When times get challenging we become more disciplined. When times are good, it’s in our nature to not be quite so rigid, and this does not benefit us in the long-run.

Let’s take economics. In a bad economic time, people have a tendency to save more and negotiate for the best price on items they buy; they tighten their budget and so on. In good economic times, some people just don’t care as much. They might splurge or be more impulsive.

With regards to their careers, in bad times, people might work harder, they might make the extra phone call or go to networking events. With regards to relationships, people might listen better and make an effort to keep in touch. It all boils down to developing better habits during difficult times and sustaining what we’ve learned throughout the better ones. Adversity is an extremely effective teacher.

My advice is to use this economic downturn—or any adversity you might have—and look at it as an opportunity to develop habits that will sustain you during both the difficult times and the good ones, because inevitably what can happen is things are going to turn around. The worst thing one can do is become lazy and not utilize the good habits they’ve developed when life was harder. Instead of saving $100, they might go out to dinner. Instead of calling prospects, they might take a Friday off. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t pamper yourself when you can, but just exercise good judgment. There have certainly been times when I’ve thrown caution to the wind and spent a lot of money on myself but it was always tempered.

In order to get ahead, my theory is that people need to have a strict regimen of activities they need to do. If you are in sales, you need to be on the phone; if you are a lawyer, you need to be writing and researching all the time. Personally, as a speaker and a writer, there’s a whole host of things that I need to do and I am taking this bad economic time to develop a strategy that I can exploit at any time.

Imagine when times were good. If you worked like you do now, how much money would you have in the bank? Imagine if five years ago home buyers were as skeptical as they are now. In the late 90s, people were buying stocks left and right, and not on solid economic principles. People were taking stock tips from their next door neighbor. As my friend Alan—who was a stockbroker—said, “in hindsight, I knew something was wrong when I started taking advice from my gardener.” In difficult times it would be unheard of, but when everybody was making money in the market it was somehow okay.

One of the reasons that most diets are yo-yo diets is because people may be disciplined when they are on the diet—they work out, they eat right, and when they reach their goals they revert to their old habits, which only brings them back to where they started.

Take the time today to develop a strategy that will prepare you for when times get better. Don’t just revert to the less cautious habits you had when times were good. Keep doing what you are doing now—keep in touch with your colleagues, keep the budget in place, think twice about spending that $1,000 bonus on a television set, etc. I guarantee that most people are not going to do this. They will revert to their old habits. They will loosen their belt, spend more, and not work as hard as you. What will happen is when the next downturn takes place, you will be a lot stronger and they will start from a weaker place.

Here’s the thing: Like any advice, this blog needs to be analyzed by you and not be followed without thinking. For example, if in this economic time you took a second or third job to get by and it’s hurting your relationship with your kids or your friends, of course when times get better you quit your second job. Take part of your free time that you receive and start reading books. If you suddenly get that $1,000 bonus, maybe you spend $100 of it and take your family out on the town. My goal with is to give you a fresh perspective, it’s not to dictate how you should live your life.

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Be sure to check out this YouTube video of Rich’s thoughts on adversity and a lesson in difficult times.

Oftentimes, my life as a disabled person feels like stop and go traffic. The setting has to be just right in order for me to work my hardest, which means the involvement of other people and a relatively quiet atmosphere. For example, I can’t have a meaningful in-depth conversation at a crowded bar. There are not many things that I can do for myself. The things that I can do by myself often involve more effort than other people. I can reply briefly to an email but I cannot write a whole blog post. I was on Facebook talking to my sister, just saying hi, and she asked me a question which involved more than a two word answer, so I had to call her. As you probably assumed, I can’t fill my time with things like texting and emailing random people on Facebook.

Even though it bothers me that I cannot perform these little tasks, it is a blessing in disguise. I have a lot of time just to think and dream. I often get bored. When I get bored, I start thinking. Either I think about everything I can’t do or I think about what I’m going to do. Obviously the latter is more productive because that’s when I get…you know, good ideas.

