The 3 things you need in life to succeed, and the 4th nobody teaches

Distractions, lack of motivation, or for whatever reason some days it takes me a bit longer to gain momentum.

Sometimes it takes me a bit to start round #2.

But while making coffee for round #2, I remember what Bob Gaylor, the 5th Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force, said in 2013 when I was attending a leadership training in Germany.

Chief said, you need 3 things in life to succeed.

The 3 things you need in life to succeed

1. Aptitude – defines what you’re able to do. Don’t ever stop learning.
2. Motivation – you control motivation. You could sit all day with your knowledge and brainpower, but until you agree to activate it in a motivated way it will fall short.
3. Attitude – is the definition of how well you will do. Some people just don’t have the right attitude.

I wrote that down in 2013 and I have been carrying it around ever since. It holds up. Aptitude is what you can do. Motivation is whether you switch it on. Attitude is how well it goes once you do.

All 3 are yours. Nobody can hand them to you and nobody can take them away.

Opportunities are difficult to predict, you never know when they are going to happen or where it’s going to come from, and usually, the opportunity you really want happens when you least expect it.

The 4th thing, and the one nobody teaches

I wrote that line about opportunity years ago and then never explained it. Here is the explanation.

The 3 things Chief gave me are all on the inside. The 4th one is on the outside, and it is the one that decides whether the other 3 ever get paid.

Call it opportunity. Call it the floor you are standing on.

I live in Puerto Rico. Here you can have all 3. You can be sharp, you can be driven, you can show up with the right attitude every single morning. And then a hurricane comes, the power stays out for 6 months, and the business you built with all 3 is gone. You did nothing wrong.

That changes what fear looks like. And I think a lot of people get this backwards.

People here are not afraid of failing. They are afraid of doing everything right and losing anyway. Those are two different fears and they need two different answers.

The numbers back it up. In 2017, before Hurricane Maria, fewer adults in Puerto Rico said fear of failure would stop them from starting a business than in the United States and Europe. We were less afraid than they were. Today that number has jumped to over 4 in 10, and it has not moved since 2020.

That is not a culture. That is an injury, and it has a date on it.

So when someone tells you that you just need a better attitude, and your floor is broken, they are handing you a screwdriver for a plumbing problem. Fix the floor. Then the 3 things work exactly like Chief said they would.

3 things you can do to improve your aptitude

Call it capacity, ability, readiness, or intelligence. There is always something you can do to improve it.

1. Pick one area you want, or even better you need, to improve today.
2. Once you know what you are going to improve:
   • Go to Amazon and buy a book about the subject.
   • If you don’t have time to read, get the audiobook from Audible.
   • No money? Subscribe to a free podcast about the subject.
3. Read every day, or listen while driving to and from work or while you are exercising.

4 things you can do to improve your motivation

This is the one Chief said you control. Which means it is also the one you can’t blame on anybody else.

• Create a plan. Now that you know what you want to improve, how are you going to achieve it?
• Do something every day and don’t allow anyone or anything to bring you down.
• Scan for the positive things. See the glass half full instead of half empty.
• Help at least one person every day.

5 things you can do to improve your attitude

Your attitude impacts your work performance, your relationships, and pretty much everything you do.

1. Improve your physical condition. Exercise, and eat healthy.
2. Don’t compare yourself with others.
3. Have a backup plan.
4. Drink your favorite beverage. ☕️
5. Play the right songs. Make a playlist if you don’t have one.

3 things you can do about the floor

You can’t control opportunity. You can control how much of your life depends on things going right.

1. Find the one thing that can zero you out and write it down. For most people here it is power, water, or a single customer. You can’t fix what you haven’t named.
2. Buy certainty before you buy upside. The boring purchase that removes a variable beats the exciting one that adds a maybe. That is not playing small. That is protecting the 3 things you already have.
3. Build one thing that keeps working when you stop. If everything you own needs you standing on top of it, you don’t have a floor, you have a treadmill.

I felt blessed the day I wrote this. My family is blessed. And I know there are people struggling. Even when we don’t post about it, Noe and I help when we can.

Chief Gaylor gave me 3 things in a classroom in Germany. It took me a while to figure out the 4th one, and I had to learn it at home.

Aptitude, motivation, and attitude are yours. The floor is the work.

Wishing you the #bestdayever

What do you need to succeed?