The Power of Words

Quit

by Curt Stowers | A Daily Word, Uncategorized

Full credit up front — today’s idea is motivated from reading Seth Godin’s The Dip yesterday evening.

How many times have we hear “quitters never win and winners never quit”.  Did you know that this is pure BS?  Huh?  How can something that is such a “given” in today’s world be wrong?  Because, like so many things, we love a good sound bite, a quick solution, and don’t often take the time to think about things.  I’m going to convince you that this concept is so good with two words….

• Michael Jordan

When Jordan’s name comes up do we think of quitter?  Hardly.  And yet that’s exactly what Jordan did when he switched from basketball to baseball.  Yeah, but that was different you say.  Was it?  Well yes, it was.  But why was it different?  The key was that Michael made a conscious decision to step away from one activity and focus his energy fully on a new endeavor upon which he placed his full focus.

The reality is winners quit all the time.  They quit doing everything except those things they are good at.  That’s their key.  Winners are actually the biggest quitters out there!

With that in mind:

What’s on your list to quit?

As always, thanks for the time

Consequences

by Curt Stowers | A Daily Word, Uncategorized

Several times I’ve drawn inspiration from musicians for my content, today I turn to the world of physics — hey I’m nothing if not a bit eclectic!  Sir Isaac Newton gives us the third law of motion:

• To every action there is always an equal and opposite reaction

That reaction is better known as the consequence.  And some are positive.  And some are negative.  There are two key points that I’d like you to take away today.  First, anything worth doing requires and action.  Duh!  The key here is that just thinking about something is not the same as doing it.  For example:

• Three frogs are sitting on a log in the lake.  Two decide to jump in.  How many are left?

Most folks will respond “one”.  Wrong.  They thought about jumping.  All three are still on the log.  First point, in order to move forward you have to take action.

The second point concerns consequences.  When you take actions there will consequences.  Now most folks probably think I flipped my lid by pointing out this fact.  After all, consequences are bad, right?  Absolutely not!  Consequences are a natural outcome of any action.  As Newton told us, if there’s an action, there’s going to be counter-action.  Further, Newton emphasize “equal” in that counter action.  That’s key.  If you want to have a big impact, you better be willing to take a big action.  People that make an impact recognize that they will catalyze consequences.  They expect, encourage and welcome the consequences as without them change will not happen.

With that in mind:

What would you like the consequence to be of the next big action you take?

As always, thanks for the time.

Resistance

by Curt Stowers | A Daily Word, Uncategorized

Mr. Webster offers two alternatives for resistance:

• The refusal to accept or comply
• The ability not to be affected

While there’s a bit of commonality in the above alternatives, their essence is much different.  In the first, there’s a sense of struggle.  A tone of fighting against.  In the second, there’s a sense of acceptance.  A tone of maturity.  As we go through our daily lives we each make choices on how we will deal with adversity.  Some will struggle mightily.  Others will not allow it to alter their course.

With that in mind:

What form of resistance will you offer?

As always, thanks for the time.