Never Surrender!

On January 20, 2016

Motivation Minute

“Never Surrender!”

It’s been said, “If you are going through hell, keep going.”

Get through it. Never surrender.

If you really believe in your cause then you won’t let the circumstances around you determine if you keep going or not. Don’t listen to the negative voices in your life that are telling you to throw in the towel. Don’t quit. Never surrender. It’s that simple.

It may take you a little longer to get there…you may have unexpected adversity to fight through…perhaps you have setbacks you didn’t account for, but just keep going and don’t stop.

Too many people surrender too soon. That’s not you! When the going gets tough, the tough get going. Remember, if it were easy, everybody would do it.

Just get through it. Never surrender.

Don’t let the pain you are going through overtake you and bring you down. Pain is temporary. Quitting last forever.

So don’t quit on your marriage. Don’t quit on that business idea. Don’t quit on your team. Don’t quit on the dream you once had. Don’t quit just because you’re not getting the results you thought you’d get. Don’t quit just because things aren’t going the way you thought they would.

You’ve come this far already so don’t stop now. You’ve experienced difficulty, hardship, pain….you might as well get a reward from it, so just keep going.

Never surrender.

Check out the little cartoon below, and remember to keep fighting and never surrender. You don’t know how close you are. You’re breakthrough could be just around the corner!

Never Surrender.
Keep going and never give up.

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The Big Mo!

By coachgreeno

On January 11, 2016

In Uncategorized

The Big Mo! You gotta have it.

Momentum is an incredibly powerful thing. The word momentum means, “On the move.”. Whether it’s a team on the move, a church on the move, a business on the move, or a family on the move, becoming unstoppable requires momentum.

In sports, a team that has momentum is on the move, and will take some effort to stop. A team with momentum plays “over their head”. That is, they play better than they really are!

Momentum allows you to do greater things than you ever thought possible, and successful people now how to string together wins that create momentum which makes the next battle easier to win.

Make 2016 the year you want it to be by building momentum.

What are the areas in your life where you struggle to get wins? Is it in your diet? Exercising? Budgeting your finances? Being more disciplined with your time? Whatever it is, YOU CAN achieve great success this year by using the Big MO to your advantage.

Momentum starts with one small victory.

Your job this week is to get just one small win. Don’t go for the grandiose all at once. Don’t expect to lose 25 pounds in one week. You’re not going to immediately eat healthy all the time when you’ve had months and years of unhealthy eating habits.

You have to start small!

You have to get just one win. When you get it, celebrate it. And then tell yourself, “just one more win, and the momentum will start to build.” One small win will lead to another, and then another. The only way to really become unstoppable in achieving your goals is to build momentum.

Building momentum builds confidence and confidence breeds more confidence. When the Golden State Warriors started the 2015-2016 season, they set a record for the most wins in a row at the start of a season. Each game they won gave them more confidence for the next one. But their momentum during this stretch was because of the momentum they had when they won the 2015 NBA championship. More than any other team in history, they used that momentum to begin the new season with 24 straight wins!

There are championships you want to win in your life. It may not be an NBA championship, but for you it’s just as big. The way you win the big goals you have set, is to first get one small win, and then another, and another, then ride that wave of momentum as far as you can!

Don’t be like so many people out there.

They get a little momentum and then something happens and they experience a setback.

This is so common for people who are trying to lose weight, for example. They do great for a while, and then they blow it! They eat that doughnut at the office….or they miss a work out. Instead of forgetting it, and moving on and getting back on track, they say to themselves, “I’ve already blown it! And they let one defeat lead to another and then another.”

They let negative momentum overtake them and defeat them. Don’t let this happen to you! You can stop the negative momentum with one decision.

I am often telling my team, “There are three things you should do with a mistake:
1. Admit it
2. Learn from it
3. Forget it

When you fall of the wagon, you get back up!

Don’t let one failure completely defeat you. Get back on your feet, and get that one win; and THIS TIME your goal is to get more wins than you got the last time. Stop the negative momentum train before it has a chance to really get going.

Once you learn to get positive momentum, you will live differently. You will make decisions not based on what you want at the moment, but on what your goals are for the future. You will build the Big Mo one day at a time, one moment at a time, one decision at a time, one win at a time.

You know what you are capable of. You know you are capable of so much more. Just get that one win today….that’s where it all starts!

Become unstoppable with the Big Mo!

Make your decisions based not on what you want at the moment, but on what you really want the most.

