Posts Tagged success

How do you eat an elephant?

elephant
Q: How do you eat an elephant?
A: One bite at a time.

In the ring and in life we are constantly learning new skills and refining old ones. It would be very overwhelming to think we have to master it all at once.

A much more empowering perspective is to realize that mastery of anything, be it life in the ring or life in general, is a process in which one continues to evolve and grow.

Like undertaking the seemingly impossible task of eating an elephant, learning and mastering any new skill is best achieved one bite and one step at a time. Take heart in knowing that the master of anything was once a struggling beginner.

Let me know what new skills you are mastering so I can send you a virtual or personal ‘high five’ to celebrate your hard work and progress.

Dedicated to helping you become a black belt (champion) in life.

Photo: monosodium

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Quote of the Week – 7/11/2010

“People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing.”
Dale Carnegie

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Quote of the Week – 6/27/2010

“The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don’t play together, the club won’t be worth a dime.”
Babe Ruth

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Quote of the Week – 6/6/2010

Teamwork divides the task and multiplies the success.
Author Unknown

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Go for your own personal gold! Always do your best.

“When you always do your best, you are always getting better.”
Shihan J. Levy, M.Ed.

In teaching martial arts, I always tell my students that you do not have to be Bruce Lee on your first day. What I should really say is that you do not need to be Bruce Lee on any day. What you need to be is you – wherever you are right now. What you need to do is get started, regardless of the story running in your head that wants you to believe you are not ready yet. Every day you delay is a day of wasted potential to improve.

Each of us is born with our own potential, and with our own native ability. Our self effort is what gets us from the point of natural talent, to the discovery and realization of our potential. Add good teaching and coaching along the way, and your possibilities expand even further. The point is, start now, and do the best you can. Every time you do your best, you increase the range of what your best is. Sure there will be days when you just don’t have it, but even on those days, get out there and do your best.

When I train fighters for the ring, I don’t care much what the judges say at the end of a match. Don’t get me wrong, it is always nice to win, but winning and losing are both relative. If you get the win, but didn’t compete honestly, it is not a win in my book. By honestly, I don’t just mean following the rules; I also mean giving an honest effort according to your ability. Similarly, if you lose to a superior opponent, but gave it all you had, and really made them earn it from you, I will be extremely proud. In fact, sometimes losing is just what the doctor ordered. My father always told me that you learn a lot more from losing than you do from winning.

Regardless of the activity, one should always be in the habit of doing their best. This habit will lend itself to always going the extra mile – another characteristic of successful people, or what I call “black belts in life”. If you are hung up on winning all the time, prepare for a life of disappointment. However, if you redefine winning as learning, improving, or giving your best effort, you will never fear doing a thing for fear of failure.

This concept has been well summed up by Theodore Roosevelt, who said, “Do the best you can, with what you have, where you are.”

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Be different. Be Yourself.

HEY WEIRDO!

Some kids are just different from all the other kids from the very beginning. It seems to be an instinct among kids to tease or bully other kids who are different from them, and make them feel like outsiders. What the pack fails to realize though, is that as we get older, being an original, and standing out from the crowd is a good thing.

This season, I got hooked on American Idol. I’m not being paid to promote the show, but I have not missed one since the beginning of this year’s run. As of last night they were down to the final eleven, and after tonight, they will be down to ten. While there is incredible talent on the show, one girl has been tagged as being ‘strange’, and also very original from the get-go. Although I will state that my favorite has been Crystal all along, Sioban Magnus has really stood out to the judges as a top contender. Not only does she have an incredible voice, but everything about her is, well, her.

In last night’s interview she said that she was always a little different. Thing is, if she was the same as everybody else, she would just be another girl who sings. Instead, she is clearly on her way to success in ‘making it’ as an artist, and will no doubt have her own style, which in the future others may choose to copy.

The next time somebody tells you or your child that they are weird or different, don’t get angry, or allow your child to develop anger or resentment over it. Remember, that the alternative is to be run of the mill, and to accept mediocre. If that’s your thing, fine, but I would opt for extraordinary any day of the week. As long as weird and different is combined with legal and useful, it can be a wonderful thing. When combined with entertaining, it can make you rich and famous as well.

Like my father told me as a teenager, there is no such thing as competition because you are the only one who can be you. How do you choose to be yourself? Are you going to play it safe, and accept average for yourself, or are you going to choose to be yourself all the way, and go for extraordinary?

I would love to hear your comments.

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Quote of the Week – 1/24/10

“Give me a stock clerk with a goal and I’ll give you a man who will make history. Give me a man with no goals and I’ll give you a stock clerk.”
J.C. Penney

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Set priorities that support your mission

Sometimes it seems that there is way too much information coming at us at once. It can make a person freeze in their tracks, not knowing what to focus on first, or how to decipher what is important information versus what to ignore.

The key thing is to constantly be honest with oneself about what we are truly interested in rather than what we think will make us interesting to others. The fact is that being interested is way more interesting than trying to be interesting for its own sake. Those who are truly successful are typically those who love what they do, and therefore can’t stop doing it. When we face the mountain of information that is always in front of us from that place, it makes it much easier to decide what to do first. Whatever is in alignment with what we love, and where we want to go with it, gets selected. All else either goes on the back burner, or better yet, gets cleared out to make room for more of what supports our personal missions.

That said, I am off to write a follow up letter to those who attended an event I just did. When I am done with that, I will proceed with an online course to help me improve my copy writing skills.

Send me comments about what you are up to, or if there is something I can help you with.

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Quote of the Week – 1/3/10

“Don’t bunt. Aim out of the ball park. Aim for the company of immortals.”
David Ogilvy

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Are you dissatisfied with your life?

Are you dissatisfied with your life?
Do you feel like there is something missing, but can’t put your finger on it?

Who am I?My name is Joel A Levy. I help people figure out what they are supposed to be doing here in the world, and how to get it done. See, I believe that each of us is here on a unique mission, and that it is through fulfilling that mission that we repair the world around us, and ultimately, ourselves.

This is what we were put here to do. As such, each of us is wired with a unique combination of skills and interests in order to assist us in fulfilling our life’s mission.

I have three critically important questions to ask you:

  1. What are you doing to make the world a better place?
  2. Are you doing the work that you were put on this earth to do?
  3. What are you doing with the potential you were given?

Take your time in reading these questions, because unlocking the answers to them will reveal you to yourself, perhaps for the very first time.

successMy belief is that question number two is the real key. Until you are doing the work you were meant to do, you will not be making the contribution to the world that you are capable of. You may experience some success in other fields, but something will always be missing for you. But when you link into who you really are, and the work that supports that, your success will be infinite, and every day will be a blessing.

Similarly, until you are engaged in your life’s work, you will personally slide along laterally at best. Once you are doing the thing for which you were born, you will necessarily grow and develop to the fullest of your potential. That is because you will no longer need forced discipline to do it. This work is your passion, and you will not want to stop doing it. As such, you will improve yourself through it constantly as time goes on, and through your passion, you will use this work to make the world a better place.

I get a real charge out of helping someone discover who they really are, and being able to honestly answer the three questions I posed to you before.

If you want answers to those questions, and what to do about them when you find them, then we were destined to cross paths. I am very easy to get in touch with. I look forward to getting started with you.

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