It astonishes me. Each and every time it happens, I’m amazed when other people do it. And I know that I’ve been guilty too.
You plan to do something. Sometimes, you even pay good money to get information, resources or tools; and then you don’t use them. It doesn’t matter if it’s something you’re doing for your career or your personal life. It could be growing your sales or losing weight.
Let me give you an example. I started a Fitter, Flatter & Faster program last week. It’s an off-season virtual training program to help athletes get conditioned, build core strength and increase speed (running and cycling). I had 35 people sign up for the program. After the first week of the program, I checked in with the participants to see how things were going.
Most admitted that they loved the program, but only about a third were diligently following it. (And that number is actually higher than usual because I am dealing with people who are generally high-achievers.) The rest of the program participants were doing a half-ass job or making excuses before they even started. Can you relate?
As one of the participants said to me, “Change is hard.” And he’s right. For most people, change is very hard. But it’s only as hard as you make it. Here are five things that you can do to sharpen your mental edge so you can push through and get what you want.
1. Fully Engage The “Why?” First, you have to ask yourself, “why” you want to do something in the first place. To get started in something new, you need an understanding what you’ll get and how you’ll benefit. Then, you need to go deeper to “fully engage.” Tap into the emotion behind the why and get to the want – your emotional desire. How will this make you feel? Soak in the emotion and feeling. Visualize yourself enjoying the ultimate outcome to strengthen your desire.
2. Activate The Twin Sisters – Commitment & Discipline. It’s one thing to want something, it’s quite another to do whatever it takes to get it. This is where most people struggle. It starts with a mental commitment to do what it takes. Unfortunately, this is a promise to yourself which is often broken.
Once the commitment is made, the discipline has to be there. In other words, you have to actually “do” what you’ve said you will do to get what you’ve said you want. When we hit obstacles, it’s easy to say “it’s too hard” or “I’ll get back on track tomorrow.” But that will only cause more guilt and disappointment, because once again you’ve diminished yourself and your abilities by not honoring your commitment.
3. No Excuses. It’s easy to rationalize why something can’t be done or can’t be done now. Call it what you will, but an excuse is an excuse is an excuse. If you’re good at giving excuses, you won’t be good at getting things done, because there will always be circumstances or a people to blame. To have the right mental edge, you have to take 100% responsibility for your effort and your outcomes. You have to have a give-it-all-I’ve-got attitude.
4. Create Positive Momentum. The folks who make progress, celebrate and appreciate it. It’s not easier for them but they welcome the challenge and are invigorated by putting forth a hard effort and recognizing their small wins along the way. In the Fitter, Flatter & Faster Program, the group that was on target all had similar feedback. They shared that the program was hard and that they liked the intensity, which is a lot different than the excuse, “It’s too hard!”
5. Don’t Let Setbacks Stop Or Derail You. The difference between people that get things done and those who don’t often comes down to the obstacles that get thrown in their way. The successful people don’t have fewer obstacles than unsuccessful people, they just figure out a way to get through them.
Growing up on a farm, I was well-versed in riding horses. And we had one stallion, named Clover, who apparently was pissed off because he was named after a plant. I know because whenever I mounted him, he would take off in a full gallop and buck until I went flying off. The only way I was going to succeed in getting him broken was to pick myself up off the ground and get back on him (even though I knew it was going to be hard and it was going to hurt when I fell off AGAIN). Sometimes, things don’t go as planned; that’s when we have to “suck it up” and get back in the saddle.
You can’t quit when the going gets tough. That’s the exact time you need to sharpen your mental edge and make things happen.
