013: I Dare You to Level Up and Think Bigger–Toby Salgado on Planning An Exceptional 2014

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Toby Salgado

Hi this is Toby Salgado and we are doing a little bonus content.  I hope you enjoy this post and I want to dedicate this post to my friend Dominic—-he is a guy like many of you that has tons of talent and potential but, has not yet tapped into the giant he can be—I hope that you can be inspired.

As we begin the year I have decided to put down some of the key factors you need to understand if you expect to be the best version of you that you can be. This is actually very personal because it serves as a reminder to myself that I plan to read every day. If it speaks to you then I encourage you to do the same.

I DARE YOU. I Dare you to make this year the biggest year of your life by listening to this every single day and live it. It is time to take things to the next level. You are only mildly successful because you have not remained laser focused every single day. Today is the beginning of the rest of your life. Today you will be the BEST version of you that this world has seen. It is your obligation to be SUCCESSFUL today. It is your obligation to be a LEADER. It is your obligation to WORK HARDER than your competition. It is your obligation to HELP someone be successful.

I DARE YOU TO: Make The Tough Decisions Necessary To Be Successful.

To reach your full potential you must be willing to make some tough decisions in your life, and in your business. There are things in your life that you know you need to remove if you plan to go to the next level. There are people in your life that you need to remove if you want to grow. If you want to live your dream you need to surround yourself ONLY with those who are relentlessly pursuing their dreams.

As you begin to grow and become truly successful you will begin to separate yourself from other people, there is a certain aura that you will posses that will put you in a position of leadership. Its not about thinking you are better than other people, but you MUST know how to identify those who bring out only the very best in you. You MUST define your value. Its necessary that you align yourself with WINNERS. Success breeds success and it’s necessary that you attract people who are hungry for success, people who will push you to be better, people who are living their dreams.

From today forward you must remove those who make excuses for their lack of success, from people who talk about what they want and are unwilling to take action to get it, from people who speak negativity, and from people who are not a champion for your own success.

TODAY you need to make the decision to give 110% because you can’t afford to have a bad day. Your family depends on you to give your all, your clients depend on your to give you all, and your company depends on your to give your all.

I DARE YOU TO: Be Obsessed

I heard a story told by my friend Quinn about being obsessed. Quinn told the story of a young man who went to a guru and said “I want to be on the same level as you, I want to make money like you.” The guru said “if you want to get on the same level as me then meet me at the beach at 4am tomorrow.” The young man said “I want to make money, I don’t want to swim.” The young man decided to meet the guru at 4am. He put on his best suit and showed up at the beach at 4am. When he arrives the guru said “How bad do you want to be successful” The young man replied “Real bad.” The guru said then walks out into the water. The young man looked at him crazy but he went in waist deep. The guru walks out past the young man and said come out further. The young man started to really question what was going on. The guru said come on out so the young man follow him out. At this point he is up to his chest and he stops again. He says to the guru “I came here to learn how to make money what are we doing in the water?” The guru said come on out a little further. The young man is now up to his neck in water. Suddenly the guru dunks the young man under water. As the young man struggles to come up the guru holds him down longer and longer. Finally, the guru lets the young man up just before he passes out from being held under water. The young man comes up and gasps for air. The guru said “When I had you under water what was the only thing you wanted to do?” The young man replied “I wanted to breathe.” The guru said “When you want to succeed as bad as you want to breathe THEN you will be successful.”

You have to be so obsessed with your goals that you don’t want to participate in anything that is not moving your toward those goals. Your goals MUST be a burning desire. You will NEVER reach a goal that you KIND OF want to reach. You have to want to reach your goals more than you want to hang out, more than you want to watch tv, and even more than you want to sleep. As I write this it is 1 AM. I am so obsessed with moving my life in a certain direction I will do whatever it takes.

I DARE YOU TO: Think Big

One of the biggest mistakes I see people make, and that honestly I was guilty of making for many year is thinking incrementally. I had a conversation with a mentor & friend of mine that has stuck with me every day and is a key to why I am successful today. I was explaining to her that I was struggling with setting higher income goals because I felt like I was completely maxed out and didn’t believe that I could possibly do any more in a  given week as one person. she said to me “Toby you have fallen into a trap that ever business person and particularly males fall into. You are looking at the situation all wrong.” she said “You are setting your goals based on what you know right now. You want to be at point X, but because you can’t fit all the pieces together in your mind to figure out exactly how you will get there, you say I can’t make that much money.” She explained “You are so focused on the path you need to take to reach point X that you will never get there. Stop worrying about what is between here and there and just be laser focused on that end result.” In my mind “That’s crazy how can I possibly set my sites on an income goal without a specific plan of attack?” she replied “toby the universe works in magnificent ways. If you put out what you want and it’s a burning desire then the universe will bring it into existence for you.” Trust me if it sounds crazy to you it did to me as well. Then she said something I still remember today, she said “You may not even reach that end result in your current position, the universe may have an entirely different plan for you in order to get there.”

