On the other side of that line was freedom — the kind of freedom that can never be taken away from you. It was freedom from our self-imposed limitations. Although through our training we have grown to believe that running 52 consecutive miles was possible, none of us really believed in our heart of hearts that it was probable. As individuals, each of us struggled with their own fear and self-doubt. But the moment we cross that finish line, we have given ourselves the gift of freedom from our fears, our self-doubt, and our self-imposed limitations.
take ownership and stewardship over all of your decisions, actions, and outcomes, starting right now. Replace unnecessary blame with unwavering responsibility. Even if someone else drops that ball, ask yourself what you could have done — and, more importantly, what you can do in the future — to prevent that ball from being dropped again. While you can’t change what’s in the past, the good news is that you can change everything else.
... you will transform your ability to produce consistent and spectacular entrepreneurial results. You must create a foundational schedule that adds structure and intentionality to your days and weeks. A foundational schedule is a pre-determined, recurring schedule that is made up of focused time blocks dedicated to your highest priority activities.
Your life right now — everything from your work and your health to your relationships and your finances — is the result of choices you’ve made in the past. The job you have right now is a choice that you made at some point. And, whether you realize it or not, a choice you’ve made every day since. You can tell yourself that you have to do the work you do, but the truth is, you don’t. It’s a choice. Are you carrying around ten or twenty pounds of lifestyle-related fat? That’s the result of thousands of choices that you made over recent days, weeks, months and years. How about your significant other, or your close friendships? They’re all choices. Your furniture, the food in your fridge, the car you drive. They’re all choices. They are all, without exception, the results of your past behavior. The same thing applies to wealth.
It is important to understand that responsibility is not the same as blame. While blame determines who is at fault for something, responsibility determines who is committed to improving things. Thinking back to my accident, while the drunk driver was at fault for the crash, I was responsible for improving my life — for making my circumstances what I wanted them to be. It really doesn’t matter who is at fault — all that matters is that you and I are committed to leaving the past in the past and making our lives exactly the way we want them to be, starting today.