Take Permission

The Right Tools & Mindset For Success

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What the resistance says when you're #1

84 days ago I uploaded a file to Amazon.com. As of today I’ve made $19,196. Now I’m hearing things.

Why I should be very, very happy

I’m #1 in Business Leadership on Kindle and in the top ten in a few other categories. Dave Ramsey plugged my book on his radio show this week when my wife and I called to scream we were debt free (Listen here). Crystal Paine, perhaps the most popular “mommy blogger” in the world invited her readers to journey through the book for 30 days. I’ve sold 3,824 copies. In the last 48 hours alone I’ve netted $1,580. So why am I afraid?

Bombarded by lies because of success
Resistance tells us the lies that keep us from becoming who God wants us to be. The job of the resistance is to lie so we stop becoming what we can become. He’s real and he’s crazy smart. Steven Pressfield coined the term “The Resistance” and wrote about it beautifully in The War of Art and Turning Pro. I’ve never felt the resistance on this side though, the side where you’re #1. So what does the resistance tell you when you’re doing well?

Resistance tells us the lies that keep us from becoming who God wants us to be. (Tweet that)

Here are the things the resistance has told me in the last 48 hours alone.
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Your intentions don't matter

Tonight I called home from my trip to Nashville and talked with my wife about her day. At 10:08 I looked at my phone and said, “I need to let you go. I’m getting up early tomorrow.”

My wife replied, “Ok, but you say that you’re getting up early every day and you don’t.”

She’s right. I set my alarm for 5:30 or 6am every night but rarely answer its call when it rings. I have been living as if my intentions mattered as much as my actions. Decisions aren’t actions, they intentions that we still haven’t delivered on.

Here’s my alarm for tomorrow.
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If you want something different you need to do something different

Things you can aspire to do:
– Run a marathon (even a half marathon would count)
– Read the Bible in a year
– Quit your job and start your own business
– Drink your coffee black
 

Perhaps the last choice doesn’t carry the weight the others carry but today my choice to make my life different was to drink my coffee black. I want my life to be different so I’m looking for anything I can do differently. I like cream and sugar in my coffee but leaving them out means I think about change every time I raise the cup to my lips. Change will be on my mind 30 times in the next 45 minutes. That’s worth the $1.90 I paid.
 
I used to smoke
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Too much noise; Why I'm dropping most of my Facebook friends

Healthy Envy

You envy intentional people and you should.  People who live their lives with intention know what they want and achieve it because they follow a process.

1. Stop letting distractions distract
2. Write down your dreams/goals
3. Write down steps to reach them
4. Stop often to check your progress on reaching your dreams/goals
5. (Rinse and repeat)  [Read more…]

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Here's why I've been gone so long

Lucy Marie Traub
She was born last Monday. Lucy Marie Traub is pretty much perfect (as you can see). She’s healthy and happy. Life though, will never be the same. From time to time I give people a glimpse into my real day to day life. Here’s one of those times.

Overwhelmed
It’s all very overwhelming. Amazing things are happening with my business and my family but they’re happening at the same time. There are no complaints, other than I’d appreciate some 36 hour days instead of the standard 24. My best hours for working are 7am-Noon and every day for the last two weeks I’ve been spending that time with my family. I’ll never regret spending time with my family but it’s frustrating and flat out counter-productive to work in the afternoons. But, that’s how our life is right now and that’s not going to change.

5:30am Wake Up Call
This post is being written at 6:32am because my great friend Mark Jones Jr. kept me accountable to getting up at 5:30am. My family needs me in the mornings so I’m working before they wake up. Coffee helps. [Read more…]