One time I was at USC and it was a fall sunny day (oops—for a second there I thought I was writing a novel). Anyway, I was on my way to the library when I ran into my marketing professor Jim Ellis, who is now the Dean. He asked me, “where are you going?” I replied, “I’m on the way to meet my study assistant.” Jim remarked, “you must be very busy.” At first I agreed, nodding my head (there I go again!). Then I remarked, “you know what, Jim? I’m never busy enough, because when I’m not busy, I start to think—and you know, that’s not a good thing.” He started laughing and I said, “Jim, I’m not joking.”

People ask me why I work as hard as I do. Honestly, the main reason is I hate being bored and I love action. What scares me the most is that I will live in the land of what ifs. What if I didn’t have a disability? What if I could type? What if I could drive my own car? (OK, that’s enough. I don’t want to bum you out or, more importantly, myself.) The more time that I am doing stuff the less time I have to think about how handicapped I am.

The way that I write my books and this blog is, I write it in my head over and over again and when I have someone there to help me, we write. I oftentimes get my ideas in a crowded restaurant where my friends cannot hear me and I am forced withdraw and go inward.

I believe that truly successful people like Donald Trump, Bill Gates, and Warren Buffet have enough money to do whatever they want, but they’re still trying hard. I assume that this is because they get bored. I cannot imagine Bill Gates on the beach (he’s too pasty anyway). He loves building Microsoft as well as his foundation. Success is fun. People like Gates, Trump, and Buffet really understand that. By the way (as the kids say, BTW), one day I had my manager help me write this blog in the morning when she came in and I then had her make calls for a couple hours. In these couple of hours, I worked on the computer a little, and was kind of bored. But guess what? I had time to think about this blog and when she came back in, I dictated this additional paragraph.

I believe that any successful person should just withdraw from the world and think about life–what they want, and how to achieve it. Take an hour a week just to withdraw, turn off the cell phone…and just think.

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Check out my friend Rich’s insightful thoughts on Getting Bored in his YouTube response here.

We constantly hear that if you want to succeed, you must always give 100% of your effort. I disagree with this. There are many times when 100% effort can be negative. For example, bike racing (leave it to a guy in a wheelchair who can’t even stand on his own to talk expertly about bike racing—just hear me out). If a person is in a race, he or she actually hurts their chances by pushing themselves to the limit all of the time. Let’s just say half the race is uphill and half the race is downhill. If the cyclists give 100% of their effort throughout the entire race, then they might burn themselves out. An expert cyclist knows how to pace himself by putting more effort into the uphill portion and coasting through the downhill. (Disclaimer: Everything I stated about bike riding is only based on assumptions and observations.)

In business, as in with life, we should not always give 100%. There are times when we should just coast through life and save our energy for those times where 100% effort is absolutely needed. For example, if you have a long day ahead of you, you probably will not workout extensively in the morning and exhaust yourself.

Sometimes you are winning big or you are losing big. Let’s take a hockey game. (My manager Kristi is into hockey and she’s typing this post—so let’s make her happy.) If a team is up by five goals or down by five goals with five minutes to go in the game, the smart thing to do is just stop trying so hard, accept the outcome, and focus on the next game. In this situation, it’s not worth risking an injury or greater frustrations.

I like to believe that life does not come to us, we have to go out there and get it. With that said, I admit that there are times when we do have to let go and let it come to us. A big part of my company is sales. I have to sell my speaking services as well as ancillary products. I cannot hound my clients all the time. I just have to put out the effort and let the chips fall where they fall. It’s like when a guy is going out with a girl, he can’t just call her and call her and call her—umm…that’s called stalking. Instead, make sure that she had a good time and just leave it at that.

Warning, warning, warning: This is not an excuse to slack off. (If you are 35, still live with your parents and stumbled across my blog in between your sessions of World of Warcraft, don’t forward this to your mom!)

