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In the mail today, I received the author’s complimentary copy of my new book, Leadership by Invitation. I was being interviewed earlier in the week about the book and was asked the question; “What is the one thing you would tell someone who is writing a book to help them reach their goal of actually getting it published?” Great question!
Simple answer. START WRITING.
I spend a lot of time thinking about what I write. I blog multiple times every week, create content on a regular basis, and am already working on my next book project. You might find this hard to believe, but do you know that until I actually start writing, nothing gets written? I can spend all day thinking about it, I might even have a pretty good idea on what to write. But until I start pounding the keyboard, nothing gets done.
You have to Start before you can Finish!
I think there are a lot of similarities between this thought on writing and just about anything else you might want to achieve. We have to START. At some point in time, we need to decide that we are done getting ready and just go for it.
There are also similarities on what happens after you start. I have found that in writing, it is only after you start writing the words that the story really starts to come to life. One thought leads to another and “whaddayaknow” a few months later you have a book.
It’s no different in anything else. You want to lose 30 pounds? Well, you have to lose one before you can lose the other twenty-nine. You want to make a million dollars? You have to make one before you make the other … you get the picture!
The Power of Knowledge comes through Action.
The point is, you have to START. If you are reading this, I will make the assumption that you are fairly well educated and have acquired a significant amount of knowledge over the years. But what are you doing with that knowledge? I used to think knowledge was power. NOT! The power of knowledge does not come from simply possessing it, you must act upon it.
This gap between what we know and what we do is the gap that will lead us not only to success, but to significance. Everyday should be a day of closing that gap. But it takes action. Yoda said it best; “There is no try, there is only do and do not.” [Tweet This] So which is it going to be?
In order to close the gap we need to “DO.” The way we do anything is to START. I have found that it is much easier to start something small as compared to something big. It much less intimidating and much easier to achieve. I have seen so many people take on large tasks and fail because they did not identify the small steps along the way.
Every Great Accomplishment has been Achieved One Step at a Time.
Writing is a great example. The idea of writing a book may seem too much for you to ever accomplish. But how about a chapter, better yet a paragraph and if you still think it’s too much, just write out a sentence. To my knowledge, there are no books out there that were not written “one letter” at a time.
Today’s Challenge: Choose something in your life that you want to do but have been putting off because “it’s just to big” and break it down into small steps and START. That is how you will close the gap between what you know and what you do.
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One of the segments we added to The Platform Builders Mastermind Group this year was a “Leadership Spotlight.” During one segment of our call each week, we feature an author or leader and focus on their current projects or activities.
This week we had a great call and were honored to have Dr. Kathryn Cramer join us who recently released her seventh book, LEAD Positive: What Highly Effective Leaders See, Say and Do.
The latest in Dr. Cramer’s Asset Based Thinking (ABT) series, LEAD Positive pack a tremendous amount of great content on how to be courageous, resilient, and optimistic as we as leaders, can produce significant and lasting change in both our personal and professional lives.
This book is full of concepts and ideas that will no doubt change the way we think, and result in raising our leadership lid. Dr. Cramer suggests that we, by nature, are wired to “avoid harm” and therefore react faster to the negative than we do to the positive. Over time, this creates a negative bias in our thinking. But we have the power to change that!
One of Dr. Cramer’s ABT exercises really caught my attention. The Scan-Snap-Savor exercise, although simple in concept, has the potential to completely change the way we think. See what you think …
SCAN
Dr. Cramer suggests that we look for a positive fact that is either happening right now or in our immediate past. Then focus your attention on one of three areas, self, others, or situation. In Dr. Cramer’s word’s, “The self scan requires you to look for your own leadership strengths, capabilities, efforts, and skills that are showing up in the present moment to move things forward.”
To me, this sounds like “short-term version of the Law of Reflection. Dr. Cramer points out that, “The situation scan leads you to zero in on the emerging dynamics working in your favor.” How cool is that! All we have to do is think positive and the energy pulled from that thinking will produce positive results. The power of positive thinking ring a bell for anyone?
SNAP
I recently heard Dr. Cramer describe this part of the equation as taking a mental picture of that positive fact that you focused on the the scan step. When we develop that positive image in our mind just like downloading pictures onto you computer. They are stored there for your future use.
Again, a pretty straight forward concept – visually snap the picture and download it to your cranial hard-drive. (Tweet This) I see it like this, if you don’t take the picture, you are going to have to recreate the image to access that “positive” memory. In today’s warp speed society, we simply choose not to take the time or energy to do it and default to the negativity bias we already have.
SAVOR
This is the difference maker. Before you store away that mental snapshot, spend 30-60 seconds “savoring” it. Remember a hundred years ago when film had to be developed in a liquid solution? It had to soak in that stuff until it fully developed. Dr. Cramer has brought that concept back to life and you don’t even need a dark room.
Follow her advice and, “Let the full measure of the experience sink deeply into your implicit memory. Savor it. In less than 90 seconds, you have allowed yourself to step outside the hustle and bustle of the day.“
Dr. Wayne Dyer said, “When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” Maybe it’s time you trade in that old camera that doesn’t seem to be working for you and pick up a new one that takes the type of pictures that will get you the “POSITIVE” results you have been looking for.
TODAY’S CHALLENGE: Pick up a copy of LEAD Positive and start using your manual focus option. You just might like the increased quality of the pictures you’ve been taking!
