Listen to Others

If you remember the three dog night song, “One”, you are probably in your fifties. The song begins with the truism, “One is the loneliest number that you ever knew.” That is as true in business as it is in personal relationships.
In academics, every professor stands on the shoulders of the professors who trained him.
In athletics success is only achieved as a team. Even in single sports such as boxing, the pugilist is only the point man of a team consisting of his manager, trainer, sparing partner, promoter and others who prepared the man and made the event possible.
Every successful business man’s level of success is determined in large part by his ability to manage a triage of information from his attorney, accountant, marketing expert, advertising firm and host of others who make him successful.
Among other concerns, we have a network marketing business. Our success comes from listening to those who have succeeded before us and personalizing their attitudes and techniques.
To succeed in any endeavor, learn to listen with an open mind and share with humility.
Ed Wills
WFA Franchise Consultants

Surround Yourself with Successful Friends

Remember when you make friends, that your friends will make you.
If you spend time with people who are positive and uplifting, they will encourage you in your dreams, offer good advice concerning your endeavors and help you reach your goals.
If you spend time with people who are negative and complaining, they will discourage you from dreaming, shoot down your ideas and do their best to keep you from accomplishing anything.
If you spend all your time around ducks, eventually you will start to quack.
If you spend all your time around eagles, pretty soon you will start to soar.
Ed Wills
WFA Franchise Consultants

Own Your Goals

Too often we accept the goals of others that are thrust upon us by our boss, parents, spouse or society as a whole.
The aspirations of others may make sense to us, but they won't inspire us.
If your goals are going to truly inspire you, they must be your own.
What do you want from your life?
Answer that question and you will never lack motivation.
If your goal doesn't jazz you when you get up in the morning, and inspire you to work towards its accomplishment, you need to rethink your goal.
Ed Wills
WFA Franchise Consultants

Faith and Patience

The Bible says, “The promises of God are received by faith and patience.”
As important as belief, positive thinking, goal setting, planning and consistent action are in achieving your goals. Patience is also required.
I know a man who is fond of saying, “I can’t think of a goal I set for myself that I haven’t achieved. But I seldom achieved them on my initial timeline.” Life happens, and things can slow us down. We need to give ourselves permission to take longer than we expected.
Detours are to be expected in life.
The important thing is that you are on the right path, not how far you have gone. The journey is made up of small steps taken one at a time. Just keep taking steps and you will reach your destination.
Ed Wills
WFA Franchise Consultants

Desire

We can learn a lot from children. When they want something bad enough, they just won’t quit until they get it.
Desire is the key to the drive that can get you what you want in life. Too often we desire so many things that we can’t focus on what we truly want long enough to work consistently at it.
Keep focused on what you want. Pursue it with the tenacity of a child.
Ed Wills
WFA Franchise Consultants

Choices

Life doesn’t just happen; it’s all about choices.
Choices produce action. Consistent action produces habits.
Who makes your choices? Your boss? Your spouse? Your stomach?
If you finish a meal and say to yourself, “I can’t believe I ate so much. I didn’t intend to.” Then, your stomach is making your choices.
If you purchase something that looked really appealing in the advertisement, that you didn’t really need or want, the advertisers are making your choices.
The way to make your own choices is to define your life by principles and stick to them consistently until you have formed a habit.
Start today.
Write down one new habit you want to form within yourself.
Phrase it as a life principle.
Memorize it and repeat it to yourself often throughout the day.
Practice it consistently for 30 days.
Then look back and take stock on your life.
You will be amazed at how your life can improve when you start making your own choices.
Ed Wills
WFA Franchise Consultants

Habits

You create your habits by the actions you choose. But soon your habits choose your actions without consulting you.
This is not necessarily a bad thing, for a habit can be good or bad.
Smoking is a bad habit.
Kindness is a good habit.
Choose actions that create successful habits.
Choose to make a habit of investing 10% of your income.
Choose to make a habit of understanding your customer’s perspective.
Choose to make a habit of making friends and enriching relationships.
Choose to make a habit of never saying, “I don’t know” without immediately going to find out.
Choose to make a habit of only touching a paper once, either to file it or to trash it.
Choose to make a habit of always doing more than you are asked.
These and many other habits, once engendered, will make you successful in whatever you do.
And remember, if you choose to do nothing, that is its own habit.
Ed Wills
WFA Franchise Consultants

Giving and Receiving

“Give and it will be given to you.” These words of Jesus form the first principle of success. No one can succeed by focusing on what’s in it for them. That’s the way of the multitude, and they’re broke.
The successful person focuses on what they can do for others. Success naturally follows.
It’s the teacher who gives the most to his student who is named teacher of the year.
It’s the coach who empowers his players who is offered the big coaching job.
It’s the employee who does the most for his company who gets the promotion.
If you want to receive big things in life, do big things for others.
Ed Wills
WFA Franchise Consultants

Confidence

You will never achieve if you never try.
You will never try if you don’t have confidence you will succeed.
Confidence is key to success in any endeavor. Whether it is education or family, sports or business, you must believe in yourself and your ability to succeed. But there is often a fine line between confident and cocky.
Confidence is based on reality. Cockiness is based on ego.
Cockiness will cause you to overestimate your current abilities and overreach your grasp.
To build confidence, set small goals and keep records of their accomplishment. As your abilities grow, set larger goals and continue to keep track. Soon your confidence will be growing and stretching your abilities until you are doing things you never thought possible before.
Ed Wills
WFA Franchise Consultants

