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I’ve waited for a few weeks to make this post. Well, I’ve procrastinated, as today is the day that my Michigan State Spartans DID NOT win the national championship.

In fact, not only did that NOT happen, but their arch rival Michigan Wolverines made it to the Championship game of the NCAA Tournament, losing 79-62 to the Villanova Wildcats.

Had this been 2015 or prior, I probably would have handled things a lot differently when my Spartans lost to Syracuse in Round 2, but developing a mindset shift is key in life and business.

Sports, has always been the perfect example of focusing too much on things that are simply out of your control. But a funny thing clicked for me on January 1, 2016 that has helped me improve my life ever since.

So, why the transformation? Well, towards December 2015, I got really tired of spending so much of my time and energy on things I simply can’t control. I was spending so much time studying statistics and analyzing fantasy football combinations trying to win money against opponents and “change my life” for the better monetarily, and the more I tried — the more effort I put in, the worse I did.

Then I finally had a breakthrough. I realized that there’s really only one thing in my entire life that I can control – my fitness.

I can run. I can lift weights. I can set fitness goals, and I can achieve them. AND – and this is an important “AND” – I can eat well. I can make healthier and smarter decisions about what I put into my body.

Over the next 3-4 weeks, I finally got myself into the mindset that I was ready to make some serious changes.

What ensued was simple. It was me finally controlling my own fitness. More than two years later, it's still happening as I train for the Nashville Marathon this month.

If I can’t control the athlete’s performance in professional sports, I can turn myself into the best athlete I can be.

And this mindset has carried through to business 100%. I can't control if clients pick me for their project, and in spite of our efforts, we can't control their bottom line - thus we can't guarantee our own.

But what we can do - you guessed it - is go 100% at all times, providing our best possible customer experience, strategy and deliverables and use data to drive decisions.

We know this mindset and effort is far more likely to drive results than any other.

Focus on what you can control.

This is the constant mindset. This is the transformation.

Thanks for reading / watching - and have a great day!

Paul Hickey has created and grown businesses via digital strategy and internet marketing for more than 10 years. His sweet spot is using analytics to design and build websites and grow the audience and revenue of businesses via SEO/Blogging, Google Adwords, Bing Ads, Facebook and Instagram Ads, Social Media Content Marketing and Email Marketing. The part that he’s most passionate about is quantifying next marketing actions based on real data.

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