We are defined by our age, sex, race, weight, height, eye colour, education, wealth, relationships, workplace, job role, principles, way of talking, way of dressing, actions. But there is one thing that speaks louder than all of these.  It’s our choices.

You can choose your education, your job, the way you dress, the way you talk, the way you act. You can choose everything, even the things you think you don’t have any control over. You can’t choose the age you have, but you can choose to act your age or not. You can’t choose your race, but you can choose to not let it matter or not.

Everything we do is a choice. You can choose to talk or listen, to do a great job or a poor one, to lead or follow, to change things or fight against change, to be motivated or to complain, to make commitments, to deliver, to matter, to be memorable, to be irreplaceable, to show up, to act or not.

All you have to do is make a choice and stick to it. Refusing to make a choice and just letting time pass is making a choice. It’s choosing not to pick anything specifically. Stop wasting time and make a choice today.

Everything is up to you.

Most people have a problem understanding customer service.  Actually, customer service is really simple to understand. There is no secret to it. What’s really hard is doing it right.

First of all, customer service is not what you think the customer wants, it’s not what other customers you had wanted nor what consultants or statistics say. Customer service is what the customer wants. Full stop.

Each customer is an individual with expectations you have to meet. These expectations vary from customer to customer and your duty is to adjust to each of them. Once you understand this, customer experience will become even more difficult than you had considered it before.

Now you know what you have to do. Go out there, learn from each of your customers, find out what they need, what they want, what they expect from you and then deliver it.

I have been asked a few days ago, how did I make it, what did I do to succeed.

First of all I am not even half way there. I can say I have obtained most of the things I  wanted and actually tried to do, but I still have a lot to go. I don’t consider myself a success story, yet.

Even so I couldn’t leave these questions unanswered. After a few minutes of trying to see what got me to where I am right now I gave an answer that didn’t really satisfy me; but it was more than nothing and the best I could do at that time under those circumstances.

Now I want to go a bit into details. But before I do that I want to share with you my answer. I always did the things I liked and wanted to do. I have spent a lot of time with people already doing the things I wanted to do. I have read a lot of things related to my field of interest at that moment. I have always tried to do the things I wanted at the job I had or I have tried to find one where I could do them.

What I should have also mentioned is that I have always been really curious, always asking why and always wanting to know more. I have never settled with not knowing an answer. I always googled what I didn’t know. I never said I couldn’t do something before I tried. If I didn’t know how, I researched how others did it and tried to do it myself.

I have always believed in myself. Sometimes I may have been overconfident or arrogant, but that’s what made me believe in myself. I have taken risks. I have tried to take advantage of every chance I got. I have always tried to see how others do things and learned from them what I thought was going to help me.

These are just a few things I should have added then. Except for these, there are a lot more things to say, but I think you’ve got where I am heading with this. There is no one thing, one secret ingredient to success. This combination worked for me until now. I can’t say it will work for you. Maybe it will, maybe it won’t. But what I can say is that these things will surely help.

I don’t know what the key to success is, but the key to failure is trying to please everyone else.

Having fun.

Being successful.

Inspiring others.

Sex, drugs and rock’n’roll.

Accumulating as much knowledge as possible.

Making a lot of money and buying everything you want.

Falling in love and having a family.

Being famous.

Making your dreams come true.

Traveling and meeting new people.

Helping others.

… whatever you want it to be about. No one really knows. This is the whole beauty of life. You can do anything and everything you want and you still won’t be wrong. There is no right answer to this. So no matter what others tell you, do what you want, what you like and what feels right to you.

Stop listening to others and live your own life, not the life they never had the courage to live for themselves.

We all have a routine, some people we usually meet with, a favorite place to eat at, things we like to do, routes we like to take, subjects we like to talk about. These are all part of our comfort zone. No matter how big or small, we all have one.

When we leave our comfort zone to try new things, to meet new people, to experiment something, our anxiety kicks in. It might sound like a bad thing but actually this is a really good thing. Once anxiety hits, our focus increases and our performance spikes. It is the opposite effect to getting bored.

Take risks, get out of your comfort zone and experiment. It’s one of the easiest ways to increase your performance. You might have a not so great feeling at first, but once you start doing it on a regular basis you will become more comfortable with taking risks. This will lead to innovation, creativity, memorable things.

No matter how much you might like your comfort zone, the best things are outside of it. What’s inside of it you already know and soon will get bored of. Expand your comfort zone, take risks, meet new people, do things that scare you.

Now get up, get away from your computer and out of your comfort zone.

No, it’s not. Things change and they are changing now at a faster rate than ever before. There is no doubt about this.

Then why people still use this, you might ask. It’s part of our resistance to change. It’s our fear that comes into play. Once you know how things are, how they work, you get used to them. You adapt and feel comfortable. Change, on the other hand, stresses you. You have to put in a little effort to learn the new things, you need to adjust to them and act accordingly.

Fearing chance is futile. It’s going to happen whether you like it or not. What you can do is to embrace it. Embrace it from the start, experiment, exercise and get used to this. This is how, while others will still try to adapt to it, you will already have the necessary knowledge to take advantage of it. This is what’s going to give you the edge you will need to succeed.

Be the one that others try to keep up with, not the other way around.

Tomorrow I am going to work on my dreams.

Tomorrow I am going to set myself deadlines and stick to them.

Tomorrow I am going to make a commitment and deliver.

Tomorrow I am going to read.

Tomorrow I am going to tell her how much I love her.

Tomorrow I am going to meet with my friends.

Tomorrow I am going to get enough sleep so I don’t feel tired anymore.

Tomorrow I am going to do something that scares me.

Tomorrow I am going to go out.

Tomorrow I am going to take photos.

Tomorrow I am going to eat healthy.

Your list might be totally different from mine. It does not matter. The activities you choose to do are not as important as the commitment you make to yourself. No matter how big your plans or dreams are they mean nothing without action.

If you say tomorrow now, you will say the same thing tomorrow. Stop saying tomorrow. Start saying today.

Today I am going to stop saying tomorrow.

Good things come to those who wait has to be one of the biggest lies you tell to yourself,  to your friends, to your kids. It’s what you also have been told since you were a little kid. That’s one of the things you heard so many times that you know it’s true even if you have never given it some proper consideration.

But if you think about it for a second you will see how far from the truth it really is. If good things come to those who wait, then get some food, some water, close the door and sit in your room until they do. Or you can go to work and do nothing all day and wait for the position, salary and benefits you dream of.

Now we all know this is not going to happen. You have to step up, show up, make commitments, deliver, fail, try again, work harder, work smarter, be more creative. These are the things you need to do and then the good things you were waiting for will come. Stop waiting and start making those good things come to you, otherwise you will be waiting for a long, long time.

Good things come to those who act.

When was the last time you said that? Did you say it with pride because you did something memorable or were you admitting having done something wrong?

It really does not matter why you said it. It’s always good to admit something you did, even if it’s something you did wrong. We have to take responsibility for our action because once we do we are able to fully understand the mistakes we made and learn from them.

But what I am most excited about is when someone admits having done something that they always wanted to do. No matter if it’s something spectacular or just some little thing they always had their mind on. The emotion that person feels when they say “I did it” will light the room. Now think about doing something memorable that can touch in that way tens, hundreds, thousands…

For every “I want to do that” there should be an “I did it”.

to follow your dreams.

to start learning a new thing.

to do what you like.

to take that trip you always wanted.

to have fun.

to say I love you.

It’s never too late, but why wait another second?