Every speech I give is two speeches:

(1) The speech my audience thinks they’re getting when they walk in the door, and (2) the speech my audience realizes they got when they walk out the door.

The first speech changes each gig.
Depends on the audience, depends on the venue and depends on the needs of the client.

The second speech rarely changes.
It’s almost always about commitment, consistency and stick-to-itiveness.

Because that’s what my message is ultimately about.

It’s not about sticking a nametag on your chest; it’s about tattooing your commitment to your chest and wearing it proudly, every day.

How do you communicate to the world that you’re fully committed?

Here’s a list of strategies to blow people away with your commitment:1. Take the longcut. Commitment is a constitutional core value. And the capacity to sustain it over a long period of time is not something you’ll learn from a book. Or a weekend seminar. Or a membership website. Or even this blog.

It’s cultivated by surrounding yourself with people who are commitment personified, listening to the music of their lives – then replaying that music over and over until you know every word, every note and every beat by heart.

Then, over time, allowing that music to profoundly penetrate you – down to the core – and making a conscious decision (not a choice, but a decision) that commitment is something you’re going to commit to.

And, that commitment is something that matters to you. Otherwise you’re not committed – you’re just interested. And your efforts to blow people away will be filled with nothing but hot air. Like my friend Kristi writes in Grounded Optimism, “The fastest and most habit-forming route is to make something more meaningful to you.”

Remember: Commitment isn’t something you can game. It takes time. It takes work. And it takes the deepest parts of you. How are you laying a foundation that builds commitment?

2. Don’t make choices without mirroring decisions. My friend Judson lectures to college students about change and choice. During a recent freshman orientation program, he talked about the difference between choices and decisions. Apparently they’re not the same thing.

Finally, after a two-week long, in-depth conversation, Judson inspired me clarify the distinction: The word “decision” comes from the Latin decisio, or “agreement.” Which means it’s a function of values. Which means you gave it serious thought. Which means it’s part your core.

The word “choice” comes from the German kausjan, or “test.” Which means it’s a function of context. Which means you give it minimal thought. Which means it’s an extension of your core.

For example: I made the decision long ago that I would remain in full control of my faculties. As a result, when I’m presented with the choice to do something that violates that decision – like drinking alcohol, for example – self-control is a walk in the park.

Therefore: Decisions are about precedent; choices are about preference. Decisions are made by you; choices are presented to you. Decisions are directions from the heart; choices are selections from the head. And decisions are agreements with yourself; choices are tests of those agreements.

The cool part is: Once you understand this distinction, you’ll begin to make both decisions and choices wisely. And people will be blown away by your commitment. What are you deciding?

3. Be known as someone who owns. Not like, a condo. I’m talking about owning your truth. Living your name. And remaining unwilling to edit yourself to appease the insecurities of others.

That’s what really blows people away: When you communicate to the world that you are fully committed to the person you’ve become. And in this case, to “own it” means to display, embrace it and enjoy it. It also means to participate in the creation of it, to take responsibility for it and to make all the decisions about it.

Even when doing so makes you uncomfortable and/or alienates people. Small price to pay for committing with both feet. Besides, better to be hated for the person you are than loved for the person you’re not. What are you known for owning?

4. Commitment is a coronary condition. I don’t know about you, but my heart is a nuclear reactor. And when I feel its inner alarm reverberating through my bones, not a force in this world can keep me down.

That’s the secret to committing: To stay in tune with your heart. That way, you’ll know when it’s time to press forward. “With great haste and without a moment’s hesitation,” like Goethe suggested.

And while you probably don’t want to recklessly surge forward at top speed, you do want to execute fast enough to scare away the insufficiently committed chumps watching from the sidelines. After all, few things are more powerful than a person ignited entirely by her own instinct.

Come on. Be heartstrong. Say it with your chest. What will be the domain of actions in which you engage?

5. Establish enduring sources of vitality. If you want to blow people away with your commitment, you need to go looking for oxygen. A wellspring of support that energizes and nourishes you.

