47 Years, 47 Lessons
Tomorrow is my 47th birthday.
When you have had as many birthdays as I have, you get less excited for the cake and the candles. You worry if your best years might be behind you. You question if the last year was spent wisely. You contemplate if what you did in the last 365 days mattered in the “big scheme” of things.
Today, as I spent this morning realizing I have spent almost a half a century on earth, I started of reviewing the last year. Did I give enough? Did I make those days count? Did I use the last year wisely to become more?
I discovered today the answer is “yes’” and that I HAD YOU TO THANK FOR IT!
As I reviewed my last 52 emails, I realized I had grown in so many ways. Thanks to you forcing me to develop myself in order to have something to share with you, I have become more and know my best years are still ahead.
To thank you, instead of focusing on what I might GET for my birthday, today I thought about what I could GIVE back. Here are my 47 birthday gifts to you:
MY BIGGEST LESSONS FROM THE LAST 365 DAYS
Each week I started writing with a big idea. Here are 47 of my favorites from the last year to help you over the next 365 days.
1. It is not where you live, it is how you live that counts.
2. Being brave doesn’t mean you lack the fear of doing something. Being brave means doing something even if you lack the courage.
3. It’s a big mistake to continue to carry around your last big mistake.
4. You want what others don’t have? Then get comfortable doing what others won’t do.
5. If you want to focus on being more influential, focus more on “them” not “you.”
6. You can become anything with enough effort and time. The secret isn’t knowing this but getting started.
7. The three best ways to exchange time for getting good at anything are practice, practice and practice.
8. Don’t take on commitments you have no intention to keep.
9. Every moment counts. And you never know when a moment will be a great moment so treat them all as special.
10. Your addictions will be as negative or positive as the actions you choose to repeatedly take.
11. Each day you have a choice: you either increase or decrease in value. Period.
12. Your life will be a result of the questions you ask. Don’t ask, don’t learn.
13. Everyone wants to be remembered.
14. History is written by those who make the wake. Not by those who ride on it nor by those who watch safely from the shore.
15. The way to be available to yourself is to be unavailable to everyone else.
16. Your past does not predict your future.
17. Success Secret: Your personal power only grows when you do.
18. How you can unleash your own personal power? By regaining control of and releasing what’s been holding you back.
19. If someone is going to give you a rejection, let it be someone else than you.
20. Before you can be a goal getter, you have to be a goal setter.
21. Don’t just look at what an opportunity costs you if you take it, but also at what it could cost you if you don’t.
22. The main purpose of a coach is to be there to offer encouragement.
23. No one ever deserved a monument for being monumentally selfish.
24. You haven’t really been rejected until you give up and quit.
25. The answers you seek are already inside of you. You just have to have the courage to ask.
26. Sometimes you have to stop in order to remember where and why you started.
27. The only reason a successful plan won’t work for you is that you are “too busy” to use it.
28. Discover a need in the world that involves something bigger than your own personal desires. Match that need with your passion and you are on to something big.
29. The secret to success isn’t talent. It is persistence.
30. If you see something nice, say something nice.
31. In order to reach your dreams, you will need a team and sometimes be ok with having to ask for a little push for help.
32. When you spend your life doing what you were “born to do,” your life will become a constant adventure.
33. Doing something is usually better than doing nothing.
34. Being “there” is not the same as being present. “Being present” is to actually be there fully engaged in the moment instead of being distracted by something or someone else.
35. The big stuff often happens after someone tells you “no.”
36. Addressing “issues” before they become “big problems” can change and or save your life.
37. Every day you will be faced with “uncertainty.” During those moments of uncertainty, you have a choice to operate in fear or faith. Choose faith and you will have a lot more to celebrate than fear.
38. Fear is not always destructive. It can also be instructive.
39. Without knowing where you are going leads to fear and doubt. No one just gets in their car with no set place to go. In life, however, people do this every day.
40. Great people get excited about the things they cannot yet do.
41. Life is cumulative. Whatever you do or don’t do will add up to who you eventually become.
42. It is up to you whether your life will or won’t stay the same.
43. A flexible mind is an open mind. With a flexible mind you have the potential to explore new ways of thinking, adapt to new situations and breakthrough old habits to develop new skills.
44. Your happiness will be a byproduct of your perspective. A better perspective on every experience is out there. Your responsibility to yourself to find it.
45. Fear happens when you go into uncharted territory. Fear also often accompanies new things. But when you have acted brave, you are stronger for the future.
46. Being out of balance is a normal part of life. You just have to feel the signs and address them so you don’t go too far without correcting them. If you don’t you might fall on your face.
47. Your life will be composed of a number of events. Some will go to plan. Some won’t. Some will end in disaster. But your destiny will be according to your choice how you respond and move on. You will learn is not one event, but the sum of all your events that count.
If you have been reading my emails, you know each week I have shared my personal stories and lessons with you in order to help you navigate this adventure we call “life.” You may see some of the ideas as a “gift” that has helped you to become more. But because I am determined to find those “gifts” for you, you helped to make last year one of my best years yet.
Thank you again for reading my work and forcing me to become more. I hope you take advantage of the offers and use them to improve your life and the lives of others. That would be the best gift of all.
Yours in Strength,
Martin
P.S. Do you have a favorite lesson above? Let me know which one has helped you in the last 365 days! Write me at mrooney@trainingforwarriors.com and let me know!