“You don’t have to be great to get started, but you have
to get started to be great.”
-Les Brown***”To get momentum, you must first focus on a s
pecific goal with passion and intensity.”
-Donald Trump

***

“The Law of Momentum says, ‘An object in motion will stay in motion
until it meets a resisting force.’ Push through and be stronger than any resisting force.”
-Evan Carmichael

***

“One way to keep momentum going is to have constantly greater goals.”
-Michael Korda

***

“As soon as you set your goals, immediately begin to create momentum.”
-Tony Robbins

“Make 2016 YOUR Year!”

By coachgreeno

On December 29, 2015

In motivation, Uncategorized

2016 is only a few days away!

Have you written down your goals for the coming year?

Don’t just make a “new year’s resolution”, but take some time to write down your goals for 2016. Mark McCormack tells of a study in which 3% of Harvard MBA’s made 10 times the amount of money of the other 97%. What did the 3% have in common? They wrote down their goals!

Make sure you write down your goals this year. Take some time to get clear on what it is you want. Too many people focus on what they don’t want, rather than spending their time and energy on what they DO want.

What do you want this year? What do you want in your business? In your family? In your personal life? In your health? Determine what it is you want, and then wake up every day in 2016 going for it!

Many people short change their success because they simply don’t have clarity on what they truly want.

When you look back on 2015 you will probably find you had some wins and you had some losses. Reflecting on the good and the bad of the previous year can help you determine where you are, and where you want to go. In one year from today, when you reflect back on 2016, what will you have done that will have made 2016 your best year yet?

Determine what you want, and how you will get there.

Make this the year you dream more, you do more, you become more!

Success doesn’t happen by accident. 2016 won’t be your best year unless you determine to make it so.

This is YOUR year!

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#newyear #goals #finish #decide #thisisyouryear #bestyearyet

The Breakthrough You Need May Be Just Around the Corner!

By coachgreeno

On October 2, 2015

In Uncategorized

One Extra Degree Makes all the Difference!

At 211° water is hot. But at 212° water boils. When water is boiling it is powerful enough to steam a massive locomotive! But at 211° the train is not budging one inch!

At 211° it is so close!

At 211° the conditions are right…and everything is in place for the train to move out.

But if it stays at 211° nothing will happen. It has to get to 212°.

Maybe today you are at 211°. You’ve been working. You’ve put in the time, the energy, and the effort but you have not seen the results you are after. You have to keep pushing. You have to keep grinding, believing the process will get you to the outcome you want.

You have come too far to give up now!

You have experienced too much pain to turn back.

You’ve sacrificed, you’ve worked hard, and now you have to keep going so that you can get that reward. Don’t let your pain be wasted. Eric Thomas says, “You’re already hurting, you might as well get a reward from it!”

If you keep on fighting…keep on believing…keep on working as hard as you possibly can you will get there. The breakthrough you need may be just around the corner. You’ve spent all this time to get to 211°, now you have to keep working to get to 212° baby! You’re almost there!

One More Degree! You Can Get to 212°!

An Amazing Gift

By coachgreeno

On September 22, 2015

In Uncategorized

How cool would it be if I told you I was going to give you $86,400? And you could do whatever you wanted to do with it. And then the next day you’re going to get another $86,400, and each day after that as well. And you could use that money however you wanted. You could blow it, you could save it, you could use it for yourself, or you could use it on others; you could use it however you wanted, no strings attached!

Well, as nice as that would be, you’re not going to get $86,400. But you are going to get something even better. Every day you are given 86,400 seconds! And you get to decide how you will spend it. You can waste it, you can invest it, use it on yourself, or on others. We are all given the same amount of time, 86,400 seconds every day. It’s up to you as to how you spend that time.

Today, think about what you are doing with your time. Are you spending it wisely? Are you investing your time for a bigger payoff down the road or do you end up having regrets about time you have wasted?

Make the most out of every day by being purposeful about what you do, and how you do it. Each day is a gift and we don’t know when a day will be our last day, so seize the day and seize every opportunity!

Be intentional about your success. Structure your life around the things that really matter. Using your time wisely means you are focusing on the things that will give you the biggest payoff down the road.

You get 86,400 seconds each day to use however you want. You get to choose what you do with this gift. Choose wisely!

-Gary

What is Success?

By coachgreeno

On September 15, 2015

In Uncategorized

How do you define success?

