Every time I stand in front of a camera to make a video - I feel uncomfortable. Every time I want to go to the gym - I feel uncomfortable. Every time I sit down to write a blog post - I feel uncomfortable. Are you the type of a person who will do whatever he or she can to AVOID discomfort? Are you the type of a person who hates feeling uncomfortable...? Doing anything worthwhile will require you to step OUTSIDE of your comfort zone. And in fact, when you think about a goal or something you want to get or have - it is ALWAYS outside of your comfort zone. We have a fetishWe like to imagine a fantasy that in order to get what we want, we'll just do couple of things that we feel comfortable with and voila - the result will be here.
And I've seen people almost want to negotiate with this, like a rich spoiled kid: "Oh yea, that seems nice, that's something I would do..." And... "No that's not something I feel comfortable doing... so I won't do it..." Like the goal that you want to accomplish cares what you feel comfortable with or not. To get what you want, it is PREDISPOSING that you'll need to do something that feels UNCOMFORTABLE. It's like eggs in a cake. There's no cake without eggs. And in fact, the higher your achievement, the more UNCOMFORTABLE it feels to take the necessary action step. The Critical Counter-IntuitiveWe humans are comfort seeking creatures. All we want to do is be comfortable. We want to do as much as we can, with as little effort possible. Our intuitive pull is always doing what feels the most comfortable and easy... and avoid what feels difficult and uncomfortable. But that often just leads to failure in everything.
Our intuitive pull will almost always lead to failure. One of my mentors taught me the concept of COUNTER-INTUITIVENESS. He taught me that our intuitive feeling is designed to make us fail. And that if we want to achieve any kind of success, it almost always involves us going COUNTER to what our intuitive pull tells us to do.
So if we want any kind of success, it requires us to go COUNTER to what our intuition is telling us to do. I'd like to challenge you on something. I'd like you to go do something RIGHT now. Right now I want you to step into your bathroom, and... Take a cold shower. Every morning I take a cold shower. Not because I like how I feel DURING the cold shower, but because of how I feel AFTER. Before I'm about to turn the water to cold, I always feel uncomfortable. I'd rather not do it, skip it - and do it tomorrow. And when I do turn it, and I feel the cold water running down my spine, I feel uncomfortable. It doesn't feel good. However, after I come out, I feel great. I feel energised. I feel ALIVE. I'm ready for the day. Taking a cold shower taught me 2 things:
When I need to make a video.... I don't think about it anymore. I just turn on the camera and do it. When I need to take a cold shower... I don't think about it. I just step in the shower and do it. I got USED to it. Where are you too comfortable?So where in life are you becoming too comfortable? Where are you getting so comfortable that it's dangerous?
Whatever it is, here's what I'd challenge you to do: Take a SMALL step.You probably know what you should do.
