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You know, it’s amazing. Now that we are in 2008 (where did 2007 go?!?!), allot of people tend to reflect on the past 12 months and begin to take inventory.

They start setting new year’s resolutions and thinking about the goals that they want to achieve in the coming new year. This is great. As a matter of fact, I’ll be bold enough to predict that you who are reading this now will be in one of three groups of people come this same time next year:

1. The proud few who will dramatically change their lives by actually setting realistic goals, staying focused, taking massive action and assimilating them into their everyday lifestyles and living out their dreams.

2. The bigger crowd who will start with hopeful wishes to do something different this year but will hardly even think about, let alone take the necessary steps to realize anything barely two weeks into the new year.

3. The biggest group of all- The ones who gave up on dreaming and settle for the “good enough” life that they manage to eek out. They are ok with living paycheck to paycheck, taking a one week vacation once a year (IF their slave master- I mean boss says it’s ok), gaining 50 pounds and letting life just push them around-accepting everything that comes along allowing it to become their destiny.

So sad.

Some even believe that everything that happens, good or bad ,is totally God’s Will for their lives so they don’t even think that trying to change anything is worth the effort! (Not that God doesn’t allow bad things to happen to his children; but not all “bad” things are bad and certainly not all “good” things are good! But that’s for another post…)

Listen to me: If you are one of the rare beings walking around the face of the earth that actually knows without a shadow of doubt that you were made for greatness; if you are like me who has a fire shut up in your bones that doesn’t allow you to settle for the “good life” ; if you are sick and tired of being told how you can live your life, where you can go and what you can and cannot do and you have made a conscious choice to radically change your life this new coming year, then you are the type of person that will appreciate the sheer wisdom that I am about to share with you here today.

Don’t just skim over this article my friend, no no! Cling to every word as if your life depended on it…I can promise you this: if you want to truly experience an explosive 2008, then it actually does!

8 Powerful Keys All Successful People have In Common

You have probably heard it before: “success leaves clues”. Well here are 8 of them. Develop them in your life and you will share the world stage with the less than 3% who control the other 97%. I say “develop” because these are more like character habits than just mere “clues”.

1. Become Laser Focused: Every successful person learns the art of focus. Do you know the number one reason that stops people from getting what they want? It’s lack of Focus. People who focus on what they want, prosper. Those who don’t, struggle. Whatever you want in the years ahead, The Power of Focus can help you achieve it.

2. Get Full of Passion: A vital attitude for you to constantly improve is YOUR PASSION. On a scale of 1 to 10, exactly how excited are you right now? Do you really want to succeed? Are you thrilled with your goals for today? If not, you must generate some passion for your day, your week and your career and your life. People who taste success are passionate people. Passion is a self-generated tool. You have the ability to motivate yourself; to concentrate on your purpose; to get yourself excited about what you do and more importantly, who you ARE.

3. Learn To Work Hard: Make no mistake about it, successful people work hard at succeeding. They don’t shrink back from what it takes to succeed. They don’t make excuses in order to numb the mental pain of choosing to quit or not trying at all. Now, please note that just because they don’t hide from hard work doesn’t mean that they don’t work smart either. Successful people are always looking for a way to leverage their time and resources. But sometimes even working smartly, things need some elbow grease in order to accomplish their purpose.

4. Never Stop Innovating: Invention is not enough. Innovation is the process of deriving value from invention. Successful people continue to push the envelope when it comes to extracting value from their ideas. They continue to improve their processes, systems, values, habits and lives.

5. Add Enormous Value To Others: Truly successful people measure their success not by the amount of cash they can pile up or the lavish lifestyles they live, but by the amount of real value that they can add to another person’s life! They understand that their success is directly tied to someone else’s. So they focus on adding as much value as they possibly can. Sometimes it’s just a small thing that is needed to do so, like a smile or a good word of encouragement or maybe some insight into a certain topic. Sometimes it’s more like mentoring an individual and teaching them how to truly transform their life in a certain area. Either way, they are always looking for opportunities to let their light shine upon someone else and leaving a lasting impression not easily forgotten.

6.Wisely Use Your Time: One thing is for sure with successful people: they don’t waste time. Time is the most precious asset every person has in life. Successful people understand that while they can make and lose millions of dollars, they can always make the money back! However, not so with time: If I foolishly waste years, days, hours and minutes, I cannot get back a single second of that time…it’s gone forever. You won’t see a successful person glued to the television watching reality TV shows for 5 hours a night. They would rather INVEST that time into their personal development by either reading a good educational book or building their lives or someone else’s in some fashion or other. If they do choose to watch TV, they do it with time they had already predetermined for exactly that-to watch TV.

7. Develop Strong, Enriching Relationships: Life is all about relationships. I will be bold enough to say that the quality and richness of your life will directly be affected by the quality and richness of your relationship with people. Successful people use money and love people. Losers love money and use people. No man is an island. You will never accomplish anything worthwhile without the help of another, it’s impossible. But if you value the people around you, build them up and love on them, you are surely on your way to building a legacy worth talking about years from now.

8. Devote Yourself to Excellence: You must make this next sentence part of your Life’s Mission Statement. Repeat after me: “Good Enough, for me, is just not good enough!”. Great people don’t settle for “good enough” results. Now I’m not saying that you should be ungrateful and not appreciate what you have, that is not the way. But you also should not settle for the meager life that the majority of people accept as the norm. God is a God of EXCELLENCE! Life is to be lived in VICTORY. You are MORE THAN A CONQUEROR, and you should live the life of someone who is more than a conqueror! Don’t settle for second best. Don’t accept OK results as your lot in life. Pursue excellence in all you do and you will soon see that excellence will be the norm for you.

2008- The year of New Beginnings. Some people will look back in 2009 at this year being the one that made all the difference to their spiritual, financial, professional and family life. Many more will look back and the only difference it will make for them is the reality TV shows they are hooked on will have changed.

Don’t let that be you my friend…I believe in you!