When I was in college I began my life long journey of studying great leaders and winners in life. As a young, aspiring basketball coach, one of the people I spent a lot of time studying was the great former UCLA basketball coach, John R. Wooden. I read his books many times over, “They Call Me Coach”, and “Practical Modern Basketball”. Both made a profound impact on me as I read about his work ethic, his principles he lived by, including the the 7 point creed his dad gave him which he kept in his wallet:

Be true to yourself
Make each day your masterpiece
Help others
Drink deeply from good books, especially the Bible
Make friendship a fine art
Build a shelter against a rainy day
Pray for guidance and give thanks for your blessings every day

I had a few personal conversations with Coach Wooden before he passed away, and each time I was around him, I understood why he was such a great man; someone who lived out what I read about in his books. One of the first times I met him was when I was in my early 20’s and just starting out as a coach. I was with about 20 other coaches in a room on the campus of UCLA for for a Q & A session. At the time, Dennis Rodman was often in the news for his antics in the NBA, and I raised my hand and asked coach, “How would you handle a player like Dennis Rodman?” He immediately looked right at me, pointed his finger and said, “Young man, you handle things; you work with people.” I’ll never forget how he went on to explain how you work together with people to achieve a common goal.

The thing that has always stood out to me the most, however, was his definition of success. He felt it was extremely important to know what success looks like. Is it always the final score of a game that determines success or failure? I have adopted Coach Wooden’s definition of success as my own:

“Success is peace of mind, which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your absolute best to become the best you are capable of becoming.”

This is success. Giving your absolute best! How many times do we want success in some area such as our job, our marriage, our family, our time-management, our finances…yet we don’t truly give our best effort to become the best we are capable of becoming in those areas.

The final outcome doesn’t always determine success or failure; knowing you gave your best does. It is the one thing you can control. When you give your best, that’s really all you can do; there is simply nothing more you can do than this, because if there was then it wasn’t your best in the first place.

Coach designed the “pyramid of success”, originally for his high school English class that he taught, so they would understand success and have something to shoot for. It as since been broken down, analyzed, and talked about by coaches and leaders all over the world. Of course, I have it posted in my own classroom, and give out to my players from time to time to help them understand what true success is.

What is YOUR definition of success? And most importantly are you living by it every single day?

I hope that you give your best today! Don’t be phased by the outcome when it’s not favorable. Pick yourself up, figure out your next move, and get more determined, not more discouraged! You were definitely meant for greatness, so give it everything you’ve got to get there!

Here’s to your success!

-Gary

Never Give Up!

By coachgreeno

On September 12, 2015

In Uncategorized

Do you ever feel like giving up? Remember, some of the most successful people had failure, depression, and rejection. They felt like giving up….but they didn’t!

I don’t want you to give up either!

Author J.K. Rowling had just gotten a divorce, was on welfare, clinically depressed and contemplating suicide when she wrote the manuscript for her first Harry Potter book. She couldn’t afford a computer so she manually typed out each manuscript she sent to publishers. She was rejected dozens of times, until finally a small publisher in London gave her a chance. She didn’t give up!

Stephen Spielberg was rejected from the University of California School of Theater and Television three times! He finally got accepted at another location, but then dropped out to become a director. 35 years after starting his degree he returned to school to finally complete his work and earn his degree. He never gave up!

Oprah was fired and told she was unfit for TV. She didn’t let that stop her, and she never gave up!

Walt Disney was fired from the newspaper he worked for, because he “lacked imagination”. He didn’t listen and he did not give up!

The Beatles were rejected by Decca Recording studios who said they “didn’t like their sound and they would never have a future in show business”. They just kept on playing and they never gave up!

20th Century Fox fired Marilyn Monroe after one year because her producer told her she wasn’t pretty or talented enough to be an actress. She didn’t give up!

Thomas Edison failed over 1000 times at inventing the light bulb. He said, “I haven’t failed. I have discovered 1000 ways the light bulb won’t work!”

Each of these individuals have something in common! THEY DIDN’T GIVE UP! They had a dream, they had a vision, and they were not going to let anyone or anything stop them from reaching their dreams!

Let that be true with you as well! You have a dream. You have a vision of what you want, and goals you want to reach.

When you’re tired, when you’re facing major obstacles, don’t give up. When you lack resources, don’t give up. When you’ve got bills to pay, mouths to feed, and your feeling like you’re not going to make it, don’t give up! When you’re told you’ll never succeed, you’re not good enough, don’t give up!

Keep fighting and keep believing! Your breakthrough may be just around the corner.

So, whatever you do, don’t ever, ever, ever give up!!

Your friend,

Gary

Fight For Your Dreams!

