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By Casey Grey
Blog |
The last week has flown by. I've had to shift my focus because of some changes within the business. There are some days or weeks where I feel like I have taken 1 step forward and 2 steps back and this has been one of those weeks.
This is not unusual in business or life though. Just like the stock market, It's part of the flow. Things go up and down. What's great is that the new lows become the old highs and the overall trend is up. Easier said than done though when it's our life. For myself, there is one core belief that gets me through these times faster and faster. Everything is happening FOR me. What is the lesson I can take from the recent events? What is the universe telling me? How can I turn this so called "problem" into an opportunity? Who can help me? Who can I help? How will this bring me to the next level? When I get out of my head and into my body, I will find these answers. Our bodies are much wiser than our minds. The mind will protect us from pain but hold us back from experiencing life. Today I find the answers. I was recently in a group conversation with Keith Cunningham of Keys To The Vault. He spoke at Business Mastery in Palm Beach and a group of us was talking with him later in the evening.
This man is brilliant and he's hilarious. He takes complex things and makes them simple. He is one of those people I look up to and admire because of where he is in life but more because of how he got there. Years ago, Keith lost $100,000,000 and ended up going bankrupt. $100,000,000 to zero! Actually probably less than zero... Now that may sound like hell on earth, right? Having everything and then nothing. What's inspiring is that he did not let this keep him down. He went on a sabbatical for the following year and a half after this happened (without realizing it was a sabbatical) and eventually took control of his life again. During his "time off" he met some amazing teachers and one in particular left a lasting impression on him. This teach shared the following quote: "Hell on Earth would be to meet the person you could have been." What are you really good at? Something you can do in your sleep.
How did you get good at this? What did you need to do? How often did you need to do it? What did you need to believe when you were learning it? What happens when you're really good at something? You become certain. You know that when you do X, Y will happen. There's almost nothing that can through you off your game. When I was a kid, I loved building things with lego. I was meticulous about it as well. I needed to make sure I had all the pieces if I was following a plan. I would do this for hours. Into high school, shop became my best class. It was the most interesting to me and where I spent the most time. Luckily I was able to continue this out of hight school and started my career in construction. I worked whenever I could and moved up the ladder fairly quickly. I started running projects when I was 20 years old and kept going from there. Yes, I made a lot of mistakes (and still do) but I was growing and I could see I was getting better. My confidence was building. Now, what's something you're not good at? Something that you have no interest in because you can't do it. There's a million things I'm not good at. Like ballet for example. I have never done ballet and I'm not as flexible as I need to be for it. I have zero confidence that if you put me on stage in front of a group of people that I would be able to perform for them right now. Do I think I could do it if I practiced as much as I've practiced in construction? Absolutely! Give me 15 years of ballet at 40-60 hours per week and I'm confident that I'll crush it! Whether or not I want to do it is another story... So what builds confidence then? Action. The only way you're going to become more confident is to take action. Whatever it is that you are laking confidence in is because you have not done what you know you need to do. Get up! Step up! Go after what you want! How did you start your day today? Did you do something empowering and uplifting? Do you have a routine that serves you? Do you have a plan to win the day? Did you eat something healthy for breakfast? Did you take the time to centre yourself? Did you exercise?
Or perhaps you did none of that. Perhaps you hit the snooze button a few times and then slowly slid your way out from under the covers only to realize that you were late for work and now had to rush through the morning to get out the door because you had a meeting to get to. You grabbed what was convenient as oppose to what's healthy for breakfast and made sure to get the extra extra large coffee. If each of the examples above were two different people, who do you think would have the better day? Here's the thing, the state of our mind equals the state of our life. Starting the day in a way that shows your mind you are in control will continue to spread throughout the day. Problems will seem small, little things won't be irritating, the inevitable surprises won't throw you off and you'll become more efficient. You know you should eat healthy. You know you should exercise. You know reading will help you. You know meditating will centre you. You know you should watch less TV. You know all the things you need to do in order to do better and be better. Every day these ideas come into your head and you know you should do them but you don't. Why? I would venture to say it's because you're not managing your state. Change your state and you will change your life. As a parent we want the best for our children. We push them beyond their limits and continue to encourage them until they have achieved the goal. First they learn how to crawl. Then they learn how to walk. They fall, they laugh, they cry and then get back up and keep trying. We're right there to help them up when they fall again (not if they fall again).
