Take the Stairs

7 Steps to Achieving True Success

By: Rory Vaden

Narrated by: Rory Vaden

Length: 4 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's summary

Do you ride the escalator or do you take the stairs? No matter how you define success, it always requires one thing: self-discipline. But as popular speaker and strategist Rory Vaden explains, we live in an "escalator world", one that's filled with shortcuts, quick fixes, and distractions that make it all too easy to slide into procrastination, compromise, and mediocrity. What seems like an easier path is really much harder in the end - and, most important, it won't take you where you want to go.

How do successful people stay focused and achieve results? This lively and insightful guide presents a simple program for taking the stairs - that is, for overcoming the temptations of quick fixes and procrastination, conquering creative avoidance, and transcending personal setbacks in order to tackle the work that leads to real success. Whatever your goals are, Rory Vaden's proven approach will get you there - one stair at a time.

©2012 Rory Vaden (P)2012 Gildan Media, LLC

Mindset for better time management

Well read by Rory, easy to follow. Gives you guidelines how to prioritize your time. Not many techniques, more principles. Very Good book but "Take the stairs" is better. What touched me the most was the seasons principle: knowing when to harvest. I keep getting cought up with tasks i could do some other time and I should focus what is most effective now.

Simple, clear and action oriented.

Loved it. It included simple and clear concepts that can easily be turned into actions. Also appreciated the resources available to assist the action process.

Review

This book has completely changed my life. I was on track to continue to live my life of procrastination for the rest of my life…. Until Take The Stairs came along. This is my favorite read so far of my life. If you need the drive to live the life of your dreams then look no further. I will recommend this book to all of my family and close friends. Thank you Rory Vaden!

Motivational

Where does Take the Stairs rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Excellent book.

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

Narrated by the author always seems to be the best option with non-fiction audiobooks. Mr. Vaden brings life to the book and it's concepts.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I couldn't wait to hear the next chapter.

Any additional comments?

The seven steps are practical and no nonsense strategies for achieving personal success.

Fabulous info

Thank you for putting some Toughlove into this book!!! sometimes we all need to hear the truth. In different ways, this book does that. I highly recommend this book!

Easy choices - hard life, hard choices - easy life

Rory Caden nails it! I listen to this book every year, and always learn something new. He obliterates excuses and gives people reasons to do the hard things that lead to success. Successful people do the hard things that other people don't. They don't want to do them either, but they no that doing hard things now leads to a better life in the future. This short book is jam packed with golden nuggets of wisdom and inspiration.

One of the best business books

Rory Vaden did a great job with this book. I've selected several clips of the audio tape and played during staff meetings. awesome book across the board.

Amazing Book

This book was such an easy read. It was an amazing book with several applications that I can put into action into my life to influence my success.

Loved it!

But whether it makes a difference in my life is yet to be determined. By me. Thanks, a bunch, Rory.

Hard Work

Bad news… the path to success is hard. It’s not complicated or confusing, just hard. Hard work. Hard choices. Every day. “Success is never owned. It is rented and the rent is due every day.” I found this book to be refreshing in its clarity, honesty, and common sense approach. A lot of leadership and development books I’ve read miss some of the basics like hard work, discipline and sacrifice, or they avoid those ideas because they are hard and unpopular. Here are the 7 principles or steps to success as described by Rory:

1. Sacrifice - the paradox principle. Doing hard things now (budgeting, exercising, eating healthy) makes things easier later. Sacrifice is like a down payment.
2. Commitment- the buy-in principle. Change your mindset from “Should I?” To “How can I?”. Attitude is simply the way you choose to see things.
3. Focus- the magnification principle. We are victims of priority dilution. Focus = power. Creative avoidance- purposely distracting ourselves from those things that we should be doing.
4. Integrity - the creation principle. Your words have power to create and to destroy. Use your words to inspire creation. The more integrity you have (doing what you say), the more power you will have to begin creation simply by speaking.
5. Schedule- the harvest principle. Put the big rocks in your jar first. Schedule your week like you budget your money. Be intentional about doing the hard things first.
6. Faith- the perspective principle. Take a step back and look at decisions over a longer timeline to see that temporary pain or discomfort is the path to your long-term destinations.
7. Action- the pendulum principle. Understanding a concept is different than acting on a concept. You can only move toward your goals with action. By doing. Scared? Do it scared. Uncomfortable? That’s ok. Just start doing things while you are uncomfortable. Just start.

Each of these principles are broken down in chapters, with examples, stories and illustrations from the author’s experiences. While these concepts are not necessarily new, they are good to be reminded of, and having application examples was helpful to me. In a society filled with escalators (easy ways), take the stairs (do the hard things).

I recommend this book to the distracted, the aspiring, and the young workers.
(Rated G, Score 8/10)