Taking the third step to being your best

 (Part 3 of 4)

“Ang hirap naman!” It’s so hard! is the common complaint.

How do I be my best? It seems too complex, difficult if not tedious!

And Henry Ford was right again: “Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t–you’re right.”

But wait, couldn’t it be easy and fun, and be a standard action that doesn’t require too much effort and just be normal? Yeah! How can being your BEST be easy, if not fun?

Here’s an analogy. Remember when you first learned to brush your teeth as a young kid? Did it seem natural or fun at the start?

Most would say not. We were probably forced, cajoled, bribed, or threatened into brushing our teeth at the start. We probably resisted and were supervised while we protested until we learned to surrender, accept…then begin to have fun with the white bubbles and minty taste of the toothpaste. At first we had to be reminded or we forgot, and we had to decide to take the steps: get our toothbrush; spread the paste; begin to brush. In due time, brushing teeth became a part of our daily routine. It became a regular activity, then a habit. “Habit,” according to dictionary.com, is “an acquired behavior pattern regularly followed until it has become almost involuntary; mental character or disposition.”

We no longer had to consciously decide and remind ourselves to brush our teeth. Brushing just became part of who we were. Having clean teeth defined us. It was part of our identity, and the organized whole that was our day.

The tooth-brushing analogy introduces and explains the third part to a four-part series on “the secrets” of entrepreneurship: Being your BEST!

Believing in yourself and in your dream,

Enthusiasm as a chosen emotional state of excitement,

Systematically going through your chosen activity-job-business, and

Time allocation; what you focus and act on is what you get.

If we look at the steps and learning process of how brushing our teeth became a personal habit, we’re in a way looking at the Dictionary.com definition of “system,” or “any formulated, regular, or special method or plan of procedure: a system of marking, numbering, or measuring; a winning system at bridge.”

So where do we get or learn the system from?

Here’s the easy part. We don’t have to invent the successful system to bring us to our goal or desired outcome. We can copy. Now, is there only one or a few systems that will work for me? What is the best system for my needs?

The answer lies in how you copy. Look over your shoulder and copy beyond the person or system beside you. Copy from the best and the brightest! Copy from the valedictorian of the class, from the most successful who has demonstrated success in the target that you want to reach. If your goal is to be a millionaire, copy from the millionaires that you know personally, or from doers that you can get to know through the books and videos that show and tell millionaire habits and systems that they followed.

Assignment. This week, list down five millionaires or people whose lives and results you like and would like to copy. Look each one up. Then list three or five qualities, attitudes, behaviors, habits, ways of acting and speaking that struck you about each of these five persons. List them on your notebook journal and see how you can copy them in your own life today. Then notice yourself, how different you are, as you copy these qualities and habits in your daily life and make them your own.

“System,” from the Greek “systema,” means “organized whole”

Jorge “Jerry” Perez de Tagle, lives in the US and the Philippines, is an author and change management consultant for the private and public sector. He taught at Syracuse University, New York and has his PhD in Social Change, Honoris Causa, and is a PhD Candidate in Organization Development. He was one of the 10 Outstanding Entrepreneurs in 2009 and is now the National Chairman of The Way to Happiness Philippines Foundation, and is the Vice President for Global Outreach and International Relations with the US Federation of Philippine American Chamber of Commerce.