Personal Growth

We bring in the new year with the best of intentions to start new, positive habits (and keep them!). As the year goes on, it gets harder and harder to keep those habits in place. Here are 6 quotes from successful business leaders to help you stay focused and motivated all year long!

Warren Buffett (CEO, Berkshire Hathaway)

“Time is the friend of the wonderful company, the enemy of the mediocre.”

Listed close to the top of both Forbes’ wealthiest and most powerful lists, Warren Buffett is respected as the smartest and savviest investor of our time. Bill Gates once wrote that being jealously protective of his time was an important lesson he’d learned from Buffett. “There are only 24 hours in everyone’s day. Warren has a keen sense of this. He doesn’t let his calendar get filled up with useless meetings.” Even if you’re not a multibillionaire, you shouldn’t either.

Dave Ramsey (Financial author, radio host, television personality, and motivational speaker)

“Nothing happens without focus. Don’t try to do everything at once. Take it one step at a time.”

For the last 25 years, Dave Ramsey has devoted his life to helping people get out of debt by educating them about finance. Ramsey acquired great success at a young age, but lost everything because he didn’t manage his money properly. After filing for bankruptcy, he turned his life around and began counseling couples and families on finance. Now he is a successful and well-respected financial expert. He would not be where he is today without an intense focus and mission-based effort to bring financial peace to families all over the country.

Gary Vaynerchuk (Entrepreneur, investor, wine connoisseur)

“I hate how many people think “glass half-empty” when their glass is really four-fifths full. I’m grateful when I have one drop in the glass because I know exactly what to do with it.”

Gary Vaynerchuk is an entrepreneur, investor and wine connoisseur. He is also a successful speaker and author and is sought after for top events year after year. He truly practiced what he preaches in this quote–he took his father’s liquor store from $3 million annual sales to $50 million in just seven years.

Zig Ziglar (Author, salesman, and motivational speaker.)

“Where you start is not as important as where you finish.”

Born the 10th of 12 children, Ziglar grew up in a poor family and faced hard times as a child (his father and sister died within two days of each other). His perseverance, determination and eternal optimism helped him become a successful salesman and later one of the most recognizable motivational speakers of his generation.

Truett Cathy (Founder, Chick-Fil-A)

“Sometimes success is disguised as hard work.”

Truett Cathy was an American entrepreneur who founded the fast food restaurant chain Chick-fil-A. With Mr. Cathy as with any other successful business leader, his success did not come easy but was the result of years of hard work.

Walt Disney (Founder, the Walt Disney Company)

“The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.”

Walt Disney developed one of the most iconic brands in the world. There’s no denying that he was a man of action, creating films, characters, theme parks and more.

Thanks for checking out this list of inspirational quotes! Which one was your favorite?

What a great time of year! A great time to take stock of all that has been accomplished in the past twelve months. What goals were met, why some goals were not met. Celebrating achievements, taking note of mistakes that were made, re-evaluating and understanding with a new perspective and clarity that only comes with hindsight.  Imagining all the potential of the year ahead, dreaming of the possibilities, another chance to grow, advance, expand, sharpen, increase and enjoy living at a higher level than ever before, a more productive level. A level of fulfillment and contentment that comes from knowing that our time has been invested in valuable things. Things that will add to our lives and not take away.

With that goal in mind here are five things that are guaranteed to make 2016 the most productive and most fulfilling year ever.

1.   Make Yourself More Accountable

Whatever our goals are for next year, whatever we resolve to do in the New Year, accountability will be a determining factor in how successful we will be. Whether it’s physical fitness, getting out of debt, or producing at a higher level, we can use accountability as a tool to lift us up to the desired level of performance we are looking for. Knowing someone else is going to look us in the eye and ask us the hard questions is usually all it takes for us to be the person we really want to be, but we often can’t find the strength to be, consistently, within ourselves alone. When we make ourselves accountable to others we can trust, who have demonstrated they are interested in our success, we tap into their energy; and, we harness peer pressure and make it serve us in a positive manner. If there is a particular area of life that seems to be an Achilles’ heel, accountability could be the difference maker. Tell your spouse, your boss, a teammate, your pastor, a mentor, or anyone you can trust, what you are struggling with, what you would like to achieve, and what steps you are going to take to be successful. Then give them permission to ask you on a regular basis for an account of how you are doing. Be honest with them and yourself, and accountability will catapult you to new levels.

