Battling complacency is one of the toughest things for any highly functioning, self-motivated person. You go through periods where you have ups and downs, wins and losses – sometimes more of one than the other. But even at a point where you find yourself winning over and over again, you always have to be looking at how to up your game. Up your mental game, physical game, the game of how you live your life. Be better every day.

Years ago, a really smart guy told me that if you come into work every day focused on being better than you were the day before, you would have a great career. I received that advice about 15 years ago. I teach it to many people. Yet, even I sometimes find myself guilty of forgetting that every day you have to be better than you were the day before. Every day requires more of everything you’ve got to give. Not just your ability, salesmanship, personality, or general care for people. But how you think, work, and operate. They will all drive you to up your game.

Upping your game is not something you can read a book about or that a friend can tell you over a cold beer one afternoon. Upping your game is a constant mental challenge you must put on yourself to go after increased intensity,  better results, and being one step better at all times – even when you’re at the absolute top. That is what upping your game is really about.

It’s not always easy, and it never will be. This year, I took a focus to up my game in all aspects of my life. I wanted to up my physical game, so I began working out not just a couple of days a week, but in some way every way a week. I wanted to up my game and grow my business. So, we didn’t just grow a little, we’ve grown a lot. And I wanted to up my game with time spent around my family. As a result, I’ve traveled less this year than I ever have, excluding the pandemic.

That is how you truly set your sights on upping your game and live it every single day. Always push yourself to be better than you were the day before.

Through all the years I’ve been working, one thing has become abundantly clear. There is a certain number of people out there who not only hope you are not successful, they actually wish it.

As shocking as that may sound, you may think everybody has your back all the time. But the truth of the matter is that they don’t. People can be envious of those who are able to and have done great things.

One thing I’m always keenly aware of is that there is a certain number of people around me who are waiting to see me fail. That’s why you have to take your work ethic to a whole other level to be successful. That’s why you have to not just wish for something to happen, but work for something to happen.

When you have such a militant conviction of what you are doing and why you are doing it – there is no question why you are doing it and there will be zero chance of failure.

People not only hope you don’t succeed, they stand by and wish for you not to succeed. It’s a sad thing to think about, but it’s really just human nature. Some people see others and what they’re able to accomplish, and it just bothers them to their very core. They’re not able to understand why some people can pull off such feats. But the ironic thing about it – and I know exactly who a lot of them are – is there have been people who have stood around and hoped, wished, even prayed for me to fail.

Those people seem to exert themselves away from me. What I find is that the more people who fail around me by hoping I fail, the more that I am able to succeed. It’s something to be cognizant of, but the moral of this story is that you cannot wish for anything to happen. You have to work for it, and you have to make it happen on your own.

The one thing I have learned over the last 19 years in business, with 17 of those having my own business, is the power of change. This time 19 years ago, I was selling newspaper inserts to Pontiac dealers. Ironic now that there are few newspapers with minimal printed circulation and Pontiac has been gone for over a decade now. Even before the pandemic of 2020 hit, my business and my world were in constant change. Then with all the events of the last 18 months, change has never been as prevalent. I personally have never been so inspired by change as I am now.

Yes, inspired by change. Most people fear it, but I have grown to love it. The challenge you get from having to change a course or direction. The humility you have to have to say the way you have been doing something for so many years needs to now be done a new way, and your old way was wrong. The grit you must have to invest time and capital into brand new things that may or may not succeed, but you are willing to bet your money and reputation on them. The new people and ideas that you get to experience when you have no fear of change. These are the main things that I have come to love about change.

To me, maybe the easiest part about embracing change is the confidence to know there is always a way to make it work. Regardless of whatever “it” might be, there are people smart enough to figure it out and enough enthusiasm surrounding you to will something new to work. You never want to make a change for the sake of change – but as my life and business both continue to steamroll forward, the ability to see, accept and understand change may be the greatest gift I have been given yet.

Although it may be easier for some people to read than actually do – never fear change. Because change is going to come in a variety of different things and the more you are ready to embrace it, the more fun and success you will have.

As I start to get older in life and in my career, it is becoming more clear what the true value of time means. You try to create different spaces or sectors of time – time reserved for working, time reserved for family and friends – and time spent doing things you enjoy, such as hobbies or things of interest.

With the value of time being so much more important, it is also clear how to maximize the investment of your time. Do you spend time with someone who gives you the greatest return? Not just a great return in money, but in enjoyment. Do you spend time with someone who doesn’t listen to what you say or what you recommend, and you will probably never be able to help? Do you let other people monopolize your time and run all over it where you never really have control of your time?

One major habit of mine is making a daily list. I wouldn’t say I make it every single day, but with the exception of maybe 2-3 days a month, I make a very detailed list each day as to what I want to accomplish. Usually, my list is all work-related items, although sometimes other things get mixed in there. My list guides me each day, and by the time of day and the number of things I have crossed off, it tells me how much progress is being made by that point in the day. My list allows me to take control of my own time and spend it working on things that I want to work on or think need my attention.

You always have to allow for interruptions in your well-crafted schedule of time – an unplanned phone call or impromptu meeting – but the rest of your plan can really be adhered to if you have a plan for your time.

