The 5 am club

there’s a staggering difference between being busy and being productive
.
“High-impact performers and genuine world-builders aren’t very available
to whoever seeks their attention and demands their time. They’re hard to
reach, waste few moments and are far more focused on doing real work
versus artificial work—so they deliver the breathtaking results that advance
our world. Other avoidance tactics from the pain of potential unexpressed are
hours mindlessly surfing online, electronic shopping, working too much,
drinking too much, eating too much, complaining too much and sleeping too

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much.”
The tycoon sipped from his water bottle. Another fishing boat motored by.
The woman who captained it waved to Mr. Riley, who bowed mightily in
reply.
“The Spellbinder calls this whole phenomenon ‘Learned Victimhood,’”
the billionaire carried on in a wonderfully exuberant way. “As we leave our
youth, there’s a pull toward complacency. We can start to coast, settle for
what’s familiar and lose the juicy desire to expand our frontiers. We adopt the
paradigm of a victim. We make excuses and then recite them so many times
we train our subconscious mind to think they are true. We blame other people
and outer conditions for our struggles, and we condemn past events for our
private wars. We grow cynical and lose the curiosity, wonder, compassion and
innocence we knew as kids. We become apathetic. Critical. Hardened. Within
this personal ecosystem the majority of us create for ourselves, mediocrity
then becomes acceptable. And because this mindset is running within us each
day, the viewpoint seems so very real to us. We truly believe that the story we
are running reveals the truth—because we’re so close to it. So, rather than
showing leadership in our fields, owning our crafts by producing dazzling
work and handcrafting delicious lives, we resign ourselves to average. See
how it all happens?”
“Yes. At least it’s all becoming clearer. So, the key is to rescript our
personal story, right?” inquired the entrepreneur.
“Absolutely,” confirmed the billionaire. “Every time you become aware of
yourself dropping into victim mode and make a more courageous choice, you
rewrite the narrative. You raise your self-identity, elevate your self-respect
and enrich your self-confidence. Each time you vote for your superior self
you starve your weaker side—and feed your inherent power. And as you do
this with the consistency demanded by mastery, your ‘Capitalization IQ,’ that
is your ability to materialize whatever gifts you’ve been born with, will only
grow.”
The billionaire invited his two students to move to the terrace of his home
to continue the morning’s lesson on The 4 Focuses of History-Makers.