One well-planned project and one hour every day. That’s all you need to produce incredible results. I got the magic this week, as I finally finished the first solid draft of my manifesto (more on that one on Saturday).

I have been working on it since I came back from Brazil, but never gave it more than an hour a day. And it’s done. I completed the manifesto without pain, sweat and, it appears, almost without effort.

That’s the power of rituals. The power of building daily habits, which, if applied consistently over a long period of time, can produce amazing results. Imagine: just one hour a day got that thing done. It’s a big project, and I even took weekends off.

Why doesn’t, then, success as this one happen so often? There’s a simple answer:

It’s because we want the results now. That’s what keeps us out of true success. We want the money right now; we want a well-worked body in a week, and we want to meet our perfect boyfriend or girlfriend today.

The world pushes for immediate results, and we all fall in the trap. Most people want everything now.

It’s not impossible, but it’s not the best path to take. You must give your methods and projects time. If you work on them consistently, every day and completely focused, soon will results will speak for themselves. And it won’t take that long.

And this goes beyond writing and learning – everything is possible. Let me give you precise examples of what you could do:

• Your goal is to make extra money each month? Well – Get up an hour earlier each morning and work on a project that can make you that extra money. And do it every day.
• Perhaps is your goal to feel healthier, lose weight and have a better build. So then, dedicate one full hour a day exclusively to your health and nothing else. And do it every day.
• The same applies if you want to find that dreamed prince or princess charming. He or she might not come and knock on your door – You have to go and look for him or her. Go for a coffee an hour a day, to art exhibitions, bars, yoga classes or wherever you feel you could find that someone. And do it every day.

Whatever your project is, if you follow this scheme I guarantee you’ll succeed. You’ll make it so it’s impossible that it doesn’t work out. Consistency is the key, no matter how big your goal is.

The best day to start was yesterday. So start now. Success is closer than you imagine.

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Never Surrender

Sometimes life hits you with a brick on the face. Literally.

What happened in Chile last week is an example. Middle of the night, 8.8 earthquake and boom, your life is completely turned around. You lose your house, looters abound and, worst, you might not know where your family is. And the ground keeps shaking.

That’s terrible misery – one that you can’t seem to avoid. The day before everything was alright – but in just one long minute, it all turned upside down. Your life, your dreams, your goals… All might be shattered.

What can you do? In all that misery, is it possible to look forward?

I can just come up with an old proverb: “You are allowed to fall, but to stand up is an obligation.”

Easy to say, I guess, but this short phrase is gold. No matter what the tragedy is, you need to stand up. You are obliged to stand up. The world needs you to stand up.

You must never surrender. Things will go against you, people will stand in your way and nature might throw it all away, but you must keep fighting. Life is long, and to succeed you need to look forward at all times. If you don’t get back on your feet, it’s over. And if you don’t do it soon enough, it will soon be late.

And Say Thanks

It could well be one of us living a tragedy such as this one. Really – think about it. I was in Chile, right where the quake struck, exactly one year and a week before. I was quite lucky I chose to go to Brazil this time.

Believers or not believers, we must all thank. Look what you have: material, friends, family, etc…. You are lucky. People just like you, but all the way in Chile have lost it all. One sole minute crushed it all.

It’s crazy when you think about it. Enjoy your life and make a treasure of it – for it can all go in a blast.

Photo credit: Wolfgang Staudt.

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There’s no place for mediocrity in this world. If you want to stand out and succeed, you need to be remarkable. And being remarkable demands a lot of hard work. It demands you to take action and push you to your limits.

And this, in turn, demands you to stay motivated. You need a strong drive and excitement to make your goals real. I developed the Motivation Letter concept to help you out on this one. By continuously reading the letter and visualizing your perfect life you are more likely to thrilled and full of incitement. But sometimes it’s not enough.

The problem lies in the nature of the letter – reading is something passive. Passive is sometimes not enough. In this case you need action. Action is much more stimulating and will give you instant and impressive results.

So, if you don’t see results with the letter and your spirit is low, don’t read, write. When you are feeling lazy and losing your time, take out a sheet of paper and write down what you want from life. And then write “If I’m going to stay like this, my goals in life are not going to come true.” It’s a quite strong line, so take enough time to properly understand what it means.

