Blog |
By Casey Grey
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I started off the year with a bang. It's been a crazy few weeks and I have been attracting a lot of new opportunities into my life. At the beginning of the year, I shared that the theme for my year is to surrender. Not to throw in the towel but to surrender to the opportunities that come my way.
Yesterday, I had the opportunity to do a mentoring session and was asked me some great questions. I was sharing that I need help focusing and figuring out where I need to put my time. We were specifically talking about work time. There are two questions which changed my thinking. First, I was asked "How much do you value your time? What are you worth?" I was then asked, "What does a person who makes that much per year do?" So, I had my answer. I'm surrendering to the obvious answer that the universe is giving me and I have decided to put my daily blog on hold. I'm going to take this time to shift it to The Conscious Builder where all the opportunities seem to be coming. It's already set up to be our greatest year yet with some exciting things planned for The Conscious Builder Show and Podcast. I'm surrendering to where I'm being pulled to. Ideas are not the problem. There is no shortage of ideas. I have dozens of ideas every single day and I'm sure you do as well.
The question is, which idea do I need to act on? Yesterday, I spent the day with 30 amazing, energized, connected and crazy people (crazy is good by the way). These are the types of people where you could share your wildest dreams and instead of them saying "you won't be able to accomplish that," they say, "That's amazing! I know you'll be able to accomplish that AND more. Plus I'll even help you get there!" The ideas were flowing and lots of questions were being pondered. It wasn't until after the event when I sat down with a potential client that I realized what I must act on. All the ideas and conversations and questions eventually led to this one moment and it clicked. And it all came from surrounding myself with these crazy people. Stay tuned for exciting things ahead! Thank you, Sunil, for throwing another amazing event. Some things are easy to measure and track.
If you have decided to begin playing the piano, it's easy to see your progress. If you play baseball, it's easy to follow your stats and see the areas that are changing. If you lift weights, it's easy to track if you are getting stronger. If you invest your money, you can see it go up and down. But what about things like your emotional strength? Or your parenting skills? Or your character? Or your leadership skills? Or your relationship with your spouse. Often, the things that are most important are the hardest to track and since we can't track them we don't give them the attention they need. Tracking is important, especially in business, but it's not everything. When I was a kid, my step dad ran his business from our home. I remember coming home from school and regularly having to sit patiently at his desk while he finished a phone call before I could ask him whatever I needed to ask him. It was likely 2 minutes but it seemed like an eternity at that age. Now it feels as though days, weeks and months fly by. Knowing that reminds me to continue to exercise that skill I was learning as a kid. Patience. Easier said than done (just like when I was a kid). I want the nice house, fancy car and regular trips down south now. I want this blog and podcast to help millions of people today. I want The Conscious Builder Show to have millions of subscribers now. I want Younion to have thousands of members benefiting from all the amazing classes and programs now. But we're not there yet. And that's okay. Everything is happening exactly as it's supposed to. The universe is working for me. The universe will give me what I'm ready for. It's my job to make sure I'm prepared. And so the journey (and my training) continues... P.S. Last night we celebrated the journey so far with The Conscious Builder team. Here are some facts/stats from 2019 that I shared with the team to show we ARE making an impact:
 On January 8 of 2019 I committed to a Daily Blog and I kept that commitment. 365 days of a posting a blog every single day! Not only have I kept it but I will continue to write every day. I will commit to another year and I suspect it will continue on after that. But that’s not my commitment for 2020... Today, January 8, 2020, I am committing to something new... I’m committing to a daily podcast. I will make sure that everyday you will hear my voice (if you choose to subscribe to Lean In with Casey Grey). Just like when I committed to writing daily, I am doing this because I want to be better than I was yesterday (or in this case, last year). I want to become a better speaker and storyteller so that I can help people find that inspiration inside of them and release it! I said it last year and I’ll say it again. New Year's Resolutions are useless unless you are committed. What are you going to commit to today?  How often do you go out and look for feedback?
How often do you ask for feedback? Do you only ask when you know it's going to be positive or are you open to the negative? In reality we're constantly getting feedback. We get feedback from our bodies in terms of how we feel. If we're fat, that's an obvious sign that we're not eating healthy. If we feel sluggish or have a foggy brain, that could be a sign of lack of sleep or also not eating healthy. If we have have pain in our joints, that could also be related to food or lack of exercise. If we feel anxious, perhaps it's a sign that we need to get something off our mind. Whatever it is, it's up to you to listen to the feedback and do something about it. We get signs from our kids. They are sponges and products of their environments. If my son starts to be rude, get frustrated or show any signs of inappropriate behavior, the first place I look to is myself. Did he learn this from me? If so, it's a sign I need to change. If it's not me, perhaps it's a sign he needs to be in a different environment. If your kid is hyperactive, perhaps you need to cut back on the sugar he eats. If your kid is showing signs of aggression, perhaps he needs to watch less TV. If your kid is not listening, perhaps she just needs some more attention. Once again this is all useful feedback. We also get signs in other areas of our lives like our careers, our relationships and our finances. If your career is not going as planned, perhaps you are in the wrong field or working for the wrong company. If your partner is being distant, perhaps they need a little more attention. If you don't have the money you want, perhaps you're spending too much in the wrong places or perhaps you're not delivering enough value. The list goes on... But it's not all bad. If you have lots of money or your kids are fantastic or your career is going great or you're in the best shape of your life, that means you're doing something right. Figure out what's working and do more of that! Just don't ignore the other signs. Keep in mind that it never stops though. Things are changing all the time. It's the natural way. Be open to feedback and go out looking for it. You will be better because of it. I know I need to eat healthier. I know I need to exercise more. I know I need to spend more time with my spouse and kids. I know I work too much. I know I need to sleep more. I know I need to read more. I know I need to meditate more. I know I need to quit my job. I know I need to start this new business. I know, I know, I know... Knowing is not enough. You need to take action. What are you actually going to DO this year? Make 2020 a year of action. Brian and I are starting the year off with a bunch of recording today. Watch out 2020! Here we come!  2020 will be a year of focus. 20/20 vision so to speak.
Focus is a powerful skill although it needs to be directed properly. If you are focused on the wrong things, the outcome may not be what you were hoping for. "What's the one thing I can do that will make everything else obsolete or easier?" is a good question I learned from The One Thing. It gets your brain thinking about what's most important as oppose to what's easiest. Another way of thinking of this is in terms of energy. Here's the analogy of the field mice and the antelope by Newt Gingrich from Tools of Titans: "A lion is fully capable of capturing, killing, and eating a field mouse. But it turns out that the energy required to do so exceeds the caloric content of the mouse itself. So a lion that spent its day hunting and eating field mice would slowly starve to death. A lion can’t live on field mice. A lion needs antelope. Antelope are big animals. They take more speed and strength to capture and kill, and once killed, they provide a feast for the lion and her pride. A lion can live a long and happy life on a diet of antelope. The distinction is important. Are you spending all your time and exhausting all your energy catching field mice? In the short term it might give you a nice, rewarding feeling. But in the long run you’re going to die. So ask yourself at the end of the day, “Did I spend today chasing mice or hunting antelope?" What are you going to focus on today? Over this past year, writing every day has been a powerful experience and something I plan on continuing for the foreseeable future.
As we role into 2020 I'm contemplating what I would like to commit to for my next personal journey. Something I would like to get better at is storytelling. A good storyteller can captivate an audience. They can get your attention and keep it. They get you to WANT more. Perhaps I will commit to one podcast episode a week where I share something powerful. Where it forces me to become a better storyteller and ultimately a better speaker. When things are simple, the mind says "that can't be right." It has trouble trusting things that are simple. It wants an explanation.
A tree, for example, needs good soil, water and sun to grow. Simple on the surface but complex when you dig into how it does this. Do I need to know the complex workings of a tree to understand and trust the process? No, but the mind wants it. When I think of my life, simplicity comes from my intuition. Deep down I always know what I need to do and what is right for me in that moment. But then my mind gets in the way and tries to rationalize everything and turns it into a complex mess that takes me off track. My heart and gut have never steered me in the wrong direction. My mind on the other hand... Well... Let's say I'm still working on fixing those complex workings. Where are you adding complexity to your life that, if you listened to your soul, would be simple? |