“An economics professor at Texas Tech said he had never failed a single
student before but had, once, failed an entire class. That class had
insisted that socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one
would be rich, a great equalizer. The professor then said ok, we will
have an experiment in this class on socialism.

All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade
so no one would fail and no one would receive an A.  After the first
test the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who
studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy.
But, as the second test rolled around, the students who studied little
had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted
a free ride too; so they studied little..  The second test average was a
D!  No one was happy. When the 3rd test rolled around the average was an
F.

The scores never increased as bickering, blame, name calling all
resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of
anyone else.  All failed, to their great surprise, and the professor
told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the
reward is great, the effort to succeed is great; but when government
takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed.

Could not be any simpler than that”

‘If I could go back to high school, I would do things a lot differently.’ ‘I would be rich today if I had known how to invest five years ago.’ ‘I wish I would have started working out six months ago!’

Sound familiar? Have you ever thought anything similar to this? I think we all have and there is nothing wrong with doing that. Where it becomes a problem is when we become victims. We all of a sudden think that there is no hope or future and our time has passed.

There is another way of looking at things. Look ahead five years from now. Where do you want to be? How do you want to see yourself? Basically, what are you going to wish that you had started or knew five years ago? We all have a desire to be successful in certain areas but seldom do anything other than wish.

Here is how to solve that problem. Once you have an idea of where you want to be, it is time to make a plan. What is needed to get there? For example, if you want to have $30,000 in savings. How can you start getting to that goal today? Save $500 each month or $115.39 each week or $16.44 a day. Whatever it takes to get you to your goal, needs to be done. It is very hard to come up with $30,000 in a few months or even a year for most people and that is why you have to plan ahead.

Once a desired outcome is created the work begins. The first question you need to do is map out the major landmarks that are required to see before you get to your goal. In our example above you know that at the end of six months you need to have $3,000. If not, then you need to adjust what you are doing to get there.

Now that you have your map drawn, it is time to put a plan into motion. EX: To get to $3,000 in six months, I need to save $500 each month. To get that $500 will require sacrificing some luxuries that I normally enjoy. Discovering those is usually easier than we think. Instead of “Super Sizing” our lunch we get the regular. That saves our waistband and our wallet. Looking phone numbers in a phone book or online as opposed to using 4-1-1 will save money. There are thousands of little things that we do that can be cut out.

Currently, you have a map of all the landmarks that you want to hit and a detailed plan on how to hit each one. Finally, it comes to the time for implementation. Strive to reach each goal and keep checking to ensure that each landmark is met. If you fail to reach the mark then determine what you did wrong, was it a bad plan or a bad boy. If you hit your goal, celebrate and reward yourself with one of the luxuries you took away from yourself.

If we continue to wallow in the past we will never be who we want to be. It is like driving a car and only looking into the rear view mirror. Rip that mirror off of your windshield and look to the future!

Not only for the martial artists. This book will benefit everyone. Joe covers verbal disputes, arguments, as well as physical fighting. It is a must read for everyone who wants to win every
fight or avoid them all together.You Can’t Beat Me is the first in a series of books covering the art and science of fighting. This first book is for everyone. It covers the motives behind fights and the strategies to take to avoid or win at every fight. To avoid fights, you have to know how to break the cycle and Joe teaches us all how.This eBook is 5 chapters long and comes in an elctronic format.Buy now securely through PayPal for only $3.95 at www.inspiretomorrow.com/ebooks.html

Here are some recent reviews:

“You can’t beat me” by Joe Lawrence is great at providing you with the knowledge to formulate an offensive and defensive strategy whether you are on the street or in the board room.” – Chris Hubinsky, President, Hucor Technologies .

“Reading this book has taught me to look at every situation in a different way. I have employed these strategies in my life and have already noticed change.” – Matthew Carman, President, Integrity Accounting and Tax.

“Joe Lawrence reveals the art of fighting is within your own mind; that there is no difference in either physical combat or verbal debate. …A must read for the mental warrior!”
- Brian Vandersall, Fights Like a Girl – Rape Escape

As Americans we gage success by money in the bank.  If you are loaded, you have it all…right?  Not exactly, at least in my opinion.  We have all seen movies or heard true stories of rich people who are morbidly depressed or their health is fading.  I founded Inspire Tomorrow (www.inspiretomorrow.com) on the basis of creating the whole person.  To be a whole person you need to be well-rounded, not just rich.