If you are serious about your goals, this will serve as a wake-up call. It’s a simple concept, but has the power to change your life. Take it and use it for everything.

For example, I have always hated going to the gym. I’ve been going since I was 13 or 14, and I still swear every time I have to go. A part of me insists on staying in bed, going out with friends or doing anything other than working out.

But then, a few months ago I sat down and wrote down this small struggle going on in my mind on paper. I wrote something very simple like: “Do you want to stay healthy and strong, or not?” And the answer was obviously “yes.” So then I wrote: “Well, you know, Mario, if you don’t go to the gym and work out you’ll disastrous in no-time, so you better start going again.”

It may sound simple, wicked and creepy, but that’s what I did. I really sat down and wrote down that. Unlike reading “Mario, you have to go to the gym because…” stuff on paper, this one made me participate actively. When you are lazy you might read the letter fast and say “whatever, today there’s this thing on TV I don’t want to miss.” But when you write it down it turns on a switch in your mind.

I’ve been going to the gym every day since then, even when I was living abroad. I still hate it, but I know it’s the right thing to do. And every morning I’m not in the mood to go, I just write it down. “One time you fail to you will need to another, so better go boy.” So unless there’s something special going on, I’ll go every day.

And the gym is just one short example. I have applied this technique in my life to great success in almost everything I do. From work to study and to relationships, the act of sitting down and writing a message to my mind has always helped. It aligns me back with my goals when I’m starting to go off track.

You can make this tool work for you too. It’s too easy and the results too impressive to miss out on.

Photo credit: vramak

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I’m in love with high-goals.

I don’t want to have a small business – I want to have a really big one. I don’t want to speak just three languages – I want to speak more than ten. I also don’t want to stay all my life in Argentina – Instead I pursue to travel to every corner of the Earth.

This is how I am and how I think; I need to have really high goals – they are what keep me going. They make me wake up all thrilled and excited.

Do you have your own?

Why You Should Have High Goals

You need to think high if you want to be remarkable. Churchill didn’t think about signing a good armistice deal with the Nazis – He instead decided to push on and win the war, even when the odds where overwhelmingly against him. Schliemann didn’t go to play to the Aegean – He went to dig out Troy. And you know well that James Cameron built Avatar to be the success it was.

Big guys think big – Is not a simple coincidence. Luck can help, as so can many other factors. But the real deal comes from that drive and commitment to achieve that success people have.

Whoever wants to achieve something great in his or her life has to have high goals. They are what will make you stand out from the rest. If you want to be a huge success, aim high – aim for the stars. If you don’t get there you’ll still go a long way.

My Own High Goals

I have many life goals. And most of them very high – you might even find them disturbing. But well, I’m sure that if I want to live an exciting life I have to pursue exactly this:

• Climb Mt. Everest (as well as the rest of the Seven Peaks.)
• Write a #1 NYT Best-Selling Book.
• Discover and dig out the Alexandrian cities of Nicaea and Bucephalia.
• Speak fluently more than ten languages.
• Become President of Argentina.
• Have a great wife and strong, healthy and well educated kids.

You may well now laugh at me if you want. This list will look impossible to most of you reading – But it is that impossible? Think about it. Life is NOT short. It’s really long if you are willing to spend it doing the stuff that matters.

I believe that I might achieve the first four points before even getting 30. It will require blood, sweat and tears, but it’s not something completely out of reach. It will be tricky, though, if those two ancient cities are really lost forever.

The Psychological Aspect

People often ask: won’t you be depressed and void if you don’t get as high as you want to? Definitely NO. As long as you give your best and fire your best shot, there’s no reason to be depressed.

I’ll try everything to get to the peak of the Everest. If a snow storm stops me, I’ll try again. If my body is not strong enough, I’ll train harder. But if it’s just impossible for me to do it I won’t keep hitting myself to the wall. I’ll be content enough with getting a hundred meters off the peak.

I won’t kill myself if I can’t find Nicaea and Bucephalia either. I’ll dig until the center of the Earth before giving up. But if they are not there, I’ll just move on. There will be no reasons to be gloomy about it.

