Lesson 7: If you fail to prepare, you prepare to fail

"By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail."--Benjamin Franklin

A friend emailed me today and gave me one of his favorite quotes which sparked my thought process. "Your first five minutes dictate your day." How do you start it? Do you prepare the night before? Are your clothes laid out, is your food packed, is your gym bag waiting by the door? I highly doubt it!

It made me think of my most productive days. Days that just flow. Days that you look back at 3 PM and say to yourself "I am absolutely killing it!" Why do these days happen and other days just fall by the way side? PREPARATION! Or a lack there of...If you dominate the days you prepare for, why not prepare for every day thus dominating every day? It seems easy enough to figure out... but people don't do it. They press the snooze button five times. They sleep during the time they should be waking up and working out to get their brain focused. They rush around in the morning trying to get to work on time and for what?! An hour of extra sleep? Sleep cycles are in THREE HOUR increments peopleeeeee! The extra half hour isn't doing shit. All of this has brought me to:

Lesson number seven: Preparation is the most important aspect of life
Just like the boy scouts always say, "Always be prepared", and as a young businessperson you should follow the same motto. This is a good rule of thumb for every aspect of your life, not just business or boy scouts. Imagine if you prepared everyday with the intention of getting the absolute most out of it...Meetings, phone calls, lunch, gym, interviews...you would absolutely crush the task at hand. A perfect example is the infamous "To do list"...now, what if you did it the night before when everything you didn't accomplish that day was still fresh in your head? You could hit the ground running! Now what if you prepared for the little things in your day i.e. follow up phone calls, emails, sales meetings, and even internal meetings, like an athlete going on an away game for a championship? Yeah I said it! What if you cared that much?! You triple checked your bag (briefcase), you planned and packed your meals ahead of time (to be as efficient as possible), you laid out your clothes the night before so you could pop up as soon as the alarm rang and hit the ground running. Imagine how efficient your day would be? All because you prepared. But you don't do that now...why? Because American Idol is on? Because your tired (poor baby). Stop making excuses and start preparing. You are in this thing for keeps now. Everything you do has the potential to make or break you...so why don't you do everything in your power to MAKE IT! Prepare, enough said...