There is no Plan B for your A Game! (Bo Eason)

Whilst on my holiday I have had the pleasure of reading about 10 very life changing, and motivating books, watching many talks and documentaries and this morning had the pleasure of discovering a nice motivational speech by an ex NFL player Bo Eason. His story is much the same as many of the top 1% who become the best, and in his talk, he shared his advice about 'How to be the best at what ever you are doing'. His top ten is as follows:

1) Have a Dream

Everything you ever become 'the best at' starts with a dream. It is important to allow this very important stage, for it is in the dreaming stage that it all becomes a possibility.

Most of you have probably been led to wealthy affiliate because you dream of a better life, maybe one with more money, or more time or freedom. For me, my dream is to have a day when I no longer have to work and trade my time and energy to someone else for money. I desire the passive income, and have big dreams for my writing, abundance and my ability to travel this wonderful world.

2) Make a Declaration

Just like the Declaration of Independence in the USA, it is important for you to make a written declaration of your dreams. Having a written declaration of what you want to be the best at also gives you something to be accountable to, and will be the thing that fires up your passion and drives you to succeed.

A declaration is not a plan, it doesn't need to have the how or why, or be able to be measurable, or achievable or any of that corporate training on plans. A declaration is just that, a statement of intent, a personal agreement with yourself (and if you believe in that kind of stuff, the Universe)

Bo Eason told his story of making a declaration at 9 years old to be the best in a position of American football. However, after 10 years as a boy of getting up at 5am to practice, he was not given any scholarships when it came to going to college. He was told he was just not good enough to even be picked for the worst team.

He did not let that stop him, he went to a small college, one that played football for fun. After day one of training, the coach told him he was not good enough, even to just play for fun!.

Bo, goes on to tell how he slept in his truck and snuck into practice for two weeks. When the first game came up he snuck onto the bench, and even traded places with the captain to just get a game. This earned him the respect of the coach and a place on the team. After 10 more years of playing and training he fulfilled his declaration to become the best.

I have put my declaration of big dreams, up on my wall today. Just writing it has made me feel good. I feel so proud of what I have achieved so far, and and now, I am proud of what I will achieve in the future,

3) Make a plan

Once you have made your declaration of your dreams, there then has to be a plan on how to get there. This may include time scales, what training you will need, what action do you need to take to become the best? Your plan of action may include the following:

4) Be prepared to be the Rookie

When you start anything new, or do anything for the first time, you must accept that you have to start on the first step of the ladder. It is impossible to just be the best on day one. You have to be prepared to be the rookie, do the time and pay the dues.

This is the perfect time to observe and learn from the current best and then do it better. Bo Eason tells how on his first day of training at a new football club, he went to training and arrived 2 hours early. However, as he looked across the field he saw that another had already arrived and was already training. He was the current best star player. All the other players arrived 5 minutes before training.

When training began they all lined up to run and catch the ball, all players casually and coolly ran at 25% effort caught the ball and walked it back out to the thrower. But the star player, ran full speed, caught the ball, ran to the other side of the field, and then ran back full speed and handed the ball back to the thrower, and he did that all training.

From that day on Bo vowed to always be the first to arrive to training and the last to leave and to always give 100% or better than the best.

5) Practice is the path to mastery

In order to become the best at anything you have to practice, rehearse and train. There are no accidents when becoming the best at something, you have to have discipline and determination. You have to ask How much of yourself are you willing to give to be the best? and then give more. You have to be willing to run the miles and put in the hours to become a master.

When you watch the best, what is invisible is all the practice, training and rehearsal that has gone in to reaching that moment. The best (a master) will make being the best look effortless and easy. But if you want to be the best you also have to surrender to the miles it takes to be great.

6) Seek out those who are doing what you dream of (Who is currently the best?)

When Bo Eason decided to change careers, he made a new declaration to be the best actor on stage. When he arrived at acting school he asked 'Who is the best currently?'. He was told at that time it was Al Pacino. Bo declared that he wanted to speak to him, the other students just laughed and told him there was no way he could, he was a massive movie star!.

Within a week Bo Eason was at Al Pacino's house playing pool with him and telling Al Pacino that he wanted his mantle of 'the best stage actor' and asked how it could be done. Al Pacino told him exactly what he had to do!

Firstly he told him it would take 15 years, and that Bo would have to have his feet on a stage in front of an audience more than any other actor. He would have to learn to 'suck' in front of an audience and get used to failure and bad reviews and then pick himself up and adapt and get better each time.