I don’t even know if she realizes the profound impact this conversation had on my life. I listened to her, I wrote it down, I stayed laser focused on the end result, I busted my ass every day, and some of the most amazing things began to happen in my life

I DARE YOU TO: Be Afraid Of Average

I remember very clearly standing in the horse corral of the home I just purchased in 2006–I had already made a million dollars and bought a ferrari and just bought a million dollar 4000 SF house but, I was still afraid of average. In 2006 I am 36 yrs old, I just purchased my 2nd home, I have a ferrari, and 750K in the bank. everyone around me thinks “Sean is doing amazing, look at all he has done in just a few years however I am scared that i got lucky–i was scared that I couldnt keep it up—-to be honest I felt like I was going to lose it all.  I was out of my depth or so I thought—I had realized my dreams and felt like I couldnt reach any higher——I had gotten all of what I dreamed for but, the problem was that I didnt dream big enough–and to be honest 7 years later I still am working on thinking bigger—thats what this post is about.

I made a decision that I would NOT settle for anything less than extraordinary. I would do something great in my life, I decided that my kids would live an extraordinary life. My parents lived an average life, their parents lived and average life, It is up to me to create a legacy.

I DARE you to look around your life. Are you doing anything TRULY great? Are you surrounded around AVERAGE people? Jim Rohn says you are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with—–You can’t say you want to be successful if you are satisfied with average or hanging out with average people. I talked about getting rid of people in your life you know you need to get rid of. The reason it’s necessary is because success has nothing to do with average. You will not find success in the definition of average anywhere. Therefore if you plan to reach the top you have to let go of the bottom.

This definition should scare you AVERAGE- “The usual or ordinary kind or quality” there will be no legacy for you or your family if these results are okay with you. You will always get the USUAL or ORDINARY results unless you avoid AVERAGE activities. Don’t participate in average prospecting if you want above average commissions. Don’t hire an average coach to get above average results. Don’t put in the average effort and expect to be any better than you were before.

I DARE YOU TO: Know Your Why

Most people want to be successful and make more money but they don’t know WHY they want it. You need MOTIVE to be successful; you need to know what is the driving force behind the machine that is you. Why do you do what you do? Are you doing it for your family, for fame, to help others, or for some other reason? There is no right or wrong WHY but it must be present. You have to have a WHY that you are passionate about.

It sounds like an easy task but I dare you to spend an hour to really evaluate yourself and your why. REALLY sit down for an hour by yourself in silence and really think about WHY. If you think it’s about money then what happens once you get it? If you do it for fame what happens when thousands of people know you? Your WHY needs to be deep rooted in you and your heart. It has to be something you believe so strongly about that you can’t sleep at night.

I DARE YOU TO: Take A Risk On Yourself

There are so many people I have talked with this year that are afraid to take a risk on themselves. If YOU won’t take a risk on you then guess what, NO ONE WILL. How can you possibly expect your prospect to take a risk on hiring you when YOU won’t even take a risk on you?

If you are a real estate agent and you haven’t taken a risk on you don’t be surprised when when others wont take a risk on you.

If you are a real estate agent who is afraid to trust yourself enough to be a full time real estate agent, then don’t be surprised when you don’t get that listing. You won’t even take a risk on yourself to let that part time job go because YOU don’t trust yourself to be successful enough as a full time real estate agent; yet you have the audacity to expect your prospect to list their home with you?

I DARE YOU TO: Put Your Ego Aside

Ego can be a devastating thing to your family and your business. I get to talk with sales people and business owners every day. Unfortunately a large majority of people let their ego keep them from success. Let me give you an example:

I spoke with a guy recently who was not reaching his goals in his industry. I asked him why he didn’t hire a coach. I explained that we may not be the best fit for him but there are lots of good coaching programs out there and he should strongly consider working with someone who could help him in his business. He began to tell me of all the new and innovative approaches he was putting into place for the next year. I said “Sir, how long have you been in this business?” The guy replied “I am going on 12 years.” Now sometimes I have to have tough conversations with people. My job is to help them see that there is a problem not to sugar coat things for people. So I said “Sir with all due respect you have been in this business for 12 years and I work with people who are doubling your production with just a fraction of the experience. You have been in this business for 12 years and you still have not reached your goals. How long do you plan to continue to chase your own tail coming up with new ideas and strategies before you let someone who already has the answers help you?” He tried to tell me again about how someone else was doing these new things he was going to try and that he was going to make it work THIS TIME. I replied “Sir you can’t tell me that in 12 years this is the first time you had a NEW STRATEGY that you were going to implement that was going to work. The fact of the matter is you won’t admit that you might not have all the answers.”

The point I want to make here is that you can’t be so egotistical that you keep the right alignments out of your life. There are people who have been there and who have done that. There are people who are better than you, and that’s okay. What separates the good from the great is the people who are good that are willing to learn from and follow the  people that are great. I dare you to stop acting like you have all the answers and align yourself with the right people so that you can achieve YOUR full potential.

I DARE YOU TO : Share this post with someone that you think might help them grow as a person. I DARE YOU To: Take the time to reflect on what you have just read, read it again, and make today the beginning of a brand new life for you. It is never too late to reach the top, it is never too late to take action, and it is never too late to make a change. TODAY I DARE YOU TO HELP OTHERS BE SUCCESSFUL.

The Framework for this post came from Sean Matheis —for more great content check out his site at www.themilliondollarmasterminds.com