But I was reflecting the other night on the knowledge I gained this year.  I learned a lot.  I learned techniques to become more effective.  I learned how to step up.  I learned how to lead better.  More than anything I’ve learned how to make me a “better me.”  With my knew knowledge, I wanted to put together a plan of action of sorts to take advantage of what I’ve read, what I’ve been taught, etc.

So instead of resolutions, I’m creating habits in 2012.  These are small daily tasks that will continue to make me smarter, sharper, better, in better shape/health, drive my career and my business, and just make me a more pleasant person.

With that, here are the 7 things I plan to implement and why I think they will help.

1.  Make a daily to-do list.  After reading “Eat That Frog” by Brian Tracy, I learned a lot about getting organized for my daily activities as well as keeping my personal, professional, and business life on track.  And this is something that I subconsciously do but never put it to paper (or, in my case, to iCloud).  This is my biggest thing to change and implement.

2.  No TV/computer/work at night within 30 minutes of bedtime.  Instead, I plan on engaging that time as personal development time.  This will be my time to dive into a good book, learn a bit more, etc.  Now, granted my book very well may be on my iPad, but I’ll still devote that time to reading.

3.  Ample sleep.  7-8 hours minimum a night.  That means I’m getting to bed early (10-10:30).  This will cut down in my extra work per night, which means I must be even more efficient during the day and early evenings.

4.  Dive into Scripture every morning.  I usually start my day by checking email, web browsing, etc.  Instead, I’m going to take 15-20 minutes and read The Bible some.  This is a personal choice, and I realize that not everyone reading this is Christian, but that’s fine.  I am, and this is something I’m going to do.

5.  Exercise and Eat Primal.  The exercise part I do fairly well already.  Eating Primal is something I plan on doing in 2012 and will write some about here on the blog (I’ll also write more frequently about it on my fitness blog).

6.  Journaling/blogging.  I need to be better at this.  I write a lot about fitness, diets, etc, but sometimes I need to just write and reflect thoughts on various things.  Some post I may write and never make public.  I may just write to vent, etc, and mark it as private on my blog.

7.  Spend more family time/more time devoted to family only.  Listen, it’s easy to get distracted.  TV, cell phones, demanding job, business, whatever…even for me, I find myself not paying enough attention to my kids and wife.  I’m not saying that I’m going to spend X amount of time a day with them, but I plan to make a conscious effort to unplug, unglue, and pay attention to them more.

Now obviously, some of these are breaking of one habit and establishing another.  But I’m okay with that.  Some of these are major changes, such as the move to eating Primal.  But that’s cool.

I know that doing these 7 things daily will make me better at what I do.

It will make me better at who I am.

And maybe, just maybe, some of these will help you as well.

First Major Roadblock – Focus

You know where most people fail in a home business or network marketing?

They simply do not focus!

I participate on a lot of forums.  I find forums entertaining, informative, as well as a good place to attract people.  There are certain people that I’ve observed for years.  I can guarantee that they will be in no less than 2-3 opportunities each year.

Now, I know better than to believe that they have built decent residual incomes in any of those businesses.  Its hard to establish momentum in 2 months, 3 months, and for most people, 6 to 12 months.

These people have been referred to as jumpers, hoppers, junkies, and various other phrases based on their actions.  But the bottom line is they are simply not focused and do not stay focused long enough to build success.  They might have a quick hit or two, but they cannot establish themselves as long-term leaders in any company because they do not stay with any company long-term.

Some of the most successful people I know in network marketing have stuck with the same company for 2 years, 3 years, 5 years, or 10 years.  These are people who had consistent six and seven figure incomes built from their focus on that one company.

So my advice?  Make your next company (or current company, if you do not plan on making a move) your focus for no less than 1 year, but preferably 2-3 years.

Lack Of Growth

There are two types of “lack of growth” that kill a network marketing business.

Lack of growth in the business itself is not what I’m referring to here (although it definitely kills a business).

No, what I’m referring is the lack of growth of the individual.  When we fail to make ourselves better, we fail at providing the type of leadership it takes to build a successful home business.  And if we fail to strive for more out of our own lives, we might as well hang it up.

The bottom line is, this is a leadership and development business.  We must learn to lead (by first following) and then we must learn to develop ourselves and then others into leaders.

I personally know people, both inside and outside of the industry, that simply do not care to better themselves.  They are good with just being who they are, treading water, and never wanting to make anything of themselves.  They approach improvement with apathy and simply have nothing strive for (or rather, nothing they want to strive for).

So if we learn to first have something we want to achieve, work towards it while bettering ourselves, our success in the industry grows.

If you are sitting there wondering why you do not seem to be making it anywhere in network marketing, take a look in the mirror and see if this applies to you.  Are focusing?  Are you developing?  If not, you are probably not succeeding.

Well, I believe Art said it well before Nike.

What did he say?

“Just do it”.

Now, this probably is a bit confusing to you at this point, so let me give some background as to why I’m comparing Art William’s to Nike.

There are days where things are overwhelming.  There are days when things just don’t click like you would like them to.  Its frustrating, its tough, and it can lead to almost depression-like thoughts and actions.

I was having one of those days.

I made a comment about it on Facebook.  I didn’t do it for attention but I did it to seek help for what I was feeling.  I had no reason to feel this way, but I did.  Yes, I am a bit overwhelmed at times, and as I described to my wife, was almost feeling “stressed out” for an unknown reason.

And I’m glad I did, as a business acquaintence sent me a link to a video by Art Williams.