I define success as being happy, healthy and secure.  Money alone can not fulfill all of those.  Of course, without money you can’t live in today’s society but it shouldn’t be the foundation of your life.  To truly be happy you’re content with your life and know things could be better but at the same time there are others who have it worse.  There is always someone on this planet who wishes they could have what you have.

Many people look at Donald Trump or a pro athlete and wish they were them.  Maybe your neighbor or brother has something that you want.  Human nature is to always desire more.  We become donkeys who are constantly chasing the carrot on a string.  If we try just a little harder, we might get there.  That carrot keeps moving and we want more.  We have to get to the point where we stop chasing the carrot and enjoy the grass beneath our feet.

Here is my disclaimer before I go on, I don’t suggest becoming content and never growing.  Growth in every area of our life is extremely important or else we become depressed and miserable.  If we lack happiness, our health will falter.  Eventually, we become insecure with ourselves.

How do we become truly happy?  Only you can answer that.  We all need a mix of the following: faith, family, fitness, education, fun and finance.  You need to determine how much of these ingredients you need to make you tick.  With all of these you will achieve happiness.  Happy people are healthy people.  If you are happy and healthy, you’re secure with yourself and able to stop and enjoy the grass beneath your feet every now and then.

Every one on a team must fill a unique role if it is to succeed.  One of the most difficult problems of being on a team is filling a different role than what we think we deserve.  It is extremely difficult to lead a team that has members conflicting over their roles.  Unfortunately, this is human nature but there is a way to make life easier for all.

To explain this I am going to liken the team to a game of chess.  Many people know how to play the game and even those who do not are somewhat familiar with this game of skill.  The pieces on the chess board make up the ultimate team that has a common goal.  Each piece has a very unique role and each is willing to lay down its life to protect another piece that possesses a higher point value.

For starters there is the pawn.  The pawn moves one space at a time and in a straight line.  There is no backing up and no retreat.  His mission is to block the paths of the enemy’s pieces and to form as line of defense to his own pieces.  There is no glory at all in this piece’s role.  It is rare that a pawn will save the day and very common for him to be sacrificed so that another piece is not captured.

Many roles on a team are just like this pawn’s.  Sometimes we have to do things that we do not want to, like clean up after an event or file paperwork.  You know that you are more capable than this and could do something that would really benefit the team.  On your last team you ran the show and performed the high profile tasks.  Why on earth are my talents being wasted like this?  You even think to yourself that your leader clearly has it out for you and you will show him by doing this work fast and sloppy!

Think from the leader’s perspective for a second.  You have a new member to the team.  You are not sure of their capabilities or quality of work.  They came highly recommended and the last leader had great things to say about them.  In order to get a feel for their dedication and abilities you give him some papers to file.  If he does this well then we can move him up to a better position until we find where his strengths are.

Now if you do your job sloppy it will be perceived that you are not a true team player.  Why would a leader put you in a position of authority if you have a bad attitude?  That attitude will spread to those beneath you very quickly.  Makes sense to the leader, but to you it may be a difficult concept until you walk in the leader’s shoes for a moment.

Let’s go back to chess for a moment.  The entire focus of the game is to capture the other team’s king all the while protecting yours.  Each of the other pieces has a signature movement style that provides a very valuable asset to the team.  The bishops move on diagonals in any direction and for as many squares as they desire.  Rooks or castles travel in straight lines.  Then there are the knights that have an interesting “L” pattern movement that is difficult to defend against.  Queens are the treasured pieces that combine the movements of the rooks and bishops.

These pieces are like the members of the team.  Each member has his or her own specialty or strength.  This role is learned through training and perfected through practice.  To get the opportunity to showcase your strengths you need to first show that you want the team to succeed at any cost.  More often than not this means that you have to wait your time and prove to your leaders that you are willing to do the menial tasks to ensure success of your team.

Finally, let’s talk about the king.  The king is the focus of the entire game.  Every piece of yours is willing to lay down its life to protect the king.  Each piece on the other team is itching to be the one to capture your king.  The king himself can only move one space at a time.  He can not move into danger but can move in any direction.  He holds no value to the team’s ultimate goal and yet they all protect him.  The king’s role is to lead his kingdom not capture pieces.

