I’m in a mastermind group that meets over the phone once a week to talk business, set goals and kick each others’ butts, and this week, due to a case of unimpressive non goal-reaching, we decided to do something rather major. I’m kind of fired up about it so I wanted to share it with y’all in case you’d like to join us in our extreme majorlyness.
Have you ever had this problem – you decide you’re going to DO it already, you’re all guns ablazin’, swinging your goals around your head like a pair of rusty nunchucks, ready to tear it up and crank it out and then a day or two later you find your energy slowly seeping out of you like the air in my frikken brand new air mattress that apparently got poked by a cactus and suddenly had me waking up on the cold hard desert floor when I last took it camping?
Why oh why does the seepage happen? How do you, with all your good intentions and constant studying of the law of attraction and the power of positive thinking, find yourself constantly misplacing your goal lists beneath a pile of dopey minutia?
Why do you succumb to distraction and procrastination so easily? Why do you keep yourself from living the gigantic life that is just right there you just need to stretch a little further and you’re almost there and….ooh, well doesn’t that look comfy?! Think I’ll lie on down and have me a nap.
I will tell you why.
Because you haven’t made an absolute decision to do it to the point where you’ve burned all your boats. There is a book that I would like to now beat you over the head with called “Think and Grow Rich” by Napolean Hill.
I think it should be called “Think and Grow a Pair” instead because it will get you off yer butt to create anything in life, money included, and it is the most boiled down, easy to follow powder keg of make-it-happen-fer-feck’s-sake-already advice I’ve ever read.
It’s required reading for all my private coaching clients and I read it everyday because it is truly a superhero pill.
In this book, one of the many staggeringly obvious truths he speaks about is that in order to massively alter your life and leap up to a whole new level, you must burn all your ships.
In the book he tells the story of an army that landed on enemy territory by boat and the dude in charge burned all the boats after his men got off in order to wipe out all thoughts of anything but victory. There was literally no way out but to win now and guess what? They won.
I hiked straight up this rock wall with a 60 pound backpack on because guess what? It was either that or get eaten by birds.
If you are even the tiniest bit comfy, if you can feed yourself and house yourself and stumble lamely through life, it’s pretty common to hang around and complain rather than actually do something about it because you don’t really have to.
It’s very possible that you’ll cross the finish line to your own death having lived a small, always-worried-about-money-and-kinda-hatin’-your-job life and lazily fade out in a quiet, mediocre, barely satisfied blip.
OR
You can join me and my merry masterminds in our new ship burning, ass whipping program of One Totally Terrifying Task Per Day.
Pick a serious goal and do something every single day that’s totally outside your comfort zone that will get you closer to reaching it. Something you absolutely do not want to do because you’re scared you’ll get rejected or look stupid or turn someone off or be not-so-politely asked to leave or whatever.
Here’s the thing: Doing things that you’re used to doing is precisely what got you where you are now. So unless you want to stay where you are, you’re gonna have to shake it up a little.
I heard a great quote from someone somewhere that said something along the lines of:
The difference between successful people and unsuccessful people is that successful people are willing to do what unsuccessful people aren’t.
And not only that, they make a habit of it. They get used to stepping out of their comfort zones and pushing themselves all the frikken time. Unsuccessful people make a habit out of being a weenie every time it gets too intense.
So, just for this week, push yourself over the edge every single day (or a couple times a day, what the hell?) and see where you wind up. And I mean really push it, no faking it – if you don’t feel like you’re going to puke, you’re doing something wrong.
Because the only way to change your life is to change your life.
So do this, and then write and tell me all about it. Hopefully not from prison.
