What is the most important question in life? The answer to that can vary for each individual, but it often revolves around the power of choice. We choose our habits. We choose the action or lack of action that we are going to take on a daily basis. We choose how hard we work. We choose what we think about all day long. Every thing that you do on a daily basis comes from a choice. Living a better life, building a more successful business and becoming happier all comes down to making better choices.

Here are three questions that can greatly benefit the direction and quality of your life if you begin asking and answering them regularly. These could help guide you towards answering what is the most important question in life for yourself.

1. Where am I right now?

This is an extremely powerful question to ask because most people don’t take even five minutes out of their days to think about where they currently are in life. They know deep down that they are miserable but they just continue to coast along the path they are headed down because they fail to ask this important question.

The key when asking this particular question is to be honest with yourself. When you are honest with yourself, you are offered the opportunity for growth that will in the long run help you get to where you want to go.

Some days I have setbacks and don’t take strides forward, but as long as I am honest with myself when asking this question before I go to bed, I am able to know where I stand and what steps need to be taken to move forward. Take the time to analyze your life and really take a long and hard look at where you currently are.

2. Where do I want to be?

This question is all about what you want out of your life. What are you putting in the long hours for? What gets you so excited that it keeps you up at night? Once you know where you currently are in life, you then must analyze where you want to be.

Most people have no clue where they want to be. They wake up in the morning 30 minutes before they have to be in the office, go to work, do enough to get the job done and then head home before they have to do it all over again. They follow this exact pattern for the next 40 years.

If you don’t take the time to think about where you want to be, the circumstances of life and other people’s agendas will determine that for you. You deserve better.

3. What are the steps needed to bridge the gap?

This third question is the one that requires the actual work and action, so it’s the one that is easiest to neglect. After you discover where you currently are and where you want to be, the next question that you must ask yourself is what are all of the things that you must do to bridge the gap between the two. This is going to require several sessions of strategic thinking on your part, and may even take several weeks.

Another thing to note is that your answers to this question will never stop. As time goes on, more answers will come your way. The more you strategically think about what you have to do to get to where you want to go, the better and more efficient answers will begin coming to you.

Whether we are talking about an individual or organization, these are three questions that when answered carefully can dramatically increase efficiency, performance and motivation. I often write the above questions in my moleskin journal to constantly remind myself of my progress, then start the process of transferring all of the things that I have to do to my daily task list.

When you take time out to answer these questions regularly, you give your life meaning and purpose. The power of choice is truly extraordinary.

Originally Posted on Entrepreneur.com

The post 3 Questions For a Better Life appeared first on Matt Mayberry.

Here are three ways to never stop growing to help maximize your potential:

1. Do an audit from the neck up. Change your thinking.

I put this as number one because if your thinking doesn’t change, then nothing else will ever change. If you’re not happy with where you’re at in life right now, the first place that needs a checkup is the quality of your thoughts.

The men and women that never tap into their full potential during their time here on earth usually possess a major thinking deficiency. Not only do they lack the quality of thoughts that it takes to become all that they can be in life, but they also completely neglect the importance of mindset development and how vital it is to treat the mind like a gold mine.

Each of us has genius within, but whether that genius is cultivated comes down to what takes place on a daily basis from the neck up. The first step towards building a bigger future and maximizing your potential is to never limit what’s possible. People’s thinking and mindset get in the way of greatness more than anything else. If you want to change your life, first change your thinking.

2. Be a fanatic about becoming a lifelong learner.

Don’t be like most people. Most people stop learning the second they are finished with a formal education. Most people don’t have a personal-growth plan to how and when they are going to grow each month. Most people get stuck in their old ways and will continue to get the same results over and over again until their time is over.

If you’re serious about maximizing your potential and becoming all that you can be, devote yourself to becoming a lifelong learner.

Read great books in your field, listen to audiobooks while in the car, enroll in online classes and constantly search for ways to expand who you are as a person. Becoming a lifelong learner is one of the best decisions that you can ever make. Thinking you know it all or that there isn’t any room for growth is a major barrier that will forever trap you in the current space that you are operating out of.

