Act Like a Success, Think Like a Success: Discovering Your Gift and the Way to Life's Riches (8 page)

Your core makeup also has to have the right balance. Through all of my experiences I have learned that the following order is essential for every successful person:

         
•
     
God

         
•
     
Family

         
•
     
Education

         
•
     
Business

If you prioritize your life in that order, success is yours on whatever level you want. In my life I have come to realize that God has to be first. I used to have business first, education second, family third, and God last. Until I got that order right, I couldn't get my life together.

After putting God first, you have an obligation to take care of your family. You cannot have children and not take care of them. How do you expect the universe to take care of you if you don't start by taking care of your child? How do you think more blessings will come to you if you won't take care of the blessings you've already been given? Regardless of the relationship you have with your child's mother or father, you are obligated to take care of that life. Same thing applies to your husband or your wife.

Once you have God and family in the right order, now you need to focus on education. When I refer to education, that doesn't always mean going to a four-year institution. You should always be educating yourself about your gift and whatever business you are in. You may have to go back to school to get a certificate of training in your area of interest. For me, there was no school for learning how to do comedy. My education was watching the greats of comedy to see what they did to become great. I had to spend a lot of time observing what other comedians before me did.

I also had to spend a lot of time educating myself about show business. The term “show business” really needs to be recognized as two separate words. If I have a great show, it is because everybody who came to see me enjoyed themselves. But there's no business in show business if I don't know how to book myself and charge for my shows appropriately. It could be a great show, but without the proper steps in place, there is no business. On the flip side, I could have a good business sense and know how to get booked everywhere, but if I'm not funny, I won't be invited back.

Another part of your makeup that is essential for your success is learning how to be open. You can't get so stuck in how you do things that you aren't open to seeing and doing things in a different way.

Some of you may feel like you already have your life together. Let me be the first to tell you congratulations. Now that you have it all together, let me ask you this: What's next? Knowing what's next is paramount to your success. The what's next is the reason to keep waking up. The what's next is the driving force for all successful people. There always has to be a what's next.

You might already be a millionaire. Again, congratulations on your success. But in order to stay a millionaire you have to make more millions. You can't sell the same book. You can't tell the same joke. You can't keep singing the same song. You have to write a new book, tell a new joke, sing a new song.

So, I ask you again—what's next? There has to be a reason to get up tomorrow. There has to be a reason to go forward. Your calling has to be stronger than your current circumstances to help your dream keep moving forward.

Every person's unique gift will dictate how he or she will operate in the world. Someone who specializes in working with children will need to be patient and caring, while stockbrokers will need to be sharp, exact, and quick on their feet. If you aren't sure what traits you need to work on, think about the skills for which people give you the most compliments. Are you good with details, great at connecting with new people, or proficient at setting up a good meeting? Catalog your skills and put in the work to make them even better.

Next, take stock of the characteristics that people constantly tell you that you need to improve on. For example, are you prone to skipping steps, or do you become frustrated during tight deadlines? Don't just chalk up poor characteristics to “Well, that's just the way I am.” Remember that perfecting your character is as much a part of your development as executing your gift.

Outside of taking your own self-inventory, who are the people you admire and respect in your industry, your house of worship, or your community? Talk to them about how they learned to stay cool under pressure, or ask them about the makeup they used to become the type of leaders they are. Trust me, they didn't get to where they are overnight, and any good leaders worth their salt will be more than willing to pour good wisdom and knowledge into your life to help you grow and succeed.

Be the kind of man or woman you want to be by taking on the right makeup, which will make room for your gift and lead you to the best opportunities for expanding it to an even wider audience and a bigger stage.

T
here is a Scripture in Psalms that says, “The steps of a good man [or woman] are ordered by the Lord.” I interpreted this Scripture in my life to mean that walking into my destiny is a step-by-step process. I truly believe that God provides all of us with the right steps to get to the right place at the right time. As we continue uncovering how to maximize your gift and finding the best opportunities for using your talents, we're now going to look at how to turn these steps into practical goals for your future.

We all have dreams about the life that we truly want to live. Some people take the leap of faith to walk into their dreams, while others remain on the sidelines waiting for a magical moment to happen. What separates the dreamers from the doers?
Goals
. I don't care how vivid your dreams are: Without goals, your dreams will remain a someday phenomenon instead of today's reality. Goals are the key ingredient that helps us stay focused, consistent, and diligent on our path to achieving our dreams.

Another way to think about moving your dreams into goals is to imagine that you are climbing a mountain. Your dream is the summit. Every good mountain climber starts out on his journey with his mind focused on the summit. Every step forward, every pull of the rope, and even every pause to regain energy is executed by focusing on his goal. Once he reaches the top, he takes a moment to rest, regroup, refuel, and relish in his victory. But every true climber knows that this is just another leg of the bigger journey. Reaching one summit can never be it for the true climber—each time that he pushes his lungs harder, climbs higher, and scales an even more dangerous rock, he knows that it's just preparation for the next journey.

