productivity

Gas Up Along the Way

/ Scott / 2 Comments

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.

Get Out of the Zone

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We all have one.  For some, it’s pretty big.  For others it can be rather small.  Regardless of its size, the fact is everyone has a comfort zone.  However, what each person’s comfort zone represents to them, and how they view their comfort zone can be quite different.  I believe how we view our comfort zone has a lot to do with how we view life’s opportunities and challenges.

What I especially like about our comfort zones is that they are flexible and can be stretched and made to grow, becoming ever-larger as we gain new skills and experience and seek new opportunities.  My comfort zone also makes me aware of boundaries, either real or perceived, that are holding me back.  Its boarder represents opportunities to try new things, travel to new destinations, to meet new people, to learn and to grow.  Just beyond its boarder represents endless possibilities for a more enriched and fulfilling life.

The best part is that when we continually venture beyond its borders, our comfort zone expands, providing us with additional opportunities just beyond its newly expanded border.  What a great way to live!  I’m excited by the thought of having a comfort zone that grows larger with each year.

Unfortunately, the opposite is also true.  Where some see a comfort zone a something to be stretched and grown, others see it as the walls of a mighty fortress, never to be breached or crossed.  To this mindset, the comfort zone represents the entirety of whom they are and who they will remain.  Anything beyond its boundaries is for other people, is impossible to attain, or is too far out of reach.  Anything outside of their comfort zone is of no interest.

But there’s one thing even worse than a comfort zone that never expands.  That is a comfort zone that has begun to contract.  This can occur when, for whatever reason, a person gives up trying to stretch and actively pulls back from activities that cause growth and development.  In this scenario, the comfort zone becomes the walls of a prison, within which our growth and potential serve a life sentence.

This is not how our comforts zones should be.  As we continually seek to cause something to happen that betters our life and the lives of others, we can be assured that our comfort zones will be stretched as part of the process.

John Maxwell gave a similar illustration with a rubber band in one of his Maximum Impact lessons.  His question was, “When is a rubber band the most useful?”  The answer:  when it is being stretched.  How true of our comfort zones as well!

Commit to regularly stretching your comfort zone just beyond its borders.  Be mindful of daily opportunities to do so and take advantage of them.  Perhaps begin journaling each opportunity you take to expand your comfort zone.  Do this and, in the future, look back and see how much you and your comfort zone have grown as a result.

Feelings Follow Action

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Don’t you love the feeling you get when a major goal or task has been accomplished?  You’ve repeatedly caused something to happen, and finished something you’ve set out to do.  There’s a certain degree of satisfaction and accomplishment that comes from bringing a task to closure.

What’s probably more familiar, at least for me, is knowing what action I need to take, but just not feeling like it.  Have you been there too?  I find it frustrating because of the internal conflict it creates.  I know I should do “specific tasks, but I don’t feel like it, so I don’t.  The next day, I still don’t feel like taking action because I didn’t do anything the day prior.  If I’m not mindful, this cycle can go on for days, weeks, or even years!  So how do we combat this lack of feeling, this lack of motivation, or lack of a “want to”?  The best solution I have found… is to take action anyway, regardless of how you feel.

When we wait for feelings to arrive before taking action, we put ourselves at a huge disadvantage, because the majority of the time we don’t feel like doing the hard work it takes to be successful.  As a result, we wind up waiting to be motivated by feelings that never show up.

I’ve often heard feelings and actions compared with an engine and a caboose on a train.  The feelings are represented by the caboose and the actions by the engine.  So what does this mean for those of us who are trying to take actions when we don’t feel like it?  Well, it means that we start doing the actions, regardless of how we feel.  Once the actions are started, the feelings will follow.  Feelings follow actions.

One of my favorite authors is John Maxwell.  He’s written several dozen books on leadership, personal development, and growth.  He’s stated that aspiring authors often tell him that they’d like to write a book, to which he always replies, “What have you written so far?”  By far the answer he says he gets most often is, “Well, nothing yet.”  Then they ask him how he got to be a successful writer, to which he replies, “I started writing.”

I love his reply, because it’s so simple and straightforward.  It doesn’t say you have to learn all you can about writing first or that you have to spend years studying.  He doesn’t even say that you need to feel like writing first.  It simply states that you must begin, regardless of feelings.  You just have to take action.

I’m amazed how many authors have confided in pod casts that they don’t necessarily enjoy writing, but they like the outcome (finished books) so they commit disciplined effort to the act of writing.  This thought make me think how easy it can be to get ahead for people who are willing to take the actions necessary to be successful, regardless of how the feel.  This is true for writing as it is for any other endeavor we eagerly want to pursue.

What’s that area in your life where you know you need to take action, but often don’t feel like it?  Challenge yourself this week by committing to take action in this area, regardless of how you feel.  Then note if your feelings haven’t changed as a result.

Death, Taxes, and Compounding

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It is, indeed, a powerful force!  In the previous blog, we talked about the magic and the power of compounding and saw how compounding can have a significant positive effect in our lives.  Compounding is a great thing, right?  Well, it depends.

The principal of compounding will occur in our lives when we choose to apply it to something positive.  Here’s the alarming aspect about compounding that we may not be aware of:  compounding will occur in our lives whether we actively peruse it or not.  The choice we are responsible for is whether we will shape and direct the compounding in our lives, or whether we’ll allow negative compounding to occur, yielding results we may not want or desire.

Last post we talked about the compounding that occurs from lifting weight on a consistent basis day after day, for several years.  Let’s take an opposite scenario.  Say a person isn’t pursuing a healthy lifestyle.  Suppose they eat their favorite fast foods for lunch every day, and drink large quantities of unhealthy, high sugar or high calorie beverages.  Let’s also imagine that at the end of every day our “compounding unaware” example plops down in front of the TV for several hours until they drift off to sleep.  What effect will this have on a person after 1 day?  I’d say very little to none.  What happens when we add compounding into the equation?  What happens when our example strings several weeks of this consistent behavior together?  Let’s carry the equation out even further and say this behavior continues consistently for 5 to 10 years.  My guess is that these results are far different from the person who started lifting the 10lb weight 5 to 10 years ago.

Here’s the truth about compounding that is so important to grasp:  compounding will occur in our lives whether we actively choose to harness its power or not.  Our consistent actions, whether positive or negative, will yield significant results in our lives.  It doesn’t matter if we’re aware of the principal or not.  Compounding will occur regardless.

This principal gives us tremendous opportunity, but I also think it comes with tremendous responsibility.  Knowing that compounding will occur, we should cause something to happen that will allow compounding’s power to move us in a positive direction, toward the goals and dreams we have to change our lives for the better.  Why waste this principal’s precious power on results that don’t enhance our lives?

If you’re interested in learning more about compounding and how it can be applied in your own life, I highly recommend Darren Hardy’s excellent book, “The Compound Effect”.  Check it out and learn more about this under-utilized principle and begin applying its power in your life.  It will motivate you to stay consistent and encourage you to be committed to positive compounding for the long haul.

The Magic of Compounding — It’s Not Just for Dollars!

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How in the world does lifting a 10lb weight turn a person into a body builder?  Likewise, how does one shovel full of dirt turn a city block into a massive sky scraper?  The truth is… it doesn’t.  Picking up and lifting a 10lb weight will no more turn a person into a body builder than will one scoop of earth struck by a shovel create a skyscraper.  Each of these single acts is too insignificant to yield impressive results.

However, suppose a person were to lift that same 10lb weight several times a day, day after day for a month.  It would soon become too light as the weightlifter grew stronger from continually lifting the 10lb weight.  They would soon need to begin lifting 15, or 20lbs several times a day, day after day, until this weight also became too light. Now suppose our weight lifter repeated this process day after day, month after month and year after year.  What would the result be after 1, 5, or 10 years? They would be far stronger, and more muscular, than they were when they first started lifting the 10lb weight.

Here’s the question:  Which day of weight lifting was the one that made them strong and improved their physique?  What is the very first day they began lifting the 10lb weight? Was it their most recent day in the gym?  The obvious answer is:  it was every day!   Every seemingly insignificant day spent lifting weights.  Every day of not seeing results, yet pushing forward (or up in the case of weightlifting).  Every day’s commitment to staying focused on the goal and giving consistent effort.

By themselves, each day’s effort doesn’t amount to much.  But when coupled with the effort of the days before, and the days that follow, they collectively become a powerful force.  This force, this magic, is called compounding.

We often hear of compounding in the context of investing or saving money.  We’re told to put a little money away each month and over the years the “magic of compounding will cause the amount to grow to an incredibly large sum.   It’s no different with our effort in other life endeavors.  If you want  something different in your life, cause something to happen daily to move you closer to your desired outcome.  It doesn’t have to be an extraordinary effort.  All we need is small, incremental progress done on a daily basis over an extended period of time.

This is an incredibly encouraging concept to me.  It reminds me that regardless of my endeavor, I don’t need to have all the answers before I can get started.  I don’t need to have my plan all filled out and perfect first.  I just need to take the next step today and each subsequent day.  These small steps will carry me toward my goal.  I just need to provide consistent effort over an extended period.  The magic of compounding will take care of the rest.

Share your comments:  Have you had an experience with the power of compounding?  Were in your life do you need to provide the seeds of consistency to all allow compounding to take root?

Let the power of compounding encourage you to cause something to happen… starting today!

3 Simple Steps That Cause Something to Happen

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I’m a big fan of Columbia Sportswear Company in Portland Oregon.  They have great clothes for outdoor activities like hiking, fishing, snow shoeing, or just for wearing around town.  If you need clothes for the great outdoors, Columbia has got you covered

Fortunately for me, I’m relatively close to several Columbia outlet stores.  These stores are great!  They sell Columbia gear (obviously) at prices far lower than you’d pay at a full retail sore.  If I’m anywhere near a Columbia outlet, I am instantly drawn to the parking lot and into the store.  I can’t help it.  It’s like the mother ship is calling me home.

Every time I enter a Columbia store, my first several seconds are spent in a state, where I’m overwhelmed by all the choices in the store, and don’t know where to start looking first.  I usually begin by halfheartedly looking at one section, and then quickly jumping to another, before I finally calm down and think about what I need, or want, and then start looking around with focus and purpose.

It can be like that when deciding on a big goal or challenge we’d like to pursue.  We’re motivated and fired up at the thought of a new endeavor.  However, we quickly become overwhelmed, or even immobilized, by the scope of our undertaking and don’t know where to begin “causing something to happen”.   If we stay in this state too long, our motivation and enthusiasm will soon leave the scene, and our desire or goal will be relegated to the domain of wishful thinking.

So how do we avoid this?  What can we do to gain clarity in our thoughts and direction so we can determine what we need to do to get started, on whatever pursuit we set for ourselves?  I believe there are 3 simple steps we can take to move us forward.

Step 1: Decide where it is you want to go.

It may sound obvious, but if we don’t know where it is we want to go, or what it is we want to achieve, we’ll become unclear as to what actions we should take, causing confusion, frustration, and discouragement on how we should move forward.

I have applied these steps in my own life.  In 2012 I decided that I wanted to get into doing voice overs professionally.  This was clearly the goal I had set for myself and the direction I wanted to go.  Step 1 had been decided.  I knew where I wanted to go.

Step 2:  Determine where you are currently, in relation to where you want to go.

This step is important because it helps determine the starting point of the journey.  It’s like planning a road trip.  Everything begins with your starting point, right?  You determine how long the trip will take based on how far your destination is from the starting point.  The potential route you’re going to take is all predicated on where trip begins.  It’s no different with a goal or desired achievement.  The planning begins with determining your starting point.

After I had set my goal of doing voice overs professionally, I took stock of where I was.  It didn’t take long to realize that I was as far away from doing voice overs as I could get.  I didn’t know anything about the industry or how it worked.  I had no knowledge of how voice over artists operated or how a person goes about becoming a voice over talent.  All I had were some decent public speaking skills, an eagerness to learn, and a good attitude.  I knew where I currently was.

Step 3:  Take the next (or first) step.

This is where you cause something to happen.  Once you know where you are and where you want to go, it’s time to determine what that next small step is that will move you toward your goal.  Once you know that next step, TAKE IT!

For my voice over pursuit, I realized that I needed to learn how people get started in the voice over industry.  So I took the next step of researching how people get started.  Once I learned that people got started by getting trained in voice over techniques, I took the next step of researching trainers and coaches.  I again took stock of where I was, and knew I needed to get trained by a voice over coach.    The next step was to find a voice over coach and sign up for training, so that’s what I did.  I am currently in the process of completing my initial voice over training, but I’ve already begun looking ahead at what my next step will be.

These 3 simple steps keep our focus on what we should be doing right now.  As we move toward a specific goal, we should constantly ask ourselves:

  1. What do I want?
  2. Where am I right now?
  3. What’s my next step?

This simple process eliminates confusion and frustration that come from a lack of clear focus and direction.  It’s a simple process, and it works.

What about you?  Where are you right now and where would you like to go?  What’s the next step you need to take today, to cause something to happen that will move you closer toward your goal?

Your Dreams Are Calling

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I like to start each year with a new set of goals or an area in my life that I’d like to change.  In the past however, I often got to the end of the year and realized that I hadn’t done anything in the previous 12 months that moved me any closer to where I wanted to be.  At the beginning of 2012 I decided to get serious about moving toward the life I desired.  The same pattern of empty wishing and wanting, without results, was getting me nowhere.  I needed a new approach.

As I was thinking about what I needed to do different, I remembered a favorite quote from Legendary Alabama Football coach, Paul “Bear” Bryant, “Cause something to happen!”  It’s so simple, yet so powerful and encouraging.  It doesn’t say, “Hope something happens”, or “Wait for something to happen”.  It says, “CAUSE something to happen!”  It is clearly a call to action.

When I reflected on this quote I realize that if there’s something I want in life, nobody is going to walk up and hand it to me.  Sitting around waiting for perfect conditions isn’t going to bring about the changes I desire.  If there’s a specific outcome that I want, the ONLY way it’s going to come about is if I take repeated actions to move me in the direction I want to go.  I am responsible for the cause.

This became my motivational quote for 2012.  I strategically placed it so I was certain to intersect with those wise words during my daily routine.  This quote soon became a small voice inside my head that grew ever-louder, encouraging, and pushing me to action. Whenever I have an idea to move me forward I hear this voice encouraging me to “cause something to happen”.  The more I am exposed to this quote, the louder this voice becomes.  Early in 2012, it started small and quite in the back of my mind.  Now, when presented with a decision point to move toward my goals or to shrink back into the comfort of the status quo, this voice is loud and commands me to ‘CAUSE SOMETHING TO HAPPEN!”  It’s like my ambitions and goals are shouting to me from inside my mind, urging me to take steps to bring them to life.

How could I read that quote or hear that voice commanding and encouraging me to pursue a goal and respond with anything but action?  To do so would be to sentence my goals and dreams to the realm of wishful thinking, destine to remain void of any hope of ever becoming a reality.

What’s the primary goal or dream in your life that you need to take action on?   Is it a career change?  Getting out of debt?  Getting in shape and losing a few pounds?  Is it having better relationships with significant people in your life?  Or is it pursuing a new skill, hobby, class, or degree?  Where do you need to cause something to happen?