Your Best Year Ever: The LEAP Principle

0:01Well, hey there. It means the world to me that you've made it this far into the book. Clearly, you've got some exciting things in your future. I can't wait to cheer you on and have it your best year ever. I bet if you've made it this far, you really do feel like it's added a lot of value to your life. I mean, you wouldn't be listening this far if it hadn't. But would you be willing to share this with someone you know, somebody you care about? If so, just take a quick second, hit the share button, and then send it to someone in your life that you want to have their best year ever. The Leap Principle I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it.

0:43Nelson Mandela The secret to winning isn't a secret. It's constant execution in the direction of a goal. Ali Schwanke After Gail and I had been married about two years, we bought a house together in Waco, Texas. One beautiful spring Saturday morning, not long after we moved into the new neighborhood, I heard the doorbell ring. Gail got the door. Honey, she called out after a moment. I think you need to come to the front door. I got up and walked to the front door. If you had asked me who it might be, my first guest wouldn't have been the police. But there they were, two officers in uniform. Are you Mr.

1:21Hyatt, they asked. I am, I said. Sir, they said, and I could tell this wasn't going to be good. We're here to arrest you. What? I exclaimed. Well, they explained, you have a speeding ticket you failed to pay, so we're going to book you and take you downtown. So, here I was on a Saturday morning with all my neighbors outside mowing their lawns, playing with their kids, doing all the usual weekend stuff, and a pair of police officers are walking me out to their patrol car, shoving me into the back, flipping on their lights, and driving off with me inside. When we arrived at the station in downtown Waco, I got fingerprinted for the first time in my life and turned over all my stuff.

2:01They were about to take me back to jail when Gail walked in with the checkbook. Could I just write the check for the amount, she asked. Yes, you can, the officers answered. So Gail got the amount and filled out the check. As soon as she signed it and handed it over, I was off the hook. It was incredibly embarrassing and also totally avoidable. It came down to a failure to act. I knew I had the speeding ticket. I just hadn't gotten around to paying it. I hadn't done what I knew to do. I procrastinated instead. I can't tell you how many people do this with their goals. All those folks who set New Year's resolutions and then bail?

2:37All these people who develop lofty plans but never execute? Everyone you know who seems to wait for the next big thing to happen instead of going and making it happen? It all comes down to a failure to act. Before we go any further, I want to recap our journey so far. We've covered a lot of ground. In step one, we said that to create your best year ever, you must upgrade your beliefs and embrace liberating truths about what's possible in your life. In step two, we discovered the power of backward thinking for completing the past, harnessing regret to reveal future opportunities, and leveraging the gratitude advantage to cultivate the abundance thinking necessary to prevail.

3:17But in step three, we saw how to design a compelling future using a mix of smarter achievement and habit goals and why your best year ever lies just outside your comfort zone. In step four, we talked about tapping into the power of intrinsic motivation, fueling your why and goal achievement, and traveling with friends to stay the course through the messy middle. Finally, in step five, we covered how to take action and turn those goals into reality. And guess what time it is? If you follow the action plans for each step in this audiobook, you've got a list of your own goals by now. Let's say you want to improve in your vocation, your marriage, and your mental health.

3:56Dreaming up big results can be emotionally satisfying and intellectually stimulating. But getting started requires action. And that can be tough. After all, how can you make room in your schedule for date night? Find the hours it takes to vision cast and strategically plan. Leave the comparison trap behind and focus on the value you bring to the world. Those are good questions. And they're important to answer. But proceeding without all the answers is not the real risk here. Not even close. The real risk is this. When facing these sorts of challenges, instead of taking action, we can coast on the good feeling of the dream without taking the necessary steps to see it realized.

4:37Earlier, I quoted Arthur C. Clarke's comments about the failure of imagination. See chapter 1. We sometimes fail to achieve great goals because we can't imagine them or how we might accomplish them. They don't seem possible. But Clarke also highlights another problem, one he calls the failure of nerve. Sometimes we can imagine exactly what we need to do. We can picture it clearly. We've defined it. We even might have a detailed plan of execution, but we don't execute. We're like General McClellan, all plans and no punch. Soon you'll be susceptible to the law of diminishing intent. It states the longer you wait to take action, the less likely you will be able to take it.

5:17Jim Rohn originally noticed this phenomenon and coined the term, but you can beat the law of diminishing intent and create your best year ever by leveraging what I call the leap principle. Hey, I just wanted to drop in here for a minute. Are you enjoying this chapter from your best year ever? If it provided motivation or clarity, would you consider leaving a review? Personally, I always check reviews before buying something on Amazon. That's why leaving an honest review is so important. It'd mean the world to me. So if you're up for it, would you take just a couple of minutes, go to Amazon or go to Audible, maybe even both, and leave a short, honest review?

