547.4 miles!

Today, as I sit in St. Louis, I find myself thinking back on all of the things that I’ve seen and experienced over the last 547.4 miles.  There have already been so many unique experiences that I’ll treasure for a lifetime.

I’ve seen, smelled, and felt so much of this country up close. I’ve met amazing people. I’ve experienced incredible generosity. Most recently in St. Louis I somehow struck up a conversation with a very successful entrepreneur and we had a great talk about life, success, goals, etc.

After the conversation, he offered to give me a tour of the city and so rather than hopping on my bike, we jumped into his much more comfortable Range Rover and he showed me around St. Louis.  We hit most of the main attractions and even ran into Jerome Bettis at one of our stops.

While I greatly appreciate the tour, I’m even more grateful for the conversation. I find it very interesting that every single highly successful person that I meet seems to share a few common qualities, regardless of their field.

Here are a few traits that all of the successful people I meet have in common:

1. They are avid lifelong learners – they have a voracious appetite for gaining knowledge that will help them achieve their goals through the study of books, audio programs, etc.
2. They are doers – It doesn’t stop with learning. They apply what they learn by taking massive action.
3. They set goals and measure progress – They have 3-5 year goals, 1 year goals, quarterly goals, and weekly goals.  In addition to having these specific and measurable goals they also regularly measure their progress towards them.  It’s also important to note that they don’t sugar coat things. They are honest with themselves and others even when it’s uncomfortable.
4. They strive to help others become better – It’s not just about them. They want to help their employees, vendors, friends, and family all become better.
5. They are 100% committed – They keep going when others would have stopped.

I could go in to a lot more detail, but these are some of the basic habits that most of the successful people that I meet seem to share.

Looking at this list, how do you measure up? Are there areas that you could improve? What are you going to do to start making those improvements?

And most importantly, when are you starting?

I’d love to hear about your big goals in life and help you any way that I can to achieve them and in the process make a big impact with your own life.

You only live once, so you better make it special!

– Robert