For example, I practice yoga four days a week. I play music and sing every day of the week. And when I travel, I’m lucky enough to have a girlfriend that fuels me from afar.

What are your sources of vitality? What breathes life into you? After all, vitality comes from the Latin vita, or, life. And when the air gets thin, you’ll need those sources to help you (and your commitments make it out alive).

After all, it’s kind of hard to blow people away with a collapsed lung. At least that’s what my thoracic surgeon told me after he removed my chest tube that one time. What contains the energy you need to catapult you out of this commitment rut?

6. Sustain a deliberate commitment practice. Before he sailed the ocean blue, Columbus had to make a fifteen-year long sales pitch to Ferdinand & Isabella. Can you imagine being that patient? That persistent? There’s a man on a mission of cosmic significance.

If that’s not commitment, I don’t know what is. And if you want to mirror that same level of commitment for the people who matter most, try this: Activate a firm sequence of consistent, similar actions.

Do this, and your life will become a constant demonstration.
Do this, and your commitment will be perceived as unquestionable.

Remember: Consistency isn’t an accident. Sometimes the easiest way to blow people away is to refuse to go away. Will you be the last man to abandon the hill?

7. Be a public spokesperson for your values. The single most powerful personal development exercise I’ve ever done is to write my own Personal Constitution. This is a list of non-negotiable values and decision-making mechanisms. I carry it in my wallet wherever I go.

And while I don’t show it to that many people, simply by virtue of carrying it on my person helps me become a public spokesperson for what matters to me. To write one for yourself, keep a few things in mind:

First, the word “constitution” derives from the Latin constitutio, or, “ordinance.” However, it’s a living document. Which means it’s amenable. And as you grow and develop personally and professionally, various elements of your constitution reserve the right to modify.

Secondly, your constitution is the composition and condition of your character. An established arrangement of your fundamental values governing your behavior. The aggregate of personal characteristics comprising your foundation.

The challenge is sitting down and sorting everything out. But if you’re willing to reflect on yourself (and have a confrontation with yourself) you’ll have no doubt in your mind what you’re committed to and why.

Remember: Commitment requires a clear and rigorous definition. How will you make sure people are clear on what you say you care about?

FINAL WARNING: There’s a difference between unquestionable commitment and petty vindictiveness.

If you plan to blow people away, make sure you’re doing so for the right reasons.

Otherwise the wind is going to bounce back twice as strong.

ULTIMATELY: Those who are committed aren’t just commended – they’re compensated.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
Are you ready to commit with both feet?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…
For the list called, “62 Pieces of Advice Busy Executives Need to Know, but Don’t Have Time to Learn on Their Own,” send an email to me, and I’ll send you the list for free!

* * * *
Scott Ginsberg
That Guy with the Nametag
Author, Speaker, Entrepreneur, Mentor
[email protected]

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What do Richard Pryor, Whoopi Goldberg, Lorne Michaels, Lily Tomlin, George Carlin, Bill Cosby and Tina Fey all have in common?

Two things.

FIRST: Each of these individuals was presented with the inaugural Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.

In 1998, The Kennedy Center organized this “Celebration of Humor” and established the Mark Twain Prize to recognize those who create humor from their uniquely American experiences.

Cool.SECOND: Each of the individuals who won this award was nominated because they were considered to be “among world’s greatest exponents of humor.”

The Kennedy Center, as the nation’s center for the performing arts, recognizes and presents all disciplines of the performing arts including opera, jazz, theater, ballet and dance, as well as symphony and all kinds of smaller musical ensembles performing every imaginable kind of music.

Very cool.

LESSON LEARNED: Don’t be a product of your industry – be the exponent of it.

Here’s how:

1. An exponent is someone who expounds. Explaining is for tour guides. Your goal is to reveal all the gory details. To interpret. To democratize.

