Explaining performance inequality

“While you were playing, I was working.

While you were entertaining yourself, I was getting better.

While you were watching tv, I was reading.

While you were playing it safe, I was getting out of my comfort zone.

When fear stopped you, I pushed on anyway.

While you were complaining, I was taking action.

And when you wondered why things weren’t better, I knew.”

Not everyone understands.

Did you identify with “you”, or “I”?

Full engagement!

“Success is waking up in the morning and bounding out of bed because there’s something out there that you love to do, that you believe in, that you’re good at – something that’s bigger than you are and you can hardly wait to get at it again.”

– Whit Hobbs

Is that you?

Why there is a results gap

I’m on a 6 hour flight in the middle of the day. The passenger next to me has played video games for five of those hours and slept for one of them. The other passenger next to me has played music most of the time and slept. The guy diagonally across the aisle ordered two beers and fell asleep watching a movie.

No judgment here. Just an observation.

Be careful what you say – you are listening.

“I’m no good at this,” “I am not very smart,” “I’ll never…”

“Never say anything about yourself you do not want to come true.” – Brian Tracy

Wisdom and Virtue

Sometimes we know what to do, but we don’t do it. We may justify not doing it with any number of excuses or reasons we tell ourselves.  

Wisdom is knowing what to do. Virtue is doing it.

Do you need to exercise more virtue?

How to be better in the eyes of others.

“There are four ways, and only four ways in which we have contact with the world. We are evaluated and classified by these four contacts; What we do now, how we look, what we say, and how we say it.” – Dale Carnegie

Ok, so if we want the world to assess us differently (better), then we can change what we do, how we look, what we say or how we say it.

Simple enough – right?

Arguing for your weaknesses

Sometimes we have a weakness and we go around explaining to everyone why we have it and justifying it. Of course, this only makes the weakness harder to get rid of, correct, or at least strengthen a few degrees.

Change your language. “I am getting better at_______.” “I haven’t mastered that quite yet, but I can try now.”

Don’t argue for your weaknesses, argue against them.

Biography and Destiny

Many people think biography equals destiny.  But that’s only if you stop making important decisions.  

Decisions give you the power to change direction – and destination.

Are there decisions you need to make?

Resourcefulness

When people fail they claim they didn’t have the time/money/technology/contacts/knowledge.

But it’s not resources that we’re missing.  It’s resourcefulness.  If we wanted it bad enough, made it a priority, and had the courage and self-discipline, we’d find a way to get or tap into the resources.

Right?

Your inherent limits

We all have talents. But if we rely on our natural skills, instincts and what we’ve learned from our own personal experience, we get to our limits pretty quickly. In today’s world, we will need much more than that to do well.

We must learn from outside of us; from others. We must tap into what others know/have learned/and want to share. Being successful today requires ever-changing and expanding specialized knowledge. To compete, we must create an adult habit of learning the right things from the right places to achieve what we say we want.

How do you learn each and every day?