Mike Lopez Online

Ever wondered how you can become a true leader in your field? A leader that everyone looks up to, someone that brings success to others?

It’s pretty simple really but it’s not easy. The concept of leadership is often misinterpreted by many as being the “boss” wherein the truth is that leadership is actually the opposite of bossing around other people. A true leader sets high standards for himself so that other people may follow while the boss simply sets the standards for others and doesn’t do it himself.

Let me start it with a quote by one of the most successful people in the world. Someone, whom many agree, is a very good leader indeed.

The quality of a leader is reflected in the standards they set for themselves. – Ray Kroc

A true leader leads by example and not by rules. A true leader inspires others by what he does and yet he never boasts or brags about it. Also, a true leader stoops down to the level of his followers and “walks in their shoes” so that he understands their needs.

A true leader stands by his word and does whatever it takes not to break it. He is also willing to sacrifice so that others will be successful. He lets his people reap the benefits first, he gratifies himself last. He never rejoices in what is wrong but does his best to do what is right even if it means putting a lot of effort into it. He never steps on other people’s toes.

A true leader never quits even if no one wishes to follow him. He has a vision, a clear vision that drives him to do what he needs to do everyday. His goal is not just for himself but for everyone around him. He thinks of himself as the servant of all and yet his followers honor and respect him.

Seldom do I find people with the qualities of a true leader. I’m very lucky to have been mentored by a few because the words of a true leader are like gold, the lessons he teaches are like never ending streams of water that refreshes you day by day.

Goal setting is the foundation wherein successful people build their dreams upon. It is the process of clearly defining what you really want to achieve in a certain amount of time and what you need to do to get there. While setting a goal is not an easy task (there are secrets to doing this as well which I’m going to share with you in the future), achieving your goal is an ever greater achievement. In fact, less than 10% of people achieve their goals.

So, to help you become an achiever, I’ll tell you exactly what I do to get there.

I’m going to share with you the 5 steps that I take when I set my goal and what I do to achieve them.

1. Write down on a piece of clean paper what you really, really, really want to achieve. Many people fail to do this thinking that simply thinking about your goal will be enough. Research shows that writing down your goal increases the probability of you achieving it to as high as 90%. Make it clear. Don’t write “a new house”, instead write down “a 2000 square-meter two-story Victorian house with 8 bedrooms, 5 baths on 1 hectare of land beside the lake. If you can add a picture of your goal, the better.
2. Define what it takes for you to achieve your goal. If you’re planning to buy a car in 12 months, then you need to know how much the car costs and how much extra money you need to earn each month to attain it. You’ll also need to define how will you raise that extra money on a monthly basis.
3. Be willing to pay the price. Always remember that each goal has a price to pay for. It can be waking up earlier every morning, eating less food in the evening, investing a certain amount of money into a business and so on. Knowing your goal and knowing what it takes to get there is not enough. You really have to be willing to do what needs to be done to achieve it.
4. Start doing what needs to be done. You need to do this on a daily basis, with each day taking you closer to your goal. Tick off the things that you have already accomplished and carefully take note of what you need to do next. You might need to adjust from time to time but always stay on track.
5. Be Passionate, Consistent and Focused. Passion is the fuel that drives you to get there amidst all distractions in life. You need to keep that fire burning. The greater your passion is, the more consistent you will be in achieving your goal. Then of course, you’ll need to focus all your energy towards achieving your goal. Without focus, you’ll end up with your efforts being scattered all over the place and all your passion and consistency will be worth nothing.

There you go. Let these five steps guide you in achieving your goals.

Have you ever asked yourself the question, “When is too much too much?” I did, I do and I think I still will. But when is too much too much?

I recently just watched Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. It was a nice movie and was fun to watch especially with the “ever popular” hormones going around. I say ever popular because hormones seems to be mentioned each time I read a review of the movie or the book. Oh well, the reason why I’m talking about Harry Potter is the phrase that Professor Dumbledore said.

“Once again I must ask too much of you, Harry.”

