Face down on the mat isn’t the time for crazy ninja maneuvers.
It’s a time for clear thinking and intentional action. But this position is where we sometimes find ourselves “oriented times zero” as John Eldridge described in his book Waking the Dead. Our understanding becomes little more than an awareness of our existence. And Pain. For a moment at least, that’s all we know.

In such moments, with vision blurred and confidence rocked, we need air in our lungs, calm in our mind, and belief beyond the circumstances.

But how?

STOP!

When your reset button has been punched. Just stop. For an instance at least, do nothing. Let the calm return.

Then…

BREATHE!

Fill those lungs with oxygen. Get blood flow back to the head

And…

SEE!

What do you see? Not with your eyes but within your mind? Regain clarity and focus. Even if you can’t  see 12-inches in front of your nose, you can regain perspective and belief in your inner champion. See the dream again. The dream is always bigger than the circumstances. The champion is always tougher than the challenges.

THINK!

This is an opportunity to think differently. Methodically. With intention. What should be changed? Where is the opportunity? There’s always an opportunity if you’re ready for it.
So how can this moment be leveraged?

Now..

MOVE!

Seize the moment to take responsibility and move toward a better outcome. Even if it’s just an inch upward, you gotta make the monumental move to stand back up. Louis L’Amour said it well, “Victory is won not in miles but in inches. Win a little now, hold your ground, and later, win a little more.”

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

When you find yourself on the mat,  continue to dream big and gather yourself to stand back up. You really can. Champions do it all the time. So can you.

My next post will cover critical tactics from the world of fighting to help us prepare and handle those situations like a champion. Don’t miss it.

image by Stefan Tell

Or Do They?

Life has a way of knocking the air out of us. Doubling us over and blurring our vision. We’re cruising along at a comfortable pace then WHAM! Life delivers a Chuck Liddell punch and we’re knocked on our ass.

We find ourselves dazed, wondering what just happened, and struggling to see clearly. Suddenly we’ve lost our bearings. Our equilibrium is off. Yesterday seemed so sure but today delivered a concussion and your head is spinning with what-ifs and whys.

Is This Really What I Signed Up For?

One minute we’re on top of our game, the next we’re injured. The “sure thing” fell apart. That business loan didn’t pan out. Promises were broken. A partner left. SLAM! We’re on the mat and everything is blurry. Now what?

The easy thing to do is nothing. Stay down. Stay put. Bitch and moan. Quit. Tap out.
OR
You can fight like hell. Stand up. But don’t you dare give up! You deserve better.

The Champion vs The Chump

At that critical moment we have 2 competing voices inside – the champion and the chump. The champion just got the snot knocked out of him so his voice is barely audible. The chump is a coward. His heart wasn’t in it to begin with. In fact, the only time he speaks up is to warn us how dangerous or impossible something is. Once he sees our inner champion down, he seizes the opportunity to cue the violin and ask, “Why are you doing this anyway? Why don’t you just quit? No one would blame you. After all, you’re hurt. Right?” Recognize that guy? That’s  the chump.

In This Corner… The Chump

The chump only wants the easy fight, the sure thing, the paved road, or a fixed bet. Sure we all want to lesson our chance of loss and increase our odds of winning. This is different. I’m talking about selling out, staying home, and playing it safe. The chump wants it all delivered to him, paid in full, sans effort or hardship. Sorry, but life doesn’t work that way and life isn’t fair. My dad told me so. My dad was a smart man.

Never Count a Champion Out Just Because He’s Down

Extreme sports, like Mixed Martial Arts, stir up something primitive within us where we’re forced to either stand and fight or lie down and die. The same is true of any dream. Sooner or later we’re confronted with the question, “Just how badly do you want it?” Our dreams will force the choice.  Are you going to stand up? Or just rollover and tap out?

What will you do? Your dreams wanna’ know.

We’ll talk more about champion methods for dealing with the blows that life deals us in an upcoming post. Stay tuned and pass this along.

image credit: FeatheredTar

When was the last time you thought about your vision? And by vision I don’t mean the “Better in one? Or two?” kind either. But come to think of it, there is a lesson to be learned from staring at the blur chart across the room.  Brian Reagan jokes about procrastinating for  six years before having his annual eye exam, “Then you get new lenses and you’re like, Man, I coulda’ been seeing things!”

The vision I’m talking about has nothing to do with an optic nerve. I’m referring to a clarity that often clicks into view when we’re suddenly inspired by something bigger than us. We see it, as if for the first time, in razor-sharp detail — the potential of our life, where we fit in, and how we can make an impact during our 2.5 billion seconds (mileage may vary)  on planet earth.

Suddenly we get a glimpse of purpose, destiny, and direction. That doesn’t mean we have it all laid out in detail on a map. Actually there are more unknowns than knowns,  more questions than answers;  but vision outweighs all that.

