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Ride the Wave

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While pursuing a goal or project, have you ever stalled out on progress because you lacked some skill or knowledge required to take the next step?  I have!  It can be extremely frustrating being stuck and not making progress.  What makes up for the frustration, however, is when a breakthrough finally occurs and you gain the skill or knowledge needed to move ahead.  At that point progress begins to come rather quickly.  When that breakthrough occurs, it is imperative to immediately take action and ride the wave of your new found momentum.

“Riding the wave” is giving focused effort at applying your newly acquired knowledge.  It is taking swift and decisive action to maximize the enthusiasm, excitement, and momentum that result from your breakthrough and causing something to happen that quickly propels you toward your goal.  Failing to take action immediately after a breakthrough allows other forces take hold and keep you in a place of stalled effort and minimal progress.

Be on the lookout for these breakthrough moments and view them as signals to crank up your effort in order to ride the wave of momentum that has been created as a result.  By doing so, you’ll be making huge leaps toward achieving the goals you’ve set for yourself.

Be Mindful of What You’re Causing

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When pursuing a goal, we usually know the desired outcome we seek.  We know exactly what we want to cause to happen and we take actions to make it so.  This is good.  It helps us intentionally progress toward our goals.  However, we can also unintentionally cause something to happen that we might not want, if we are not mindful of how or words or actions can effect others.

Earlier this week I found that my actions had produced a negative experience for my wife.  It was something that I neither wanted nor intended to bring about.  It made me wonder how many times a day I am unintentionally causing something to happen because I am not paying attention.  This experience reminded me of my word of the year:  mindful.

Being mindful is being aware of our actions and how they affect us and others.  It is also avoiding the temptation to go on auto-pilot during the day, but instead to actively engage and give thought to what we say and do, realizing that our actions can have an impact on others, whether we’re mindful of them or not.

None of us intentionally want our actions to yield a bad result.  I think it’s safe to say that we don’t want to unintentionally yield bad results either.  Let’s commit to being mindful, not only in the pursuit of our goals, but also in our interactions with those around us.  I think we’ll be pleased with the positive results that we’ll see.

Determine Where You Want to Go

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“If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there.”

~The Cheshire cat from Alice in Wonderland

I’ve found that statement to be true in my own life in years past.  Early on I didn’t have real, specific goals.  Sure, I had some like, earn money, have fun, and be happy, but those aren’t very concrete.  They’re much too vague to be useful and didn’t give me any direction with regard to how I would go about achieving them.

As a result, I found that I wasn’t really focused in my career pursuits and personal goals.  I lacked direction as to where I wanted to go and how I would go about getting there.  Life was ok, but I wasn’t intentionally going anywhere specific.  I would take jobs that came along instead of actively pursuing opportunities that helped move me closer to a destination or goal I had intentionally set. I felt like a leaf that had fallen in a creek and was being carried downstream in a gently tumbling current. Life was fine.  It wasn’t bumpy or turbulent, but it wasn’t great either.

It makes sense, right?  How can we know what path, opportunity, or direction is best for us if we don’t know where it is we want to go?

It wasn’t until I began spending time thinking about what direction I wanted to take my life that I started to get a sense of where I intentionally wanted to go.  It was exciting as I realized the unintentional path I was on would no longer do.

In January of 2011, as part of this thinking process, I began journaling.  It is a discipline I have stuck with ever since.  For me, journaling has been one of the most productive and rewarding undertakings of my life.  It is a great way to dive into your mind and engage yourself with questions like: “What do I want out of life?  What’s really important to me?  What am I good at?  What am I excited about? Where do I want to be next year at this time? How do I want my life to look now and in the future?  Where am I going?”  The questions you can ask yourself are endless, but they all start to bring clarity to your thinking when you put pencil or pen to paper and begin truthfully answering them.  Journaling helped me gain a clear picture of where I want to go, what I wanted out of life.  It has even helped me identify the steps needed to move me toward the new goals I have set for myself.

Have you ever been unsure of exactly where it is you want to go in life?  Do you feel that way now?  If so, I encourage you to give journaling a try.  It doesn’t have to be complicated.  You don’t need an agenda.  Rather just write your thoughts down as they come to your mind, and write down your reactions to them.  Don’t worry if your thoughts are jumping all over the pace.  Just follow the train of thought with your pencil and see where they lead.

Commit to journaling for 30 days, or set a goal of writing for 10 minutes 3 times a week for a month.  Cause something to happen by simply starting.  You will be amazed at the clarity and motivation you’ll gain.

What Are We Afraid Of?

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I had been putting off making a phone call that I needed to make for the last 2 weeks.  It wasn’t anything major.  I just needed to call someone up and ask a couple of “how to” questions.  I don’t really like talking on the phone, so I kept putting it off.  The problem was that doing so stalled progress on a specific goal I am currently pursuing.  I kept telling myself, “I’ll call tomorrow”, but tomorrow turned out to be several days.

Eventually I got fed up with myself, grabbed the phone, and made the call.  You know what?  The call went REALLY well!  Not only did I get my questions answered, I also met a nice person that I will work with in the future.  It turned out to be an enjoyable conversation.

When I hung up the phone I thought, “That wasn’t so bad.  Why didn’t I do that sooner?  What was I afraid of?”  Probably fear.  Probably also getting out of my comfort zone.  Whatever the reason, it cost me 2 weeks of potential progress toward my current goal.  I squandered the opportunity to cause something to happen during those 2 weeks in order to stay in my comfort zone.  How lame is that??!!  Nothing great ever occurs when we act (or don’t act) out of fear.

Moving forward, I’m going to be on the lookout for those the fears and thoughts that keep me from doing what needs to be done, and when I recognize them, I will combat them by taking the action I know I should take.  Have you ever experienced thoughts or fears that hold you back?  Are you experiencing them now?  If so, it’s time to stop letting fear and comfort run the show.  I invite you to join me in defeating them with intentional action.  Doing so will not only cause you to move ahead faster, you’ll also feel great as a result.

Pick Yourself

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Remember picking teams back in grade school gym class or on the playground?  All the best players got picked first and the least talented got picked last.  I remember the feeling, hoping to be picked and then feeling relieved when I was finally selected.

It’s not much different as adults.  We wait for a potential employer, a significant other, a business partner, or some other person or group, to give us their “seal of approval, by picking us to join their team.  Perhaps we feel being picked by them validates us, our talents, our ideas and goals, and maybe even our individual value.

Instead of waiting for others to pick you, why not pick yourself?  Why not realize the value, talent and ability that you possess and pick yourself to pursue the goals you’ve put forth for yourself, instead of waiting for someone else to do it?  Validate the skills, worth, and ability you have and take the first step toward your goals by picking yourself to be the one that gets things started.

Don’t wait for others to pick you?  Cause something to happen.  Decide today to pick yourself.

Don’t Break the Chain

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I heard a podcast recently about how comedian Jerry Seinfeld would set aside time everyday to write jokes for his routine.  He wouldn’t focus on writing the best or the funnies jokes.  His focus was simply to spend time EVERY day writing jokes.  When he first started, he noticed he had strung together a chain of 3 consecutive days where he had carved out time to write jokes.  In an effort to keep this trend going he set a rule for himself.  It was simply, don’t break the chain.

For Jerry, the “don’t break the chain” rule ensured that he would spend some time every day writing jokes, thus causing him to focus daily on becoming better at his craft.  Skipping a day was not an option.

I like that.  I’ve since adopted this rule for my own pursuits to help me focus on making daily progress toward my own goals.  Success rarely happens in one day.  Behind the large majority of successful people you’ll find a long chain of consecutive days of consistent effort.  Rarely are goals attained without such discipline.

Where in your life do you desire to see the results that come from consistent effort?  Determine the answer to this question and then commit to applying effort in that direction on a daily basis.  You don’t need to make huge leaps every day.  In fact, just focus on showing up every day and putting forth effort that moves you closer toward your goal.  Focus on not breaking the chain.

If you want to cause something to happen that is significant and meaningful, nothing will do that quicker than a long chain of consistent effort.

Don’t break the chain.

Success by a Thousand Small Victories

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We’ve all heard the term “Death by 1000 cuts”.  I recently heard that phrase and began thinking about it in terms of success and recalled how success doesn’t occur all in one day.  Instead, success is the result of several (maybe 1000) small victories achieved over time.  That thought re-energized me in my current pursuits.  That encourages me to daily focus on providing consistent effort.  Doing so will ensure success through 1000 tiny victories.

Be encouraged to provide daily effort toward your goals and for small success every day.  Significant results will come if we simply take care to make progress every day.  We will achieve success through a thousand small victories.

The New Normal

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I like change.  Change can bring opportunity, new experiences, and adventures that shake up our daily routine.  Although, I think my thoughts on change are probably like that of most people, as expressed in the following quote:

“We all like change, to the extent that it makes what we’re already doing even better.”

I certainly like change when it benefits me, or improves what I’m already doing.  However, sometimes events occur that change our lives in a way that we do not desire or that we would not have chosen for ourselves.  These could be things like a severed relationship, the loss of a loved one, an unexpected illness, or a host of other events.  As a result, our lives can be changed forever.  The way we once knew things, will never be again, and the future implications are yet to be determined.  One thing we do know is that the future will look very different from our recent past.  This difference is what will become our “new normal”.

Here’s the good news about the new normal:  we have the opportunity to largely determine what that new normal will look like.  We can shape it by deciding what we want it to consist of, and taking steps to bring about that future we envision, thus creating our new normal.

Sure, the situation that caused this change is still present, but that doesn’t mean it has to be what defines our future.  We can spend all of our energy bemoaning our misfortune and focusing on the event that caused this new normal.  We can also squander our ability to define what normal will be and leave it up to others or circumstance to define for us.  But I don’t believe any of those options will yield the results we’re looking for.

If you find yourself facing an event that includes the promise of a new normal, and after you’ve had sufficient time to grieve, get angry, mourn, etc, begin to envision what you want your new normal to look like.  Think about all the things you’d like it to consist of.  Then, when you’re ready, cause something to happen by taking action to turn your vision into the reality of your new normal.

Your future-self will thank you.

What’s Essential?

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Why is it so easy to get distracted from pursuing our goals?  Even more so, why does it often seem like our progress is moving at glacier-like speed, leaving us feeling like we’ll never get where we’re trying to go in life?  I think it’s possible that we’re concentrating our efforts on tasks that won’t yield the high level of results we’re looking for.

I was reading Pamela Slim’s book “Escape from Cubicle Nation” recently (yes, I’m planning an escape!) about a person who was gaining control over their finances.  When asked what the most important thing they did to gain control over their finances was, they responded with, “Simplify to identify what’s essential, and then eliminate as much as possible everything that isn’t essential.”

That makes perfect sense in the context of personal finance.  It also got me thinking about how this same principle could be applied to the pursuit of goals.  I find plenty of examples in my own life where my focus is on something that is non-essential to an objective I’m trying to achieve.  The result is usually wasted time and delayed results.

For example, I recently signed up and created a user profile on a social networking site for voice overs.  As part of creating my profile, there was an option to add a photo.  A photo wasn’t required, it was optional.  Stated another way, it was non-essential to creating my profile.  Would you believe I wasted close to an hour trying to decide on the right photo to use?  What’s wrong with me?!  I had plenty of other essential tasks to do, instead of wasting time on this non-essential task.  (In my own defense, I learned this concept AFTER the incident I just described)

It’s amazing how quickly an hour can be lost to a non-essential task.  Imagine doing several non-essential tasks over the course of a day, a week, or a month.  Carry that out a year, and it’s staggering to see the negative compounding effect of wasting time on things that aren’t essential.

If you really want to cause something to happen in your life, start identifying what’s essential and what’s not.  Strive to spend the large majority of your time on essential tasks, and seek to eliminate, or at least drastically reduce, the amount of time you spend on non-essential tasks.  You’ll notice a marked increase in the progress you make toward achieving your goals.

Gas Up Along the Way

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I love learning!  Like most people reading this blog, I consider myself a life-long learner and enjoy the process of learning new ideas and skills.  At the end of every year, I want to be able to look back and say that I know more now than I did last year at this time.  Life is more exciting and fulfilling when I’m continuously learning.  What’s not to love about learning?  Well…

Whenever we decide to embark on a new undertaking, one of the first things we do is learn as much as we can about our new adventure.  That makes sense, right?  Any time we pursue something new we need to gain knowledge to identify the path we need to take in order to get started.  At the very beginning, learning is a crucial step. The problem occurs when we have gained sufficient knowledge to get stated and instead opt to postpone action in order to pursue additional learning.

I look at learning like putting gas in a car before a cross country road trip.  Before hitting the road we drive to the gas station and fill the car with gas.  Once the tank is full, we’re ready to embark on our trip.  Do we have enough gas for the whole trip?  No.  Will we need to acquire more gas along the way?  Of course.  Do we have enough gas to begin our journey right now?  You bet!

Wouldn’t it be ridiculous to sit at the gas station after filling the car and think, “You know, I should get another gallon of gas and carry it in the trunk, just in case.”  Imagine doing that and then thinking, “I should probably fill up another couple of gas cans to have because I don’t know what I may encounter along the way.”  Suppose this train of thought played out multiple times.  At the very least, our trip would be significantly delayed.  At worst, we’d never embark on the journey we’d planned.

The answer:  Hang up the pump, put the car in Drive, and get moving!

Likewise, continual learning in place of action, when we already have the knowledge we need to get started, can thwart our efforts to move ahead.

So what keeps us from taking the knowledge we’ve acquired and putting it into action?  Why do we get stuck in the mode of, “Ready… Aim… Aim… Aim…” without ever getting to “FIRE!”?  There could be several reasons such as:

  • Fear of the unknown.
  • Getting outside our comfort zone.
  • Lack of commitment to our goal.
  • Self doubt or discouragement from our own negative self talk or from others.
  • The thought that learning is less threatening than taking action and risking failure.

When you  notice that you’re postponing action in favor of more learning, take a moment to ask “Why?”  Ask this question until you get to the root cause that’s keeping you from that first step.  Once you discover the “why”, acknowledge it, commit to taking the first step, and then do it.

I heard a great quote recently that says,

“Too much learning and not enough doing will turn you into an over-educated under-achiever.”

I don’t want to be like that.  I want to learn with the intent of putting that learning into action to make life better for myself and for others.  Yes, we need to be continuous learners, but not at the expense of taking action.   Once you’ve gained enough knowledge to take that initial step, get started!  Move ahead as far as you can.  When you get to the point where you need more knowledge, pull up to the “gas pump” of learning, “gas up” for the next leg of your journey, and then continue on.

Cause something to happen by putting your learning into action.  Put your dreams in Drive and get moving.  You’ll always be able to “gas up” along the way.