“Things may come to those who wait but only the things left by those who hustle.” – Abraham Lincoln

A New Day. A New Year.  A New Man Law.

If you are still thinking about going up to her, I'm already there. "Lettizia" by Fabian Perez. (http://fabianperez.com)

The week before New Year’s Eve, I received a call from a friend of mine who has been following The Unbreakable Man Laws since the very beginning – He asked how the blog started and how it grew. As I started going through what worked for me,  I could tell from his questions and from talking with his other friends about his project that he was quickly becoming discouraged by all the different “potential” setbacks that might occur.

I told him that before he looked at all of the things that might go wrong, he needed to get moving in the right direction. If you are going to start blogging, start blogging. If you are going to write a book, start writing.  A bit of planning is always preferred and some VISION should be a factor of every decision that you make, yet at some point you need to realize that conditions will never be perfect and if you continue to wait until the stars are in alignment with the moon, you’ll be sitting around a bar ten years from now and talking to the bartender about all the things you should have done when you were younger.

While I was growing up my father used to ask me these rhetorical questions that I appalled whenever he saw me as not making progress – “Are you being productive? Or are you getting ready to ‘get ready?’ ” (Editorial Note: He STILL says this to me). These weren’t always the words I wanted to hear, they were the words I needed to hear. As someone who has been an avid weight lifter for over a decade, I frequently hear  friends who state that they wanted to get back to the gym, but when it got down  to it, it seemed that they needed the latest equipment, the weight lifting gloves, the Under Armour shorts, and the “City Sports” Shoes before they can go to the gym.  Slow down Schwarzenegger –  start with some pushups. A year later, they are saying the exact same thing “I need to get back into the gym.” They turn around and see me walking out the door and ask me where I’m going and I answer: “to the gym…”

“Wait, don’t you want to sit here and play X-Box?”

NO.

Their reason for failure is always OUTSIDE of what they consider their control. If X would just do this, and Y would just do that, their life would be perfect.

I’ve been around successful people my entire life and the one trait that I see in all of them is that when it comes to achieving the things that they want, they will first pick the goal, move in the direction of their goal and figure out how to get there on the way, or in other words – Ready. Fire. Aim. Wash. Rinse. And Repeat. (RFAWRAR)

I use this approach to business; I use it with people; I use it with personal (read: intimate) relationships. It’s gotten me in trouble quite a bit of times (with the latter) but I can say with absolute honesty and certainty that I have NEVER regretted making the first move. Even if I strike out miserably, I’ve achieved much  more by simply taking the first few steps without thinking about how to get there all too much.

“Fortes fortuna adiuvat” – Virgil

I’m not here to lecture you. Most of you have schools and bosses that can do that for you.  What I can say is that once in a while we can all use a peptalk because life isn’t always sugar and spice.

Go out and make big things happen for you in 2011. How will THIS year be different than the last? How will the people that you meet, relationships you have and your life be DIFFERENT than the last? If you haven’t already done so, write down your New Year’s Resolutions, tell some of your friends or even share your resolutions on Facebook with others.  I’m a big fan of telling other people my goals and when they don’t see me achieving them or even remotely moving in the direction of achieving them, they will call me out on it. At the end of the day, I appreciate those types of friends more than the ones that tell me what I want to hear, and not what I NEED to hear.

And if you are still sitting around after reading this post, shaking your head, and wondering, “What in the world does this post have to do with The Unbreakable Man Laws?”

The answer is:

EVERYTHING.

Happy New Year Everyone. Make it count!

“There are three kinds of people: those who make things happen. Those who watch things happen, and those who ask ‘What happened?'”

Which one are you?”

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