The other thing that takes bigger-picture thinking is the question of whether you are spending your time where it counts. Meaning, are you working on something that may never happen, or are you spending your time on things that stand to give you the best possible outcomes? There is a book I read a few years ago called “The Energy Bus” that talked a lot about “energy vampires” – these are people who occupy so much of your energy because of their own needs that they end up sucking all your energy away. I have really started to think who around me are “time vampires,” meaning those who you invest a lot of time in that continually waste it.

The difference has to be understood when you mix all your different sectors of time, though. Just because my 3-year-old son Ford doesn’t really understand what I am telling him, it doesn’t mean I feel like I am wasting my time by spending it with him. But being intentional with my time in all aspects of my life is what I have seen more clearly now than ever before.

While traveling earlier in the week, I had several hours of driving. I’ve always loved to drive on trips that aren’t too far away because it gives you time to think. You can think about where you’ve been, what your past has prepared you for, and what lies ahead of you – not just in your career, but in your life. While taking a little time to reflect on the past, one thing that came to mind was confidence.

A highly successful person years ago told me that the only thing that separated highly successful people from everyone else was their self-confidence. They had the confidence to do whatever it is they’re doing, and go in whichever direction it is they’re going, without any limitations or hesitations.

As I thought through that, I thought about myself a lot. And I thought about other people who say things when meeting people for the first time. Things like, did you see how that guy was dressed? or did you see what kind of jewelry so-and-so was wearing? I’ve never been a person who has ever looked at other people with any type of envy. And I think that comes from being a highly confident person.

This isn’t a post to brag about being confident, but to reinstate the value of having self-confidence. When you’re self-confident, you walk into a room and you’re interested only in what your goal is. Your interests do not lie in how somebody’s dressed, what kind of shoes they’re wearing, or what their purse looks like. You’re in there for your purpose and your purpose only. That’s what separates those who are able to achieve great things from those who always look at people who are able to achieve great things.

This is in no way to say that I have more self-confidence than everybody. But from a very young age in my career, I never had any fear or doubt. I may not have the biggest personality, the biggest company, or be the most successful, but one thing I’ve always had at a very high level is a very big self-confidence.

As I write this, I have just stepped foot on the ground in California. It’s really pretty cool considering that this time a week ago I was in upstate New York only about 100 miles from the Canadian border.

With a string of mantras like “Never Stop” and “Catch Me if You Can,” it is kind of fitting that in one week I have crisscrossed the country making stops back home in Alabama, spending a few days in Texas, Utah, and now am soaking up the California sun. There are still meetings to go and people to impress, but it does give me an extreme feeling of accomplishment to cover as much ground and touch as many clients as I have in such a short time. It is also more than a little bit of fun to be out of the office, away from day-to-day issues and problems that just seem to drag on and on.

The last 18 months have been very different for me and my career. As I have written about, there were times of solitude it seemed like when I couldn’t travel and was grounded and living in a shelter-in-place atmosphere like everyone else. Then, there were times of near depression when business seemed like it was in a bottomless free fall and nobody had any idea what was going to happen and how long it was going to last. Not going to make light of it, there were more than a few very dark days. This was followed by a steady climb to a recovery where getting back on top and feeling the thrill of growing and expanding in new areas and doing things differently than we have done before and yielding great benefit. Now is the reward of adding so many life-changing experiences in such a short 18 month time that it has given me so much more knowledge, courage, humility, and grit that I feel like a whole new person.

I now feel an overwhelming sense that there is more to do. This simply isn’t enough, and with the ability to move fast and cover a lot of ground, there will be so many more opportunities made available, and there is a more talented and capable team around me in place to handle it all. This isn’t just about work either. The people (and some lack of people) now in my life and that surround me just seem better. Everyone seems in a better place, is more interested in things that really matter, not just random BS that sometimes surrounds your group of friends and family. I guess you could call it a “Covid Culling” where people who did bring drama to daily life have simply removed themselves from day-to-day thoughts and activities.

This is also a time where I have made more focus on my physical abilities, not just what is happening mentally. Working out more has become a focus of each week, and not just working out more, but almost to the point of exhaustion. Reducing the amount that I drink has made me more active and generated more energy. I haven’t had a cup of coffee in over a year now, started to drink hot tea, but even have cut that almost completely out as of late. I began a daily regimen of vitamins, am now sleeping better, and have minimized the stress that is in my life.

All of these things combined are allowing me to move fast and cover more ground. The mental and physical combination brought on by the events of the last 18 months has reinvented who I am and what I am working to build. Not just build in my career, but in my life. I have always liked to move fast, but now find a whole new gear that nobody can keep up with.

Many people never really understand the true meaning of the word “persistence.”

When you continually work towards something that may seem like an insurmountable or unattainable task but never give up and continue trying until you accomplish your goal. That is my definition of persistence. I had a good reminder of this week of why being persistent truly pays off, and why most people don’t have the stomach or patience to endure being persistent.