2.   Activity, Activity, Activity!

Whatever we want to achieve in the New Year, there is a specific level of activity we will have to involve ourselves in  if we are going to experience the desired outcome. Writing it down on a piece of paper and taping it to our bathroom mirror is a valuable exercise, but that in itself is not going to bring about the desired results. Sometimes we don’t know how much activity it will require to be accomplish the desired results. Hindsight is invaluable in determining how we should proceed. If you didn’t accomplish what you wanted to this past year, the same level of activity in the New Year is not likely to produce it either. If at all possible engage in activity that is measurable. If those activities aren’t adequate, you can make adjustments until you know how much activity is required to produce the desired results. This is what sets the truly successful apart from everyone else. They take the time to figure out what specific action or actions are necessary and how much of each it’s going to take. Then they execute and operate at that level consistently. How many phone calls will have to be made, how many doors must be knocked on, how many business cards do I need to hand out, how many emails, how much, how many, and how often? These are the questions that must be asked and answered. Activity, activity and more activity are three key ingredients in the recipe for productivity.

3.  Serve Others Who Can’t Return the Favor

Spending more of our time, our resources, and our energy helping someone else who does not have the ability to return the favor in any way shape or form may seem like the least productive thing anyone could do in the coming year. However, at our core, I think most of us know that it is simply the right thing to do. We know that helping others gives us a sense of value and purpose, and with that we can experience greater confidence that propels us to higher performance levels. Helping and serving others also increases our influence within our community and beyond. People want to work with and do business with people they can trust to look after their best interest. When they see you looking after the interest and needs of others who have little or nothing to offer in return it builds confidence that you can be trusted all the more when there are potential rewards in play.

Multiple timeless principles are in set into motion when we serve others:

1.   If we are faithful with the little things, we will be trusted with bigger things.

2.   We reap what we sow, and

3.   If we want to be great among men, we must serve others.

Be intentional in serving others in the coming year. Serve others with the confidence that if you take care of and look after others needs you will be rewarded, sometimes directly and sometimes indirectly. Zig Ziglar said it best, “You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help enough other people get what they want.”

4.  Find a Mentor, Be a Mentor

There is a wealth of understanding to be gleaned from the perspectives and experiences of others, and you have learned the right way and the wrong way to achieve what many coming after you hope to accomplish. Having someone that can be trusted to meet with intentionally on a regular basis, to run ideas and plans by, and to get fresh thoughts and encouragement from is invaluable. Making yourself available to the younger generation or a peer, and accountable to someone more experienced or with similar goals can pay huge dividends. Keeping others and ourselves on track will be key to making next year our most productive year ever! Invest time in mentoring for yourself and others and you will go further than you ever imagined. Remember, if you want to go fast – go alone. If you want to go far – take someone with you!

5.  Make Relationships Your Highest Priority

Above all things make relationships your highest priority in the coming year. Nothing adds value to our lives like great relationships. A valuable relationship is like a valuable piece of real estate. They require timely investment and maintenance if they are going to increase or even hold their value. One of the best ways to increase and/or maintain the value of any relationship is to regularly express our appreciation and gratitude for the people that add value to our lives. Our family, friends, co-workers, employees, clients and neighbors, and the list goes on and on. People make the biggest difference in our lives and we make a substantial difference in their lives when we let them know how much they add to ours. Building and maintaining great relationships are the most productive things we can do in the coming year.

For great ideas on how to show your appreciation for the most valuable relationships in your life visit our blog.