Bo Eason did exactly what Al Pacino advised and exactly 15 years later(almost to the day) he opened his critically acclaimed one man show on Broadway, which went on to run for over 10 years. On opening night he looked out and there in the audience, fifth row, was none other than Al Pacino, who gave Bo a respectful nod, which he states was his best review ever!

7) Be prepared to fail

In order to become the best you have to be willing to fail. When the space program decided to put a man on the moon, they didn't just make a shuttle and months later it landed on the moon. It took many years of failure and trials and steps and more failures, which even resulted in many deaths, before Neil Armstrong was able to say those famous words.

Failure is simply part of the path to being the best in your field. Treat is as the teacher it is and learn from it. Treat your failures, just as much as your successes as a step up that ladder to success.

8) Overcome Fear by enjoying the journey

When we set out on a new quest to be the best it can be scary. Often you can worry, am I doing the right thing? Is it selfish to follow a dream? How can I become the best at anything, I am not good enough? That critical voice in the head can really make you question your ability to make it to the top.

However this can be silenced, or at least made quiet if you vow to just enjoy the journey. Instead of focusing on the end goal, make the getting there part of the joy, success and achievement. Revel in the small stuff, the small steps of progress and stop and look around of what you achieve.

You don't go on holiday with the goal of leaving home and getting back home. (Although in reality that is the end goal of a holiday, getting home) You go on holiday to enjoy all of the experiences and adventures inbetween! So why when we atart a quest do we want to get to the end immediately?

The point of the quest is 90% the journey and 10% the end goal! The master knows that there is no failure until the end, and that there is no end, so there can be no failure.

9) The win/win of competition

I for one don't believe that there is a competition with anyone else. I believe there is enough abundance, money, fame, awards etc for every person who desires it. However, I guess that contradicts Bo Eason's advice to declare to be the best, because to be the best, you have to compete and win. However, there is a win/win to competition, to the quest to be the best, and that is you take everyone with you.

When you make your declaration to be the best at something, you help the rest, you bring them with you on your quest. One person's dream can elevate others. You show what is possible and make others believe they to can do that.

An example would be Olympic sports, there have been speeds or heights that every one believed were just not possible to achieve, until someone achieves them, then something clicks in everybody elses brain, it is possible, and they then begin a quest to be the best to better it. The following competition 9 or 10 will break that record that everybody believed could not be done!

To be the best you have to be the record breaker, the rule maker and a leader who is happy to elevate the status quo.

10) If you change dreams, be prepared to go back to stage 1, and start again!

Life tends to allow us to want more, to be more, to expand and grow. When the time comes to make a new declaration to become the best at something new, you have to be willing to slide on down that snake, back to the bottom of the ladder and start again at step one.

Just because you were the best at one thing does not entitle you to be the best at the next thing. As Bo Eason states, Just because he was the best in the NFL, he was famous and signing autographs one day, the minute he changed his quest, he was back to being a rookie again.

What does this have to do with affiliate Marketing?

Everything.

If you want to be the best you have to seek out the best as your mentor, ask them how the did it and then do better. You have to put in the hours, be the first in last out (metaphorically as there is someone always online due to time zones)

You have to be prepared to be the rookie, put in the time and effort. You want to be the best blogger or writer, then you have to follow Al Pacino's advice, and write more than anyone else every day for 15 years. OK it might not take 15 years, but we are talking years to become an authority site.

To be the best you have to bury yourself in research on your Niche, you have to know your reader inside out. You also have to immerse yourself in training, and where better than a place like Wealthy Affiliate that provides years worth of training. Every day you need to be either training, researching or writing.

Be prepared to learn the lessons and don't expect to be the best first bat. It might be that your first website doesn't work, in the form of bringing sales or visitors. However, it will have been the best training ground. No amount of building, learning, writing is ever a waste, they are the building blocks, the silent tools in your tool box. Because every time you start a new day, you know more and are quicker more wise.

I am sure those much more experience than I would agree that their second or third or fourth websites were so much easier and quicker than the ones before.

I know many of us are searching for a quick way to success. The fastest route to the holy grail of passive income, there is nothing wrong with that. But I hate to break it to you, there is no quick route to the holy grail. There is no elevator to the penthouse on day 1. No passive Income able to replace full time employed income by month 3.

So if you want the gold, you have to learn how to mine, consult with the experts. Find out who is the best and ask them how they do it. Train, research and learn every day. And go mining (or writing, blogging, running, climbing, working whatever you thing is) every day. bigger, better and longer than every one else.and then you might just strike gold.

Wishing you all much success on your quests to be the best

Much Love

Sara