image credit: ell brown

Lately I’ve been frustrated a lot by frustration.
I blame it on the Gap.

And I don’t mean that place in the mall. I’m talking about that desolate region between knowing and doing. My walk and my talk just aren’t in sync lately. Sure, I’ve consumed enough ideas to know what needs to be done. I’m just not doing enough of it. Like a banker that doesn’t balance their checkbook, to know and not do is worse than ignorance. Hence the frustration.

Haunted by the Gap

It all started after I posted an article about 20 choices of a champion. A phrase I had heard many years ago just wouldn’t leave my head. “Mind the Gap.”  I heard it again and again. “Mind the Gap.” What triggered this endless loop I really wasn’t sure. I just knew it as the term from the London Underground warning passengers to watch for the space between the station platform and the train door. Until it hit me.

WANTED: Cool & Epic Outcomes

Between the mundane and the magnificent lies the Gap.
It’s the chasm that separates the common from the Cool, and everyday occurrence from Epic Outcome. It also keeps you and I from reaching our potential, or in Army-speak, being all we can be.

Although gaps will always exist because we’re human, the space I’m referring to is a lot like a rut which has been described as a shallow grave with the ends kicked out. Something to avoid at all costs. Or if you’re already in it, to get out immediately. But how?

STEP ONE

It’s starts by recognizing the Gap.
Some of the more common ones are distances between:

• What we know versus what we do
• The time we invest versus the time required
• Starting something versus finishing it
• Our wants versus our needs
• Perception versus reality
• What we communicate versus what’s understood
• Being active versus being effective
• Being committed versus being involved

STEP TWO

Gut-check decision time. Are you getting on the train or not? There’s no room for sorta travelers here.

REMEMBER: There’s a huge gap between 100% commitment and 99%-involvement.

STEP THREE

The third step is hardest of all. ACTION. Drop anything that’s hindering you from making it happen. It’s time to lighten the load before taking that step. So simplify. Let go of the unimportant and the mediocre. Declutter anything that’s derailing you and move.

If we’re committed to “one hundred percent braggable” results as Tom Peter suggests, we’ll leap right over the Gap. At the very least, we’ll give it our best shot and come closer to our potential with each leap of faith we take.

REALIZE: Gaps are actually opportunities for Cool & Epic Outcomes!

image by mmabuzz

Anyone can stand strong when the game of life is going their way. But who are we when the pain comes? It’s what we do when we’re down that counts most. That’s the critical, defining moment. So when it isn’t going as planned and we’re knocked repeatedly on our butt what do we do?

Here are some tactics from the world of fighting to us prepare and handle those situations like a champion:

CHAMPION TACTICS

1. Prepare. Prepare. Prepare.
   It (the unexpected) will happen.

   Count on it. Then plan for it.

   Have you thought about what you’d do if you lost your job or if your business went belly-up?

   What would you do if your book or movie was a flop?

   What if you don’t make the first round pick?

   Sure it’s impossible to plan for every possible situation, but we can certainly prepare better. Champions continually seek to improve their conditioning so they’re ready if (and when) they’re knocked down and pinned.

   Although most of what we worry about never happens, planning prepares us.

2. Have someone in your corner.
   This is huge. We all need a support system.

   Forget Hollywood’s portrayal of the champion that did it entirely on their own. That just doesn’t happen.

   When preparing for battle (and life can certainly be that, among other things),  we need someone to wrap our hands for the fight. When we falter and our confidence is shaken, we need sound advice and encouragement.

   We need someone to echo the champion’s voice when we can’t hear our own. And when you’re hurt, you want a good “stitch man” who won’t panic but instead will ice your wounds and stop the bleeding.

