Herman School of Business
Do Something Every Day...
People have expectations that shock me. They expect what they want to happen even when they don’t put in the work to realize that outcome. Huh?
If you want to move the ball down the field you better have a good play in mind…because the real world defends against your progress all the time. Now, many people who email me have a grand scheme in mind of where they are going and some of them even have mapped out a road to follow…and then life intervenes and they let days or weeks go by without exercising their efforts.
As mundane as it sounds, you have to put one foot in front of the other every day. Not once in a while…but all of the time. Think of the times you stood in the ocean letting the waves crash against you as you stood just fifty feet in the water. While the beach is just steps behind you, you love “jumping” the waves as the surf rolls in and if you think you can stand in one place without making any effort to be there you are not being realistic. As you bob up and down with each new wave the surf is moving you around just like the real world moves you around. In the water you feel it and adjust your footing, or use your hands to steady yourself…even bouncing on one foot and then the next just to stay where you are. If you stop trying for even one wave rolling over you, swoosh, the forces of the ocean have moved you.
If you choose to go deeper into the ocean even that close to the beach it will take effort. You have to work hard to overcome the undertow. You have to use your whole body and mind to affect a change in your location. Stop pumping your arms, using your legs, quit thinking about where you are for just a minute and you will be tossed where the sea wants you and that may not be where you want to go.
The problem with the forces in life is that for a time they are invisible to you. The ocean reminds you of its force by the feeling against your body. You don’t feel debt creeping up in your life until it may be too late. You don’t feel the lack of marketing you are not doing every day until no customers show up. There is no physical push or pull when the car falls apart, or your relationship blows up. Don’t get me wrong…warning signs are there and sometimes just as obvious as that undertow…but because they are mental and not physical many people ignore them.
If you want your business to improve next Spring, what are you doing today to make that happen? Your body is getting too heavy…put the fork down today. You want a new career…study for it starting today.
Think of yourself in the ocean. Do nothing and you will drift out to sea. Work against the waves and the ocean refreshes you…in part because your mind knows that the work your body does to fight the current means you have power over that mighty ocean! You have the same power over your future…what are you doing about it TODAY?
- Posted: 18 November 2008
- Comments: 0
- Category: Business failure
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