You know, we’ve been in the holiday spirit here on ST for more than a week now, so I don’t think there’s any reason to stop.  I’ve got another holiday themed post for you today, and don’t be surprised if I have another one leading up to this weekend.

The little holiday story I have to share with you today is one I read in self-help book years ago (I used to read a lot of those, although I don’t much anymore).  I can’t remember where I picked it up, but it’s a great example of the hunger, commitment, self-reliance, and responsibility it takes to get results in any business.  Even though most people say they want better, these qualities are exactly what most of them are lacking.

It’s about a boy in a very poor family, who each year asks Santa for whatever his cousins (in a much better off family) asked for. One year a pony; they got a pony; he got hand-me-down clothes and apples.

The next year, thinking he was asking for too much, he carefully copied his cousin’s letter to Santa word for word, asking politely for a bicycle. His cousins got bikes; he got hand-me-down clothes.

What did he do?  He went out behind the barn, with tear-filled eyes, put a fist up in the the sky and said, “Okay Santa, if that’s the way you want to play it.” And he set about being his own Santa Claus.

The moral to the story is that most people childishly rely on others to give, to appoint, to authorize, to promote, to grant permission, to set their life agendas for them.

It’s very, very few that accept full and total responsibility to be their own Santas and grant their own requests. To take matters into their own hands. There isn’t any fat guy in a red suit coming down your chimney to bring you that Porsche you’re lusting after or that fat retirement account that’ll guarantee your security.

 

You’ve got to be your own Santa. I’ll tell you how in a minute.

Related to this story is a quote I remember reading from W. Clement Stone, the insurance multimillionaire from early last century.  Stone was a student of Napolean Hill, author of the classic THINK AND GROW RICH.  What’s ironic is that Hill ended up broke, and it was Stone that ended up giving him a job later in life.

What Stone mentioned was this:

If you, to even an infinitesimal degree, believe that you are not responsible or others are to blame for your situation, you have zero shot of being successful.

The first time I heard that quote from Stone, I had a hard time believing it.  I thought “hey can’t I blame my Dad, my environment, my business, my neighborhood, my customers, or someone even a little?  After all, I can’t be entirely to blame can I?”

It was a hard thing for me to come to grips with – but once I took full responsibility, it was a little scary, but also extremely liberating.  Before I was like the kid, wanting to blame Santa for not having the presents.  But once I realized I was responsible, I was able to give myself the presents.

Before, I was broke, living in a basement.  But once I accepted full responsibility, I knew that if I changed my actions, I could change my results.  And is it any wonder that any unsuccessful person you meet could go on for hours about all of their excuses and who’s to blame for not having what they want?

The same goes for anyone depending on “luck” to bring them what they want.  Sure, luck plays a part in success, and I’ve gotten lucky many times on my road (get your head out of the gutter).

But luck is only useful if you’re prepared to do something with it.  Or else, you won’t know you got lucky, or what to do with it.  Luck is worthless without preparation.

You’ve probably heard the story of how the overwhelming majority of lottery winners are broke within five years of winning.  I recently read about how over half of pro-athletes end up the same way.  The moral to that is that if you get a break but don’t know what to do with it, you’ll just piss it down the drain.

I don’t need luck in order to make money, and I hope you don’t depend on it either.  I realized years ago that I can write my own lotto ticket.  The minute I started making money with my fitness business, I knew I would never have trouble earning again in my life.  I completely changed as a person in every way because I knew I would never have to take orders from anyone else ever again.

Here is how you can achieve the same thing:

– have something “hot” to sell
– make an offer to lots of people about it
– keep them once you got-em

Wash, rinse, and repeat – that’s it.  It’s that simple.  You may try to make it more complicated than that, but it isn’t.

However, one of the keys of executing what I’ve mentioned above is that you are in the process of making yourself the fitness leader or head trainer in your business, rather than the person doing all the training yourself.  Or if you already own a studio, that you are not managing and putting out fires all day.

Imagine you had all your time, 8+ hours a day to focus on just those three tasks above:

1.  Making your product hotter (positioning, sales copy, testimonials etc.)

2.  Making offers of your product to a lot of people (advertising, speaking, promoting, joint venturing with other businesses.)

3.  And keeping them (calling clients periodically, sending emails, having a nice welcome package, giving gifts, appreciation days, providing follow up materials, referral incentives, hiring high energy employees).

Imagine you were doing that instead of the training all day – where would your business be? What would your income level be like?  It’s freaking scary.

Once you realize you’re in control, it’s one of the most crazy, liberating feelings out there.  The first part is going to involve accepting that FACT, which I mentioned was very hard for me to do.  The next part will be acting on it, which you get better, faster and more effective at with practice.

Get this right, and you’ll never have to sit on a fat man’s lap ever again!

Hope you’re having a happy holidays with loved ones so far and have more of that planned ahead; if not, get on that quick!  Talk soon.

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NEW YEAR’S ANNOUNCEMENT: What’s your goal in the new year?  To quit the gym?   Open a studio?  Hit the six-figure mark?  Stay at six-figures but do it with more time off?

Whatever it is, make sure you hit the ground running.  The new year is the biggest time of year for fitness services hands down, so make sure you step up and get your piece of the pie.

If you want this to be your biggest year ever, but are doing it with the same old info, it’s probably not going to happen.  That’s why I’m giving you an added high-value bonus to my top-selling programs; and since money is always tight this time of year, you can access the programs with a special trial offer, so you can hold off on paying for them for a full 21 days, but still put the hard hitting info into action to bring you instant results.

In addition to a no-risk 21 day trial to the programs, every order this week (until Friday December 24, 2010) also gets INSTANT access to THE PLATINUM PROGRAM at no cost.  You  wont’ have to wait for it – I’ll send you your link right after you get on board.

With all the gift giving this time of year, give yourself one too.  And besides the convenience of getting to own, use, and profit from the course before you pay, you’re also covered by a complete 365 day guarantee.

Get on board now – for THE SIX-FIGURE TRAINER PROGRAM, click HERE.

For STUDIO START-UP, click HERE.

The PLATINUM PROGRAM instant update is only happening for orders before Friday at midnight, PST (after that, it’s Santa time).  The bonus program alone is a $297 value, and you’ll get instant access to it.  Be sure to get on board now and make this year BIG.

Take care.