3. Remain calm.
   Focus on breathing deeply. Remain calm and in the moment. Look for the opening. Look for the opportunity. There’s always an opportunity if you’re ready for it. You just have to remain calm and watch for it.
4. Redefine yourself – Continually.
   In the world of Mixed Martial Arts, fighters have to do it all the time.  A formidable striker becomes a great grappler. Some fighters do it out of necessity, some for the love of the sport. The true champion does it for both.
5. Remain teachable.
   This quality goes hand in hand with redefining yourself. Champions remain students. They understand, as George Leonard expressed in his must-read book Mastery, that “the road to mastery never ends.”
6. Focus on the immediate.
   Focus on what you can do – right now. Be in the moment – in the NOW. Champions understand that you can’t change yesterday or even 10 seconds ago. You must let that go. So stop wasting time and energy on the past and focus on the immediate. That’s what you and I have. Right now. You want to make a difference? You want to make a comeback, it starts right now. This very second.
7. Recognize the resistance.
   Learn to recognize the “resistance” within – what I call the chump. The small voice inside that insists upon safety and so-called security rather than bold, belief, and action.
8. Push through the fear.
   Learn to face your fears and push through them. Most of them are completely unfounded and based on nothing more than worry. Sure you’re scared. That’s okay. Remember that courage isn’t the absence of fear but the willingness to face it and take action anyway.
9. Stick to your plan.
   If you did your homework, stick to your plan. As I said in a previous post, on your back isn’t the time for that crazy ninja maneuver you heard about but never practiced. Remain with the basics because they tend to have the highest returns.
10. Bring the Passion!
    Love it or get out. It’s that simple. Sure it’s work. Damn hard work in fact. But if you don’t love it (plateau, pain and all), why are you doing it?

We all have ‘em and we’ve all made ‘em.

They’re the easiest thing in the world to create because they appear to be free, but they end up costing us in the long run. At best they cause us to miss opportunities. At worst, they cost us self-respect and trust from others. They’re excuses, and excuses suck.

Put simply, excuses are self-justification. They place the blame and responsibility anywhere but ourselves. Need an example? How about my latest- “well, I couldn’t quite make it on time, because…” Really? C’mon Shawn! How about the other guys that showed up early?

Every day, at every turn, we face the choice of taking responsibility or making an excuse. We face it in the biggest decisions and the smallest opportunities.

photo by Hazel Caballero

When setting goals and taking action our excuses must be ruthlessly terminated. We simply cannot allow the compromise of an excuse to wedge itself into our lives. Refuse it. Choose a higher response.

Let me be clear, I’m not talking about perfection. I’m talking about intentionality, about looking for the first sign of compromise and refusing to go the “easy way.” If you haven’t already done so, start recognizing excuses for what they are — a seemingly easy way out with a very high price tag.

My dad was a no-excuse kinda’ guy. If he said he was going to do something, he did it. Period. There wasn’t a big production about the process, he just took action, over, and over. In fact, I can’t remember a day of his life that he called into work sick, unless you count the last days of his life when he was physically forced to slow down. I don’t. Excuses just weren’t part of his DNA.

Find a role model or mentor.
There are plenty of people in all areas of life that could have given a much better excuse than the one you or I have — “my feet hurt” from a guy who doesn’t have the privilege to walk. “I’m tired” from a single-mom without a home and bed of her own working two jobs to provide a better life for her family. In that context, my reasons for not doing something are apparent. They’re excuses, and they suck.

What about you?

Those that excel understand it takes action without an audience. They hone their craft without fanfare. They show up early, leave late, and turn off the lights without applause. These solo actions define who’s really willing to put in the effort necessary to go from middle-class to world-class achievement. I wonder how many free-throws Michael Jordan tossed in solitude over the course of his career?

“The vision of a champion is bent over, drenched in sweat, at the point of exhaustion, when nobody else is looking.” ~ U.S. Soccer Champion Mia Hamm

True world-class champions don’t train for a few weeks like Rocky. They understand real progress comes in small steady increments, not single heroic triumphs. The great American author Louis L’Amour said it this way, “Victory is won not in miles but in inches. Win a little now, hold your ground, and later, win a little more”. Our actions must be consistent and deliberate regardless of magnitude.

Its a funny thing, genius, genetics, and luck tend to show up when we consistently bring the effort. So write when no one is reading. Sing when no one is listening. Cold-call when no one is buying.

Tell us about the actions you’re consistently taking or will now be taking without waiting for an audience.

Using a spoon is frustrating.
We’ve been told “Know your weaknesses and work on them.” It certainly makes sense to recognize and eradicate them where possible, but like anyone who has tried to row a boat with a spoon can tell you, it’s a lot of hard work! Inadequacies have a way of zapping the passion from us while rendering our efforts all but futile. We put so much in yet get so little out.

Champions focus on what they CAN, not what they CAN NOT.
They spend less time breaking their backs mastering weaknesses and dedicate more of themselves to their strengths. Weakness are not ignored. No, they are ruthlessly worked on for improvement but not at the expense of strengths. Focusing on our weaknesses can be daunting because we invest so much effort yet progress so little. It’s the inverse of the 80/20 rule. It expends 80% of our capacity just to return a mere 20% results. Even more important than tempering our weak areas is building upon our strengths, for therein lies the real leverage for accomplishment. This is where we see exponential growth. But to do that we must know ourselves well.

English Writer Jonathan Swift likened the search for strength to mining for treasure when he remarked that “men are accused of not knowing their own weakness, yet perhaps few know their own strength. It is in men as in soils, where sometimes there is a vein of gold which the owner knows not of.”

In every single one of us there’s hidden treasure and ores of strength. The point is to discover them. We must dig into the mine of our abilities to unearth our strengths – those veins of gold – and look for ways to extract and use them to our advantage. Zig Ziglar reminds us that we already have all the characteristics necessary for success, if we recognize, claim, develop and use them. Easier said than done? Keep in mind that no success comes without effort, but champions become what they are by exerting their efforts in the right places –  their strengths.  Mine it and you’ll find it. Here’s how:

KNOW THE MINE.
Take careful note of what you enjoy and the areas where you excel. This is where you’ll discover gold. What classes did you get the most A’s? What games and activities do you find most fun and fulfilling? That addictive exhilaration that we get from winning a game, solving a problem, or finishing an artistic endeavor is the combination of a strength fueled by passion. When you find that mine by all means stake your claim and explore it.

QUARRY.
Try new things, explore new possibilities. No explorer has discovered new territory by staying put in the homeland. No athlete gets better in the game by practicing within their comfort zone. Get out there, embrace change, and you might just surprise yourself in what you find. You may discover hidden gems of talent, new realms of passion, or forgotten areas of interest. Embrace the adventure!

POLISH THE GEMS.
Dusty, uncut, and unpolished ore are but gems of strengths intermingled with weaknesses. They are treasures that too often go undervalued. It’s up to you to do the work, to polish and bring out the best from what you’ve discovered. Look for ways to continuously improve your craft. In doing so, your strengths will outshine your weaknesses.

COMPLEMENT.
Set your gems in the right metals, accentuate their highlights. It’s true that inspecting our capabilities opens our eyes both to our weaknesses and strengths and allows us to find ways to overcome weaknesses by maximizing the value our of strengths. What’s important afterward is that you put your strengths on display. Share them with the world. Only then will their true value be realized.

“A box without hinges, key, or lid, yet golden treasure inside is hid.”   ~ J.R.R. Tolkien

What golden strengths should you be sharing with the world?
What’s holding you back?
What strengths have you discovered recently?
What gems of talent are you polishing to perfection?
[explore more championship traits here]

Image Credit: evoo73

I just started reading a free e-book by Seth Godin entitled “What Matters Now” which is a collaborative effort of more than seventy champions in their chosen field including Tom Peters, Jason Fried, Guy Kawasaki, Gary Vaynerchuk, Gina Trapani, and many other big thinkers including Seth himself. So far it’s proving to be thought provoking and action stimulating.

Grab a free copy and see for yourself how “big thoughts and small actions make a difference.” There are no hidden gotchas or motives, although many readers will eventually become customers, followers, or fans of the contributors they connect with simply because they gave something of value first. We all buy from those we trust so it’s no accident that the first key point focuses on generosity as the book itself is a great example of that virtue in action. Did I mention that it costs zero-point-zero dollars? Generosity sparked it all.

