How do you get ahead?

I used to work for IBM, so I quite like the saying at IBM that goes: "How does a company get to be one year ahead of competitors? One day at a time."

This saying applies also to professionals who must compete for leadership in their field. It's important to realize that most people, for some mysterious reason, are not really motivated to get ahead. They are exactly in the same spot they were two or three years ago. It's sad, but the reality is, human nature doesn't like change.

This is why it's so easy for someone who understands this fact, to get ahead of other people by making a significant effort EVERY DAY.

A friend of mine is a black belt in kendo, 4th Dan (he's also black belt in Tae-Kwan-Do and Aikido). I'm always interested in learning success secrets, so I asked him how he practiced kendo. He said he practices 20 minutes every day. Note: he doesn't actually go to a kendo dojo, he practices from home.

This idea of practicing daily is not new, Brian Tracy has been talking about it for the last 20 years.

So that's really a powerful success secret: first, choose ONE thing at which you would like to become the best. Then, COMMIT to practicing that activity EVERY SINGLE DAY WITHOUT FAIL.