Those who truly believe they have reached their capacity in life and as a person never take the time to invest back in themselves and become lifelong learners. Don’t let that be you.

3. Build a winning team around you.

Great organizations and the leaders within those organizations understand that people matter. A great CEO knows that his or her organization can only become great if the employees of that organization are striving, growing and looking for ways to become great as well.

The same thing applies to your life as well. We as people can only become as great as the people around us. A surefire way to maximize your potential is to associate and be around winners — the men and women who are doing it at a level that you aspire to operate out of.

I encourage you to create a list of the men and women who are on your personal team. Next to each name, write down whether that person is really helping you to grow and get to where you ultimately want to go.

A lot of us, including myself, get so caught up in our hectic schedules without ever analyzing our inner circles. If you’re anything like me, I’m sure you’ll be able to find one or a few people who no longer serve your greater good. Building a winning team around you is an absolute must if you are going to maximize your potential and become an uncommon achiever.

When we stop looking and searching for ways to grow, that’s when our potential and achievement levels become stagnant. The key to high performance is to never stop growing and to seek out ways to continuously improve yourself.

Originally Posted on Entrepreneur.com

The post Never Stop Growing appeared first on Matt Mayberry.

Forget the violence.

Forget the disappointment.

Forget the hate.

Forget the doubt.

Forget the self-diminishing thoughts.

Forget everyone who has ever doubted you or done you wrong.

Forget everything that brings you down to a lesser version of yourself.

Forget the negative junk!

For a brief moment, take your mind completely away from all of the negativity. Focus on all of the positive and promising possibilities instead. Remind yourself of how much you are capable of doing in this lifetime. Direct your energy and focus on the daily process of becoming the best version of yourself for this very day.

And if you can’t see all of the wonderful possibilities for your life, then start speaking them into existence. Plant the seeds now!

All too often, worry and anxiety creep in and steal our joy and power. We forget how powerful we really are. Have you ever observed that young children are brimming with joy and wake up each day eager to experience the world? This is because, as children, we are not susceptible to seeing the world’s negative aspects. We have no idea what is actually occurring around us, and our imaginations are limitless. Instead of wishing we were young children again, we can tap into the power that all children possess by being more deliberate about where we direct our daily attention.

It’s massively important to turn your attention away from the mess. Instead, remind yourself of all the blessings in your life. The possibilities for your future. What do you admire most about life? What excited you as a young child that you no longer care about and have turned your back on?

Where we direct our focus is the direction in which our lives will move. If we continue to focus on everything that is going wrong, that’s exactly where our lives will go. But when we choose to look at the blessings, more good will come our way.

Forget the negative junk!

The post Forget The Negative Junk appeared first on Matt Mayberry.

Directing your focus on everything that went wrong in your life will do nothing but keep you exactly where you are. If you want to move forward in life, which I am sure you do, you must be willing to press forward and focus on all of the positives in your life. The power within you can’t be fully realized and deployed unless you regularly celebrate your uniqueness and inherent greatness.

The seeds of greatness are planted in each and every one of us. That is where the power within you resides. Being able to completely understand and acknowledge that. Not in some of us, but in all of us. We all have big dreams and strong desires. Things we want to accomplish, things we want changed, and things we want to do throughout the course of our lives. But so often, life has a tendency to get in the way. Big plans never fall through. Tragedy strikes once again. This can create an atmosphere for settling to take place. Settling for second-best and less than what you deserve.

Don’t ever settle for second-best. Don’t put the power and greatness that are already within you on hold. We are all here for a purpose. Nothing in life is a waste, and most certainly not yourself. Instead of focusing on the losses in your life, focus on the wins. No matter how big or small they may be, get in the habit of counting your blessings. Your wins. The moments of pure happiness.

Do everything in your power to get your fire back. Claim your greatness and recreate your swagger. Develop and search for a deeper meaning for your life. Continually put yourself in a positive, faith-filled environment everywhere you go. Don’t wait for others to do good until you do good; take initiative and set the tone. Be the leader you were born to be.