It was because of generosity that I was first introduced to many of these champions in the first place. I discovered Jason Fried of 37signals because of the company’s generous free version of “BackPack” which eventually led to a much deeper connection with their philosophy of simplicity. So naturally, with time I became a loyal customer and purchased other services. The same is true for Seth’s blog. It requires a consistent investment of his time and talent to speak about marketing in a way that matters. As a result of reading his blog I’ve purchased several of his books. The most recent example of generosity happened unexpectedly from a dog trainer shortly after we adopted our newest family member, a two year old pitt bull male named Trigger. Chris Black of Elite Dog Training gave generously of his time to ensure that everyone in our dog pack got along successfully. It was because of his passion and time investment, long before we hired him, that he is now the guy we turn to whenever we need help with our dogs.

Zig Ziglar has been saying for years that “you can get everything in life you want if you will help enough other people get what they want.” This is quite different than the horde mentality of mediocrity which says, “I’ll give so long as I get.”  Ziglar, the writers of the e-book, and my dog-trainer all get it. Generosity should be a continual outward action that shows up at home, in the office, at the gym, or on the Internet. Wherever we are we are to GIVE. We are to make an investment in the world around us. In doing that, we make a difference in the lives of others and ourselves. Each of us are rewarded by this undeniable law when we are generous with our time, money, and talents.

How can you be most generous with your time?
How can you be most generous with your money?
How can you be most generous with your talents?

Image Credit: timailius

Overcoming inertia should be easy but it isn’t. Why do we end up dreaming without doing? Is it fear that stops us? At this point I don’t really care if its fear of failure or fear of success itself. I’d rather kick whatever it is in the ass and move forward.

“Just Do It”, Nike tells. But doing isn’t enough. We mustn’t confuse busyness with taking the next major action that propels us toward our intended result. Case in point, the task of writing this first blog entry could have easily  drifted toward a task of lower return like searching for just the right design colors and layout. Instead I had to resist that urge and take the more difficult path of doing what mattered most- wrestling those original ideas into these words. I’m willing to wager that you wouldn’t be here if this site had a great color scheme but absolutely no content.

Remember, good is the enemy of the best. We must do something significant with forward momentum. Write that first sentence and give inertia the boot.

PENCIL TAPPING
Tapping a stick of dynamite with a pencil all day isn’t the same as slapping it once with a hammer. The first action is guaranteed to keep you busy but only the second will bring about change.

Image Credit: Tomasz Sienicki

Seth Godin described this phenomenon as “modern procrastination” where the lizard part of our brain (think sock drawer sorting types of tasks) commits to busyness without significance. We find it wherever we go. It’s the flurry of back and forth emails all the while avoiding real conversations with their potential for conflict and commitment. It’s the athlete doing endless warm ups and practice drills within their comfort zone. It’s practicing without pushing. It’s going through the motions and ending tasks just as they began- doing what’s been done – pencil tapping.

SOMETIMES
…we get BIGGER pencils.
…we try tapping FASTER or recruiting others to tap alongside us.
…we try another pencil (all the while thinking that maybe our ineffectiveness is simply because we chose the wrong color or size). Or maybe… just maybe… pencils were never intended for tapping.

The solution, as Dan Pink points out, “is not to do more of the wrong things.” We need a whole new approach. We need to remember that frantic is not effective, more is rarely better, and same is often insane. A pencil should be used to illustrate a design, communicate an idea, document a plan of action, or impact a life by writing a long overdue letter. It was never meant to drive a nail. To paraphrase Winston Churchill, “However beautiful your pencil tapping strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.”

Image Credit: Aaron Escobar

It’s important that we pause before we start. Have we chosen the right action and the best method? Do we have a solid direction and are we impassioned about the task before us? Mark Sanborn was right when he said that “Unfocused or half-hearted activity isn’t much better than inactivity.”

So ask yourself, “What am I trying to accomplish? Does effectiveness require a pencil or a hammer?” Either, if chosen for significance in the right context and passion, can change the world.