Focus on the Process

It is a common mistake to make a wish list instead of a goal list. We think of the things we want – new car, new house, family vacation. But for goals to be effective, they must be process oriented.
If you are in sales and you want a new car, don’t make a new car your goal, make a 15% increase in sales your goal. Visualize your prospects becoming your customers and your customers increasing their consumption.
Create process oriented goals that you have 100% control over. If you are a student and you want higher grades, make additional study time one of your goals. If you are a husband who wants a better relationship with your wife, make writing two love letters a week one of your goals.
When goals are 1) process oriented, and 2) under your complete control, your desired result will take care of itself.
Ed Wills
WFA Franchise Consultants

Always Be Improving

How do you excel at what you do? Very simple - keep getting better.
In a society of instant food and instant entertainment, we often think we should enjoy instant proficiency or instant success. Well, life doesn’t usually work that way. It takes time, effort, practice and patience to get proficient at a skill and enjoy success from it.
If you make it your constant, continual, determined habit to improve on a daily basis, you will soon find yourself excelling in your chosen field.
Daily ask yourself, “What is one small step I can make today to improve my skill at ____?” Write it down in your daily planner. Review it throughout the day until it is accomplished.
It doesn’t matter if the step is small as long as your application is consistent. Many small steps will make a long journey.
Ed Wills
WFA Franchise Consultants

Discover the World Outside the Box

How do you lighten a room? For centuries the answer was, “Light a fire.” First there were torches, then candles, oil lamps and finally gas lights. But Thomas Edison thought outside of the fire box. The electric light was invented and the rest is history.
Where do you go to buy a book? It used to be the corner bookstore. But Jeff Bezos thought outside the box and created a bookstore without walls. He called it Amazon.com.
Thinking outside of the box can revolutionize your business, your relationships and your life.
Take time to think creatively about problems, issues or even successes you can imagine as more successful. Let your imagination take you to places others haven’t dreamed of. There’s a world of opportunity out there, but the biggest opportunities are outside of the box.
Ed Wills
WFA Franchise Consusltants

Vision

An artist must have his painting already completed in his mind’s eye before his brush touches the canvas.
The architect must have every detail of construction clearly shown on the blueprint before the first spade of earth is turned.
If we are to be successful, we must know what our success looks like before we begin our journey.
Visualize the life you want to live. Repeat it to yourself often. Then your subconscious mind will go to work making sure you get there.
Ed Wills
WFA Franchise Consultants

What are you afraid of?

Have you ever taken an inventory of your fears? Since fear is a very destructive force, it can be worthwhile to identify your specific fears and develop strategies to overcome them.
Take time to write out what you are afraid of. Perhaps it is fear of rejection that holds you back. Fears of responsibility, embarrassment or conflict are also major issues with some people.
Sometimes writing out your fear is all you need to overcome it. Once you see your fear written out on paper, you recognize it as silly. Other fears are more deep seated and tougher to overcome. In extreme cases you may need help from a professional to overcome a fear. But here are some simple steps to overcome most of the fears that hold you back.
1 – Name your fear.
2 – Write out the reality of the fear. What really happens when what your fear happens.
3 – Write out how you would like to respond when what you fear happens.
3 – Create an affirmation describing how your ideal self handles your fear.
4 – Repeat the affirmation for 30, 60 or 90 days – depending on how deep seated your fear is.
Soon you will no longer be afraid to face your fear because you are confident of your response.
So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory.
– Franklin D. Roosevelt from his first inaugural address.
To your success,
Ed Wills
WFAFranchiseConsultants.com

Your Integrity is Yours to Keep or Give Away

Thieves can steal your possessions, but your integrity is yours to keep or give away.
King Solomon once wrote that there is nothing more valuable than a good reputation. If you are known as an honest, hard working individual, there will never be a lack of those who want to partner with you on your endeavors, even when times are hard.
But if you trade your integrity for a quick buck now, there will be no one there to throw their lot in with you when you need help.
Never sacrifice your integrity or your core values in pursuit of one of your goals.
Ed Wills
WFA Franchise Consultants

You Were Created To Create

Each of us was created in the image of the creator. Creating is what comes most naturally to us.
Normally when we think of creating, we think of artistic endeavors - prose, poetry, music, art. Those are high forms of creating, but even in the day to day, we can’t help but create.
We look at someone across the room and we create interest. We deal with a daily problem and create a solution. We fall asleep and create vivid dreams arising from our imagination.
What if we could create our future? You not only can, you will.
If you choose to let it happen on its own, you have created a future that is very much like today. But if you choose to consciously employ vision, goal setting, affirmations and careful planning to create your future, then you can create the future of your dreams.
An organization that is committed to creative collaboration will ride the wave of the future. They will go beyond the realm of assumptive thinking and welcome the dawn of innovation...because there is nothing more empowering than an idea whose time has come.
Ed Wills
WFA Franchise Consultants

Always Exceed Expectations

It’s the little things that make us smile. A friend asks us how we are, then waits for an answer. Someone we love reaches out and takes our hand unexpectedly.
In business or in life, the little ways we exceed others expectations make lasting positive impressions.
Think of some things you can do today that will exceed other people’s expectations of you. Consider these actions as investments in improved success and relationships.
Ed Wills
www.WFAFranchiseConsultants.com
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