Which means you can’t just be smart – you need to be an intellectual. A mental omnivore. And it is incumbent upon you to generate your own Personal Philosophy, Theory of the Universe and School of Thought.

Otherwise you’re nothing but a ditto of the professionals who have come before you – and a measly asterisk of the professionals who come after you. How do you break it down for people?

2. An exponent is someone who advocates. Whatever industry, arena or field you represent, champion it to the world. Like it was your own child.

Infect people with your enthusiasm. Gush the way you would after coming home from your first date. Passionately and publicly profess that what you and your contemporaries do, matters.

And remind people that the purpose you serve is necessary to the world. As Sir William Martin Conway explained in his 1915 book, The Crowd in Peace and War, “Exponents are those who instinctively voice the collective cry of the crowd.” What are you an evangelist for?

3. An exponent is someone who raises the bar. Expect better results. Demand an upgrade in quality. Wage a war again mediocrity. Speak your mind in ways other shrink from.

And, hold yourself and your colleagues accountable for work that matters, work that evokes, work that invites criticism and work that challenges the status quo. Are you willing to lead the campaign to reject all that is average, boring and unremarkable?

4. An exponent is someone who transforms. Find out what isn’t working anymore – then burn it. Find out what doesn’t matter anymore – then delete it. Find out who isn’t contributing anymore – then sever them. And find out what rules don’t apply anymore – then change them.

Now, if you think this sounds simplistic, you’re right: It is. But that doesn’t make it easy. Truth is: Exponential transforming is so change-oriented; you’re going to have to get comfortable being uncomfortable.

Otherwise, no upgrades will be made. What are you no longer being governed by?

5. An exponent is someone who makes history. With every idea you have, ask yourself, “Has this ever been done before?” Odds are, it has.

Which means your challenge is to ask another question: “What slight modification, combination, juxtaposition or unique spin could I put on this to make it the first of its kind?”

Another approach is to think, “What current successful ideas could I combine to create an entirely new animal that nobody’s ever seen before?” Do this, and you won’t just make money – you’ll make history. Are you going for the sales books or the record books?

6. An exponent is someone who embodies the consummate example. Create a profile of what you believe to be – and what the industry, as a whole believes to be – the characteristics of an ideal professional.

Now, this is not to suggest a one-size-fits-all, cookie-cutter formula into which we all evolve. Rather, it’s a collection of unshakable character components we might all aspire to embody. For whom are you a role model?

ULTIMATELY: It boils down to the legacy you want to leave behind.

Take George Carlin, for example. He won the Mark Twain Award one year after his death on June 22, 2008. History records him as one of the heroes of American stand-up comedy. More importantly, his official obituary writes the following:

“Taking his place in a lineage that includes Richard Pryor, Lenny Bruce and Bill Hicks, Carlin was an outspoken exponent of explosive material.”

What about you? How will you be remembered?

The choice is yours.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
Are you a product of your industry, or an exponent of it?

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* * * *
Scott Ginsberg
That Guy with the Nametag
Author, Speaker, Entrepreneur, Mentor
[email protected]

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Forget about luck.
Forget about talent.
Forget about creativity.
Forget about intelligence.

Discipline is all that counts.

Discipline is the great differentiator.
Discipline is the unsung hero of success.
Discipline is the bridge between ambition and achievement.

But.

Discipline doesn’t mean disrespecting yourself.
Discipline doesn’t mean adding more stress to your day.
Discipline doesn’t mean over-regimenting every minute of your life.

The secret is disciplining yourself without destroying yourself.

Here’s how:1. Get the faucet flowing. Here’s how I start every day of my life: Wake up early. Shower. Clock in. Sit down at my computer. Open a blank document. Puke out three-pages of stream of consciousness free writing. Recite my incantation. Get to work.

That’s how I get the creative faucets flowing. That’s how I fuel my discipline. And the advantage to writing morning pages is, according to Artist’s Way pioneer, Julia Cameron:

“It’s a time out. A ritual of reflection. A morning meditation. Your first check-in of the day. And your gripe session for working out grudges.”