Wherever you are on the mountain—the top, the bottom, midway up, at the rest stop, at the first-aid station, or even poised to stick the flag in the summit—trust and believe that I have been at all those places in my life. I have stuck the flag in the summit. I have been at the rescue station, the first-aid station. I have been halfway up and fallen all the way back down. I have been caught in a cave. I have fallen in between the cracks and crevices of the mountain. I have been trapped on the mountain. I have been covered by an avalanche on the mountain. You name it, on this mountain, I have done it all. I have been told to not even bother climbing because, they said, I didn't have what it takes to make the climb.

I want you to start thinking of your goals as your personal climb to the top of your dream mountain. You can't just expect to wake up tomorrow and become a millionaire, or have your product be a worldwide sensation overnight, or get the position you have been coveting. What goals are you willing to put in place to make your dreams come true?

I know that goals can often be overwhelming if you take in the full picture at one time, but think about how you can break down your climb into smaller sections. You know yourself better than anyone else, so be honest about what will keep you motivated and inspired. Do you need to take this journey with someone else to ensure that you will keep your word? Will it be better to go solo to stay focused? What kind of milestones do you need to keep yourself on track? Are there better times to execute certain parts of your journey than others? These are good questions to keep in mind as you work your way toward your dream.

Goals are essential because they give you realistic, measurable, and specific targets. They are necessary benchmarks that give you the energy, confidence, and assurance to keep moving in the right direction toward your dream. They can also serve as a handy map for attaining your dreams.

If step one in your journey to become a small-business owner is to do research with a shop owner whom you admire, then pick up the phone, input the number, and have that conversation. A goal is
not
saying, “Yeah, I've been meaning to talk with Mr. Smith about opening my own shop,” and then allowing that statement to fall flat by not following up with some action.

You also have to set up your goals in a way that ensures your success. I know you're excited now that you have this book in your hands and you can really see yourself opening up that bookstore and café you've always dreamed of. But don't sprint out of the gate to apply for that small-business loan or seek angel investors if you don't have a solid business plan in place. I definitely want you to make big goals, but don't make them so far outside your comfort zone that you set yourself up for failure. If you honestly don't know where to begin, start by just setting up a regular time in your calendar to focus on your dream. If you have an hour to yourself after you drop the kids off at soccer practice, sit down in your favorite spot and make that your goal time. If there is someone in your church or your community group whom you can recruit for some conversations, allow them to help you chart out your goal process.

Your goals also need to be tailored to your gift, your skill set, and your lifestyle. I don't expect a forty-year-old, married mom of three to work toward her goals at the same pace as a twenty-five-year-old single man. The woman has an entirely different set of responsibilities that may require more members on her team to help her achieve her goals. By the same token, the twenty-five-year-old man may need more mentors and visionaries to make up for his lack of experience. Create your goals for
you
. Don't waste your energy dwelling on how someone else did what you want to do or how fast they made their goal a reality. Embrace
your
journey and the path God has for
you
.

One of the most popular methods for creating good goals is the SMART method. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-Sensitive. Here are some key steps to keep in mind as you put the SMART method in place for your goals:

        
•
     
MAKE YOUR GOALS SPECIFIC
.
Your goals are not just other random ideas floating around in your head. Your goals must be well defined and crystal clear. Create your goals with your ultimate summit—your dream—in mind.

        
•
     
DEFINE YOUR MEASURES
.
Now that you've taken your goal out of your head and brought it closer to reality, how will you measure your success? Will it be getting new certifications over the next six months? Or will you increase your customer base for your side gig by 25 percent so that you can make this your full-time income within the next two years? Put your measures into real dates, times, and amounts so that you can quantify your goals. If you're a person who needs some fire under you to keep going, ask a like-minded person to hold you accountable for your measures.

        
•
     
AIM FOR THE ATTAINABLE . . . AND THEN STRETCH A LITTLE MORE
.
As you start out on your journey toward success, your goals should be attainable
and
should push you outside your comfort zone. For example, if you are in the process of courting investors to take your business to the next level, set up a conversation with that “big person” who you would never think would be interested in your business plan. He or she just may surprise you and get on board with an investment to knock your socks off, and you will surprise yourself by learning just how big you can be in the pursuit of your dream.

        
•
     
GET REAL AND RELEVANT
.
There is nothing worse than having a goal that has you running in circles. Make your goals relevant to your finish line. If you are committed to launching your idea on social media, don't waste your time posting and liking things on Facebook. Get your priorities straight and stay focused on goals that will keep you moving forward.

        
•
     
TAILOR YOUR TIME
.
Your goals must have a deadline. When I started out as a comedian, there were certain goals I had each year for the kind of money that I wanted to make in the industry. Not that I was solely focused on the dollar amount, but having time-related benchmarks helped me to create better comedy sets, network with more people in the industry, and carve out a solid path for my future.

Once you start achieving your goals using the SMART method, what's next? Next, I'm going to introduce you to the SETUP process. The SETUP process is simply asking yourself the following questions as you begin knocking out your goals: