Orrin Woodward"s Life: Team Press

Business Thinking

Chris Brady, an author and business partner of Orrin Woodward, has a wealth of wisdom on his leadership site. In truth, a person could spend days on his site reading page after page. When Orrin and Chris teamed up to create the Mental Fitness Challenge from Orrin's book RESOLVED: 13 Resolution for LIFE, they started a movement! Have you taken the MFC yet? Enjoy.

It should go without saying that you should know what you're doing in order to do it. But a surprising number of people and even companies don't seem to know what their main purpose is. There are two groups, however, that can always be counted on to understand this perfectly well: 1) customers and 2) competitors. One will leave you and one will devour you if you don't figure it out.

So what business are you in?

Have you clearly defined it?

Are you sure that's really it?

The answers to these questions are important because they dictate the strategies, decisions, and actions that lead to results, or lack thereof. These are not trite exercises - they are paramount.

Let's take Steve Jobs of Apple Computer fame, for example. He is a subject worthy of study, to be sure, having succeeded tremendously at an extreme young age, then floundered famously, only to rise from the ashes and soar to ever higher heights. I will, at some point in the future, do a more in depth write-up on this interesting man, but for now it will suffice to use him as what I hope will be a clear example of the main point of this article (aren't you glad there's a point?)

The very name of "Apple Computer Corporation" gives a hint to where I'm going with this. You see, I contend that part of what was amiss with Steve Jobs in his first run-up to success was that he didn't understand the nature of his own genius. He thought he was in the business of making and selling computers. Following this purpose sent him down many cul-de-sacs and eventually led to his ouster from the very company he helped launch.

He fared even worse at his "next" adventure, NeXT Computers, in which he focused again on building and selling computers, this time to a slightly different market. But along the way he did a few things correctly, which morphed into his eventual success and return to the top. Most importantly, he either discovered or just simply got aligned with his overall true ability: making technology incredibly, reliably, and stylishly useful to the average person.

You see, most of us aren't really interested in how a computer works, or the intricacies of programming, or the cleverness of a sub-routine. I have been alive for the entire computer revolution, my first exposure to it being at my friend Ramana's house in fourth grade where he showed me his P.E.T. computer.  

"What's it for?" I asked.

"For computing stuff," he replied.

"Like what?"

"Well, you can write lines of programming code and it will compile it," he answered.

"Can we play with your Star Wars action figures some more?" I asked.

Computer technology has always been interesting to the Ramana's of this world, but not to the rest of us mere mortals. (Ramana would go on to be one of our Valedictorians). For the most part, my experience with computers has been a forced, frustrated exercise in learning detailed gobblygook I didn't want to learn in the first place. I just wanted the end result of what the stupid thing was supposed to produce.

Enter Steve Jobs. With his sense of cool and his near maniacal insistence that things "just work," he stands like a knight in shining armor for all of us who desperately need technology but find it no more interesting than putting bamboo shoots under our own fingernails. The fact that he could bring us something that works, and even make us feel cool doing it, was his real genius. I contend, in fact, that it's the real business he's in. Once he discovered this fact he has been unstoppable.  This realization broke him out of the box of "making and selling computers" and led him into the world of digitized music (iPODs and iTunes), computer-animated full-length feature movies (Pixar), and computing devices that serve our lives reliably (MacBooks and iPhones). Good job, Steve. Although you think Zen is cool and don't eat meat, I still can somehow relate to you.

So tear a page out of Steve Job's play book, or at least sing to one of his tunes on your iPod Shuffle, and get it clear in your head what your real business is. If you think it's as simple as providing a functional-based answer such as, "making and selling widgets that people want to buy," you deserve what's coming to you. But if you can truly discover your genius angle, that likely you and only you can provide, then you'd better prepare for a moonshot. There will always be a market when you get it right.

Chris Brady: Money View

Chris Brady and Orrin Woodward are producing world-class content at a fraction of the cost compared to corporate leadership programs. Why are they doing this? Simply put, if the goal of the LIFE Business is to reach the people and restore principles of long-term success, then the price point and associated rewards must be in line with today's tight budgets.

Recently, Chris Brady shared some profound concepts on developing the proper money-view. What is a money-view and how does it affect a person's success journey? The Mental Fitness Challenge is a 90-Day program for personal development success by inculcating the principles and virtues needed for long-term happiness. Here is Chris's article.

"World View" is a term recently popularized by philosophers and media pundits who debate spiritual and political matters.  It refers to the lens through which people see (and therefore interpret) the world around them.  All information and observations must pass through this lens and be colored by one's World View.

Similarly, there is another "View" I would like to propose for consideration, and I'm calling this the "Money View."  In my nearly two decades of dealing with people and their finances I have slowly awakened to the fact that how people are doing financially is often a direct result of their "Money View." Just as with World Views, there are several very different Money Views, each with its own ramifications. These include, but are probably not limited to, the following:

1.  Money as a Mystery - in which people seem to have no clue how money is made (or retained) and therefore think that others who are successful financially are somehow "lucky"

2. Money as a Master - in which one's entire life is lived out in bondage to the need for more money, or at least the drudgery of scraping by. This is often accompanied by terms such as, "I have to go to work," or "Another day, another dollar." 

3. Money as a Monster - this is the condition whereby financial pressures become so large they dominate a person's thoughts and affect him emotionally. Often at this stage relationships are damaged and health is compromised.

4. Money as a Major - in which a person applies most of his focus and fascination on how to acquire more. In this situation money is an idol.

5. Money as a Motivator - this is the condition whereby money is used to push one to higher achievement and greater contribution. This can be for both selfish or selfless reasons. Beware.

6. Money as a Manipulator - whereby a person uses his or her money to get what he or she wants out of other people. It is here where phrases such as "Money is Power" apply.

7. Money as a Minimizer - the condition in which the presence of money diminishes one's ambition. This is where complacency and mediocrity reside.

8. Money as a Maximizer - where one is driven to utilize his or her money to make a greater contribution and maximize his or her potential. This is usually much more selfless and altruistic than #5 above.

9. Money as a Monument - where money is used as a status symbol, to build a reputation, or as an attempt to establish an immortal family legacy.

10. Money as a Menace - wherein the money one has is a destructive force in one's life, either by feeding addictions or by causing fights or by dominating one's time and energy with the care and maintenance required to sustain it.

In considering this list, it may be helpful to ask yourself some questions, such as:

1. Which "Money View" best represents where you are right now?

2. Which of these "Money Views" have you encountered previoulsy in your life?

3. Notice that several of these "Money Views" are quite negative. What are you doing to make sure you are living under a positive and productive one? Which one would you choose?

4. What are you doing to grow in your financial understanding and education?

In each of the above views we see that money is always used as a Means. The key question in money matters is therefore, "As a means for what?" This is why the Bible again and again treats money as a heart issue. Money in itself is not evil, but the heart is desperately wicked, who can know it? Money becomes a dangerous or productive tool, depending upon the heart that wields it.

Make sure you choose your "Money View" deliberately and intentionally, don't simply let it choose you. Pursue some financial education to enable you to be in charge of money instead of it being in charge of you. And guard your heart when it comes to money, in plenty or in want.

That's my view.

The Little Red Hen & Productivity

Here is an old Orrin Woodward article from his blog. The more government gets involved in the private actions of its citizens, the less the citizens will do for themselves. The principle is "learned helplessness" and its covered in Orrin's books RESOLVED: 13 Resolutions for LIFE. The Mental Fitness Challenge is the opposite of "learned helplessness" as it teaches people to dream, think, and act without the need for help from government.

Once upon a time, on a farm in Kansas . . .

there was a little red hen who scratched about the barnyard until she uncovered quite a few grains of wheat. She called all of her neighbors together and said, “If we plant this wheat, we shall have bread to eat. Who will help me plant it?”

“Not I,” said the cow.

“Not I,” said the duck.

“Not I,” said the pig.

“Not I,” said the goose.

“Then I will do it by myself,” said the little red hen. And so she did; The wheat grew very tall and ripened into golden grain.

“Who will help me reap my wheat?” asked the little red hen.

“Not I,” said the duck.

“Out of my classification,” said the pig.

“I’d lose my seniority,” said the cow.

“I’d lose my unemployment compensation,” said the goose.

“Then I will do it by myself,” said the little red hen, and so she did.

At last it came time to bake the bread. “Who will help me bake the bread?” asked the little red hen.

“That would be overtime for me,” said the cow.

“I’d lose my welfare benefits,” said the duck.

“I’m a dropout and never learned how,” said the pig.

“If I’m to be the only helper, that’s discrimination,” said the goose.

“Then I will do it by myself,” said the little red hen. She baked five loaves and held them up for all of her neighbors to see. They wanted some and, in fact, demanded a share. But the little red hen said, “No, I shall eat all five loaves.”

“Excess profits!” cried the cow.

“Capitalist leech!” screamed the duck.

“I demand equal rights!” yelled the goose.

The pig just grunted in disdain. And they all painted “Unfair!” picket signs and marched around and around the little red hen, shouting obscenities. When the government agent came, he said to the little red hen, “You must not be so greedy.”

“But I earned the bread,” said the little red hen.

“Exactly,” said the agent. “That is what makes our free enterprise system so wonderful. Anyone in the barnyard can earn as much as he wants. But under our modern government regulations, the productive workers must divide the fruits of their labor with those who are lazy and idle.”

And they all lived happily ever after, including the little red hen, who smiled and clucked, “I am grateful, for now I truly understand.” But her neighbors became quite disappointed in her, for she never again baked any more bread.

Warren Bennis - Six Attributes of Leaders

Warren Bennis, noted leadership expert, writes on the six key attributes of leaders. The LIFE Founders exemplify these leadership attributes. Orrin Woodward, Chris Brady, Tim Marks, Claude Hamilton, Bill Lewis, George Guzzardo, Dan Hawkins, and Rob Hallstrand are excellent leaders individually, but combined they are the best! With the recent release of the Mental Fitness Challenge, the rest of the leadership field is learning of the world-class materials offered through the the LIFE Business. Here are the six leadership attributes:

Integrity

Integrity means alignment of words and actions with inner values.

It means sticking to these values even when an alternative path may be easier or more advantageous. A leader with integrity can be trusted and will be admired for sticking to strong values. They also act as a powerful model for people to copy, thus building an entire organization with powerful and effective cultural values.

Dedication

Dedication means spending whatever time and energy on a task is required to get the job done, rather than giving it whatever time you have available. The work of most leadership positions is not something to do ‘if time’. It means giving your whole self to the task, dedicating yourself to success and to leading others with you.

Magnanimity

A magnanimous person gives credit where it is due. It also means being gracious in defeat and allowing others who are defeated to retain their dignity. Magnanimity in leadership includes crediting the people with success and accepting personal responsibility for failures.

Humility

Humility is the opposite of arrogance and narcissism. It means recognizing that you are not inherently superior to others and consequently that they are not inferior to you. It does not mean diminishing yourself, nor does it mean exalting yourself. Humble leaders do not debase themselves, neither falsely nor due to low self-esteem. They simply recognize all people as equal in value and know that their position does not make them a god.

Openness

Openness means being able to listen to ideas that are outside one’s current mental models, being able to suspend judgement until after one has heard someone else’s ideas. An open leader listens to their people without trying to shut them down early, which at least demonstrates care and builds trust. Openness also treats other ideas as potentially better than one’s own ideas. In the uncertain world of new territory, being able to openly consider alternatives is an important skill.

Creativity

Creativity means thinking differently, being able to get outside the box and take a new and different viewpoint on things. For a leader to be able to see a new future towards which they will lead their followers, creativity provides the ability to think differently and see things that others have not seen, and thus giving reason for followers to follow.

Building Community Through Challenge Groups

The LIFE Business launched its first round of Challenge Groups through the Mental Fitness Challenge this week! These discussion groups are in the process of revolutionizing community building. Orrin Woodward and Chris Brady, along with the other LIFE Founders will not leave well enough along. Already owning one of the largest communities in North America, they refuse to rest on their laurels; instead, they are driving on to one million people! Here is a fascinating article by Jon Tyson on the need for communities.

Renewing Cities Through Missional Tribes by Jon Tyson

I first met Anna when she came to our apartment for a church group. An actress, waitress, and recovering alcoholic, she was desperate to find her place in the city. She came back week after week to sit through our Bible study and worship time. When I asked her why she bothered to return, it was as if she struggled to articulate the motive in her heart. Eventually she responded with, “I guess I was hoping to find somewhere to belong.” Hundreds of miles from her family, pursuing her second or third “life dream,” she articulated the sense of angst that in many ways defines this generation: “I’m just pretty lonely and struggle to find people I can trust.” Interestingly enough, Anna was not a Christian, not even close, yet was willing to endure the “Jesus time” to simply be around people who seemed vaguely interested in her life.

I have heard versions of this story dozens of times. From Wall Street traders to advertising executives, from nannies to MTV producers, it seems that in some fundamental way we are incurably communal. What’s ironic is that all of these people are living in New York City, surrounded by millions of people, yet feeling incredibly alone.

Though they may feel like it, these people are not alone. This loss of community has in some ways become our collective experience of American life. This relational disconnection was first identified and popularized in the year 2000 in Robert Putnam’s work Bowling Alone.

1 Simply put, he proposed that America was losing its sense of community, or its social capital — the reality that we are a part of “the whole,” and that we participate in small but significant ways to the greater good. He noticed “that we sign fewer petitions, belong to fewer organizations that meet, know our neighbors less, meet with friends less frequently, and even socialize with our families less often.”

2 Putnam went on to suggest that changes in work, family structure, age, suburban life, television, computers, women’s roles, and other factors have contributed to this decline.

If Putnam is right, this loss of connection poses both opportunities and challenges for the church at large. A loss of cultural connection strikes at the heart of our faith: it hinders our ability to share the gospel in organic, relational ways and makes it difficult to know and serve our neighbors. Conversely, it creates a desire for a loving, accepting community to those who are disillusioned, disconnected, and alone. So, how can the church position itself to be a community of love in this emerging culture of disconnection, and will our popular small group programs really be enough to engage this decline? Moreover, are there other trends that we have overlooked that could offer us some clues as to how the church could function as a catalyst for authentic community that is also missional? I believe there are.

SOCIAL CAPITAL

First, let’s consider the purported loss of social capital in society. Our social ties have value like any other kind of capital — financial, human, or physical — and those connections that we take for granted create a kind of relational wealth that we are not always aware of. Within the overlapping networks in our lives, we both find and contribute to a richness of community value. Thus, social capital is a trust that arises from our community of relationships that enables us to help others in mutually beneficial ways. Put another way, social capital acts as both sociological superglue to keep us connected and sociological WD-40 to facilitate interaction.

With this in mind, Putnam defines social capital as: …those tangible substances [that] count for most in the daily lives of people: namely good will, fellowship, sympathy, and social intercourse among the individuals and families who make up a social unit…The individual is helpless socially, if left to himself…If he comes into contact with his neighbor, and they with other neighbors, there will be an accumulation of social capital, which may immediately satisfy his social needs and which may bear a social potentiality sufficient to improvement of living conditions in the whole community.

So where does social capital come from? Social capital is the overflow effect of three things in our lives.

1. Our networks. These are the people that we are connected to in the overlapping segments of our lives. This could be the parents from a child’s soccer team, our neighbors, a study group or local book club, or people from a class we are currently taking.

2. Our norms. This is the flow and rhythm of our lives, our habits and social reflexes, our patterns, behaviors, and daily interactions: where we shop, what we do with our leisure time, our schools, places of employment, and the maps we subconsciously follow that we have created over time. This could best be described as “our way of life.”

3. Our values. These are the things that matter to us, what we fight for, organize around, give to, get involved with, and care about. When these three things overlap in the right degree, a new element is released into the fabric of these interactions called social capital. This is a shared sense of trust and a desire to help one another. This in turn lets us be a part of a newly established “us,” which creates a new sense of belonging. This is what gives us that sense of community, safety, and place, and what makes our lives so rich.

We all know what it feels like to chat with a neighbor in an elevator and catch up on local gossip, or go to a local coffee shop to sit in “our seat.” All of us have sensed social capital being released when bumping into someone at the store or finding out you share something in common with those at school. It’s these interactions, these “me too” moments that work as small deposits and contact points, which over time accumulate and increase our sociological wealth.

When these interactions disappear from our lives, there doesn’t seem to be a difference at first, as in a next-door neighbor moving away, or dropping out of a club or team, but if this continues, the cumulative effect over time creates a real sense of loss. If all the neighbors you know move away, and the local shops you frequent are replaced by chain stores, and your neighbors are replaced by others with vastly different values, then the loss of capital is really felt. Your networks have disbanded, your normal flow of life is disrupted, and there are few around you that share your values.

Putnam’s observations are most visible today through a discernible loss of participation in official, organized communities. People change employers and residences at an alarming rate, and don’t seem to make the same connections they used to. With longer work hours, demanding schedules, and long hours spent commuting, our collective sense of community is dissolving — not completely, but substantially. Without the sociological glue and WD-40 we need, this loss of social capital could do real damage to our lives.

In order to restore this cultural capital and community to our world, Putnam suggests that we need to help integrate people’s lives back into the official social structures of the culture. These social structures form a sort of frame around which culture is built, and around which we can rebuild our communities. This solution is noble and thoughtful; asking people to shorten their commutes to work, watch less TV, carpool, join groups in their workplaces, or re-up for civic institutions are all solid starting points. But is this enough?

For example, Putnam states, “Let us find ways to ensure that by 2010 the level of civic engagement among Americans then coming of age in all parts of our society will match that of their grandparents when they were that same age, and that at the same time bridging social capital will be substantially greater than it was in their grandparents’ era.”4 This is commendable. However, society seems to have fragmented such that even the ideas and institutions that we are called back to are fundamentally characterized by individualism — so much so that participating in them often feels like engaging with social cannibals, rather than other contributors. We have all had experiences that were intended to create community, which ended up leaving us feeling exhausted and drained, instead of refreshed.

Another problem is that we have no allegiance to a civic whole, no metanarrative, or any real connection with our grandparents. We don’t know how they lived or have any real understanding of their times and challenges. Many of us simply have no models to work from, guides to follow, or vision to move toward. We cannot go back to a way of life we are so thoroughly removed from.

Share Your Mental Fitness Challenge Testimony

Orrin Woodward announced on his blog today that he and Chris Brady were giving away a first-edition copy of the best-selling LIFE book to the best written testimony shared on his blog. If you are taking the Mental Fitness Challenge (MFC), be sure to share your testimony in his comments section. It has been a whirlwind couple of weeks since the launch of the MFC, with many brand new people learning about the powerful materials provided through the LIFE Business.

When the LIFE Compensation Plan is added to life-changing MFC materials, one quickly sees why LIFE is quickly becoming one of the most talked about community building companies in the marketplace. If you are new to this site and haven't taken the Mental Fitness Challenge Self-Assessment test then do so here. The impressive part of the test is that it allows you to send it to your friends and family so that they can evaluate you also. This ensures that you get accurate feedback on what areas to begin working on immediately. LIFE is happening; is yours?

What is LIFE?

I have a surprise today with a guest post from Orrin Woodward. FIRED UP!

This quote from Albert Schweitzer portrays the vision of LIFE Business to make a difference as well as anything I have read:

Civilization can only revive when there shall come into being in a number of individuals a new tone of mind independent of the one prevalent among the crowd and in opposition to it. A new public opinion must be created privately and unobtrusively. The existing one is maintained by the press, by  propaganda, by organization, and by financial influences which are at its disposal. The unnatural way of spreading ideas must be opposed by the natural one, which goes from man to man and relies solely on the truth of the thoughts and the hearer's receptiveness of the new truth.

From my vantage point, modern society seems capable of watching and listening, but has lost the art of thinking. Many college graduates can parrot what their professors taught them, but how few identify the inconsistencies in the said messaging. As one example, everyone is told that democracy ensures liberty for the world, yet historically, freedom has been on the wane since democracies blossomed across the globe in the late 19th century. Clearly, the State has more power today over its people than the monarchies of Europe ever dreamed of. Kings would be astonished at democracies powers to draft people against their will, tax producers upwards of 50%, and print money at will, to name just a few.

Even so, colleges continuously feed the next-generation the democratic myth that the vote ensures our liberties, knowing that most people will never study history to contradict the purveyors of propaganda. The democratic vote is only as good as the rule of law that ensures the masses do not take away the minorities freedoms. This isn’t anything new, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay of the Federalist Papers fame all feared a runaway democracy like the one that exist today. However, as long as grades are given to students for parroting the propaganda versus principle centered systematic thinking, American freedom will remain in peril.

LIFE is a chance to start thinking again and stop accepting the platitudes of the pundits from both the right and left, who rotate in and out of power while American freedoms dissipate. What did the founders really say? Why was America set up as a republic and specifically not a democracy? What did John Adams write about democracies and property? All the answers are in the books that no one bothers to read. The legend that Nero fiddled while Rome burned, whether true or not, accurately depicts the leadership on both sides of the aisle in America - they fiddle around as America slouches towards tyranny.

Wake up America, not by protesting in the streets, but by joining communities of like-minded concerned citizens people who read, listen, learn, and discuss, changing themselves so they can help change the world! The Mental Fitness Challenge is a program to help drive this change! They say the West is defeated, but I say (paraphrasing John Paul Jones) we have only just begun to fight!

Sincerely,

Orrin Woodward

20% Customers for LIFE

The LIFE Business has hit a benchmark set by the founders when they launched the company. The goal is to produce over half the volume in the LIFE Business through the acquisition of customers. Last night, thanks to the Mental Fitness Challenge (MFC) program, LIFE surpassed 20% customer in six months of business! LIFE customers enjoy the benefit of world-class CD's, books, Challenge Trainings and Growth Groups to develop personally. Customers love the material and community enough to participate in personal development training without any consideration of compensation.

Clearly, if 20% of the people associated with LIFE do so just to get access to the world-class training, then the marketplace is communicating its love for the LIFE personal development products. LIFE has one of the highest retention rates and customer ratios in the community building field because of its extraordinary value proposition. Check out the Mental Fitness Challenge and one will quickly realize that the two engineers (Chris Brady and Orrin Woodward) who designed this program intended to produce results in millions of people's lives. Why not live the life you always wanted? Why not begin today by taking the Mental Fitness Challenge? Here is the post from Orrin Woodward's blog:

It’s been three full days since the Mental Fitness Challenge rollout in Columbus, and the MFC already has 1,254 new customers. That’s over 400 customers a day joining the Mental Fitness Challenge, and it’s only three days old! Chris Brady and I set a goal to create a program available to all, affordable to all, and achievable by all. The MFC has accomplished all three.

I know what the reader is thinking. Sure Orrin, yet another program to help people grow and change. Hasn’t everyone witnessed people who tried program after program for change but never seemed to really change? I know I have. For without the formation of new habits in thought and action, a person quickly reverts to his old self, regardless of how many CDs listened to or books read. The MFC, however, is different because it is designed around the two crucial elements of all lasting change – congregation and community. Let me explain:

Chris Brady & Orrin Woodward Partnership

Chris Brady and Orrin Woodward have outdone themselves. I just finished watching and buying the Mental Fitness Challenge videos on the MFC site. With no exaggeration, this is simply the best personal development material on the planet. But don't take my word for it, check it out for yourself.

Orrin and Chris launched their leadership journey when they formed Team and hit mainstream with the release of their NY Times and Wall Street Journal best seller Launching a Leadership Revolution. Recently, Orrin Woodward was awarded the prestigious Independent Association of Business (IAB) Top Leader Award, topping leadership legends like John Maxwell, Stephen Covey, Jim Collins, Tony Robbins, and Jack Welch in the process.

The Mental Fitness Challenge is created to help average people produce un-average results at an affordable price. If you are sick and tired of living someone else's dream and not living the life you always wanted, perhaps the MFC is for you. With over 30,000 satisfied customers in LIFE, there must be something to materials produced by Orrin Woodward and Chris Brady! I predict that the MFC will take the LIFE Business viral!

Question: What are the most significant principles that you learned from Orrin and Chris?

Mental Fitness Challenge

Have you taken the free Mental Fitness Challenge Self-Assessment? If not, then goto the Mental Fitness Challenge site and do so. LIFE has launched the premier personal development program at their convention in Columbus.

Tens of thousands of people are enjoying the world-class leadership and personal development training from Orrin Woodward and Chris Brady. Now, you can too! What is the life you have always wanted to live? Why not pursue it today?

Here is a portion of an Mental Fitness article from Orrin Woodward:

Fitness experts say that 85% of physical fitness is in proper dieting. I believe the same principle holds true for mental and spiritual dieting as well. Tell me the thought diet a person routinely feeds his mental and spiritual sides and I can fairly accurately predict his five year future. Success is that predictable; however, it isn't that easy.

Why not? Because the right habits, although easy to do, are also easy not to do. Left to themselves, most people will choose the path of least resistance, which means continuing in their bad habits rather than changing. The good news, however, is that through associating with others in a 90 day challenge, a person can leverage the community to help drive his personal change. In essence, community is the difference between good intentions and good results. Many will give up on themselves, but fewer are willing to give up on others who are counting on them.

Fortunately, it only takes three steps for a person to change everything:

1. Develop a proper diet for the food and thoughts entering his body and mind.

2. Make commitments to himself and others to follow the new diet for 90 days.

3. Maintain association with others who have committed to do the same thing.

There it is. A recipe for success in any area of life. It's been said that a person changes when the pain of staying the same or the joy of changing becomes big enough. Eighteen years ago, I took Charlie "Tremendous" Jones up on his mental fitness challenge and it has made all the difference for me. I share this with the readers to encourage them in the three step process for real change. Are you ready to take the mental fitness challenge?