Category: Greatness

The skill of asking

Asking for something can be seen as such a pain, it’s just an annoyance and a distraction for everyone doing “real work,” is what I thought.

But when you reframe it and acknowledge that purposeful asking is THE most valuable skill on earth, then it becomes so easy to ask for more, and for better. The great leaders of our time as well as all previous times have been the ones who are skillful and unafraid to make requests. They ask for more because they know they and their tribes deserve more than they are getting. When will you realize it’s your turn to ask?

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.

Take a stand

In your mind. Take a stand in your mind for what you represent. Yes, we’re complex individuals with numerous and opposing ideologies depending on the time of day.

But there’s always one. In love. In our career. And especially in our mind. There’s always one that dominates over all others.

So what do you represent? What message in this crazy world do you relate to most? If your goal is to leave your mark somehow then you’ve got to take a stand today. And the stand can be a process as much as it can be a cause. But choose one for now.

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.

The fun

Find the seed of fun in any activity, my friends. Fun is the big flashing arrow pointing you towards something you’re likely to excel at. When you’re good at something, no matter what it is, you’ll usually enjoy it.

The fun indicates where your strengths are.

Any activity can be turned into something fun, but any fun activity can also be made to be a chore if you don’t protect its experimental integrity.

Keep it fun and allow room for mistakes.

Cultivate that little grain of fun and who knows what harvests of greatness await you.

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.

The limit

Finding out our own limits and vulnerabilities is a powerful tool. Tiptoeing the edge of that cliff and still surviving.

It scares the shit out of you. And even though others might not see it, it bursts your confidence bubble a bit because now you have no doubts about where your powers end.

But it more than makes up for it with the alleviating realization that EVERYONE goes through it. Finding that it is only by creeping to that edge that we can truly progress.

Makes success seem so much more blue collar, and that’s a GREAT realization.

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.