The message that I hope to get through to you today is that you are already equipped with everything you need to make your life phenomenal. To make your life a masterpiece and leave a spectacular legacy that lives much longer than you do.

Don’t wait any longer to speak, and think victory over your future. Every day, remind yourself how powerful you truly are. Say over and over to yourself, “I am a winner. No loss or defeat can override the greatness that is already within me. I am blessed with an overwhelming amount of joy.”

And don’t ever forget. You already have the power within you.

The post The Power Within You appeared first on Matt Mayberry.

I don’t care who you are or what you have accomplished, we all go through disappointments in life and struggle from time to time with coming to the realization just how special we truly are. Think about it, let’s say you have a goal that you want to achieve so badly in life, but three months down the road  you come to find out that you didn’t reach your mark.

What happens? You quickly rush to start blaming yourself and question your abilities and talents. You start to listen to the negative voices that keep rolling in and out of your head. Feeling powerless. Feeling like a victim instead of a victor.

What you have to understand and never lose sight of is that you have more power and control inside of you than you think you do. Some people get hit so hard from the outcomes of life that they lose complete sight of their uniqueness and wonderful talents they have been blessed with.

Failures and disappointments aren’t present to degrade our confidence and love for ourselves. It is one of the hardest things I have ever had to do in life.  Learning how to make it “ok” to fail and mess up every now and then.

Understanding that it all is apart of the process to reach and achieve my goals and dreams in life. To become the best version of myself.  You can experience so much more in life when you don’t look at disappointments and failures as some terrible mishap in life.

Just for a second, look at Abraham Lincoln. How many times did he fail over and over again before he actually was elected President Of The United States?  Look at Steve Jobs.  A remarkable man who went through disappointment after disappointment before he actually achieved success.  And then when he achieved success, he was hit again with being fired from the company he founded!

Look at Albert Einstein. How many times did he fail over and over again before once and for all breaking through?  These are three remarkable men who achieved remarkable success who all went through very difficult and tough times. What they didn’t do though is let the hits they took from life keep them down. When things went wrong, they didn’t go with them!

They never forgot how powerful and special they truly were. If you make the decision to tell yourself daily how special you are, start listing all of your unique qualities, no setback or failure will ever be able to hold you back.

Here are five ways you can start to remind yourself daily on how powerful you really are.

1.)  Get in the habit of writing in a gratitude journal. When things go wrong in life and being able to sit down and start listing all you are thankful for, your happiness will be rekindled and you soon will feel a sense of accomplishment.  Even small successes will keep you reminded that you have been successful in the past and that you will be successful in the present and future.

2.)  Continually review and look at your long term goals. Short term disappointments are less likely to derail your well being when you pay mind to all you wish to accomplish in the future.

3.) Striving and working to dig deeper in your spirituality journey. We all have different beliefs, but working to strengthen your spirit will help reinforce how powerful you are.  Whether that is going to church every Sunday, reading scripture throughout your day, or tapping into the power of meditation can help paint the positive picture of yourself.

4.) Find time to read 10-15 pages of something motivational, inspirational, or uplifting to help renew your mind and enlighten your day.  Just spending 10-15 minutes a day reading uplifting material can alone take your life to the next level.

5.) A habit that has positively impacted my life is keeping a notecard filled with powerful and moving quotes to help pick me up throughout the day.  Whenever I felt down or upset about something, I would take my notecard out and repeat over and over to myself the positive quotes that were written down.  This habit helps to interrupt all of the negative thoughts that are trying to take control of your thinking.

You are powerful. Don’t ever lose sight of how powerful you really are. Life will knock you down and derail your path, but you don’t have to give in! Don’t let the tough times demoralize your beauty. You have a unique skill set that no one else possesses.

You are here to make a difference and make this world a better place. Just remember, you are far greater than any problem or circumstance that stands in your way!

The post You Are Powerful! appeared first on Matt Mayberry.