Posts Tagged ‘Discipline’

Monday Mojo: Quantum Leap

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Is what you are doing today building on what you did yesterday or are you starting from scratch…again? So often we jump from one thing to another, but never get any significant results – never getting ahead. Why? Because we are spreading ourselves too thin.

Success in achieving almost anything in life is not going to be the result of jumping from one thing to another. It is going to be the compounded result of doing only the most important activities over and over again and by taking on fewer activities more frequently. If we do those few, most important activities consistently over and over again, at some point we reach the tipping point and we will explode into a quantum leap. It’s all about K.I.S.S. – Keep It Simple Stupid. Getting what we want in life is not complicated, but it is difficult. It involves doing the important activities, not the urgent ones. The difficult part is being disciplined enough to do those important, not the urgent activities consistently and doing them over and over again until we have a breakthrough.

Why is it so hard? Because we have to do it over and over for long periods of time with what appears to be little or no results. But if we have the discipline to stick with it, all of a sudden, one day we will have a radical breakthrough. The hard part is not to quit when we feel like we are running into a brick wall with no results; the hard part is not quitting when we are having a breakdown. Because when the wall comes down, it won’t come down one brick at a time, but the accumulation affect of hitting it over and over again will bring it tumbling down all at once. It will happen when we are exhausted and beyond wanting to quit. We will hit it again and BANG!!!!

Consider this: Let’s pretend that each individual activity we do in life is represented by one piece of paper. Stacked up on top of each other, a stack of 50 pieces of paper will only be ¼ of an inch high. Unfortunately, the quantum leap never happens. Why? Because there is not accumulation affect, no compounding. Now imagine instead that we only have one huge piece of paper and we fold the piece of paper in half 50 times. This represents our most important activities we do over and over again. If we were to fold a piece of paper 50 times (if this were physically possible, which of course it is not) the paper will be high enough to almost reach the sun! Now that’s a quantum leap!

Do the important, not the urgent activities and make it a great week!


Monday Mojo: It’s Important, Not Urgent

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One of the things we really focus on doing at Intero is making a conscious decision every day to spend our time doing the important and not the urgent.  Most of people spend the majority of their lives running around like a chicken with their head cut off jumping from one thing to another dealing with all of the urgent crap in life.  But you know what?  The urgent stuff is typically nothing more than the important stuff we procrastinated on doing and now if it doesn’t get done something is going to blow up! Guess what – it’s urgent.

It’s important that we exercise and eat right every day.  If we don’t, when we get 50 to 100 pounds overweight, and our blood pressure and cholesterol are through the roof, it will be urgent that we take care of ourselves so we don’t keel over and have a heart attack, or worse.

It is important that we spend quality time with our family, every day.  If we don’t, it will become urgent one day when we come home and they are gone.

It is important to constantly be embracing change and innovation.  If not, one day we will wake up and the world will have past us by and we will be frantically trying to catch up.  Change and innovation will become urgent.

I know the urgent will always pull at us, but the key is to have the discipline to stick to doing the important and we will be successful at whatever we do.  It’s Important, not Urgent.
Make it a GREAT week!


Monday Mojo: Life is Not Baseball

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Being a pitcher in baseball may be the only thing in life where there is a bullpen to finish off the game for you.  With everything else, in order to be successful, you need to not only be good at the start and solid in the middle, but you need to be able to finish strong.

In my job, I am always looking for ways to motivate and inspire people to improve and do better.  But the most amazing thing to me is how many people can get fired up about starting something that will make them better.  They are raring to jump in and participate, but once the novelty wears off, they end up petering out and vanish into thin air.  Not only do they not finish the game, but they can’t even get out of the first inning.

I have discovered it is really only those who have the discipline and commitment to stick it out once the novelty has worn off – those that keep up the hard work and discipline when no one is looking, that will be truly successful.  It is exactly why we see so many people hitting the gym and eating right on January 1st, when it is “the thing to do”.  But then by Feb 1st 99% of people are right back to their same old bad habits.  They are great starters – but horrible finishers.

I don’t care whether it is sports, family, faith, business, health, or whatever – if you really want to be successful at something you need to be accountable and disciplined in doing the activities it takes in the beginning, in the middle and in the end.

Remember there is no bullpen in life.  If you want to win at anything you need to “be in the game” from start to finish.

Play ball!


Monday Mojo: Short Term Pain for Long Term Gain

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“I’m not a morning person” I can’t tell you how many times I have heard that over the years.

So often people talk about how they just can’t squeeze in the most important activities in their life because “I’m not a morning person”.  When we are young and with little or no responsibility except for ourselves…or retired and our kids are out of the house, it is easier to slip in those important activities after that first cup of Joe in the morning, at lunch, in the afternoon, in the early evening.  For me, that is not an option…and my guess is for most of your reading this that is not an option either.  We have kids, house, lunches to make, work, kids homework, little league, dinner to make, grocery shopping, wash…the list goes on and on.

Trust me, when my alarm goes off in the morning at 4:45, I am not all fired up to jump out of bed and “hit it”.   Candidly, many mornings I am telling myself “you have got to be kidding me…it feels like I just closed my eyes”.  But I know the short term pain and discipline of putting my feet on the floor and getting started with my day is easier than the long term pain of regret, disappointment and not accomplishing my goals.

Let’s face it…for many of us we have tried for years and years to squeeze in those most important activities sometime during the day, but then life gets in the way and the most important activities end up taking second fiddle to the chaos.  I am not saying you have to wake up at 4:45, but if you really want to get those most important activities done, unless you are an anomaly, you probably need to do it first thing of the day before the chaos begins, while most of the rest of the world is still sleeping.

Remember, we are our biggest asset and if we don’t make a commitment to take care of our body, mind and soul no one else will.  You can’t delegate it, you can’t run down to the store and buy it…you have to have the discipline to JUST DO IT!!!!!

We had our Intero Achievement Awards a couple of weeks ago and before I got up to give my talk this video on “The Creation of Monday Morning MOJO” was played.  I thought you would get a kick out of it.

“I am a morning person.”

mojo


Wednesday Wellness: All or Nothing…

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Have you ever felt like if you can’t do it right…then why do it at all?  Usually when we get stuck in this mindset, we tend to do nothing.

Earlier last week in the middle of the night, I got up and stubbed my toe.  I know many of you can relate to this!  It is purple, blue and red now.  In fact, I am pretty certain I broke it!  I never knew how important one’s pinkie toe is!!

Very regularly I take a Monday night heated vinyassa class…which I love.  Tonight, I waffled on whether or not to go.  Mostly I knew balancing on my left foot might be a bit embarrassing and I would struggle in most of my poses…at least to an onlooker who would be watching me.  I almost bailed.

Instead of deciding if I wanted to GO, I realized what I didn’t want…and that was to go home without trying.  I simply didn’t want to miss yoga!  I realized I could go, and leave early, or I could go and do my own poses, or I could go and just laugh at myself as I fumbled.

So, I went, realizing I don’t have to do it “right”…I just had to do it!

When we decide to try something, it rarely needs to be “all or nothing”!  Usually there’s a middle ground that can get us closer to what we want, or maybe more appropriate further away from what we don’t want!

Consider this when you are struggling with a decision.  If you can’t determine exactly what you want, maybe focus on what you don’t want and find a half way point to get away from it!  That half way point might be your step closer to a healthier body, happier spirit and clearer mind set or maybe just a nicer evening!


Monday Mojo: Burning the Boats

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As we start the 3rd week of the New Year, now is when it really starts to get hard to keep up with those resolutions. When I went to the gym over the weekend, I was shocked by the number of cars in the parking lot. I’m not sure why, I shouldn’t have been, it was the same thing last year. There must have been 10 times the number of people there compared to last month. Over the last two weeks gyms all around the world have been flooded with millions of additional people. The unfortunate thing is, it’s the same millions of people who were in the gym the first week of January last year….and the year before that…and the year before that…and the year before that…and by February 1st it will be back to the old regulars.

So, why can’t we keep it up?

Whether it is going to the gym, spending more time with our kids and/or spouse, eating healthier, whatever it is – what can we do to keep those resolutions and make them changes for a lifetime, not just a week or a month? The answer is good old discipline and accountability. If we are truly committed to having a better life, we need to tell everyone we know about our resolutions and ask them to help hold us accountable. We have to burn the boats, so to speak, and not give ourselves a way back to the old us – the one who hits the snooze bar. Because if we don’t burn the boats, so there is no going back when the going gets tough, we are simply going to revert back to all our old bad habits.

Now, when you are too tired to keep your commitments, too tired to keep inspired, too tired to keep being disciplined and accountable, play this video and ask yourself, what would Lance say to you?

Lance Armstrong


Enjoy the Spirit of the Season, Not Just the Food!

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If you read this Monday’s Mojo, you might have taken the age test!  If you did, one of the questions was asking if you ate candy…often!  Often, being a few times a week!

Well, I don’t need to remind you that this time of year, there are candy jars on every desk in every office.  Not to mention, if you have children, they will be bringing home candy after their Halloween jaunt and you’ll be keeping candy around your home to pass out!  How is one to keep lean during this time?!

At the end of the day, it really comes down to determination and discipline.  But, here are a few tips which can help you just a little bit in having that edge:

  • For the candy you pass out, choose sweets that don’t tempt you (for me that’s sweet tarts, jolly ranchers, nerds, gummy bears)
  • Set a challenge for yourself that you will let yourself have 1 tiny candy a day (like a mini Hershey’s (which is = to about 50 calories) OR you will not have any and save your calories for a cookie (e.g. a Starbucks cookie = 500 calories approx) 1x during the week
  • Keep healthy snacks in your car or at your desk so if you are tempted by the candy dish on your neighbor’s desk, you have “safe” food at your own desk
  •  Set a weekly health goal, print it and post it in an area to remind you NOT to have the candy
  • When your children bring home candy, let them have their pick of 10 pieces, then put the rest in a bag and donate to the homeless shelter the next morning…just past go and do it! 
  • Remind yourself that the Holidays season is truly 4 days…Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years eve!  So, if you want to indulge…pick these special days instead of the entire 2 ½ month period!
  •  Hire a personal trainer or professional to keep you accountable to your weight and goals
  •  Recruit a fitness buddy to keep you accountable.  Not your best friend because they might let you “cheat”!!

Most of all, enjoy the spirit of the season, not just the food!