When was the last time that your mom, your dad, your brother, your sister, your wife, your husband, your kids, your boss or whoever asked too much of you? The feeling of anguish of being asked too much by someone in our life is unbearable. I mean, if it really is too much. However, we often give in revealing somehow that even if it appears to be too much, it really isn’t because if it were we wouldn’t have given in.

Do you get my point?

So when is too much too much? If you really can’t do it anymore then it’s too much or is it? A few months back, I attended an intensive team-building training where the concept of “Do whatever it takes” was planted deeply in my mind. Considering this concept, there is no such thing as too much unless you have already attained your goal.

Think of it this way, if you were a runner and your goal was too reach the finish line but you were already tired, will it be too much if you gave that extra strength just to finish the goal? I don’t think so. No matter how tired I am, no matter if I win or not, my goal is to reach the finish line – no matter what. I’ll do whatever it takes just to reach the goal even if I have to crawl all the way to the finish line. It will only be too much if I kept on running after I’ve reached my goal.

Do whatever it takes and reach for that goal. It’s never too much until you’re there.

Congratulations to Cecile Cinco, the first winner of our $10 Weekly Raffle contest.

How did she do it? Simple. All she did was subscribe to the Mike Lopez Online newsletter on this website’s sidebar. Subscribing to my newsletter (yes, I’m Mike Lopez just in case you haven’t figured that out yet) qualifies you to our $10 Weekly Raffle contest.

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Here are some screenshots of the Paypal transaction. You could be the next.

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Twitter is getting into the lives of more and more people online. People see it as a fast and easy way to let other people know what they’re thinking about and how they’re feeling. It’s also a very effective way of connecting with tons of people – whether you know them or not. This connection is seen as a good thing by many.

That’s basically the good part.

On the other hand, there are those who think that Twitter is evil because it became an avenue for marketers to bluntly and blatantly market their products to those who are following them. It didn’t take very long before all types of internet marketers, both legitimate and scammers, to take on the Twitter craze and bombard people with the things they sell.

Luckily, there are people out there who are willing to spend time to educate people on how to use Twitter properly. These people bring the fun in to Twitter once more and tell all who want to sell at that Twitter is not the place to sell. Rather, it’s a place to meet people. One internet marketer says that Twitter is the place to party.

That makes sense doesn’t it? With all the noise in Twitter, it looks like a party place and not a selling place. Messages go back and forth and many people “overhear” what others are talking about. Surely, you don’t want to be heard pitching that new product that you’re selling. Instead, you want to talk about interesting things.

Now, back to the topic, is Twitter goor or evil? Well, I think it’s much like a knife – it’s neither good nor evil. It’s in the hands of us online citizens to make it good by doing the right thing.

One thing I learned in “online living” is to avoid spreading myself too thin. I used to maintain many websites and I mean many. Each time a new idea comes to my mind, I would immediately register a domain for it, set it up on my server and create a blog for it only to find myself not capable of pushing through with this new idea anymore. This results to stress, unmaintained websites and definitely no income.

Furthermore, this kind of strategy spreads my SEO efforts into multiple sites. Instead of building links for just one site, I end up building links for tons of sites – something that I honestly just can’t do. Updating is a nightmare (which blog will I update today) and promotion is scarce.

After learning these lessons, I decided to just maintain three sites – this one and two others which you’ll eventually see as we go along. What about the other sites that I already own? I’ll keep them as is for now until I either find someone who would be interested in maintaining them.

If you think that you’re spreading yourself too thin then I strongly urge you to do as I did. Make a list of things that you’re currently doing and just cross out anything that aren’t really that important. If you end up thinking that everything in your list are important, then just prioritize them. You need to focus your energy on to a few things only in order to get results – that’s the whole point.

Next, re-organize yourself. Make use of calendars and task lists as they are proven tools in self-organizing and time management. Then don’t be a workaholic. In other words, don’t work the entire day and always have a day off or two for your family and friends. You need it in order to recharge.

There you go, I hope this article has been of help to you.