bloglovinBloglovin iconCombined ShapeCreated with Sketch. Fill 1Created with Sketch. Fill 1Created with Sketch. Fill 1Created with Sketch. Fill 1Created with Sketch. Fill 1Created with Sketch. rssRSS iconsoundcloudSoundCloud iconFill 1Created with Sketch. Fill 1Created with Sketch. Fill 1Created with Sketch. Fill 1Created with Sketch.

Category: Challenge

Invest in yourself

Success and anything worth doing comes with sacrifice.

Money, time, pride, effort, energy, friends, family, hobbies, confidence, reputation — these are just some of the things that end up on the table when you go all in.

How are you spending them? Where are you channeling your time and attention and means?

Fear often pulls up a chair and convinces us we have limited resources. When fear starts talking, the stakes are raised and we can be faced with tough decisions.

Are you in it for the long haul or are you looking for the short-term gain?

When was the last time you did one thing?

Read that again.

When was the last time you did one thing?

Not two, not six, not four.

Checking email, eating breakfast. Halfheartedly listening to your partner while making a list of grocery items. Calling your mom while watching CNN and scanning your iPad for Facebook updates.

We’re bombarded. We’re hungry for information and validation and surprise, and we are impatient.

One of the most valuable things you can do for yourself and for your clients and for your family and for your relationships is to make the decision to commit to one action. Give each moment your all, and watch what happens.

Fight and focus and concentrate to be 100% there, fully tuned into the messages you’re receiving and what you’re sending to those around you. You don’t want to miss that big shot you’ve been waiting for just because you were too preoccupied to notice it.

The person you wanted to meet (and who wanted to meet you) might have been at the party, but you weren’t there to meet them.

Commit to the present today.

Show up.

You have something unique to share.
You have an interesting perspective that is valued.
You have a secret, something that could make her work better.
You have an experience that could shed light on his challenge.
Someone has something for you.
But you have to show up.
Whether standing in line at the post office, refilling your mug at the water cooler, asking a question in today’s lunch seminar, or hesitating before sending that email, see how you can show up today.

Please take your (assigned) seat.

We can’t help it. Our titles are plastered onto our business cards, resumes, and online profiles. Our calling cards for connection are marred by our need to assimilate information quickly and efficiently. We’re grouped in terms of experience, what we can offer, where we’ve been, or even who we know.

But we don’t have to view this as a hard boundary.

C-level, mid-level, entry level, outsider — there’s something to be gained from looking above and below and beyond.

Leave assigned seating arrangements to airplanes and wedding parties. See which lines you can cross.

Read the fine print!

Or don’t.

Restraints, boundaries, rules, guidelines, regulations — how you navigate and manipulate them is what separates you from the person sitting next to you.

You can test limits, see them as a dead end sign, or ignore them.

Press on, beyond predefined trails, and you might find yourself heading into the land of creative bliss.

Schedule vacation time

When you visit a foreign place, you are stripped of your template for daily living. Your routine is broken, and it’s up to you to make sense of it all. “Home” becomes a reference marker as you begin to assign meanings to new experiences.

Now that each day is fresh, you are free to discover new places and new things and new people. Amazing what you remember! Forgotten parts inside of you are triggered.

Creativity basks in freedom of acceptance and permission. Changing your environment provides different backdrops for ideas to form.

Maybe you can’t hop on a plane. Maybe you’ve used all of your vacation days. What new environment can you place yourself in? Get uncomfortable, create a canvas for your dreams, and allow the possibility of “what might be.” Reward yourself.