I began playing the piano when I was very young. In fact I don’t really remember when I started - six or seven years old I think, but I’d have to confirm that with my mom (she’s got a much more reliable memory than me). A few months after my sister’s death, my parents and I attended a live piano concert and the pianist played a song that put both of my parents in tears.

Life was not very joyous those days and my parents struggled to go on - each day a challenge. It was an enormous burden to bear for a 10 year old as I felt pressured to somehow ease the stress of my parents. The only route that I saw was that song that had so touched them.

At the concert I had purchased the sheet music and even got it autographed. So now I made a decision to learn to play that song. At 10 years old I learned the true power of a single solitary word - decide.

For those of you that don’t know, the word ‘decide’ has been redefined, as much of our language has, through the generations. But the true Latin root for the word “decide” means “to cut off from all other possibilities”. That bears repeating:

“decide: to cut off from all other possibilities”

You see, when you “decide” something you should not be wishy washy but rather resolved and committed. When you decide to take an action, commit yourself to it as if there is absolutely no alternative - as though every possible other option has been “cut off”. When you can truly embrace this concept you will watch your success in anything you go after skyrocket - that I can assure you of.
That day I “decided” to learn to play that song, to be able to “touch” my parents through music - well, I committed to it 95%. Don’t buy into the hyped garbage about “give it 110%” - that’s BS. Most people live their lives and never learn how to give even 70% of their true force to anything.

No matter how hard you’re focusing on anything right now, I challenge you to think if you couldn’t do “just a little more”. Choose to be different. DECIDE to make a difference in your business and in your life in 2012.

The song I learned to play took months - many, many months. I don’t even remember how long anymore, but I know it was at least six months or more - I’m sure my mom could tell you. She will certainly remember because I used to wake up at 5:00am to practice in the morning for a couple of hours *before* breakfast and heading off to school. My parents would “wake up” to the sound of me torturing that poor piano into submission day after day after day.

But that wasn’t all. I came home from school and sat down and practiced another 2 or 3 or sometimes even 4 more hours. Often times I practiced more than six hours in a day - margin by margin, until I had finally succeeded in learning that song. My rendition wasn’t perfect, probably about a 7.5 on the 10 scale to be honest, but to my parents it was an “11″.

Today, I give my thanks to my sister Traci for teaching me how to succeed even from afar. Though I hardly knew my sister and have very few childhood memories at all, she has certainly been the biggest influence in my life and that one DECISION to learn to play an impossible song, well, that is something no one can ever take away from me.

That one decision helped shape many others later in life, like becoming one of the youngest directors in the history of a 200+ year old company, or becoming my bosses boss in mere months in my 20’s. It gave me the confidence to become a nuclear certified electrician before I could legally drink a bear. It gave me the confidence to lose 55 pounds in 90 days and regain my health a few years ago (a feat I, unfortunately, now need to repeat) and to become a private pilot in 30 days and get my instrument rating in just 10 days.

But more importantly it gave me the confidence to rebuild my life despite many mistakes - bankruptcy, divorce - the same things many of you have likely faced or are facing. It gave me the character to believe in myself when no one else did and the relentlessness to achieve far beyond what anyone else would have ever believed and, more importantly, to demand from myself far more than anyone else dared.

Two years ago I was recently divorced, had lost everything and was just “getting by” on about $800 a month. Today I am married to the one and only true love of my life - my wife Edina - and have a beautiful new baby girl (well, 18 months, but seems like yesterday) as well as my two other precious children from my prior marriage. Oh, and yes, a 7 figure business that had it’s strongest month ever this month (still growing) and enabled me to spent nearly four months traveling this past year.

I am truly blessed, and I share these things with you not out of arrogance but to humbly point out what is there waiting for you should you decide to get it and inspire you to not dream but to make your dreams reality. But I want one thing to ring abundantly clear as I close out this long winded story. I want it to be very clear to you that this did NOT happen by accident and I was not “lucky”.

You see I never really had any natural “talent” - still don’t. But I’ve always had a sheer determination and relentless pursuit of my objectives that have more than made up for my lack of talent. Luck has had nothing to do with Mike and I’s success. We have created the opportunities that allowed lady luck to descend upon us and that choice is available to you as well. All you have to do is DECIDE.

So please, decide to make 2012 your year. Decide to make 2012 the year that you break free and then simply make it happen, not allowing any other possibility the chance to even blossom.

A very Merry Christmas to you and your family from Mike and I and our families…

Work smarter not harder,