There was a piece of new business that I had been working on for almost two years that, at times, I thought was very close and, at other times, the thought crossed my mind to throw in the towel and give up. For almost two years, I had made several trips across the country to meet with some very nice people who own and run the business, but everything from long term contracts with current vendors, to Covid, state mandated closures, business booms and now inventory shortages had kept this business unobtainable.

While being persistent, I also exercised patience in my dealings and communications. The owners would call or give me small projects that probably really weren’t worth a lot of my time in the grand scheme of things, but I warmly accepted each project knowing that it would hopefully get me one step closer to my end goal. Sometimes, the projects were frustrating, and others were at times easy projects. But what I failed to realize until this week was that each project was proving to them my ability to perform and execute in a very flawless manner.

And then it happened. All at once, when I took them a very well-thought-out plan that showed a tremendous value and fulfilled a need that I had observed over the last two years, it all came together and I won the business. No flashy presentation, no great speech, no discounted rates or concessions – just being that consistent vendor that I had proven to be with a value proposition of what I could bring to the table made it all happen.  No bells or whistles, no frills, just a great business model that would prove to make them more successful than they are without me is what was communicated.

It felt great. It was also a little scary because I see how much work is now required, but for me, that is no problem. The business came by two years of grit and determination and a mindset of persistence – with a never-give-up attitude.

The next time life throws a wrench in your plans (or a series of wrenches – like the last two years in this case) all you need to do is remember one word.: persistence.

After an unprecedented week of tropical storms flooding wet weather across the country – which I’ve been glued to the Weather Channel and watched pretty much religiously all week – I’m reminded of the current economic client. There are ups, and there are downs. Just like in business and in life. It’s really easy to let yourself get a cloudy perspective and to let one negative thing turn you around and give you a negative outlook on life. But as I watched the weather across the country this week, the one thing that I reminded myself of was that it’s always sunny somewhere. The sun is always shining on people who have positive attitudes.

Now, this is not a post about staying positive. But it’s a reminder to not let yourself be clouded by one situation or instance. Don’t let your mind go into a negative place if a string of bad things happens to you. It’s not that you have bad luck or that you aren’t a good person, you simply have to keep finding where the sun is. The sun is always shining somewhere, and the more you keep yourself in a sunny mindset, the more you keep yourself from being cloudy. And when you keep yourself from being cloudy, you have a great perspective on both your life and your business.

As it seems we’re always so busy that we never find time to get everything done, or so busy that we can’t find enough time to do the things we want to do, I’ve recently reminded myself how important it is to find time to help those even if you know there is nothing they are going to do right now to help you in return.

I came across a quote the other day, not by anybody famous, but that I had written down in a notebook when I was 24 years old. It said, “Never forget how important you can make somebody feel by going out of your way to help them if they deserve it.” Recently, I’ve started putting that into practice with very little things. Not all business-related, but helping people in various aspects of their lives. From the smallest thing like giving a small gift, or paying somebody more attention than you typically would, to very large efforts like trying to find friends or former employees a job to help them out. By doing this, it has given me a very renewed sense of appreciation for how many people helped me along the way. How many people helped me when I was just getting started and nobody was lining up to help me. How important it was to me the first time I got a big break, and there were people standing around willing to help me.

The moral of the story is to take time when things come at you completely out of nowhere to make a difference by being extra special to somebody who needs your time more than you do at the moment.

Sometimes, I am baffled at what an instant response or a decisive action can do in a situation.

Having never been a person who likes to procrastinate and thrives on making quick decisions, it has seemed to pay off in my favor more times than it has failed me. With decisions in business and life, the longer I wait around on something to happen or scour my mind back and forth on a matter, the outcome generally doesn’t happen the way I want it to. Making fast decisions and never looking back has cost me some things in the past but has paid dividends many times over because of my nature.

To me, the faster you can make a decision means the sooner that you can get something off your plate and off your mind and move on to something else. I think this is why my capacity for tasks, projects, virtually anything has always been great because I just cannot stand to sit still. That is not in everyone’s nature to want to take risks and be willing to not take a lot of time to methodically think through every situation, but sometimes you just need to trust your instincts and go in the direction you originally think is the right way to go.

Just last week, I was served up an opportunity for growth. A way to grow my business, which meant making a split decision to hop on a plane and fly across the country with nothing more than a day’s notice. It was a prime example of thinking fast and not hesitating. The opportunity seemed right, made sense, and would only cost me a little bit of time and a few thousand miles. So, as another example, I made a split-second decision and made a commitment to go and throw caution to the wind. I traveled to a state that I had only been to once before to meet someone I had only had one phone conversation, with but was willing to trust the instinct of acting fast and trying to capitalize.

As I write this note, I am now flying back home from across the country and a very successful trip is coming back with me. If I had waited a couple of weeks to do a little more research on the project, you never know what might have or have not happened. All I know is that you strike when the iron is hot and be as aggressive as you can to make things happen.

This isn’t an “I told everybody so” type of note – rather, a motivator for whoever may read it to quit waiting on things to happen. Go out and make them happen. If you see something that you want or have a goal you want to conquer – go do it. It is all up to you, and things can happen as fast or as slow as you want them to.