By coachgreeno

On September 9, 2015

In Uncategorized

You have to be willing to fight for what you want! If your dream is worth fighting for, then put up your dukes and be willing to do whatever it takes! You have to fight through your circumstances…fight through that divorce, fight through that academic struggle, fight through that financial hardship…whatever it is that is battling you, you must understand that to achieve your dream you have to fight! It won’t come easy. If you keep fighting, without giving up, you WILL win the fight and you WILL achieve your dreams! Just keep on fighting baby!!!! Don’t get discouraged, get more determined!! Just keep on fighting!!!

Which Pain Will You Choose?

By coachgreeno

On September 8, 2015

In Uncategorized

The Pain of Discipline or the Pain of Regret?

Anything worthwhile has a price to pay. The question is, are you willing to pay the price? The old saying “No Pain – No Gain” is true. Too many people shy away from pain. The truth is life is full of pain. Some pain we can control, and some pain we experience we have no control over; but life certainly has pain. We must learn to use that pain to help us act, and to help us move closer to our goals.

Look at it this way: In any situation you have two choices. You can choose the pain of discipline, or you can choose the pain of regret. Choosing the pain of discipline means you act when you don’t feel like it. It means you understand it’s painful now, but choosing this pain means you pay the price on the front end. When you choose this option, you feel accomplished. You feel like you are moving forward. You feel like nothing can stop you. This is how you become a more disciplined and successful person. This is how you feel like you are winning and not losing. When you string together several wins in a row you begin to gain momentum.

Choosing the pain of regret however is what too many people choose. They put things off and fail to act, and then they regret that they did so. Most all of us have done this, and we know what this pain is like. We often get mad at ourselves for not acting, we feel defeated and then we begin to say negative things to ourselves that make it even worse! We have to remember that when we choose the pain of discipline we are choosing to give up what we want NOW for what we want MOST.

Choosing the pain of discipline over the pain of regret is a conscious choice you must make! Either way there is pain. If you choose to put things off and pay the price on the back end, then the price is much greater. The pain of regret is always greater than the pain of discipline. What one will you choose today?

Here’s to your success!

Gary

“Problem” or “Opportunity”

By coachgreeno

On September 5, 2015

In motivation

Hi! My name is Gary Greeno and I’m super excited to enter the world of blogging! This site, titled Motivation Minute is intended to help inspire and motivation you to achieve the goals and dreams you have set for yourself, your family, your business. Motivation is an interesting subject. We all want it. Some seem to have it more than others. Some of us wish we were more motivated.

As a basketball coach and educator for over 20 years I have observed people who have great internal motivation, and others who need to be motivated by outside forces. One thing I know for certain is that everyone needs to find their internal motivation if they are going to be successful. Robert Waldo Emerson said, “Nothing great can be achieved without enthusiasm.” And I would add that nothing great can be achieved without motivation..and motivation will lead to enthusiasm.

In this first blog I want you to consider replacing the word “problem” with “opportunity”.

The great Duke Basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski says, “Replace the word ‘problem’ with ‘opportunity’ and see what good things will happen.”

We all have problems. We all have obstacles in our way that we must figure out how to navigate around. Obstacles are simply opportunities for growth and growth is never easy-but it’s always worth it. Decide that you don’t have “problems” in your life, but you have “opportunities”. The word problem itself brings a negative, defeating connotation. The word opportunity, however, opens up doors.

It’s all a matter of perspective, and you get to choose your perspective; you get to choose how you will view something. Not only do you get to choose how you view it, but in every problem, you get to decide how you are going to respond to it. Decide that you will use your problems as opportunities for growth, to expand your thinking and to find new ways of doing things. Decide you will use your problems to motivate you and inspire you, never to defeat you.

Too many times we give up when we are faced with something negative. Don’t give up! Keep moving forward. You’re going to face hurdles, roadblocks and mountains that are in your path. Don’t let them discourage you. Just keep moving forward, because if you’re moving forward you’re making progress. Some days the progress will be small, but even if it’s a tiny baby step forward it’s still a step in the right direction.

The human spirit is powerful! You’re spirit is powerful, and your will and determination will get you to where you want to go. Whatever obstacles you’re facing today, know that you CAN and you WILL find a way to keep moving forward. The most successful people have all had obstacles to overcome. No one has an easy road to greatness. Once you start down the road to greatness, keep moving, and don’t give up. No pain, no obstacle, no hurdle is going to keep you from reaching your goal. You either use your pain to propel you forward, or you allow your pain to defeat you.

No one has a problem-free life! Expect the problems, know they will come, and get ready to seize the opportunity that comes with them! The alternative is to get down and negative and complain how unfair it is, and that will get you nowhere!

Seize the opportunities today, and use each problem you face to get you one step closer to success!