Before the Deed Comes the Thought

It’s impossible to do something without thinking about it first.

When you start thinking about doing _________ , and you think about it over and over, you will find yourself doing it.

If you expose yourself to something (watch, listen, learn, witness), you will find yourself thinking about it.

Use this to your advantage, not to your detriment.  It’s part of the human instruction manual you didn’t come with.

Be careful what you think about.

What do you want to avoid in your life?  Don’t watch it, listen to it, witness it, or learn about it.

What do you want for your life?  Watch it, listen to it, witness it, and learn lots about it.

Action Illuminates the next step

I’m continuing with passages from my book “Iron Sharpens Iron”.  

Don’t know what to do?  Stand up.  Now walk toward the challenge/work/problem.  Now look/ask a question/start….

You don’t need to know the full answer or have a complete plan.  Just do something.  Get started.  When you do, the next step will become apparent.

When I started my business in 1982, I had no idea what it would lead to, what I’d have to learn and overcome, and what opportunities were there.  I just got up and went out there with a hammer and saw and talked to people.  Next steps just came.

Action illuminates the next step. 

Impossible is not a fact, it's an opinion

“I can’t do it.”  We hear people say that all the time.  Of course, if you really believe that then you are right because you don’t try, or at least don’t give 100% when you expect to fail.

The people that think they can, often do.

What is your opinion about yourself?

Two kinds of suffering

For the next couple of weeks, I am going to feature passages from my book “Iron Sharpens Iron”.  You can get the audio on iTunes, Google Music or Spotify.  Or if you send a check for any amount to me, made out to the Boy Scouts of America – Housatonic Council, I will send you a copy of the book!  Send to Larry Janesky, 60 Silvermine Road, Seymour CT 06483.

Here’s goes –

“There are two types of suffering in the world; short-term and long-term.  You have to decide which one you want.”

This is all about delayed gratification.  It’s about working hard and doing the right thing (which may not be the fun thing or the easy thing) now so you can have no regrets later.   It’s about the difference between short-term thinking and long-term thinking.

I’ll take short-term suffering.  I’m in the “long term” now, and I am very happy with my choice.

How about you?

Update your beliefs

We have all learned stuff (from our first teacher, or a teacher) and then, our immature and inexperienced selves made decisions about how things are, (perhaps prematurely).  Let’s call them beliefs.

Many people look for confirmation they are right and dismiss anything that shows their beliefs are wrong.

Good judges are good belief updaters. 

It’s called learning.

Talking yourself into a not so good idea

I’ve been there.  

You have an idea that’s a little out there.  It’s novel and kind of exciting.  You know there are significant problems with it, but you focus on what excites you.  

You start talking yourself into it.  Your self-talk builds up the benefits and downplays the pitfalls.  You become kind of obsessed with it for a bit.  Thought precedes action.

You go for it.

The exciting part is there, for a short while.  After that, you have to live with the bad part of your decision – for a long time.

Doh!  

It wasn’t worth it.  Bad move.  What was I thinking?

Can I take that one back?

Life is constructed from a hundred thousand decisions.  Get the bigger ones right.

What is it like to be on the other side of me?

This is a great question I got from speaker Ryan Leak.  

You are the leader/manager/or just you.  What is it like to experience you?  What is it like to stand in front of you?  To take direction from you?  To get an email from you?  To be on a Zoom with you?  To be in a meeting you are leading?

I went to a high school football game recently.  The team scored and they got an unsportsmanlike conduct call on them.  The coach was screaming at the top of his lungs like a lunatic.  “Where is he?!” looking for the player who did it as the team jogged back to the bench after scoring.  “Get out of here!” he screamed as he jabbed his finger at him.  “Get out of here!” – at the absolute top of his lungs.

The whole crowd could see this kid getting abused.  I don’t know where he was telling the kid to go.  Talk about unsportsmanlike conduct!  

So the very next play is where you kickoff to the other team, right?  Who do you suppose was the kicker?  Yea – the same kid.  How is he going to play his best when he just got humiliated?

This coach runs his team by fear and intimidation.  That’s not leadership.  Sure football is an aggressive sport.  But getting the best from people is not about them doing it because they will get yelled at if they don’t, it’s about them doing their best because they are prepared and trained, they believe in themselves and you, and they really don’t want to let you down.

The coach obviously didn’t train the kids about that penalty.  When your team makes a mistake, you have to take responsibility.  How about “Great job for scoring guys.  We are going to be talking about the penalty later.  Time to kick off – let’s go get ’em!”

What’s it like to be on the other side of you?

Lessons from the "Big Race".

Assemble a great team.  To go far, you have to go together.  You need specialists with the skills necessary for the mission.  The team has to work together well.  My team all know and like each other, and have worked together before.

Prepare.  Before you “launch”, “present”, or “go live”, a lot of thinking has to be done about what you will need and how this will go.  Get ready and be thorough.

Experience matters. You seldom will beat the more experienced players on your first try.  You need some experience.  Try.  Get in the game even though you know you will lose, so you can learn.  Be willing to be bad at it, so one day, you can be great at it.  How long does it take?  As long as it takes.  Usually a long time.

When you can’t see, keep going until you can.  When you lose your way and can’t see a way out of this situation, take care of what you can – what is in front of you.  Stay calm, keep working, and strive to think clearly.

Don’t quit.  Setbacks will happen. Keep going.  Work through one problem/crisis at a time, and keep going. 

The journey is long – stay with it.

Believe in things that haven't happened yet.

If you don’t believe you can make something happen that hasn’t happened yet, you won’t try.

If you don’t believe in your ability to do something you have never done before, you won’t try.

If you don’t see things that aren’t there yet, you can’t manifest them into reality.

Your beliefs are a preview of your future.  Your action, discipline, and perseverance are the path to get there.

What do you believe in that you can’t see yet?

"Be fit to be useful"

Years ago I read this great book called “Natural Born Heroes”.  In it a character called George Sekondakis explains why in his advanced age he stays in shape, which in this case is a matter of life and death as the story takes place on a Greek island during the second world war with Nazis prowling around.

He says -“Be fit to be useful”.  

I like that notion.  At age 59, when I go to the gym, what is my reason?  (I often do hard physical work for hours that I could hire someone to do.)  I’m not going to be a bodybuilder, and I’m not training for any physical endurance contest, (anymore), so what is my motivation? 

I want to be able to do the things I want to do, do my work, and help others as the days, opportunities and events unfold, and not be confined by what I can or cannot do by physical limitations.  And, I want to feel good and live as long as I can as a healthy person.

That’s simple and easy to process.

Be fit to be useful.