ON/OFF? Simplify your GO!

Why do we try so hard to make our lives more complex?  Why do we spend valuable resources (patience, grace, thinking, time) on identifying the many reasons we are doomed to fail?  This year we challenged our e3 Athletes to reach for a BHAG (Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal).  We want you to go BIG!  Reach beyond your neighborhood 5K, dig deeper than “eating better”, and go for the summit.  Tackle Everest, fight Goliath, conquer the Romans!!

Goals such as these force us to be grander than yesterday, and if we assume the strength to reach for something so audacious, we can persevere through the adversities of the year.  Let’s go!  But wait…your schedule is getting tighter.  Your children are getting older and requiring more effort.  Your company is finally hitting its stride and you need to dig in.  Your spouse is starting a new venture and you need to be the household rock.  LIFE HAS CHALLENGES.  Dog died.  Vacation fell through.  Money is tight.  What happens to your goal when these nuisances take forefront to your thinking?  If this year is anything like the last, your BHAG gets trashed and life gets done.  See you in 2018…

OR…

Or, you shift your switch ON.  You make the decision, before the challenges, that your switch is ON.  Discipline is not a quality reserved for our Navy SEALs.  It’s not a secret held only by the superstars of our day.  NO.  Discipline is a mindset of “ON”.  Did you have to convince yourself to brush your teeth, drive to work, answer your phone, or buy groceries?  No, of course not.  Your mind switched to “ON” for those tasks before you even considered the hurdles associated.  Our mind, more powerful than our will, produces 100’s of actions every day where we flex our “ON” ability.  And yet, when we reach for something new, audacious, or scary, we forget this well-trained, conditioned ability to GET SHIT DONE!

Am I saying that if you can brush your teeth, you can train for a marathon?  And complete it?!  HELL YES I AM!  Are we trying to say if you can send that tough email to a customer then you can finally lose that 10 lbs you’ve been carrying?  HELL F’ING YES!

The power to switch ON remains the only thought necessary in executing the path to your BHAG.  You say, “Today I will do X.”  And make it happen.  Morning, Noon, or Night you commit to getting that done.  Watch yourself become a BHAG smashing beast.  Watch your peers look to you as the picture of discipline.  Then…sit back and savor the sweet feeling of success when you get out of your own way, say “I’m ON”, and get to work.