Stephen Davies stepped in to guest host this episode of The Wednesday Call Podcast live from AMP Studios at The Alliance headquarters in Burlington, N.C. while Andy Albright was traveling this week.
Davies, who lives in Asheville, N.C. with his wife, Hollie and their two children, wanted to share how he went from a struggling 20-year-old to a millionaire in 36 months. He called it the 7 Commonalities of becoming successful with The Alliance.
7 Commonalities of becoming successful with The Alliance
Make Peace with Change. Don’t be afraid to do things that other people don’t if it will make you better. If you aren’t willing to change, then you are going to stay exactly where you are right now. You can grow if you don’t make changes. You can choose what sacrifices you are willing to make. Be intentional about it. Make peace with it and life will be easier. Be a change agent and not a victim. Make your mind up that you are not going to be a “NOT victim.” Be the reason things get better for you. You will be more grateful and less frustrated when you do this. Are you afraid to grow because you are in safety mode? You can’t have both.
Open Mind and Open Heart. When you are certain about everything then you probably won’t ever reach your full potential. Don’t be a “know it all.” If you are never open to information and ideas then you are going to be wrong quite often. “Certainty” addiction holds people back. Davies says you should probably only be clear about half a dozen things in life. Don’t operate with a closed mind … that’s when your mind starts to die. Higher level people want more wisdom. They can never know enough. Make it a point to seek out growth opportunities in your life. It doesn’t have to be every single day, but make sure you schedule changes to continue growing. Don’t engage in urgency and offended addictions
A Growing Why. A met need no longer motivates you in life. When you keep growing then you stay motivated. People that don’t keep growing are satisfied. They have stopped striving for more because their needs are being met. If your “WHY” is big enough it can swallow any disappointment that exists. That is not to say the disappointment won’t still hurt, but you will keep working toward your “WHY.” Put yourself in uncomfortable situations so you keep striving for more. If you are the “king” of your hill then go find another hill to start climbing. When you see what is possible, you will want to do more. Stretch yourself to be great. A giant why keeps discouragement at bay. Don’t have a lottery mentality when you should have an abundance mentality. Focus on being and not just having.
Deep Listening. The most successful people are great listeners. This means listen to others, but listen to yourself by talking to yourself. You probably know a lot of what you need to do to improve, but you have to start doing it by letting that voice in your head move you in the right direction. What are you ignoring? What are you not changing that you should?
Congruence. What do you say what? What do you allow yourself to think? What do you do? Does it overlap? It should. Ideally, the three areas will almost be on top of each other in a stack. The more those things overlap the better off life will be. When you can do that you will operate at high speed and low drag.
5 Questions for quick clarity
Have I defined what is most important?
What do I do now to make sure I am centered on what I say is most important?
What do I do to keep myself from being pulled into something that is not important?
How do I keep what is most important in front of me all the time?
How do I create a river of information that helps me keep the important things in front of me?
Those five things will help you create clarity and move faster. The more congruent you get, the more people you can help.
Possibility and Solution Thinkers. Are you thinking about how you react to problems? We all get to play the “problem” game. It is a fact of life. How we respond is the measure of where we go in life. We can rank our problems on a scale of 1 to 10. We can also rank our thinking from 1 to 10. If can think at a higher level than your problems, then you will be fine. You are the sum total of your influences. Your influences are all around you even if you don’t realize it. Make it a habit to read the right books, associate with the right people and consume the right kind of media. Don’t be afraid to seek wisdom from people who are more successful than you are.
Have a Genuine Desire to Elevate. Are you helping others and yourself from a sincere standpoint? Do you love people? Do you work to eliminate complaining? Do you focus on building up people? Are you working to improve your perspective? You have to consistently work on this if you want to make a difference. Make it a point to limit how selfish you are. Everybody loves hearing their name, but sometimes you need to focus on other people. Work on being purpose driven instead of ego driven. Watch your vocabulary and listen to how many times you say the words “I” or “me.” You will slip up on this, but you have to keep coming back to a place where you elevate other people. Help people elevate what is “normal” to them.
When you help people get to a different level in life, you are showing you have a genuine desire to help people.
Start working on these seven ways to get better. You don’t have to do them all at once, but start working on using them to help you get better. Make a simple change or six, but start now.