WEEK 141: WHY YOU ARE STUCK

The only thing that separates a "Pro" from an amateur is the ability to show up.     James Clear

REFLECTIONS (learnings and actions): Do you ever feel STUCK in your life or business?

This week looks very similar to last week. 

Or, this month looks like last month.

Or, even worse this year looks a lot like last year.

You know what you want to do and have it crystal clear in your mind (need this before anything else) but that is where it stops.

It is like the phrase "you take two steps forward and then three steps back."

Although you take steps to make progress, undoubtedly, someway somehow you eventually end back where you started or even worse, a couple of steps back from where you originally started.

I have said in the past the #1 secret to success in your life or business is your ability to show up!

You must be vicious and almost violent to protect it. 

This means you have to vet your environment and do the daily work to ensure you remove activities which keep you from "showing up and doing the work."

I have learned the things which prevent you from showing up sometimes are disguised at things you feel are good for you.

For example, a drink to celebrate an accomplishment with co-workers, or giving yourself an extra (TV show, piece of chocolate, etc) because you had a long day.

Going to be a little vulnerable this week and tell you of a situation where this happened in my life. 

In the past month I have started to run on a consistent basis. 

Will tell you it was so hard in the beginning and I was averaging 9:34 minute miles, and it was a fight to finish three miles. 

Where as earlier this week I was averaging 6:46 minute miles and was crushing six mile runs. Pretty amazing.

I felt light, fresh, and a friend pointed out those jumps in numbers were incredible.

How did I make the huge gains?

Well, I focused on what acitivies helped me make the biggest strides and cut out the rest. 

For example, I cut out alcohol, flour based products, and drank plenty of water, etc.

***

It is now the time of year where there are a lot of celebrations at my work, and everything from the achievement of long projects to farewells are being celebrated every night.

These celebrations start out pretty calm but usually end up consuming too much.

This was the case for me on Thursday night, ate and drank more than one person should, which made it one, difficult to sleep, and two, allowing my body to operate at its optimal state.

Needless to say this made it a struggle to finish my "6 miles before 6 am" run on Saturday. I will highlight it was a struggle.

Although I was grateful I was able to finish, I looked at my metrics and was blown away...(not in a good way)

6:46 minute miles turned to 7:55 minute miles. 

That is over a minute more to run a mile!

Pretty crazy to think about.

Going back to the #1 secret to success in life and business - your ability to show up - certain decisions I made this week made it a challenge to do this.

I took two steps forward, but definitely took three steps back.

Yet...the situation was not a failure...

WHY?

Well, I am now aware of the activities which I need to avoid in order to keep me on track of my 6:46minute miles. 

Moral of the story, want to maintain and optmize new levels of success?

Ensure you fight and protect against things which keep you from showing up to do the necessary work to help you achieve, maintain, and optimize new levels of success.

See you on the other side...J 

Top three activities that move me forward?

1. Mindest of a PRO...show up, stick to your schedule, and complete the work...no matter what. 

2. Calibrating for success in certain areas by changing my thoughts about them.

3. ENF...being aware of Excessive Negative Feedback and catching myself before I get caught up in the downward spiral.

Biggest lessons/learnings and corrections?

The #1 secret to success in life in business is your ability to show up. If you are lacking success, then check if your ability to show up and do the work is being obstructed somehow. 

What are you grateful for?

I keep reflecting on this, but our current jobs are pretty amazing. We get to work with great colleagues and are given so many opportunities and abundance in so many areas (having an ayi, excellent education for kids, leadership opportunities for Meggo, and financial abundance) super grateful!

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PLANNING (Implementation Intention):  You will follow through 2X to 3X more likely to complete your weekly task than you normally would just by filling in the following statement.

I plan to complete the weekly task [day] at [time] in [location]. 

A reminder you might have to use multiple Implementation Intentions in order to follow through.

EXECUTION (strategies used):  From week to week, I use a combination of many strategies. There are always some which are used more than others depending on what comes up, but I wanted to offer a link to all them at once. 

My advice is to identify the I CAN'T statement you tell yourself during the most. Then find a strategy below the statement which resonates with you, and then start using it. 

Enjoy!

STRATEGY LIST