Your challenge is to create a similar ritual to help get the faucet flowing. What you’ll discover is that discipline significantly easier if you have a trigger to activate the process. What’s yours?

2. Start small. Discipline is a gradual process. You can’t jump into the deep end on day one. Otherwise your lungs will fill with water before you learn how to swim.

My suggestion is to tackle small challenges that are close your limit – but not past. This stretches your capacity and rewards you with small victories to bolster your confidence.

For example, when I wrote my first book in 2001, I disciplined myself to write for fifteen minutes a day. That’s it. A mere 1/1000th of my day.

Nine years later, I now write between four and seven hours a day. Sometimes more. All because I started small and patiently grew it big. Are you willing to make gradual progress with your discipline?

3. Enter the cycle. If you want to discipline yourself to do something you’re not especially fond of – working out every morning, for example – consider this cycle.

First you hate it, mainly because you suck at. But then you start doing it for while. Which means you get better at it. And then you like it more. Which means you want to do it more. And then you do start to do it more. Then you get better at it. Then you like it more.

And then the cycle repeats itself. Forever.

The best part is, your discipline grows stronger with every revolution. What are you willing to wait to get good at?

4. Trust the process. Whatever you’re currently disciplining yourself to do, there comes a point where you have to affirm:

“Look, I might not like doing this right now. But I have great faith. I honor and trust the process. And I know it’s going to pay dividends. And sure, I might not know what those dividends are yet. Or when they’re going to surface. But when they do, I’ll know that the wait was well worth it.”

It’s a kind of like giving birth: “You can’t fight the contractions – you just have to trust the process.”

At least, that’s what I’m assuming. I’ve never actually given birth. Although I did used to work at Applebee’s, where I was once forced to clean up the remains of a customer whose water broke at the table. Swear to God.

Anyway, when you do this, you allow your primal self to do what it needs to do and lead you in the right direction. Learn to surrender to the process. Let it have its way with you. Are you willing to let process take over?

5. Lower the threat level. Discipline breeds discipline. Just ask any high school basketball coach: Students who play on a team tend to achieve higher academic scores than those who don’t. Why? Because their discipline multiplies.

For example, practicing free throws in the afternoon makes it easier to practice calculus equations later that evening. After all, their minds are already conditioned for consistency – all they have to do is change gears.

I’m not suggesting you pick up basketball as a means to accomplishing your professional goals. Instead, consider disciplining yourself elsewhere first – preferably in a smaller, less threatening venues where the consistency and stick-to-itiveness requirements are lower – you make it easier for yourself to win.

It’s kind of a side door approach, but it works. Personally, I used my nametag to lower the threat level. I first began disciplining myself to wear it every day ten years ago. Over time, it helped paved the way for more difficult daily disciplines like writing, meditation and exercise.

But only because I started small first. What awaits you in the refining fire of discipline?

6. Dare to be a beginner. “Never too late, never too old, never too bad and never too sick to do this yoga and start from scratch again.” That’s the mantra of yoga legend, Bikram Choudhury.

Interestingly, the word “discipline” comes from the Latin discipulus, which means, “student.” This suggests a few things.

First: Declare your incompetence. Admit what you know you don’t know.

Second: Learn to love mistakes. After all, a mistake ceases to become a mistake the moment you learn from it.

Third: Try not to be too hard on yourself. Let go of the self-criticisms that make discipline a big bite to swallow.

Fourth: Be patient. Every great chess player was once a beginner.

Remember: If the road to victory were smooth, everyone would already be there. Are you prepared to zero out your board?

7. Ritualize your process. First of all, turning something into ritual prevents you from saying, “Why the hell am I doing this?” Secondly, whether you say a prayer, light some candles or lock yourself in your Trans-Am and blast Whitesnake at full volume, rituals excite you about the discipline process. They create a sacred space for you to think about what you’re about to do.

Thirdly, although rituals only last for a few seconds – or a few minutes – the simple act of ritualizing your process turns into a discipline victory itself.

Finally, rituals, when practiced regularly over time, become the invoking force. Even if you don’t look forward to the act itself – you always look forward to the ritual. How do you ritualize your discipline?

8. Evolve behaviors into non-negotiatiables. The best way to discipline yourself to do something is to make it a non-negotiable. A non-thought. Here’s how the timeline goes:

First you never do it.
Then you sometimes do it.
Then it starts to become a habit.
Then it becomes something you’re disciplined to.
And eventually, after months (sometimes years!) of work, it morphs into a non-negotiable.

And that’s when you’re golden. That’s when you’re unstoppable. Because you no longer think about – it’s just something you do. And if you don’t, your whole day goes to hell.

That’s the point: To achieve self-sustaining momentum and make yourself positively addicted to do the process. How could you set yourself up so you never have to discipline yourself again?

9. Desire is irrelevant. Of course you don’t want to go to the gym. But you will anyway. Because you know your body will thank you tomorrow. And of course you don’t want to come in an hour earlier. But you will anyway. Because you know the people who matter will notice.

Easier said than done. Unfortunately, delayed gratification isn’t exactly your strong suit. Especially in a society that gives you everything you want in six seconds.

The challenge is making sure your lack of desire to do something is outweighed by the benefit of doing it. My suggestion: Use visual reinforcements to keep that ratio in check. Surround yourself with pictures, images and other reminders of the positive outcome of your discipline.

This will help inspire a vision of the future and, most likely, annoy your spouse to no end. Good. Maybe this will inspire him to drag his lazy carcass to gym too. Have you learned to love what’s good for you?

10. Make a public commitment. My friend Andy once said, “The best way finish your next book is to sell a thousand copies of it first.”

This paints you into an accountable corner. You wouldn’t want to let your readers down, would you? Second, by building a deadline into your schedule, you put healthy pressure on yourself to execute. You wouldn’t want to let yourself down, would you?

Finally, by illuminating the light at the end of the tunnel, you discipline yourself to work backwards. This prevents misallocation of energy. Ultimately, when you add these three attributes together – then multiply them with the coefficient of public declaration, you’ll have no choice by to discipline yourself.

Otherwise you risk pissing off the people who count – including you. To whom are you communicating your commitment?

11. Fuel your discipline with a firm why. People always have time for what’s important to them. Or, if they don’t have the time, they make the time.

As such, the best way to discipline yourself to do something is to take full ownership of – and visually remind yourself of – your reason for doing it. Otherwise your motivation drops off the face of the earth like Brian Dunkleman.

For example, on the wall above my desk is an email I received years ago from one of my readers:

“Dear Scott. My name is Rose. I’m seventy years old. And for the past few years, I’ve been having a very difficult time moving my bowels. Fortunately, since I started reading your blog each morning, I am now regular. Apparently, daily, hysterical laughter is exactly what I needed to get things going. Thanks!”

That’s right – I change lives. And I look at this letter every day. Because it reinforces why I do what I do: To help old ladies poop.

That’s your challenge: To firm up your why. Because when you do, it’s a million times easier to slog through something if you’ve convinced yourself that that something matters. Have you aligned energy with priority?

REMEMBER: Discipline doesn’t just make the man – it makes the man money.

Start today.

Even if you start small.
Even if you start slowly.
Even if you start scared.

You can still discipline yourself without destroying yourself.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
What awaits you in the refining fire of discipline?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…
For the list called, “17 Ways to Out Create the Competition,” send an email to me, and I’ll send you the list for free!

* * * *
Scott Ginsberg
That Guy with the Nametag
Author, Speaker, Entrepreneur, Mentor
[email protected]

Who’s quoting YOU?

Check out Scott’s Online Quotation Database for a bite-sized education on branding success!

www.stuffscottsaid.com.