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This is a very special episode, it is episode number 50. It’s hard to imagine that there are 50 episodes already. Also, I really appreciate all the great, kind comments and reviews that I’ve seen in iTunes. I read every single one of them. If you haven’t done that, please do it. It helps a lot with the exposure of the podcast, and I appreciate it. Now for the episode. What we’re talking about today is Breakthrough Success. It actually came about as I was talking to a person who I’m using as a coach, an excellent person, and what she was doing was explaining to me as I was talking about what she saw in what I’m doing, both in the book Mechanics for Breakthrough Success, as well as in the podcast. That is, first of all, what is breakthrough? As she put it: “It’s something that somebody themselves can’t even see for themselves.” That is, their goal is something beyond what they normally would look at and see. Maybe you would see for them or somebody else would see for them. I’ll explain in a little bit about that, because it has a lot to do with how we set our goals and how we really reach out to goals that may not even seem quite realistic; they’re almost dreams, etc., or things that we want and we’d like to see about ourselves and around us, but are outside what seem to be reasonable right at the moment. Let’s see how we go about doing that. First, let me repeat a story that I used a long time ago, and that is to the moon shot. When most people are talking about it, and John F. Kennedy as President said that he wanted to put a man on the moon before the end of the decade. They didn’t know how they were going to do it. In essence, there were several things that had to be discovered, invented, or created before that original shot to the moon, that is before the rocket took off. Everybody else talks about how you’re making those adjustments or course corrections and how that is success. That’s not the significant part. The significant part was having to overcome or break through different things that they didn’t even know we could do. At the end of this episode, I’m going to announce something that I’m giving away to help you in not only setting those goals for yourself, but also get you along the way. First, one of my most disliked expressions that you hear all the time, and maybe it’s because it’s overused, is “to the next level.”, “Get to the next level.”, “We’re going to get you to the next level.”, “You’re going to get to the next level.” All of the times that I hear that, it implies some things that I don’t like. One of which is that you’re going to go to some place and stop, that is that’s where you are. Then you go maybe to someplace else and stop. It is a very, very interrupted path to take. One quick example was in weightlifting. When I was taught weightlifting by a champion, he explained to me as I would start to seem to be slowing down at a particular level, that is I’m putting more weight on, then all of a sudden two or three times in a row, I’m using the same weight. He would just say: “Wait a minute. Slap on some extra weight.” It was actually easier with that extra weight. Why? Because in my mind, I had expectations of where I was and what I was able to do. Instead of driving through and continuing on progress, I had my vision of getting to start bench-pressing at 285 or 315, or something, whatever the number was, and when I hit that, I sort of adjusted my expectations to be where I was, rather than where I was going which is higher. Another situation is in direct marketing. This is interesting, and it was pointed out to me actually by the person who was on episode number two, Steve Thompson. He pointed out how an awful lot of people target to get to a particular position; they want to be promoted to a certain position. The reason they want to get there is because at that point they can make a lot more money. But they get to that new position, and immediately stop and don’t do anything. Which is kind of crazy, when you think about it. Think about it at all, the fact that they literally get to someplace where they’re really striving to get so they can make more money, and then they stop making money. That’s what happens. This is usually called “plateau.” People always talk about plateaus, and you’ll hear it a lot in exercising or other things, and they give a backwards—yes, backwards—explanation for this and say that it is the body adjusting and all these other things. It’s hindsight that they’re putting an explanation on something that they don’t really understand, but they’re just trying to come up with something. They’re telling a story, and it’s not even a good story. Breaking through to the next level? No. We’re going to pass right through the next goal or mini goal, that plateau that other people are going to stand around at – we’re just going to go past it and keep on going, and break through that. How do you do that? Part of it is: What are goals? Goals are really just steps towards your vision, whatever that is. Beyond that, how do you get that, how do you not slow down as you’re approaching it? As you’re approaching the goal, you have to be thinking in terms of not of the goal you’re about to arrive at, but of the next goal that’s beyond that and the satisfaction that you’re about to pass the step to that next goal. You’re passing the step from one promotion or one level right on to the next level, and you’re already looking forward to that. Instead of approaching or asymptotically approaching that level that you’re going to sit at, you’re really looking at: “Oh, wow! I’m breaking through on to my next goal, next position.” That doesn’t mean you can’t celebrate what you do, and attain, and reach. You should do that. It helps you with reinforcement and it helps you with the satisfaction. You can celebrate it, but while you’re celebrating, it’s already history because you’re on your way to the next thing. You can take the evening or the weekend, or whatever you do; if it’s a really big one, take three days, take a week – go to Hawaii, whatever it is. When I’m wandering around a beach in Hawaii, in Maui, or someplace like this, I’m thinking and dreaming. I’m not just looking at the sand and the water and stuff. I am doing that, but I’m thinking and imagining how nice this is, and how I can’t wait to get to the next place. Keep in mind that this is going to require you not to just pass through or push your comfort zone, (click here for episode 15 on the comfort zone) “push the envelope,” as a lot of people like to say. You’re going to have to jump through it, jump outside it, and that’s going to put you in a different place, possibly with different people—that’s okay—and a different situation entirely, and expand both your network and your environment, because it is often your environment and experiences of your past and the relationships in the past that can hold you back. In most cases, that’s actually what they do do. Think in terms of the immigrant mentality that I mentioned a little while ago a couple of episodes back. What happens? They’re in a completely new environment as well. As a matter of fact, one of the most restrictive things on some immigrant groups is if they move in in too large of numbers themselves, and they don’t learn the language or they don’t do some of the other things that might happen. The immigrants that come here that have all these breakthroughs themselves also have this new environment. They’re surrounded by new people, and also quite frankly, they’re looking around and seeing how people around them aren’t necessarily working very hard, so they can push through and do things that maybe somebody else isn’t willing to do. It reminds me of when I first returned to college, there was a friend of mine I hadn’t seen in four years because we had both been in the service, and we ended up in the same class, an accounting. We ended up in this big, huge room. It was actually an old gymnasium that was converted, and it was used for all the accounting classes in the entire university. We’re all taking the exam at the same time, there. I walked up to him. We were right up front, because I like to sit up front so I’m not distracted, and I said: “Gee, I’m nervous.” He said: “Nervous? Take a look around – this is our competition.” We were a little bit older, so a little bit more mature, and everybody there; they’re gabbing; they’re chatting; they’re talking about the things they did last night and other things instead of being concerned and focused on the exam. I just looked and I smiled. That’s what it’s all about: Work a little harder than everybody else, and aim for your own goals, aim for your own targets and have your breakthroughs. As I mentioned, I put together a PDF of about 7 or 8 pages, and in that, I explain how to build your vision board and bring it to life. The vision board itself, a lot of you have heard that very often there’s successes/failures with it, but it’s really not so much the vision board. It’s the second half of it and the new twist that I have in there. Go to my website: www.LifeUnsettled.com/landingvbfb/. Take it. It’s free; no charge. Use it to get started on your dreams and targeting for your breakthrough success. Thank you. Speak to you again real soon.
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