Create a gap, and close it

When you set a goal, you create a gap between where you are and where you want to be.  

This gap can be a little intimidating to face, and many people give up.  

But create a plan, and go to work each day to close the gap.  

Don’t give up, and one day…you’re there!

Primal Fear

Why do we fear things, people and situations?  Because for thousands of years humans needed to fear things that woild kill us, including other people.  The life span was 35 years because it was a brutal world, so we developed natural responses including fear.  When we experience fear we would run, submit to those stronger or smarter than us, and keep our head down so we were not cast out of the tribe and cut off from the resources we needed to survive.

Today our world is much different of course, but we still have fear, and the response to it.  We can’t do a lot about feeling fear, but we can recognize when the stakes are small and a reaction like running or submitting is not necessary.

Act in the face of fear, because often, on the other side of fear is what you want.

Participation Required

Sure, the world is full of abundant opportunity, and I am a human being who deserves respect and a piece of the pie. Some people say “just come and put that pie in my mouth”.

No, no, no.  It doesn’t work like that. You have to go out and get it.

When capacity meets opportunity

You have a huge capacity to learn, be and do.  There is unlimited opportunity out there.

What more can you ask for?

What is pain?

We all know pain.  Physical pain, and emotional pain.  But while pain will come as a part of life, in more or less measure depending on what we do, if we go around spending all our energy trying to avoid it completely because we are afraid of it, we will be even more injured when it comes anyway. We’ll have spent lots of resources of all kinds thinking about pains that have not happened, or may never happen, or that haven’t happened yet.

While pain is inevitable, must we suffer from pain?  Can we just observe pain, and be aware of it, while not suffering?

Recently I ran a Spartan Beast race.  A 15-mile run with 60 intense obstacles. The Killington Beast in particular – the hardest one in the country for its steep ascents that go forever – and ever.  I tried this theory out with physical pain.  With my legs burning I decided not to suffer.  After all, while I have a body, I am not my body.  For example, my 10 year old body is long gone, yet I am still here – now with this body. So I observed my pain without being consumed by it.  I decided not to suffer, but to just be aware.

Was it easy?  I had to work at it over the 7 1/2 hours, and I am still trying to master this, but I made great progress.  Rather than to automatically interpret pain as suffering, I got rid of much of the suffering.

Pain will come.  Suffering is a choice.

That special someone

Whether we have children or not, we have the opportunity to be an incredibly special person for someone else.  We can support them, care for them, be a backstop for them, love them, teach them, encourage them and/or help them out of trouble.

This someone else may be male, female, much older or younger than us, may be black, white or brown, and may or may not be related to us in any way.

People are everywhere.  Your choice. 

Be bold, but not a bully

There are times to be bold; in going after goals, in standing up for what is right and against evil, in speaking up for a person or group when nobody else will, and in learning and trying new things.

Discerning when to be bold and when to be gentle or passive is a master skill of a high performer.

Break through, higher

What can you do after you can’t do anymore?

A lot.

Break through your own self imposed limits.

You can.

Doing things better than they have to be done

A “quality person”.  What is such a person like?

A person that does things better than they have to be done; such a person surely would be noticed.

Likewise, a person that does the bare minimum to get by is also noticed, as the results surround them and follow them wherever they go.

We can dress better than we have to, speak more politely than we have to, keep our spaces cleaner than we have to, and do our work better than we have to.  If we do this, we’d live a life that is better than it would be.

Going beyond yourself

Your self-concept is what you think you are – what you believe about yourself and what you can do.

In order for you to go beyond your self-concept, you must risk not believing in it.

Let go of what you believe about yourself and try to do something your old self would never do.

Go beyond and grow.