Category: change

Allies

Authenticity, being your true self, will go a long way towards gaining supporters. We gravitate towards those who have their story straight. Who know what they’re fighting for and why.

It’s a breath of fresh air, to meet someone who has taken a stand in their mind and narrowed down their focus to the one or two things that matter most to them. We see it in the way they walk, the way they move, the things they talk about. All their actions are synchronized and gracefully headed towards an inevitable goal. And we admire that.

We admire it because we haven’t made that choice yet. Our minds are crowded with too many unimportant wants, as opposed to one passionate quest that deserves all our energy.

If you’re unconvinced then give it a short trial run. For one month put one mission at the forefront of all your conversations and your productive time. Leave the superfluous stuff aside. You’ll start to notice how free and powerful you feel. And just as important, that those around you now feel more compelled to support your efforts. You’re gaining allies in your journey.

With enough support nothing is difficult. Your book, or your non-profit, or your school pretty much builds itself. It all starts with an authentic clarity of purpose.

Bigger. Better. Faster. Stronger.

Bigger dreams, bigger bets
Bigger obstacles, bigger steps

Better ideas, better revelations
Better understanding, better communication

Faster mistakes, faster recoveries
Faster thinking, faster discoveries

Stronger will, stronger self-identity
Stronger purpose, stronger Serenity

Protecting your time

A friend recently told me that they admire how I value and take control of my own time. I don’t spend time on things that aren’t valuable to me and I refuse to get bullied into them. It took a lot of work to get to this point but I’m glad I’ve reached a good place with it now.

Value for your time is a BIG piece of asking for more from life. If you can’t stand up for the sanctity of your precious time then life and other people won’t respect your demands when you ask.

Without commanding respect for your time how will you cultivate the guts to demand fair pay for your services? Or for that promotion you deserve? Or for seed money to start that business?

Time is one of the few things in life that you can’t buy more of, all you can manage is not spending it on activities that are worthless to you. If you deeply value helping a good friend then why are you leaving them out to dry while you do favors for another colleague who doesn’t see/respect the sacrifice you’re making?

How will you accomplish your personal greatness if you don’t protect the time to do the work? Impossible is what I say.

By the same token, respect the time of others who respect their own time. A straightforward NO creates more goodwill and appreciation than it destroys. And it makes a true YES that much sweeter.

Just now realized…

I just recently realized that nothing is owed to me in life. You only get what you demand of life AND, just as importantly, then work towards it with equal fervor.

I didnt understand the momentum of things, that just because something bad happened it doesn’t mean you’re owed something good up next. That’s bullshit. Life is only as fair as you make it.

It can just as easily be unfair in your favor if you want it so.

You have to demand from the world that something good happens next for you, and give that thrust of will to have it be so. If you get complacent the world will trample all over you, or will at least leave you in your place with only the leftovers of those who demanded first dibs.

Care less to impress

You’ll soon realize it’s easy to impress people when you don’t care whether they’re impressed or not.

Of course the only way to reduce how much you care to impress is to have plenty of other options so that one doesnt mean as much. And the only way to have more options is to keep trying more. Experimenting more. Leaving yourself vulnerable more.

Throw more against the wall and see what sticks. Rinse, repeat.

One lesson away

What we don’t know can kill us. Or at least it can kill our chances of achieving our goals.

We often don’t realize that we are just one lesson away from getting there. There’s that one small thing we need to learn to turn everything around. To become professionals.

Sometimes it’s right under our noses, and sometimes it’s been pointed out by our peers yet we ignore it. It can’t be that important is what we say. That can’t be what’s holding me back. But it very well might be.

What’s the one lesson you haven’t learned yet? Look around, it’s much simpler than you think it is. Thank me later.

Elevating your standards

I started getting all these awesome things once I didn’t want them anymore, once I was aiming for way bigger and better.

Elevating my standards forced me to elevate my own expectations of the work I do, and in turn it made me better, which made me expect even better things to happen.

When you expect you get given. Let me rephrase. You’re not given anything. You EARN them by the sheer force of expecting that they belong to you.

Picking yourself

Growing up basketball was my life. I played anywhere from 3 to 6 hours every day, and the other hours of the day were spent thinking about playing.

I mention it to illustrate one of the worst feelings ever: being in the playground and being chosen last. Or not even being chosen on a team at all.

It’s good to be valued, and it’s good to be liked. It makes us feel good. But eventually I got fed up with waiting to be picked so I practiced free throws and ensured I would earn the captain spot by making the first shot.

I stopped waiting to be picked and I picked myself first. Mr. Godin would agree.

However as life progressed I seem to have forgotten this lesson. Why do I wait to be offered a dream job? Why do I wait for validation from others to realize that my work is good and serves a purpose?

Somewhere along this 15 year journey between 13 and 28 I forgot that if you don’t pick yourself no one else will. If you do luck out and get chosen then you’re beholden to the picker for your esteem. Side dish of crapola.

When you become the picker you’re determining your worth. You appointed yourself captain of the team and are accepting the challenge of living up to this standard. And your standards are the only ones that really matter.

You bet on yourself and if you lose you only have one person to answer to. Numero uno. I can live with that.