t an inanimate object it would certainly scream, “Stop! I want out!” But that coal, when facing incredible pressure, is turned into one of earth’s most precious possessions. Ugly, dirty old coal is transformed into beautiful diamonds.

Instead of looking at pressure and trials as the reason to quit, get tenacious and see them as the very thing that will make your life the beautiful thing that you desire it to be. See it as your opportunity to learn, to grow, and to be transformed. See these trials as the very things that will enable you to have the life that you dream of!

Trials will surely come. Life will get hard. You will want to quit.

Then you will have a choice: Will you give up? Or will you take your turn at tenacious. The choice you make will determine much of the rest of your life.

My advice? Take your turn at tenacious. You will become stronger and you will end up living the life you dream of!

The mass affluent are people who:
• Save more than they spend.
• Seek to invest for the future.
• Worry about funding their children’s college education, but in most cases won’t impoverish themselves because they can cover costs through savings strategies, loans or personal income. In addition, many are not opposed to their children paying some part of their education costs.
• Worry about how they will replace their paychecks when retirement approaches, but in most cases will need to be encouraged to spend more money in retirement.
• Desire to leave a legacy to their children, not to charity.
• In retirement, seek to spend between $4,000 and $10,000 per month.
• Will have between $500,000 and $1.5 million in investable assets upon retirement.
• Would never consider calling themselves high-net-worth investors or millionaires.

Consider the following research: Russ Allen Prince and Associates just published a book entitled The Middle Class Millionaire, based on surveying middle-class Americans with investable assets between $1 and $10 million.

The mass-affluent community seeks advice on a wide array of planning issues. While they generally have investable dollars, they also want to explore how their money will affect their lives. However, many of the financial relationships they maintain are built on investment strategies, performance comparisons, technical analyses and tactical repositioning. These people feel the planning element of the relationship is missing, yet they struggle to articulate it, since their current advisor calls the existing narrow relationship financial planning.

Too many of these people visit our office with stories of how they felt like small fish in a big pond. They felt an initial sense of security aligning with a big-name firm, but when it came to having their financial planning needs addressed, the relationship would fall short.

The mass affluent seem to be stuck in a world where they want financial planning advice, yet what they buy is primarily investment advice.

Reprinted with permission from Oversold and Underserved: A Financial Planner’s Guidebok for Effectively Serving the Mass Affluent, by Marc Freedman. 2008. Denver: FPA Press

Well, there was a great poem, written long ago, on the subject of not quitting. I am sure you are familiar with it. Here is a short video of the poem…I think you will find it rewarding.

Our attitude toward these events determine the outcome. If you have a negative attitude then things will probably come out bad for you. If you have a strong positive attitude then, in most cases things come up “roses.”

I have been blessed and gifted with wonderful coaches in my sporting career and mentors in every aspect of my life. My parents instilled in me a stone wall discipline to never quit…to keep going.

I want to share a clip from a great movie “Facing The Giants.” Maybe you have seen the movie. Nonetheless I have a section that portrays the theme that your abilities are way beyond what you think they are. In everything that you do each day many people are watching you, as you are an inspirational teacher to them, and most of the time you do not even know it. So keep on… Keeping on.

For those of you that played football you will remember the “death crawl” drill (I hated it). Well it is portrayed here and I encourage you to watch it again and again. So if you are having a tough day… think about this clip and… don’t quit!

See you on the beaches of the world.