Throughout life, we all experience pain and losing a loved one is one of the most difficult parts of living. This experience usually allows you a time of intimate reflection in all parts of your life, including professionally.
This recent experience in my life has given me time to hit the pause button to truly understand what has worked and what hasn’t gone according to plan.
This process is not for the faint of heart because you must be completely honest with yourself. No bullshit, no lying that everything is “ok” after you have lost your job. You must be totally open to seeing your life through new eyes. In the end, this honesty can be your greatest strength if you can learn from your mistakes.
Here is what I have learned.
PLAYING TO WIN MEANS YOU MUST PLAY THE LONG GAME
Life is not a sprint, but a marathon. I know when I say that, you are probably shaking your head and thinking, “Yeah, I know that already”.
The question is – are you truly living your life that way?
If I asked you right now, how do you think about your goals?
What would be your answer?
Do you think about them for the next week or month?
Or do you think about them for the next six months to a year or longer?
There is not a right or wrong answer, however I would encourage you to begin thinking about your goals in a timeline that’s longer than one year.
This is because it takes time for you to achieve the aspirations you have made for your life. If you don’t give yourself enough time to do what you want to do, you may not get what you desire which will leave you deflated and unhappy.
If you become unhappy, there is a good chance you could abandon your goals and give up on your dreams.
In the end, you want to position yourself for success and the best way to do that is to give yourself as much time as you need to make your goals a reality.
DON’T SHORTCHANGE YOURSELF
When going after any goal, or anything that you desire for that matter, it is of the utmost importance that you believe in yourself. If you don’t believe that you have the right stuff to make your dreams a true reality, you might as well stop right now, because you won’t get where you want to be.
The key to having whatever you want, is to believe in yourself and have the confidence to know that you can do what you set out to do.
You must have unshakable confidence.
People and the world will tell you no. You will hear that you may not be good enough, smart enough, don’t have enough money, don’t have the right connections, and don’t live in the right location and on and on.
Throughout your career, you may hear this a lot. You will definitely hear it if you are a trail blazer and are doing something no one has done before. You need to be able to deflect this negativity and continue on your journey.
Remaining confident is one of the biggest assets you will have and you need to believe internally that you are the shit!
Yup, I said it and it’s true.
You need to be the absolute best person for this new reality that you are chasing. If you don’t carry that kind of internal confidence, you will quit before you are successful.
Be confident in who you are. There is only one you and you are spectacular!
STOP PROCRASTINATING
Do you over analyze every move you make before you make it, to the point where you don’t make any move at all?
Because you are still thinking about the action you want to take?
Procrastination is the art of being “wishy washy”, which means that you can’t make up your mind.
Most of us were brought up thinking that you should always “think before you leap” which is true. You should always look at all potential outcomes of any action you are going to take, before you take the action.
If you think about it too long, the opportunity may pass you by. If you think about it too long, you may not make any decision at all (because you are still processing what COULD happen), and in the end that means you have not taken any action.
You are still in the same place and you have not moved forward. People who procrastinate take much longer to get where they want to go, because the only way you can get REAL data is by taking action.
If you have been thinking about taking one action for longer than a few days, a week tops, you are procrastinating.
Take action, get out of your head and stop procrastinating.
This leads me to my last point.
TAKE ACTION
If you procrastinate, you are not taking action, which means you are not moving towards your goals. You can change all that very quickly by taking action.
Starting today, make a promise to yourself to take one action every day towards your goals.
This doesn’t have to be a big or fancy move, it can be low key but you must take one action. When you take action every day, you will propel yourself forwards and begin to see momentum.
You will also start to get real feedback on what is working and what isn’t. Getting this kind of feedback is invaluable for you, so that you know what to do more of and what to stop doing.
Previously, if you were thinking instead of doing, you would have no idea what would work and move you forwards or what wouldn’t work and push you farther away from your goal. By taking consistent daily action, you can self-correct quickly and leave the rest.
Imagine how much closer to your goal you would be after one month of consistent action.
You would have effectively taken 20 action steps towards your goal in a very short amount of time vs thinking about what will or what won’t work and being in the exact same place 30 days later.
RECAP
You can incorporate all of the above into your daily life. Remember to play the long game, you are in it for the long haul and if you have big dreams, giving yourself ample time will allow you to grow seamlessly into your next level, instead of rushing and being unprepared for what will come your way.
Don’t shortchange yourself and believe in your very bones that you can do what others can’t, because you can. You are special and unique in all the world, all you have to do is believe it.
Stop procrastinating and thinking about what you want out of life. Take consistent daily action and you will have all the information you need to get where you want to go.
These changes will yield huge results for you and before you know it, you will be in the driver’s seat instead of a passenger in your life.
You can thank me later.