5:57Just search Your Best Year Ever and let me know what you think. Thanks so much. Never leave the scene of clarity without taking decisive action. This reminds me of another U.S. general who had the same sense of destiny as McClellan, but an outcome that was quite different. From the time he was a young man, George S. Patton imagined great things for himself as a military commander. He was born into a military family and excelled at horsemanship and other athletic endeavors, including fencing. Like McClellan, he rocketed to stardom early in his career. He started World War I as a captain and ended as a lieutenant colonel.

6:37A pioneer in tank warfare, Patton was famous for walking in front of his brigade or even riding on top of his tanks into battle to inspire his men. George will take a unit through hell and high water, his commander, General George C. Marshall, noted. In 1942, Marshall picked Patton to lead Operation Torch, the invasion of Axis-controlled North Africa. Patton faced all the limitations McClellan did. Right after taking position, Patton found out his troops and supplies were insufficient. Instead of using that as an excuse for inaction, he took command and made his undersized army the most effective group of fighters he could manage.

7:14And he changed the course of history. It seems that my whole life has been pointed to this moment, Patton wrote just before landing in North Africa. If I do my full duty, the rest will take care of itself. And he did. His strategy? We shall attack and attack until we are exhausted, and then we shall attack again, he told his men. That determination to act made all the difference. Patton achieved victories in North Africa and then in Sicily. After the Normandy invasion, Patton led his men 600 miles across Europe, liberating Germany from Nazi control in 1945. Patton took action. We need to do the same.

7:52If you want to see a big change and combat the law of diminishing intent, you must be willing to take a big leap. It's as simple as four steps, one for each letter of the acronym. lean into the change with expectancy. When you notice that a change is desirable or necessary, that's your green light. Punch the gas pedal. That inkling is all you need to get going. Engage. Engage with the concept until you achieve clarity. Don't let the feeling pass. Work with it until you've got a sense of what to do. That nagging thought in the back of your mind might be the start of a whole new adventure or the ladder you need to climb out of a deep rut.

8:34Activate. Activate and do something. Anything. Sometimes we wait to move until we have all the information. That's a mistake. Clarity comes in degrees and you only need enough light for the next step. Even if you get off on the wrong foot, the rest of the journey will become clearer as you go. Pounce. Pounce and do it now. Once you've determined your next step, take it. Don't wait. Waiting feels safe, but waiting kills dreams. I've seen high achievers leverage the LEAP principle time and again. When I hosted a mastermind group of entrepreneurs and executives called The Inner Circle, one of the members realized he needed to quit a professional organization he belonged to.

9:14The commitment was chipping away at his resources and not providing enough return. It was a light bulb moment, and he jumped into action. He didn't schedule it for later that week. That would have left the issue unresolved, and the delay would have allowed his intent to diminish. Why? As he built up the complications of quitting in his mind, he would have found reasons to stay on board. Instead, he left the room at the very first break, made a phone call, and resigned. He took a leap. Now it's your turn. Your best year ever isn't a movie you can sit back and watch. It's a vision that needs to be built starting now, or it won't come true.

9:53It's no accident you were drawn to this audiobook and that you stayed with it till the end. This is your year. This is your moment. Don't defer your dreams. Don't delay your goals. Don't procrastinate on the one thing you need to do today to make meaningful progress in your personal and professional life. Once you've determined your next step, take it. Don't wait. Take a leap.

10:24Well, hey there. First and foremost, thank you. We've journeyed through your best year ever together, and it fills me with tremendous gratitude to know you've listened to the entire book right here on the podcast. This work is really close to my heart, and I poured in years of experience, insights, and lessons into it. And knowing you've engaged with it in its entirety means more than I could ever express. Now, if this book resonated with you, if it sparked a change or inspired a new path, I have a small request. Would you share it with your friends? Maybe your family? Word of mouth has the power to transform lives.

11:06And your recommendation can make all the difference. So just hit the share button now to share with your friends, your family, your work colleagues. And if you could take a moment to leave a review on Amazon or Audible, that would also help immensely. Why? Because reviews guide potential readers, right? Providing them insights and motivation to embark on this journey. Lastly, even if you've listened to the entire book, owning a physical copy of the book or even a digital copy can be a game changer. It becomes a companion you can revisit, highlight, and reference. Plus, as we mentioned before, having both auditory and visual imprints deepens your retention and the connection that you have with the material.

11:49So, consider grabbing your copy from Amazon or Audible. dive back into the chapters you loved mark those exercises and carry the insights with you wherever you go once again from the bottom of my heart thank you for tuning in let's continue to grow learn and make every year our best year ever