As long as you make sure you tried your best, there’s no reason to be depressed. It’s actually unfair to blame yourself if you gave the most. The problem is that people often don’t push themselves to the real limit. If you want to win big, you have to push to the very end and not an inch less.

Someone is always doing something someone else said was impossible. Try trying.

Photo credit: Ground Zero.

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What It Is About

The Motivation Letter is simple. It’s just a small sheet of paper where you write down what you want to get from life, from the current year and from the incoming weeks. It shouldn’t be long and should only focus on what really matters to you.

Once you have it done, you’ll read it every day. You’ll read it every morning, every noon and every night. The goal is to give you a burst of incitement and energy all through the day. It’s not about the Law of Attraction – Not at all. It’s there to keep you thrilled, excited and focused on what really matters all day long.

Putting It Into Action

Having this motivation letter is very powerful – It simply keeps your motivation up. Whenever you are feeling down or not knowing what to do, go ahead and read the letter. When you are feeling the day is being unproductive or you are idling too much, go and read the letter.

It will remind you of what you want to achieve in life. And, guys, how powerful can that be? Huge, you can imagine. Be it business, skills or love, knowing the outcome of your efforts is huge motivation to keep pressing on.

To make it work you have to keep it short. Put down the goals that matter and make it easy for you to visualize.

My Example

So – How, then, should this kind of letter look like? I’ll copy mine here so you can let yourself imagine:

“I must imagine my life in Greece. For one minute – Feel the wind, hear the birds and see the sun rise. See my beautiful girlfriend and say ‘These are good times.’

I speak now more than five languages, have a big business and I keep strong and healthy. These are good times.

Soon will I finish writing my first book. My fans are waiting and so are my clients, family and friends. They all want to get in touch and hear the last news and ideas. These are good times.

But – Wake up, Mario. Now, exactly now, this is not real. Not yet – But today you can make a big step in that direction. You can be closer to your dreams.

You have to aim for the stars.”

This is how, roughly, my letter looks like. I say roughly because, as a language freak I am, I write this letter in the language I’m trying to learn at that moment. So now it’s in German – It was in Portuguese before and it has been in English and Japanese too.

You’ll notice two important things. First, I visualize. I try to imagine, live and feel through all my senses what my perfect life would be. I’m lucky enough and visited Greece already – So I can picture exactly what is the place I want to be is (and with who.)

Second, I introduce a wake-up call. I want to dream but I have to ‘get back home.’ At least for now – Until I complete the tasks that will make me achieve that lifestyle I want. This is really powerful. It’s a huge motivation and the elegant way of saying “I want to go to Planet B, but I’m in Planet A right now. So well, I have to get my ass moving.”

Get Your Own Letter

Give it a try and write down your own letter. Make it a habit to wake up and read it, to read it after lunch and after dinner. Slowly but progressively this small thing has the power to change your life.

Well, maybe not your life itself but it will still change you. And staying motivated, thrilled and excited is the way to have a positive outcome in everything you do.

Now go and write it down. Make sure to post your success stories (or even the whole letter) on the comments section.

Motivation Poster

This one is a bonus. To make motivation and excitement even bigger, I couple the letter with a huge poster/collage. I make one poster per year and, occasionally, I tweak it up a bit as the year goes by. This one it’s not as simple and focuses on all the things I want to do and should do during the year. It’s kind of a visualization of my whole new-year resolutions.

Basically it includes:

• Financial Goals: exact money I want to be earning per-day.
• Writing Goals: pictures of my blogs, book and movie script.
• Travel Goals: photos of the places I want to live at this year (Brazil, Italy and Greece.)
• Academic Goals: the universities I want to make my masters at.
• Love Goals: the exact girls I want to be with, plus a few very beautiful ones to motivate me.
• Language Goals: it has the Brazilian flag (Portuguese), Italian flag and German flag.
• Motivational People: a few people whose inspiring story is something I have to remember every day.

And that’s not all – The poster includes figures, quotes and messages representing all what I want for the year. It really helps to take the best out of me and keep me thrilled all-day long. I hang this poster on my wall and use it as my desktop wallpaper too. It’s just impossible not to notice it.

Photo credit: nunui.

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