Category: Motivation

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.

What it takes

Everyone wants to be great, but the second someone else working on their own greatness comes around we stop and stare. Mesmerized.

Get off the sidelines.

Give up what others can’t. Do what others don’t. Learn what others won’t.

Instead of just watching them, get in the game. Jump on the court and THEN ask them how they do it.

Excuse me, what’s the secret? You already know it, you’re right here in the arena with me.

Doing is the funnest thing on this earth, once you’re already going. Before you begin- it might be the toughest obstacle you’ve ever faced. But once you conquer your greatest enemy, idleness, then what else is out there that can stop you? Not much.

Carnegie Hall

“How do you get to Carnegie Hall?” Someone asked.

“Practice.”

How do you build a successful business? Practice.

How do you lead your team to its highest quarter in sales? Practice.

How do you get better at practice? Practice.

Practice is putting in sweat when the stakes are low so that you shed the least blood when the stakes are high. That sounds like a fair trade, no?

Planning and Intentions

That’s when everything changed…

A couple years back I started writing down my goals on paper. My plans were different back then, but literally hours after writing something down opportunities opened up for me that were previously just a far away wish.

That’s the power of planning and visualization. Turns wishes into reality.

See most of us are so caught up in going with the flow of things, trying to avoid bumps, that we don’t see opportunity right there next to us. We’re so busy just wishing, that we don’t give ourselves time to plan and expect those same things.

That grant for new business startups is rightfully ours, if we write it down as a goal and confidently claim it we’ll have it no time. That VP position at your company is rightfully yours, have you put it on paper and asked for it?

How about your sexy/smart neighbor? The one you talk to in the elevator every saturday but never invited over for wine and conversation. That’s yours too if you admit it to yourself and make plans to show them what you’re all about.

Don’t confuse activity with progress. Wishing and doing the usual is not gonna get you where you deserve to be. Writing your goal down on paper takes some work and concentration, and it’s the launching pad for getting there.

Let me break it to you and tell you that your plan won’t work out how you draw it out to be. But when you have a focus and clear idea of what you desire you have given yourself the confidence to steer.

You’re on a train going somewhere but now you know what stop you need to get off at. That piece of paper reminds you where you’re going even when the path is dark. Here’s your flashlight.

(Thanks to Zig Ziglar, truly a great man.)

Skill and Will

Success is not a matter of skill but a matter of will. Skill is everywhere, and knowledge abounds in every person that has ever attempted anything a handful of times.

But a powerful concentration of will exists in very few individuals. Willpower tells knowledge what to do. Willpower eats skill’s lunch.

Will is still standing tall long after skill has hit a wall.

Be a disciple of will, you’ll notice that skill and knowledge come free inside the package.

Expect more from others

Expecting more from yourself is a great practice. And expecting more from those around you is just as rewarding. Managers take notes.

Having high expectations of others’ capabilities, and making them aware of this, makes them feel good that you feel they’re worthy of that pedestal.

It also rubs off on their own expectations of themselves.  They expect more of themselves and they want to reach their own expectations. Then it just becomes a self-fulfilling cycle of greatness.

A loss

A failure or loss is sometimes a victory if it makes you so angry with the status quo that it propels you to action

To different action
To better action
To risky action
To revolutionary action
To fun action
To outlandish action

The loss tastes bitter in the beginning, but the fruits of it are oh so sweet
Cherish the losses more than the victories because they bring bigger lessons

Being bad to be good

You can’t be good at something without being bad at it first.  Sounds simple and straightforward but often it’s too scary of a thought to face.

If you’re anything like me you jump into something expecting (hoping) you’ll be great at it, and when you find out you suck you want out.

Attitude readjustment needed.  How can you get to be good if you don’t get the being lousy part out of the way as quick as possible?

So we slow down to minimize the hurt.  We think turtle pace will let us see the obstacles and saboteurs coming our way.

Instead what happens is that now even the slowest adversary is carrying more momentum than we are because we’re moving like a snail.  BAM!! We’re out for the count.

I always think of Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark.  He took that step into the cliff and the invisible bridge appeared.  Had he stopped too long to think the fear would’ve paralyzed him.

If you’re moving quickly you’re carrying more momentum than anything else so even if you get hit you land a step closer than you were when you got hit.

If there’s an immovable wall there then maybe you see it and can dig that foot in there and leap over it with the momentum. If instead you’re moving slow the sight of the wall alone will stop you forever.

If it takes 10 mistakes to get the one victory why not just make the 10 mistakes quickly and get to the 11th try asap?