Confidence - Believe In You

Photo courtesy of ninikalviee.blogspot.com

This past weekend wrapped up a busy week of cycling. Vincenzo Nibali winning the Giro after leading for nearly two thirds of the race. Tony Martin winning the Tour of Belgium and Freddie Rodriguez, at age 40, winning the US Professional Road Championship. Each of them is talented in their own right but also have one common trait that led them to success - confidence.

In a broad sense confidence is the ability to believe that you can reach your goal. But what gets in the way of your confidence? Probably most everything, if you let it!

You Have to Believe to Achieve

Photo Courtesy of www.makingmountainsmove.com

Each of us encounters obstacles, big and little, nearly every day of our life. Little obstacles are little problems and usually, with a modest amount of time, thought and effort, we overcome them. Big obstacles typically are representative of bigger challenges. And, because of that, we often let them paralyze us or hold us back from moving forward.

However, big or small,whether professionally, personally or athletically, the process is the same.

Success and Failure

I intended this week to writing something specific to cycling. This morning, I received an email with a link to this video and I realized that I had to deliver a different message this week.

Throughout my life (and I'm guessing many of you), we've experienced success and failure. Success is great. It validates the fruits of our labor, it keeps us motivated to push forward for more. Failure, on the other hand, is a different beast.

Happy New Year and Making Plans for 2013

Happy New Year!

Welcome to the last day of 2012. This year has flown by and we are now hours away from another year. Are you ready and prepared? Have you written down your 2013 goals?

Your Path to Achievement

Is success a part-time gig? It is a fact that we will consistently perform in the manner in which we see ourselves performing. If you don't like what you see, then change the way you see yourself and you will start to perform in that manner.

10 Ways To Guarantee Better Results

Do you want better results in business and/or on your bike? Sure, who wouldn't Mark! If you are like a lot of others around you, you might not be sure what to do in order to get better results.

Maybe you’re confused and frustrated by things happening to you, some of which may be out of your control. Maybe everything you are trying doesn't seem to work, making you even more frustrated.

Well, don't give up. We all have days and weeks like that. Here are 10 things you can do that will help bring you better results.

1. You'll get better results when you try harder. My cycling results are proof of this!
2. You'll get better results when you stop making excuses. Just do it!
3. You'll get better results when you ask for help. Nobody achieved success without the help of others.
4. You'll get better results when you create a better plan.
5. You'll get better results when you fight through the pain (as long as it is good pain, not the kind that is actually causing damage or harm).
6. You'll get better results when you aren't afraid of failure. Thomas Edison failed something like 10,000 times in his quest to create the light bulb.
7. You'll get better results when you can control what is going on in your head. Negative thoughts bring negative results.
8. You'll get better results when you try one more time (see #6 above).
9. You'll get better results when you say "thank you" more. Show gratitude and appreciate what you have.
10. You'll get better results when you believe what you are doing is worth it.

Try one or a few. You'll be amazed at the positive impact on your business and cycling efforts.
The secret to getting better results is simply to do whatever it takes to improve. Adapt, learn, grow and try a little bit harder each day.

And while that doesn’t come easily, the results you’ll get are worth the struggle. What’s stopping you from getting better results?

Commitment To Focus, Dedication and Discipline

"No horse gets anywhere until he is harnessed. No stream or gas drives anything until it is confined. No Niagara is ever turned into light and power until it is tunneled. No life ever grows great until it is focused, dedicated, disciplined."  - Harry Emerson Fosdick

I have been listening Bob Proctor's Freedom Series on my training rides (not necessarily a great idea!) when Bob read Fosdick's quote. I stopped, scrolled back and listened to it a couple of times. To me, this is one of the best success formulas I've heard. To me, this is what it means:

Focus - the ability to stay on task and not let yourself get distracted and off-track. In business, sometimes it is easier to do emails as opposed to picking up the phone to call a prospect or a challenging customer. On the bike, it is the ability to stay focused on doing what it takes to achieve your goal. You have to commit to the goal and stay focused on doing what it takes to achieve that goal.

Dedication - commit yourself to putting in that extra phone call, to making the extra effort that your colleagues may not be willing to do. When riding, it is dedicating time required to achieve the goal, whether it is a personal one or even a team goal. If you choose to do, then commit the time to doing it right.

Discipline - in business and in sport, I see as the one of the most difficult tasks. It takes a serious commitment to get and stay disciplined. On New Years, many people set goals to lose weight or go to the gym. However, what they lack is the commitment to stay disciplined to those "resolutions" and, after a month or so, fall back into the ways of old. If you want to success ,you must dedicate yourself to achieving that goal and doing what it takes, day in and day out, to achieve that goal. In business, this is even more true if you work in a home or remote office. You have nobody but yourself to hold you accountable.

In 1988, I had multiple short, medium, long term and dream goals. Three of those goals were to be a National Champion, make the US National Team and the Olympic team (my dream goal), there were days when my wife thought I was crazy. I would go out on training rides all types of weather, one day even trying to ride when there was over four inches of freshly fallen snow on the ground! I committed myself to staying focused on my goals, dedicated myself to doing the work necessary to achieve those goals and was disciplined to doing my work every day to get better. All of this commitment resulted in me nearly achieving ALL of the goals that I had set at the beginning of the season!

When you commit, you focus. You focus your energy, your effort, your actions on the very thing to which you have committed. You are willing to take action without any distractions, action that delivers the results you want.