In case you do not know who Art Williams is, he is the founder of A.L. Williams, one of the great insurance business stories ever created.

In this video, he is addresses a national convention of religious broadcasters (i.e. television evangelist) on what it takes to succeed in business.  He used such a simple phrase to describe what makes the super successful who they are as opposed to the ordinary individual:

They just do it.  They work it a bit harder.

Here I am, around 36 days into my personal 90 day Internet marketing challenge feeling overwhelmed by the task at hand and I get this video.  What a blessing it was!

Williams pointed out several things that I believe apply to both Internet marketers and network marketers and something I am going to improve on:  Being excited about what they do.  As Williams puts it, no one wants to follow someone who is not exciting.  To grow a business, you have to have a following.  To grow a network marketing business, you have to have people who will follow you.

But more than anything, you have to work hard to be a leader and get to where you want to go, you just have to “do it.”

You have to work harder.

You have to push harder.

You have to have, as he calls it, a “unique mental toughness.”

This video was an inspiration to me, and it got me to thinking about something I’m missing from my business and my life:  Personal devleopment time.  No, I’m not talking about learning more marketing techniques, but rather making me a better leader, a better person, and a better communicator.

To sum it up, he said early on in the speech:

“… in order to win, you have to feel good about yourself.”

Just do it.  Feel better about yourself.  Just do it.  Work harder.  Just do it.  Don’t quit!  Just “do it.”

If you want to watch the video, I’ve embedded it below.  I hope you get something out of it.

So many people trade off one or the other.  They see a job as an opportunity to provide for their family or their needs, but it is simply not what they are passionate about.

Others find passion about something but there is not a market for it.

However, when the two collide, it creates something very exciting and often something very big.

I’ve learned that I really have very few passions in life, but there is one that I have routinely found the most gratifying:  Being a leader.

Now…being a leader, from my perspective, has nothing to do with power, authority, control, recognition, or any of the typical thoughts that come up with the word.  Instead, I believe the most important things that a leader does are empowerment and encouragement.

I have seen a lot of people want to be a “leader” for all of the wrong reasons.  When I was younger, I was the same way.  In fact, I remember in high school wanting to be the section leader in my band just so others would look up to me.  I see others want to be a leader so that they will be viewed better than others.

But as I have worked on leadership development, I have learned that the recognition is nice (in fact, I have dreams and goals about one aspect of recognition, probably my only selfish thought in this regard) and being respected is nice, but what makes me excited is the ability to see others grow, transform, and become something that they might not have been had someone not taken the time to pour into their lives.

For me personally, my business is exactly what I want to develop a leadership role in.

Why?

Again, I won’t deny the fact that I want one form of recognition from this company.  It has been a dream of mine for some time, but not for the “look at me” reason.

But I do want to be an inspiration to someone.

I want to be an inspiration not so others will talk highly of me, and not so that others will want to put me on a pedastal, but so that maybe my story would lift someone else up to become something more, to work harder, to achieve more, and to be on that stage with a similar goal.

My passion is to lead others.  It is to help others fulfill what they are capable of, to achieve a life-changing success in their own lives, and to have a positive impact in their lives.

I’m fortunate that my passion has found the opportunity to attach itself to.

This opportunity presents not only a chance for people to become financially independent, but also for them to develop themselves, their abilities, their personalities, and more.

To me, that makes my recipe for success that much stronger.

Just because you have a title does not make you a leader.

Brent, what in the world does this mean?

All too often we confuse people in a position or with a certain “badge” on their name with being a leader. A lot of times this could not be further from the truth. Just having a title or a function does not entitle you to being leader. Rather, your attitude and actions are what make you a leader.

I’ve had the privilege and honor to be in leadership on a variety of leaders and over a variety of people and groups. The one thing I always knew was that if I was going to be given a leader’s title, I had to have a leader’s actions. I could not simply take on the designation without taking on the responsibility that comes with it.

A group I used to associate with regularly all have leadership titles or functions within a common organization. To the common person, they are in leadership and therefore are “leaders.” Yet when I look at how these individuals treat others and the attitudes they carry with themselves, I realize they are nothing more than someone with the title. I would not consider any of these leaders in the sense that this article is referring to.

A leader has to accomplish two things to be a leader, and these two things must be in their daily lives and not just in the function they perform.

First, a leader must be willing to serve those who follow them. I knew when I was elected president of my fraternity in college that I had more responsibility than just leading meetings and making decisions. I had to be the one that helped the most, that served the most, and the one who set the example of what it meant to be in the frat. The same goes for various other positions of leadership I have been in. I had to work harder to serve those around me than I had to make decisions or pat myself on the back. What I see from a lot of people is a self serving attitude in leadership instead of a serving others attitude. If you are not willing to serve, you are not ready to lead. The best leaders I have served under motivated me to do my best by watching them do their best.

A leader must also possess an attitude. This term often comes across negatively, but in this case it is meant to be positive. The attitude the leader must have is one of caring, one of compassion, one of servant hood (as discussed above), and then one of authority. People do not respect leaders who show authority before compassion. People might obey, but respect is often missing. This is not always an easy task to accomplish but must be done to be a fully effective leader.

If you are sitting here doing some soul searching, as I often did in my development of my leadership thoughts, than there are probably some points in there that apply to you. How do you treat others? How do you serve? Do you set the example or do you tell others about the example?

Remember that even after you are gone, your character and integrity stick with people. As a leader, make sure what sticks is an example of what leadership should be and not what the title affords you.