Who Needs A Spanking?

Get In Line
Get In Line

Sometimes we need the proverbial spanking, or maybe a kick in the buttocks, to rattle our cage enough to do what’s common sense but not common practice.

Ask yourself, “Why don’t I have a personal vision/mission statement?”

Imagine a child – maybe your child, niece or nephew – asking you, very seriously, “What’s the meaning of life?”

We expect everyone else to have a clue.  But not ourselves.

Mind-boggling.

Then one lucky day, someone did me the favor of a major cage rattling, and I finally did something about it.

Any other way is just lame.

One Simple Tip to Avoid Waiting

Want a tip to help you resist the urge to wait? In a moment, I’ll share what happened last month, what I did about it, and how it impacted my leadership philosophy.

But it’s a double edge sword isn’t it?  If consistency is the hallmark of quality, and continuous improvement is the key to becoming world class, how do you balance risk and reward?

Faced with a opportunity to do something the way I’ve always done it, or a way I’ve been dreaming about but always chicken out, I was once again presented the opportunity, but was afraid I’d pass on it again.

But not this time.  Finally choose the way I had envisioned.

It was amazingly exhilarating!  Why?  Which is a good question because the thing I did differently, was actually very small in the big scheme of things.

Then why was it exhilarating?  Because conquering a small fear builds the confidence to conquer another small fear.

Eventually, the fears that get conquered are bigger and bigger, until we are faced with very little fear that we can’t act on.

Well, we will always come across scary things, but the confidence to confront and conquer is a priceless ROI for small risk taking habit.

The key, the simple tip – “Do at least one thing each day that scares you.”

Reason Why People Wait

Note:  I’m talking to the person in the mirror.  Please don’t take this personally.

The reason you wait is because you are afraid.  You are afraid because you are unsure of yourself.  You are unsure of yourself because:

  • You don’t have enough experience
  • You have been burned before
  • Your weaknesses may be exposed
  • You fear rejection
  • You fear failure
  • You may even fear success

Like I said, please don’t take this personally, I’m only talking to the person in the mirror.  Ya with me?