The pawn on the other hand is extremely valuable to the king.  He must be the front-line defense to protect the king.  He marches valiantly on a straight path in to danger.  He is to stand firm in the face of destruction to hold the line for the others.  He is to be the foundation for all the other pieces to build upon.  If there was no pawn every other piece would be exposed and the king would be captured very quickly.  In fact, try to play a game of chess where you have no pawns and the other team does.  You will get crushed!

Every team has unique roles that need filled.  Every team needs a pawn.  Just because there are roles that you would rather fill does not change the fact that each role needs to be filled.  No one starts at the top.  They have to earn that spot by proving themselves as pawns.  Once a new position opens the leaders will pull from the pawns to fill it and then upwards from there.  If you truly are as good as you think you are then your talents are sure to be notices and you will advance very quickly.

First off, I want to address the questions and training portion. If you neglect either one of these, you are risking not having any one else trained to do certain things. Properly trained personnel are able to assume their duties much faster. They do not need the constant supervision they do now. Look at it this way; the faster you get them trained properly, the sooner they are out of your hair.

Now let us discuss how these new people are very useful. They are going to see things differently than you. When you go to a new place you often notice many of the little things like missed paint spots, holes in the wall, or a process that just simply is useless. Those constantly in the area learn to tune these out or think the process is important because it has always been there.

Many of the questions that I get asked when I train others is “why is this done that way?” More than likely this question is asked because the process doesn’t make any sense to them. Ask this new person how they would do this particular task. They could very well be on to something.

Here is a little story to exemplify the value of a new person. I was training a new guy on how to do a certain task on a C-17 cargo aircraft. He asked me why we did something a certain way and then he suggested another way of doing it. Keeping an open-mind I tried it his way and saved 15 minutes!

What if I would have ignored him? Many of us ignore the suggestions of new people because we think they are not knowledgeable. Some of us may even discourage others from giving us input. We shoot the idea down and ultimately shut down that person. Even if you know the idea is horrible and could never work, give it a moment’s thought and keep an open-mind. Together you could come up with something that will work and at the very least you are showing respect for his opinion.

New people are also able to offer a fresh set of eyes to an old problem. Have you ever struggled on a puzzle or problem for awhile and simply were lost? Then maybe someone else came along and knew the answer right away. They are not necessarily smarter or better than you, they are just fresh.

It is important to not isolate or ridicule the ideas of those that are new. Their fresh perspective and outside ideas can offer a new or better way of accomplishing something. New people are not the enemy sent to destroy your life. They are a blessing that will take some of your burdens away. Train them well and listen to them. They will respect you and you will get their best efforts which results in less work for you.

As you travel, each new place you arrive at is a goal.  If you are going on a road trip each new state may be your goal.  Therefore, if each new location is your goal then priorities are your reason for going.  Priorities are not what define you, they are what motivate you to succeed. 

Determining what your priorities are is very important because they are what motivate you to succeed.  There is no need to have thirty priorities, one is all you need.  Human nature requires us to have a reason to do something if not then it is easy to not follow through on our goals.

Imagine the building of a new house or building.  The first thing that is done is the permit is gained, then the land is cleared and each step after.  What if there were no clear priorities laid out by the contractor, you could have the roof done before the foundation was even poured?

It may seem as if that is impossible, but how many people are living their lives not even knowing what the first step truly is.  That is why they are not achieving success in certain areas and it feels as if they are running uphill always.  The same applies to our lives.  If we do not have a clear outline then we are subject to falling farther from where we want to be.

Now that you know why it is imperative to have priorities, the next step is to figure out what exactly they are.  The next section will help you to do that.  You are going to learn a couple different techniques to get you on the path to success.

Joe Lawrence is the founder of InspireTomorrow.com, a Christian website dedicated to self-improvement.  He is also a published author and professional speaker.  Joe is a leadership junkie who has been in important leadership roles since he was fifteen years old.  He led hundreds of youth students daily in martial arts and now is entrusted by the U.S. Air Force to do the same thing.

Joe is a Technical Sergeant who trains numerous students each year to manage aircraft worth $160 Million each.  His passion has led him to win Instructor of the Year 2005 and Non-Commissioned Officer of the Year 2007, beating out thousands of others.  In an effort to grow others, he wrote Inspire Tomorrow.  This book is thee leadership training manual for anyone wanting to develop or grow their leadership talents.

Thank you for visiting and please email me at: joeylaw34@gmail.com anytime.

Joe