Study any champion and you’ll discover vision at work. Eye sight doesn’t matter. Just ask Stevie Wonder or study the life of Helen Keller and Ray Charles. Look closely and  you’ll see the spark of belief that led them forward.

So What’s the BIG Deal About Vision?

• Vision is not a pep talk. It’s fire in your mind and resolve in your will.
• Vision is hope.
• It’s faith.
• It’s belief.
• Vision is personal.
• It’s dreaming wide awake while running fully in a forward direction, past the fog of fear and clouds of doubt.
• It brings about an unforced rhythm.
• True vision moves us from our comfort zone.
• Vision diminishes fear and hushes the what-ifs.
• Without vision we cannot focus.
• It’s never created by committee. Its course runs deeper than that.
  It might be shared by a group but only after it has been birthed within someone that is willing to own, nurture, protect, and then share it with the world.

What’s Our Choice?

Earlier I mentioned Brian Reagan. He asks a great question after his optometrist visit that we should also ask ourselves, “How can instantly improved vision not be at the top of your to-do list?” A great question with a funny response, “Nah, I’ll see tomorrow. I got a sock drawer I need to sort out.”

Our choices are simple:
(1.) Get a bigger view of ourselves, the world around us, and our contribution to the world
or
(2.) Become champion sock sorters.

Me? I’m gonna start wearing flip-flops.

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?

We’ve all been told to “never give up” but “never” is one of those words that rarely fits. Truth is, sometimes giving up is exactly what we need to do. So here’s an incomplete list of things that are more than okay to GIVE UP:

• BLAMING
  Work on yourself instead.
• EXCUSES
  “Excuses are the nails used… to build a house of failure.” ~Don Wilder
• JUSTIFYING
  Stop justifying poor results.
• COMPLAINING
  Quit complaining about what isn’t working.
• NONPRODUCTIVE TASKS
  Cut out the nonproductive tasks that really don’t matter, instead practice the 80/20 principle where 20% of what you do produces 80% of the results.
• QUITTING
  It’s okay to quit; just make sure you start again.  Seriously, if you are going to quit something quit the quitting.
• SAYING YES
  Say “no” more frequently. You’ll find it easier and less stressful to follow through when you become pickier about your commitments.
• THE COMFORT ZONE
  Embrace change and fall in love with growth and learning. Continually stretch yourself.
• INACTION
  Do something to move closer to your target goal. Even 15 minutes is progress compared to inaction and that’s usually  all it takes to kill the inertia of inaction.
• OVER-ANALYSIS
  You’ve done some research, now start! There will always be more analysis that could have be done before you begin, but it’s much better to get started.
• SELF DOUBT
  We’ve all been there. The key is deciding to move away from self doubt toward self encouragement, positive actions, and reminders of what you have already accomplished. Become your own coach, cheerleader, and friend. Ask yourself, “if you spoke to your best friend the way you speak to yourself would they still be your best friend?”
• NEGATIVE INNER DIALOGUE
  Like self doubt, the negative words and images about ourselves strip us of our potential. Rewrite the scripts. What would your  inner coach say to empower you?
• PASSIVITY
  Believing that someone else holds the key to unlocking your potential for success, capabilities, and opportunities will leave you waiting and disappointed. It’s up to you to take action!
• SURVIVAL
  Most of us already have everything we need to “survive” (we have the basic necessities of life covered) so we need to focus our intent upon THRIVING not surviving.
• FEAR
  Fear was meant to be conquered by facing it directly with courage. If we do not, our dreams are blocked. So recognize what you are afraid to do and do it anyway.
• SOMEDAY SYNDROME
  Someday Syndrome can easily lead to missed opportunities and regrets. If it’s truly important to you take the first step… research that travel destination you’ve dreamed about visiting, outline that book you want to write… take the leap.
• REPETITION
  If what you’re doing isn’t working, take a chance and do something different. It’s been said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Do something different and expect different results.
• WISHFUL THINKING
  Replace wishful thinking with determined action.
• IGNORANCE
  Know yourself, know what you want, know your strengths and pasions, and remain hungry for knowledge, wisdom, and growth.
• TALKING / DREAMING WITHOUT DOING
  Vaporous talking and dreaming produce nothing. This is not a dress rehearsal, this is your one shot at the life you’ve been given. What have you been talking most about but doing little? Flip it around. Do more. Talk less.
• ANYTHING THAT LACKS EXCELLENCE
  Who said you must finish that mediocre book or mundane movie? Just because something has a designer brand on it or was stamped “best seller” doesn’t make it excellent. Look for excellence and cultivate the distinction between good and best. Then become the best… YOU. Become excellent in all you do.

Asked how long it took to achieve Excellence, IBM’s legendary boss Tom Watson is said to have answered more or less as follows: “A minute. You ‘achieve’ Excellence by promising yourself right now that you’ll never again knowingly do anything that’s not Excellent—regardless of any pressure to do otherwise by any boss or situation.”