I believe in hard work. What you should do is analyze the situation and see what you need to do to accomplish your feats and allocate your time, resources, and energy accordingly.

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Check out the effort Rich put into his YouTube video response here!

Let me begin with a quick hypothetical story.

Let’s say it’s a Friday night in the dead of winter in Chicago. A guy has the Bulls game on and he’s wearing sweats. All of a sudden, his beautiful girlfriend calls and says, “baby, can you come over?” At first, he makes excuses like “I’m tired, I had a hard week.” After half an hour, he thinks maybe it’s not a bad idea. He agrees, gets up, takes a quick shower, puts on multiple layers of clothing, warms up the car, and goes over to his girlfriend’s house, where they have an incredible night. They order take-out, open a bottle of wine, and cuddle up in front of a movie. The time in between hanging up with his girlfriend and thawing out was really uncomfortable, but at the end of the night they were both happy.

You see where I’m going with this? We all have to get out of our comfort zones. Let’s look at it this way: the end goal is to get into our ultimate comfort zone. My ultimate comfort zone is sitting with my wife and kids, having a lot of friends, and just making a lot of money. In order for me to do this, I have to force myself to get out of my temporary comfort zone every single day.

When I went to USC, I had to get out of my comfort zone away from my parents and ask people to help me. That was uncomfortable, but once I got there, I found a way to get everything done that I needed. I found that I was competing with my classmates and I finally felt at home after I figured out the minutia of how to get ready in the morning and how I was going to get my homework done. Yes, I felt at home.

It is a pain in the butt to travel. If you think getting through TSA is a hassle, try doing it in a chair made of metal. In addition, when I get to the gate they put me in a chair, which I call the Hannibal chair. I get strapped in and I feel like, well, Hannibal. But I am so comfortable on stage that it’s worth it.

Nobody likes getting out of their comfort zone but it is a necessary part of life. Anytime you are not comfortable with a situation just imagine the end goal. That should help push you out of your temporary limbo and propel you towards your ultimate comfort zone, and that place in your mind you can finally feel at home.

Check out this YouTube video for Rich Finley’s up close and personal take on comfort zones!

Life has so many components, from going to school to being a successful professional, hanging out with friends in high school to creating a family, and playing with toys as a kid to taking vacations as an adult. (Well, I don’t think men actually ever give up the toys!) To fully appreciate all life has to offer, one must often endure stress and take care of the small stuff.

If one wants to build a brick house, he or she has to lay each brick carefully and make sure there are no mistakes. It is both looking at each brick and looking at the totality of the house, not to mention everything in between. A successful marriage is not about taking off to Paris, it’s about first making sure that both partners are communicating and getting their needs met. Being a good parent is not about buying a child the latest and greatest toy, it’s about instilling good values, ensuring that their children are on the right path to becoming contributing members of society (and sometimes being the bad guy).

I am a big Lakers fan and what impresses me about Kobe Bryant is the fact that he is frequently the first one out there shooting free throws. He can easily rest on his accomplishments, but he wants more and is never satisfied.

Once I came into the office on a Thursday and saw my business cell phone was out of battery. So I plugged it into the charger and for some reason I didn’t turn it on. I was out of the office Friday so I did not check my messages until Saturday. It turned out that I missed a very important call regarding a potential speaking engagement that I assumed needed to be returned right away. I was excited to get this particular message because it was a huge milestone in my company. I could not wait to return the call, and was pretty disappointed in myself that I did not check my messages more often or I did not carry the phone around.

The call came from the East Coast, so on Monday morning before my manager got into the office, at precisely 6:00 a.m., I had my father return the call and relay that I was available to do the speech and that my manager would call back to discuss the details when she arrived at work. When we called, they made a great point to mention that they were impressed I called so early in the morning. Honestly, I made the phone call because I was a little bit paranoid—but, deep down, mostly because sometimes we have to sweat the small stuff.

Like I said before, life is made up of many parts and I believe that truly successful people do agonize over the small stuff. One of my mistakes in the beginning of my career was not focusing on the minutia of making phone calls each and every day, which for a speaker is like Kobe shooting free throws. It’s tedious, boring, and I even feel bad asking my manager to get on the phone, but now I understand that that’s what is going to get me booked and on the road. There are times when we are having a wonderful conversation about marketing and we both love talking about planning. In these times, we both agree that we have to stop talking about success and focus on actually making it happen.

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Once again, my friend and speaking partner Rich Finley has his own unique take on sweating the small stuff…watch his video response here!

Welcome to Random Thoughts From The Chair. I have been planning to start this blog for longer than I would like to admit. Part of my procrastination was because I was afraid of not having enough to say, but since I speak for a living, I don’t think that was the reason. Well, I have finally stopped making excuses and plan to post at least once a week. (If I don’t do that, I want you to email me!) I’d also love you to comment and start a dialogue with other readers and me. I want to entertain you, make you think, invite you to my unique world, and most importantly, share with you the things that I think make life beautiful.

So, why should you care what I think and say?

Well, I am a 32-year-old man with severe cerebral palsy. I need help with almost everything ranging from getting ready in the morning to eating to even writing this blog. Despite this, I can honestly say that I love life. I love life, but my notion of loving life is not typical. It’s not going through life with a grin on your face like a Cheshire cat. My notion of loving life is recognizing the possibilities of life and doing anything and everything in my power to realize my potential. People are going to have bad days—they are going to complain and that’s just part of life, but there are some moments of life that just cannot get any better. My whole mission is to make those moments more frequent for me and you.

This blog is not about being disabled. I only use my disability as a backdrop to prove a point, not as a crutch…or a wheelchair in my case. [Disclaimer: if my disability really gets on my nerves, I might use the blog to vent. After all, it’s my blog!] I am not going to brag about my accomplishments—like graduating from USC, writing a book, being named Man of the Year, and receiving a Soaring Spirit award. (Oh wait…was I just bragging? Oops!)

I believe that conventional wisdom is too convenient and I don’t believe that one can convey a powerful statement in just one phrase. (There is a place and time for one-liners…after all, isn’t that what Twitter is for?) I also don’t think life is all that challenging. As Larry Winget says, people want life to be harder than it is. He said this is because it gives people an excuse for not doing their best. Let me tell you, those words are surreal for me to write because I look at people around me and think my life is so hard, but when I look at it from afar it’s not so bad.

A little bit more about the guy in the chair:

Besides working hard, I believe that life is about having a good time. I love adventure, going out with my friends, having long dinners, and cracking a lot of jokes. People often react to something I said by blaming it on my speech impediment and I say, “yeah, you heard me right!” I also like going to the movies, watching sports, and having long conversations. (If I finished the last sentence with the words “on the beach” it would sound like a dating profile. By the way, I do have one of those on Match.com.) Since I need so much help, and many people have given me a piece of their life so my life is better, I’m always willing to help others when I can.

The two biggest inspirations in my life are my parents. They gave up so much for my sister and me to have a great life. We get along really well. They always know when to help me and when not to. When I was younger, if I wanted to go out with my friends they would let me.

My goals are simple, yet at the same time a little bit more complicated than the average person’s goals. I want the status quo—a family with a wife, kids, and the American dream. (I got corny there. Sorry.) There are three questions that I am constantly asking myself:

1) What makes someone successful?
2) Despite my disability, how can I achieve success with so many limitations?
3) How can I take what I have learned and relay it to others?

Every week I am going to attempt to answer those three questions—and I look forward to hearing your thoughts as well!

Please spread the word to your friends about Random Thoughts From The Chair. I also have a Facebook page and you can follow me on Twitter. I’m truly excited to share my world with you!

Oh, and check out this YouTube video to see my speaking partner and good friend Rich Finley’s response to this post. (Ignore everything he says!)