Listen

Imagine if you went to school and they put you in front of the class and said “Ok, go ahead and talk – that’s how you learn”.  

When you talk you can only say what you (think you) know.

When you listen you have the opportunity to learn more than you know now.

Tune into voices of value that can teach you what you need to know to accomplish your main goals.

Then listen.

A lot.

Performance starts with WANTING to perform

If you say “I don’t want to (do that)”, then there is no chance for you to ever do it well.

You can’t fix a broken “want to”.

With most things, if you don’t do it, or don’t do it well, it’s your own fault – you didn’t want to.

Want to. 

Try it. 

Be willing to be bad at it and keep going. 

That’s how you get to be good  – or even great.

Who will you be in 10 years?

In ten years, most people will be the same person, just ten years older.  And that may be fine with them.

But some people will learn to be better. 

They won’t have the same patterns of thinking, the same habits, they won’t struggle with the same things, and their skills will get a major upgrade from all the learning and practice they do.  They will be able to get results that their former selves could not get, and in far less time.

Because of their advancing approach to living full out and doing what is best for themselves and others, they will live a life like their former selves could not.

Who will you be in 10 years?

Take stock of your blessings

Being ambitious and going for more has a built-in problem.  We can start to feel dissatisfied with where we are when what we want doesn’t come fast enough.

Jim Rohn famously said “Learn to be happy with all you have, while you pursue all you want.”

Being grateful is a productive virtue.  When you take a minute to be grateful, it’s good for your happiness and well-being and helps to settle feelings of dissatisfaction, despair, and unfairness.

For each of us, it could be a LOT worse. Even good things going on around you are blessings for you.

What is going right in your life?

What blessings do you have?

A product of your habits

You made your habits.

Then they made you.

If you want to change (to improve is to change), then we have to change something we are doing each day.

Your habits are made for a life you no longer want.

Think on it.  Associate your habit as something that is not good for you. 

Stop doing it.  Start doing something better in its place – something that will get you the result you want.

Repeat each day until you don’t have to think about it anymore – you just do it.

Hard work sucks when you don't have a purpose

On January 14, a Sunday, we got back home from a little trip.  It was 39 degrees and the wind was blowing hard.

“I’m going outside to cut some trees up,” I told my wife.  “Really?  It’s cold out and so windy.”  “I know” I said.

I get my chainsaw, gas can, bar oil, scrench, helmet and gloves and go.  I spy the sickly trees I want to cut down and cut up.  Some dead.  Some were being choked out by giant vines that had their way.  I can see these trees from my house and barn.

Soon chips are flying into that wind.  Sweating, I took my Carhart coat off.  The vine choked trees I cut are not cooperative.  The vines connect to neighboring trees and hold it up.  They don’t fall, and when you do get them to fall, they certainly don’t fall the way you want.

Once dropped, there’s a tangle of vines like giant tumbleweeds to cut.  It’s very hard work.  The overcast sky gets darker as nightfall approaches.  I’m winning.  I love it.

How could I love THIS?

A have a purpose.  A couple actually.

I am 59.  I plan on living to be 100.  I know that hard physical exercise is good for me.  During the week in the winter I hit the gym 2 -3 times.  On the weekends I am outside getting it.  

I want to live.  I want to feel good.  I want to be useful.  I know am choosing the pain of discipline, so I don’t have the pain of regret.

I also love the way the woods look when I am done.  It’s forestry management.  But that is secondary to hanging onto life.

I get a huge secondary benefit too.  A normal day seems easy.

Hard work sucks when you don’t have a purpose.

Your purpose could be to be the best at what you do.  To do work that you are good at and makes you feel great about yourself.  To serve others.  To find out who you are and how good you can get.  To get a result.

Whatever it is, find a purpose in hard work – the hard work that you find a purpose in.  And once you find a purpose in that hard work, it’s not so hard anymore.

If you avoid it, you will be average.

News can control us – but not me.

There is no news without an agenda anymore.  It’s fear-mongering to get eyeballs and mindshare they can sell to make money. I am not their target.

A long time ago I stopped watching any news or news shows or commentary.  I have had enough and don’t like what it does to me.  I know enough about how things are by now.  I get it.

This year is an election year.  It will be full of lies and drama and bad behavior garbage.  I don’t want it in my head.  

When things happen that I need to know about, people will tell me. I will save a lot of time I can use to get better, do great things, or pay attention to the beauty of life.

I’m out.

And I will have ANOTHER awesome year being the best me I can be and making the world a better place.  I’m on it – every day!

Besides, I’ve got 520 Think Daily’s to write for YOU this year!

How about you?

School is never out for the pro!

If we are to be high performers and make an impact, we have to develop a habit of learning.

That means reading, listening, and watching the RIGHT things that will make us smarter, more effective, more able, and more productive people who can get things done in the world. 

We can go deep and specialize to what matches our inherent talent and interests, and/or we can learn about many other things that orbit what we do to get a better understanding of the world we are in and other areas of life that affect us.

I listen to audiobooks, but I also get emails from other people such as Darren Hardy, Tim Ferris, Joe Polish, Brian Johnson, and Dr. Mardy Grothe each day or week.  I also listen to some podcasts and subscribe to Masterclass.

I don’t have time to consume all that I get, but I have learned to tune in or skip and make it work.

Do I need to relearn things – yes.  Do I need to hear it again another way?  Yes!

Will I ever be done learning?  No.  Does it make me feel more able and less stuck?  Yes!

School is never out for the pro.

What do you do to keep learning? (Besides read Think Daily?!)

A world of your own choosing

Two people can live next door to each other and work at the same place, and live in very different worlds.  How?

By what they choose to pay attention to.

One lets in the news and searches for validation of his views on the internet.  Algorithms give him back what they think he already believes based on what he’s watched already, reflecting and reinforcing his worldview.

His neighbor pays attention to completely different things – things that build and lift and teach.  He asks for it and that’s what he gets.  He surrounds himself with it.

They walk on the same sidewalk and shop at the same supermarket – but live in two completely different worlds – each of their own choice and design.

What world have you chosen?

The great thing is you can change – if you can break what the world has done to you –  the habits of thought and patterns of behavior. 

The world you live in is a choice. 

The future is already here…

“The future is already here, it’s just not evenly distributed.” – William Gibson

This idea is interesting.  It is true that some people somewhere are trying things and doing things that are not mainstream yet.  

I think that some parts of the future make things faster and give us more to pay attention to, but that is not necessarily a good thing all the time.  I think the innovators among us are always testing for what will make life better and what doesn’t – as we should.  But I don’t think that because something is new or uses more technology, that it is automatically better.

Many “innovations” are there simply to get our attention and hold it – to get our eyeballs and mindshare that they can sell.  

We each need to decide.

Would you say that you are on the leading edge; ‘in the future’ in some areas of your life?  Or are you behind a bit?