As we grow up, we loose this push. We start to think we know it all. We start running and we're pretty damn fast. At least in our own eyes. Maybe we're faster than the kids at school so we think we're the best. Until we get to the track meet... Then we realize that we're not fast at all compared to those kids. We may even realize that we never learned how to run properly. There's a technique to running and if done properly we can go faster and longer without getting hurt. Eventually we figure out what we're good at and what we like so we start doing more of that. We become construction workers, hair stylists, web developers, writers, designers and so on. We get the job and start to coast. Nobody is there to push us to the next level. Nobody is there to encourage us to do better. In fact, just like the school yard, there's people hoping you will fall so that they can take advantage of it. We feel nobody is there to catch us. We're even afraid to fall because it hurts and it's embarrassing. We think, "I'm an adult and adults don't fall. They don't cry either. They're responsible. Plus, I have my kids to take care of now..." We forget that the juice of our life comes from growth and learning. What if we went back to adolescent thinking and found that parent (or shall I say coach)? Better yet, what if we had multiple parents that were experts in different parts of life? What if we weren't afraid to fall? How would our lives change? How would the world change? It's time to start learning how to walk again. During my day of travel yesterday, what stood out to me most was people waiting in lines to get onto planes.
Airlines call passengers up in groups. First class and people who need assistance are first and then they start with the back of the plane and work towards the front. "Now boarding zone 1... Now boarding zone 2... Now boarding zone 3..." If I'm zone 9, why would I jump up and wait? Even if I'm zone 1, I would consider waiting. Why do I want to rush to wait in line or sit on a plane with less space and people elbowing me and rushing to try and get their bags into the overhead compartments? This is not the only place this happens. We hurry through life just so that we can wait for something to happen. I'm not saying we should slow down. What I'm suggesting is approaching life with purpose. Understanding why we do what we do. Timing is everything. Doing the right thing at the wrong time will only slow you down. I was reminded of something very important recently. It's not something new. It's even something I have in front of my eyes every day because I have it on my weekly planner but it's easy to forget. It's easy to fall back into old habits. I was reminded that...
Life will give me what I settle for. I'm constantly pushing myself to the next level. I look for powerful environments. I surround myself with inspiring people. I listen to educational podcasts. I watch motivating videos. I go to seminars and conferences. I read everyday. I meditate everyday. I now write everyday. I have taken risks and learned from my mistakes. I have got through some very tough times and know I will get through future tough times. Truthfully, I could have a very easy life though. I'm a good carpenter and I'm loyal. I know I could go work for somebody, make a decent living and coast through life. That's not me though. I don't want to just be comfortable. I want to grow! I'm not willing to just settle for the easy way out. That's not to say that I don't appreciate where I am or where I have been. I'm grateful for everything I have experienced. I am grateful for everybody who has helped me along the way. I am grateful for where I am in life right now. Heck, I'm sitting in an airport in Palm Springs writing this. Life is good. But I'm not okay with just good. I want great! I want extraordinary! I'm grateful for good and know that I was born on third base already. I'm just not willing to stay here my whole life. I want to do more, serve more and be more. Where are you settling in your life? What is the point of news? Is it to inform us or educate us? I don't believe it's either although most people watch it for these reasons.
News is a business and what do businesses need to do? Make money. If they don't make money they will go out of business. How does news make money? Through advertising. How does advertising make money? The more people who see it, the more likely somebody will act on it. What does all this mean? It means that the news needs to get your attention so that you watch it or read it. When you watch it or read it, you will see the ads from the companies who have paid the news company. When you see the ads, you may act on the ads that you see. The more people that act on the ads, the more likely that company will pay the news company to run their ad again. And so the cycle continues. "Extra! Extra! Read All About It!" was used from the 1890s through the 1940s to denote breaking news and to get our attention. The only thing that has changed is how to get our attention. There's more competition for our attention than ever before. |
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