Image Credit: Banalities

CRITICS, CRITICS, EVERYWHERE

There’s no shortage of critics, in fact some are paid big bucks to give us an earful of their analysis but critics don’t change the world. Instead the world is impacted by those on the edge willing to take a chance at doing something significant while risking criticism and failure. Kenneth Tyan referred to the critic as someone who “knows the way but can’t drive the car.”

There’s the critic and then there’s everyone else – the athlete, the writer, the artist, the leader… you know, the people risking criticism by doing something. The critic is rarely the one with answers or historical achievement. He’s far too busy measuring the limit of possibilities to be bothered with pushing those boundaries to new heights. He can recount in painstaking detail what should or should not have been done, how things aren’t quite right, how they don’t measure up, align with, or stack up. He’s that guy.  He’s the armchair quarterback who could have held onto the fumble and run the touchdown pass, nevermind that he can’t hold onto a job and the last time he actually ran somewhere was to the kitchen for chili-fries and a six pack. But isn’t there an element of the critic within each of us?

Somewhere inside each of us lurks an enemy ready to silence our best ideas and bury our loftiest dreams. It’s this internal critic who insists that limits must precede possibilities.  He draws hard lines around our creativity and insists upon playing it safe to avoid unknown outcomes. He’s there to edit before we’ve even begun our “shitty first draft.” Why? Plain and simple, it’s much easier to talk about action than to take action.

When was the last time the critic within gave you permission to:

• Create something extraordinary?
• Restore something remarkable?
• Build something from nothing?
• Overcome seemly insurmountable odds?
• Become more than who you were yesterday?
• Help someone accomplish greatness?
• Give something with impact?
• Contribute something lasting?

CRUSHING THE CRITIC

There’s not a critic alive that can hinder the determined person who has a strong work ethic and purpose. Without the critic dictating the possibilities, we end up thinking and behaving differently. Suddenly our entire outlook shifts. Yesterday and tomorrow become lower priorities and right now becomes the most important moment. The critic is most concerned with past performances, and future uncertainties. It’s always yesterday and tomorrow… looking back and looking ahead…  while missing the opportunity and beauty of the present moment.

The present moment is where we make things happen. It’s the only place where we can take our next action and discover the effortless flow that occurs only while we are taking action. In that moment, we aren’t thinking about the paragraph we just wrote, the ball we just dropped, or the last sales rejection received. We are caught up in what we are currently doing – capturing our words, catching the pass, or fulfilling a customers need. When we silence the critic, we are free to take chances and when we do that our passion can propel us to unknown moments of greatness.

We crush the critic when we:

• Give ourselves permission to have fun.
• Take action without analysis.
• Allow ourselves creative blocks without interruption.
• Remain in the moment.
• Fall in love with the process.

When the critic shows up, it’s important to remember the words of Theodore Roosevelt.

It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat. ~ Theodore Roosevelt

Now it’s your turn to share how you’re crushing the critic.

Image Credit: Juan Antonio Capó

The champion mindset doesn’t just happen. It is cultivated. Nurtured. Coaxed and coerced. It certainly isn’t a one-time event of do it and forget it. It just doesn’t work that way. It requires a repetitive yet evolving pattern of possibility thinking backed by continual doing. It must happen over and over – strong thoughts growing stronger until they burst through the crust of yesterdays limits.

Our results are dependent upon cultivating the initial thoughts of success in an environment conducive to growth. Like the vulnerable seeds of the bamboo plant which can result in a tree that grows as much as 4 feet within a 24 hour span, our initial thoughts are vulnerable yet powerful in potential.

The champion does not look for immediate payoff. Although hungrily discontent, he understands that the unseen moments of discipline, desire, and doing will not go unrewarded. Even if it takes years. Consider the Saguaro cactus, among the slowest-growing plants on earth growing just one inch in the first ten years of its life. In fact, it doesn’t even begin to flower until it’s almost 60 years old!

Whether your outward results are as obvious as bamboo or seem dormant like the early years of a cactus,  remain diligent. Determine the next action that will move you forward one step closer to your goal. Do that one thing. Then do it again the next day.