Focus on the Fundamentals

Food is an essential element that provides nourishment to the body and allows specific functions to work at optimum levels. Without it, you have got 3 weeks.

Water is a necessity, needed to maintain a healthy body, a clear mind, and a good balance. You can survive 3 days without it.

Oxygen is one of the most essential elements required to sustain life. Deprived of oxygen, you will be finished in 3 minutes.

Food, water, and oxygen…these are the vital, indispensable ingredients needed to maintain life, and in this lesson titled Focus on the Fundamentals, you will learn why becoming brilliant on the basics is an indispensable, mission critical asset for sustaining a long, prosperous life and career…so let’s get after it.

Success in all its forms consists of simple fundamentals.

• Professionals respect while amateurs loathe them.

• Professionals master while amateurs neglect them.

• Professionals practice while amateurs undermine them.

In the work I do for a living, I am constantly reminded of the fundamentals and how important they are to my success.

Throughout the 100 Day Challenge it is my desire to remind you about the critical role they play in your life and challenge you to become brilliant and well-disciplined on the basics.

Why? Because excellence is ONLY achieved by mastery of the fundamentals.

Success is neither magical nor mysterious, it is neither complex nor confusing. Success is the natural consequence of consistently applying fundamentals.

Whether you refer to them as the ABC’s, 123’s, rudimentary skills, basics, foundational principles, universal truths, elementary steps, or simply as square one, the fundamentals are the foundational building blocks upon which all success stands.

When successful, the fundamentals you implement escape notice, as they are quietly doing their thing below grade. But when you experience failure, their weakness is quickly exposed along with the fingerprints of mediocrity and incompetence.

There is nothing more fundamental than a firm foundation built on the fundamentals, as anything of quality and durability is constructed carefully, patiently, and lovingly to ensure a proper result.

While focusing on the fundamentals is not necessarily a sexy subject, their mastery leads to sexy results in the way of a fit body, healthy portfolio, strong marriage, and well-adjusted kids to name just a few.

Success in any sport, career, or hobby is built on a foundation of timeless, universal, and pragmatic principles.

From accounting to astrophysics, education to engineering, fly-fishing to firefighting, computer programming to construction, rock climbing to rocket science, and from raising kids to raising capital, all consist of fundamental principles and each fundamental counts.

Eight Fundamental Rules of Success

1. Fundamentals Come First

You must learn these before anything else. Strong foundations are built on strong fundamentals; there is no shortcut to mastery, and to confirm excellence is only achieved by mastering the fundamentals.

You must crawl before you walk, ski the bunny hill before attempting the double diamond trails, and you must learn the fundamentals first.

2. Fundamentals are Simple

Anything and everything are based on a foundation of simple truths.
Even quantum physics is simple once you learn the fundamentals.

Our minds create fallacies of complexity which betray us so often that we fail to see the simplicity which is hiding in plain sight.

3. Fundamentals Require Patience

Rome was not built in a day, and they used local, well-trained help.

While fundamentals are always simple, they conversely require time and patience to be understood. The process of trial-and-error correction is different for each person.

4. Fundamentals Must Be Mastered

The objective is and will always be to become brilliant on the basics.

To perform at the top of your abilities, you must become an expert at your trade. There is no other way to personal excellence; you must pay your dues in advance and in full.

5. Fundamentals Require Practice

Everybody loves an exceptional performance and behind every exceptional performance is the consistent practice and reinforcement of the fundamentals.

Repetition is everything, as the quality of your performance will never exceed the quality of your practice.

6. Fundamentals are Universal

When it comes to fundamentals it really is a one size fits all world.

The wonderful part about fundamentals is that it provides a level playing. For anything to be mastered everyone must pass the same test.
No one gets a passing grade simply for showing up.

7. Fundamentals Once Lost are Found in Humility

The minute a performer gets away from the fundamentals-whether it is proper technique, work ethic, or mental preparation-her entire game begins to break down.

This inevitably leads to embarrassment, missed opportunity and finally to a helping of humble pie. Humility leads you back home, to the fundamentals of success.

8. Fundamentals Never Change

There are no new fundamentals. Truth has not, nor will it be changing.
Summer always follows spring, and it has been this way since recorded history. So too are the fundamentals that govern success.

The fundamentals of investing, raising children, mathematics, science, accounting… you name it have been identified, in place and not open to renegotiation.

There is nothing more fundamental to success than making everything you do count.

Clarity of purpose, meticulous attention to details, enforcement of discipline and deadlines, honoring your commitments, going the extra mile, consistency, gratitude, exemplary character, and flawless execution is how we pay homage to the fundamentals.

That is why your challenge for today is to accept the reality that you must master the fundamentals, maturely and honestly examine how you are applying them to your life, and then recommit to becoming brilliant on the basics.

And, because both success and failure leaves clues…it is a remarkably straightforward process.

All you need to do is review your results as they provide a trail of evidence as to your attitude, beliefs, and actions.

If you are off target or your performance has been compromised in any way, I assure you that the solution will be found in getting re-acclimated with the fundamentals.

Not one of us is above the law and not one of us is above the necessity of the fundamentals. They are just as important to your success as food, water and oxygen are to your body.

The 100 Day Challenge is a rapid execution system used by more than 675,000 high-achievers to achieve life-changing results in 100 days. Don’t do it unless you want spectacular results.

The strategies you’ll learn in the 100 Day Challenge have elected a president, grown non-profit causes, won gold medals and fueled movements. Now it’s your turn to win bigger faster!