You have that thing in your mind. It's probably constantly popping back to your mind. Whatever that thing is, go and take a SMALL step towards it. If it's rejoining the gym, go pack your gym bag. If it's up your reading, go find that book that you left unread. If it's finishing a business project, go check out what's left to be done. There's power in small steps. What is your small step? What will you do? Let us know below! Can you honestly say, when your head hits the pillow and you are ready to fall asleep - that you did EVERYTHING you possibly could that day? Can you honestly say, that you've taken FULL advantage of the day? If the answer is yes, well congratulations. Good job. You're on your way! But if you have that squeaky voice in your head telling you... "You could actually do more..." Then your probably COULD do more. My mentor used to say... Success is the difference between what you COULD have done, and what you've actually done. The smaller that difference, the greater your success. So what is your difference?What is the difference between what you could POTENTIALLY do in a day, and what you actually do? Are you squeezing full juice out of your lemon? Brian Tracy, the world-renowned motivational speaker and probably the father of the modern self-development, used to give himself a challenge to finish all the things he had planned for the day... By NOON that day. And I've tried doing the same, and found that I was able to do MUCH more than what I originally thought I could do. We are capable so much more than what we think. When we think we've hit our limits, we've usually only scratched the surface. I recently found this meme by David Goggings talking about what's called The 40% Principle. The 40% Principle states that when your MIND is telling you that you're done and you can't go any further, you're actually only 40% done - and you have about 60% more in the "tank". Life is like a brick wallThis is life. My dad is a mason. Not the kind who control the world, but the actual one, who builds buildings. And when I was a kid, he would sometimes take me with him to various construction sites, where I'd just see these MASSIVE walls. I would always be amazed by the size and might of these walls. One day I asked my dad: "Dad, how do you build a wall this big?" He looked at me and said: "One brick at a time son". One brick at a timeThe way you build a wall is not by throwing a bunch of bricks together and hope they fall together. But the way you build a wall is you LAY 1 BRICK as perfectly as a brick can be laid, and soon you will have a wall. Your days are like those BRICKS. If you want to have a full week, a full month, a full year or a full life - you don't have to concern yourself with anything else but having a FULL DAY. If you take the FULL advantage of a DAY... Soon that day will turn into a week... Which turns into a month... Which turns into a YEAR... Which then turns into your entire LIFE. So take FULL advantage of your 1 DAY. Do ALL you can in 1 day and the rest will fall in place. Big goals require Big actionI used to be the guy who had BIG dreams... and BIG goals... and BIG everything... But when the time came to take action... I would generally lay in the couch and watch sitcoms. My daily actions didn't support my BIG goals and dreams. I simply wasn't doing enough. Then one day I woke up... I was broke... My business was in pieces... And I just ended a long term relationship because I just couldn't "get my stuff together"... I was laying in bed, reminiscing on my life. Thinking to myself: "Where have I gone so wrong?" I had all these goals for myself, and my life has gone into a completely different direction. I felt a heavy burden on my chest of just REGRET. And in that moment it hit me: My life was a direct reflection of all the things I did - and did not do. I was paying the price. I remembered a quote that I will remember for the rest of my life: Discipline weighs ounces. But regret weighs TONS. In life, you will always pay some sort of a price.
The only difference is that discipline weighs OUNCES... but regret weighs TONS. What price will you pay? What is your 60% in a day?
How much MORE action could you take in any given day? What ACTION would you need to take for you to feel satisfied with your day? Commit to it, and then DO it. Because I can promise you this: There is no greater feeling in the world than falling asleep with a gentle smile on your face, exhausted, knowing that you've given your ALL that day. Are you the type of a person who needs to have all of his or her i's dotted and t's crossed before taking any action? Do you sometimes find yourself unable to start, even after you've done all the preparation and planning, because you're just afraid of not having things not turn out exactly perfect? Well what if I told you that trying to make things perfect before you can start moving is stopping you from making major shifts in your life? I've learned that there's an image in a perfectionist mind that he or she is trying to accomplish, and it is almost always rooted in making a good impression on OTHERS. Or to say it differently, it is rooted in the FEAR of NOT making a good impression. Perfectionists are essentially, afraid. They are afraid that what they do won't be GOOD ENOUGH... so they keep extending the time to prepare and make everything "perfect". But I've learned that the fear of something not being good enough almost always comes from the feeling that the PERSON isn't good enough. And whatever we feel we're lacking on the INSIDE, we will try to create on the OUTSIDE. Whatever we feel we lack on the INSIDE, we will try to make up for it on the OUTSIDE. So a person who feels isn't GOOD ENOUGH... will always try to create things on the outside that are "good enough"... Thus, becoming a perfectionist. Perfectionism is a FABRICATION of our mind. It is actually something that doesn't exist, but we humans created it. If you take a look, it DOES NOT exist in nature. Mark Zuckerberg created this mantra around Facebook that states: "Done Is Better Than Perfect |
AuthorOmir is a coach who helps people improve their personal and business lives. Archives
October 2019
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