Image Credit: Hazel Caballero

Champions think and behave differently. Its as simple and as hard as that!

Champions FOCUS ON STRENGTHS.
More important than strengthening weak areas is building upon one’s strengths, for therein lies the real leverage for accomplishment.

Champions SET GOALS.
Ambiguity is not the trait of a champion. The target is clear. The next action defined. The decision made.

Champions GO TO BAT MORE OFTEN.
Dare to risk failing more often to win more substantially.  If for every fifteen things you attempted you failed every time except for one, wouldn’t it be worth twenty-eight more failures to double your success?  Get thicker skin and step up more. “Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.” ~ Babe Ruth

Champions are HUNGRY FOR SUCCESS.
Championship thinking begins with desire. You must have in your heart. Burt Lancaster once said, “Take the feeling of hunger out of your gut, and you’re no longer a champion.” It’s true. Winners want it badly. Inside there’s a burning desire that refuses to accept defeat. Without that inner drive, there’s no forward momentum.

Champions are FOCUSED.
Those that rise above the status quo have the ability to focus not on what went wrong but on what to do next. They continually focus their attention and energies on taking action, moving forward, and finding a way.

Champions HAVE CONFIDENCE.
“It’s hard to be humble, when you’re as great as I am.” ~ Muhammad Ali

Champions TAKE RESPONSIBILITY.
Success is not handed to anyone. We are not at the mercy of fate, luck, genetics, happenstance, or any other form of buck passing. Champions understand this and continually ask “how can I make it happen?” when confronted with a challenge.

Champions HAVE VISION.
Seeing beyond the status quo is a must for anyone wanting to reach their dreams.

Champions are DETAIL-ORIENTED.
Methodical planning, deliberate action, and continual monitoring are required for success.  Remove the guesswork. Create a plan and then work your plan. It won’t be perfect. That’s why you log it, analyze your progress, and make small incremental adjustments. Attention to details provides the next step.

Champions DO NOT QUIT.
“The last three or four reps is what makes the muscle grow. This area of pain divides the champion from someone else who is not a champion. That’s what most people lack, having the guts to go on and just say they’ll go through the pain no matter what happens.” ~ Arnold Schwarzenegger

Champions are CONSISTENT.
Day in, day out, the champ shows up ready to make it happen. Today’s setbacks are temporary because the champion comes back day after day determined to heal from the bruises and learn from mistakes. Consistency is the compounding interest of hard work. Its dividends are gold medals, medical breakthroughs, and winning relationships.

Champions have SELF-DISCIPLINE.
Mia Hamm said it best- “The vision of a champion is bent over, drenched in sweat, at the point of exhaustion, when nobody else is looking.” Discipline is inevitable. We either discipline ourselves or the world imposes it upon us. It is the dark, lonely hours that reveal who we truly are when no one else is watching. Discipline determines who shows up without the crowd cheering and ultimately who’s recognized once the crowd arrives.

Champions ENDURE.
Were it to require just a single instance of discomfort perhaps everyone would stand in the winners circle. Instead it takes continuous effort. Often painful effort. “I hated every minute of training, but I said, Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.” Muhammad Ali

Champions are PROACTIVE.
Anyone can sit back and wait for life to dole out whatever it may. Not champions. They take action.

Champions LOVE TO WIN.
Although champions hate to lose, they fail quickly and often because they love to win more than they hate to lose.

Champions FACE THEIR FEARS
To win in life, you and I must face our fears. It’s okay to be afraid. What really matters is what we do once we realize it.  Face fear and it will cower from you.

Champions MAKE INVESTMENTS.
Champions invest their time and talents differently than the masses. Rather than spending their precious hours watching hours of television they’re in hot pursuit of their dreams.

Champions BUST ASS and CRUSH IT
There are no shortcuts. Hardwork is a key element of success and champions understand this. Sure they look for the straightest path but they’re not looking for shortcuts. Instead they pour their heart and soul into firing off the starting blocks to cross the line and win the medal.

(Patience + Passion) * Hard Work = THE Formula

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: 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.

Success Questions To Ask Yourself

Questions are meant to be answered. It’s no different if those questions happen to be self-directed. So here are some questions to ask (and answer) to stretch yourself.

Success Questions to Ask Yourself

1. What do I really want?
2. How can I better define the desire in more detail?
3. What can I do to nurture the dream?
4. What are the obstacles and challenges (real and perceived)?
5. What am I willing to give/do in order to make it happen?
6. Who can help me reach this goal?
7. What one thing if done well and done consistently will make the most impact toward reaching my goal?
8. How can I become a better coach and encourager for myself and others during this process?
9. Where will I go for inspiration to combat the doubt and overcome the struggles?
10. Who will share in the success once the goal has been reached?

Man’s mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions. ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes