The weekend was a great way to clear your head, reflect and really be present in the moment. And it was amazing to hear how all of these different people approached success. It made me think: We send our kids to camp to learn skills for life, but how cool is it to check back in on success — and what's working — as adults.
Here are 7 Things I learned at adult summer camp:
Twenty minutes in the morning can set the tone for your day. Kristen Race Ph.D., an expert in child, family and school psychology and author of "Mindful Parenting," explained how there's so much we can't control throughout our busy days. But we can control our reaction to things. And a simple 20 minute early morning meditation can keep paying dividends until we go to bed. By starting the day calm it increases our chance of having a productive day.
You must constantly evolve. Frank Shamrock, the MMA fighter of the decade for the 1990s, said he had to constantly evolve in order to be successful. He's the first to hold the UFC Middleweight Championship and retired as the four-time defending undefeated champion. As a fighter, he didn't want to become predictable, he knew that everything works, but nothing works forever. And one of the ways he continued to evolve is by what he calls a plus, minus, equal system. He found someone ahead of him to learn from (the plus), he found someone equal to him to share/learn from and he found someone who was coming up behind him (minus) to give back as much as he could. And he continues to implement his system in all facets of his life.
Success is a choice. Alan Stein, a world-renowned performance coach, has worked with some of today's NBA elite. And one thing these superstars all have in common — great habits. When Stein attended a 4 a.m. workout with Kobe Bryant he was shocked to see the first hour dedicated to basic fundamental basketball that kids learn in the 3rd grade. He asked why the greatest player in the world does such basic drills. Bryant smiled and said, "Why do you think I'm the best player in the world? Because I never get bored with the basics." And Stein furthered his point, saying, "Success is not a result of what we do occasionally. It's a result of what we do all of the time." And so, as Stein puts it: We choose our habits. Our habits dictate success. Therefore, success is a choice. The key is to take our own inventory: Are our habits of today on par with the dreams for tomorrow? Studies have shown that up to 90 percent of our daily actions are habitual. "How you do anything is how you do everything."
See it—Feel it. Geeta Nadkarni, an award-winning journalist, television personality and founder of "Baby Got Booked," which teaches entrepreneurs how to do their own PR, taught the group how to use visualization to push our success forward. We need to see it and feel it in order to achieve our goals. And we must recognize when we're empty, change our physical state and connect to nature. Just the act of going outside and putting our bare feet on the grass will help re-shift our mind.
Don't wait for someone to 'discover' your product. Host Sara Blakely talked about how, in theinfancy stages of building her billion-dollar company, she knew that store employees weren't as motivated to sell her product as she was. So for two years straight, she rotated between Neiman Marcus store locations across the country and spent all day selling her own product. She'd meet with the staff in the morning, brief them and then hang around the store selling Spanx until it closed. She also reached deep into her Rolodex and called everyone and anyone she'd ever met. Blakely asked them to go purchase Spanx with a script memorized, "Excuse me, can you tell me where to find Spanx? I keep hearing from all of my friends it's the greatest product and I need to get some." And in return she'd mail them a payment out of her own pocket to cover the costs of the purchase. What she was doing was selling the salesforce and it worked.
