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A Thanksgiving survivor (Photo via Wikipedia)
When the farmer comes to choose the turkeys at Thanksgiving he looks across the barn and finds the most suitable for the dinner table.
The ones that sit there all day and don’t move very much, making their meat nice and tender.
The ones who spend more time at the trough, gorging themselves and getting fatter.
Perhaps even the grumpy ones who aren’t nice to the other turkeys, making them expendable.
The farmer chooses turkeys that have, without knowing it, prepared themselves to be eaten.
Similarly, when it’s time for a company to shed staff, someone will look across the office or factory and find the most suitable candidates.
Sometimes, you know what you should do next, but are afraid to do it… be courageous anyway!
Sometimes, you will feel all alone… be courageous anyway!
Sometimes, you can’t be sure what the future holds… be courageous anyway!
Sometimes, you will have the perfect excuse for doing nothing… be courageous anyway!
Sometimes, the voices of your fears will join the voices of others in a deafening cacophony… be courageous anyway!
There was a time when everyone thought that the world was flat.
They thought that all they could see was all that there was.
They thought that if you sailed too far, there was a risk of dropping off the edge of the planet.
Of course, we are much more knowledgeable now.
We know that the world is round.
So why do so many people act with a flat world mindset.
Since the middle of the year, our 6 year-olds, Logan and Madison, have been going to gymnastics. They absolutely love it and can’t wait for their weekly lessons.
Last week, they were being assessed on their progress on certain apparatus and with certain exercises.
One of the challenges was to see how many sit ups they could do. I asked their coach what the expectation was and she replied that anything between 2 and 40 would be fine.
With that in mind, I sat down with Logan and he began his sit ups.
He started out OK and when he got to 15-18 started to struggle a bit, so I thought that he was about to finish.
It’s going to be a great day today.
Not because the weather is perfect.
Not because everyone is nice to me.
Not because I always get what I want.
Not because everyone appreciates my hard work or notices my capabilities.
Not because it will be easy and comfortable.
All of the above aspects of life are things that I can’t control, so relying on them to turn out right to have a great day is fraught with danger.
Gary Keller, co-founder of the largest real estate company in the USA, says,
“If you want to be average, do all 20 things. If you want to be extraordinary, do one thing well.”
What’s your one thing?
What should you be focusing on right now?
What should you be learning more about?
What have you been placed on this earth to do?
Think about what you want from life.
It could be a goal in relation to your career, finances, faith, relationships, health or any other aspect of life.
Now name it.
Place it in the present tense as if you are already there.
Be specific and as detailed as possible.
Speak it out loud.
When it comes to going to work on a Monday morning…
Do you have to or do you want to?
When it comes to delivering great service to your customers…
Do you have to or do you want to?
When it comes to your exercise routine…
Do you have to or do you want to?
Leadership guru, Tom Peters, recently tweeted, “I honestly have no room in my vocabulary for the word “best.” It is a static word in a dynamic world.”
As a life coach, I’ve encouraged many people to always do their best and I’m OK with that, but there can be a problem with that philosophy.
The problem is, what happens next?
Once you’ve become the best, what else is there to aspire to?
I’ve also said often that, “the only thing harder than becoming number one is staying number one.”
It’s the reason why in sports it’s so hard for a championship team to repeat the following year.
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