The Power of Words
Starting Each Day With A Little Thinking...Own
It’s easier to stay in the background and throw rocks or poke holes. It’s a lot hard to step up and own something. When you step forward and claim ownership, you’ve put the bulls eye squarely on your back. There’s no doubt about who’s responsible. There’s no doubt about who’s at risk. And there’s no doubt about who has the opportunity to reap the rewards.
For most the only thing standing in the way of ownership is fear. And predominantly fear of our old friend failure. My wife’s got a favorite Dr. Seuss quote:
- Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened
The next time fear grips you and you avoid stepping forward and taking ownership, think about the good Doctors quote. So what if you fail? You’ll probably have had a great experience that provided you with a smile or two.
With that in mind:
Why are you letting tears and fear keep you from being a smiling owner?
As always, thanks for the time.
Push
Sometimes it’s just plain hard to push forward. You’re tired, frustrated, and on the verge of saying “enough” Some crumble when faced with this adversity. Others seem to use this adversity as a springboard to greater things. The only difference is the ability to push through.
Pushing through requires (i) a vision of the future, (ii) a belief in that future, and (iii) a willingness to endure a short term discomfort. Absence of any of these three elements normally results in the aforementioned crumbling.
So before you give up think about the future. Think about the others that are already there. Think about how you’ll feel when you join them.
With that in mind:
Are you going to push through or crumble?
As always, thanks for the time.
Dreams
Dreaming is a good thing. After all, without dreamers we would never have made the progress as a society that we have. And yet there’s an awful connotation associated with the moniker “dreamer”. Why is that?
Is it because we’re afraid of what the dreamer sees that we do not? Is it because we’re hard wired to believe that doing is more important than thinking? Is it because we already know the answer? Is it because dreams are clearly childish?
We may not always be able to reach the ideal that lives in our dream. Hell, we may not even be able to convince ourselves to take the first step towards the vision in our dreams. However, to dismiss dreams as “unrealistic” is absurd. Who hasn’t woke from a dream and found their pulse racing, found themselves sweating profusely, screamed out loud enough to wake ourselves or our partners, jumped or twitched to the point where we startled ourselves awake? These “unreal” events sure do seem to have the ability to have a physical influence on us! Maybe we should consider letting dreams work their magic a bit more when we’re awake…
With that in mind:
Which dream of yours would you like to turn in to reality?
As always, thanks for the time.
Perfection
Do you know the definition of an expert? It’s someone fifty miles from home with a briefcase. Hopefully that elicited a bit of a snicker from you. However, I’m trying to make a point here — experts are pretty easy to come by and rarely as infallible as they are made out to be. And once someone establishes themselves as an expert, woe to the soul that questions them.
So I may get in trouble today for taking issue with Jim Collins and his book “Good to Great”. Don’t get me wrong, there’s some outstanding stuff in the book and it’s well worth the read. You’d be well served by putting in place a number of the ideas he puts forward in the book. The problem I have is that by promoting the concept of “great” and in some ways trivializing “good”, Collins suggests that you have to be in some sense “perfect” to be exceptional. Here I disagree. Unfortunately, Collins emphasis on “great” has become all to pervasive in our society. If you can’t see this, you must not have been around very many kids in high school these days. We’ve got to have the best electronic device, the best clothes, be in the best clubs, be in the best classes, have the best personal trainers, and be on the best travel team. We’re all going to be awesome! Amazingly, in spite of this perfect upbringing, little Johnny is not running his own fortune 100 company five years after he graduates. Further, little Johnny isn’t likely in too good of a mindset when he graduates and faces reality.
Folks, life is hard and failure is all too common. Perfection is an illusion. That doesn’t mean we should not all look for ways to learn, grow, and live more fully — hell, this blog’s all about that idea! But it does mean that we need to recognize that the pursuit of greatness or perfection for their own sake is often hollow. The real satisfaction often comes in the journey. It comes from making the exceptional effort. It comes from overcoming the seemingly insurmountable obstacles. It comes from being the best that we can be. It comes from within and not from some external measurement of greatness or perfection.
With that in mind:
Are you too focused on perfection?
As always, thanks for the time.
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