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This month in The Platform Builders mastermind group we are working our way through “The Power Of Urgency – Playing to Win with Proactive Urgency” by William Keiper. John Maxwell teaches that the greatest gap is the gap between what we know and what we do. I believe the Proactive Urgency that Keiper is talking about can close that gap.
In Part two of The Power of Urgency, Keiper takes a deep look into the idea of Playing to Win with The Power of Urgency.
“Your current state is a perfect reflection of your prior decisions.” – William Keiper (Tweet This / Post to LinkedIn)
In this, the final of three posts, I want to offer up Keiper’s thought provoking take on the idea of Proactive Urgency. Keiper ends each of the 17 chapters with an “Urgency Rule” and I want to highlight a few to set the frame for Part 2 of the book.
Urgency Rule #12 – A purposeful commitment to acting with pro-urgency is a sustained, continuously renewed promise manifested in your bold actions. This ongoing promise leaves no room for fakery, conformity or false consensus.
I love this quote from Keiper, “The path of least resistance will always be crowded with those who occupy half-numb, half-lived lives.” Commitment never follows the path of least resistance. Commitment will require you to step outside of your comfort zone and do the things you have never done before to become someone you have never been before.
Urgency Rule #14 – An initial decision, no matter how good, immediately becomes a prospect for an adaptive decision based upon new inputs. Be the best challenger of your own decisions.
How often do you challenge your own decisions? Be honest! In almost everything we do, we can do better. There are very few decisions that we make in life that would not benefit from asking these challenging questions:
- What do I need to start?
- What do I need to stop?
- What do I need to do more of?
- What do I need to do less of?
- What am I missing?
If we made better decisions and became just 1% more productive each week, we would increase our productivity by more that 50% every year.
Urgency Rule #17 – Proactive urgency is personal. If pursued with clarity and commitment, it will transform your work, your life and the lives of those around you.
There is that word clarity again. If you have heard me speak, you know how important I believe clarity is in everything we do. Lack of clarity brings confusion and lack of focus. Focus is what keeps you on the right path. Knowing where you are and where you are headed are the keys to getting there.
The question: Have you really committed to reaching your goals or are you still playing small and working through the path of least resistance?
The challenge: Choose a goal you are working towards and fully commit. If you are not struggling, you are not growing.
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]]>This month in The Platform Builders mastermind group we are working our way through “The Power Of Urgency – Playing to Win with Proactive Urgency” by William Keiper. John Maxwell teaches that the greatest gap is the gap between what we know and what we do. I believe the Proactive Urgency that Keiper is talking about can close that gap.
I have to admit that, compared to the rest of the world, I have had it pretty easy during my 48+ years on this planet. I have always had my needs met and have had more than my share of wants. I used to take this for granted but after spending a week in Guatemala last June, I realized how blessed I have been.
As much as I appreciate my good fortune, my reflection on my life has helped me to understand that I allowed that blessing to be a crutch at the same time. I never really felt a sense of urgency growing up. I never got into that mental or emotional state of despair that some would consider a place of urgency.
Because of that, I have struggled to apply a sense of urgency to really, much of anything in my life. Don’t get me wrong, I have faced deadlines and situations where the pressure was on, but I always saw a path to the end. I never realized how this was setting me up for failure. Maybe failure is the wrong word here, but I have gone through most of my life assuming that things will simply work out and they usually did.
“We are more ready to try the untried when what we do is inconsequential.” – Eric Hoffer (Tweet This / Post to LinkedIn)
The real impact in this is that complacency and mediocrity, the status quo, became an acceptable outcome for me. If you know me, you know that I have always had a strong work ethic and have accomplished quite a bit in my lifetime. That being said, the idea of “Proactive Urgency” that Keiper describes in great detail was never part of my game plan and I realize now how much more I could have accomplished. Never too late to learn, right!
In this, the first of three posts, I want to offer up Keiper’s thought provoking take on the idea of Proactive Urgency. Keiper ends each of the 17 chapters with an “Urgency Rule” and I want to highlight a few to set the frame for the rest of the book.
Urgency Rule #1 – Proactive urgency is purposeful, insistent, committed action pursued with a passionate edge. It is an activist choice to access your deepest personal power for the creation of almost immediate transformation.
What would be on your list of items that you are purposeful in, insistent upon and committed to? All I can say is I need a bigger list!
Urgency Rule #4 – The world has changed. Our long-trusted external support systems are weakening. Self-reliance in thought and action is critical for reaching your most important objectives.
Based on current statistics, the things that we could once depend on – work, family, education and religion are becoming diluted in today’s cyber-world. Unfortunately, our ability to find strength in those items is becoming more difficult. These were once the foundation of our existence and now they have become, for many, simply things that fit in when we have time.
Urgency Rule #6 – Choosing to act with on-demand urgency yields continuous, incremental advantages. Think of pro-urgency as your edge in a competition – your life where winning by fractions always matters.
It’s true, the difference between winning and losing or success and failure in often found in the minor details. The smallest of details do matter. Just ask an Olympic swimmer or downhill racer. A sense of urgency might just give you the advantage that makes the difference.
The question: Who do you know that displays this “Proactive Urgency” in their life that has resulted in success?
The challenge: Go talk to them and find out how they use it and how you can apply the same principles in your life.
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Click here to get a copy of my Kindle Book “The Manifesto Of An Influential Leader”
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One of my mentors, Scott Fay, challenged me earlier this week to expand my thinking by focusing on one specific thing I learned throughout the week and take action upon it. This was a “double-dog-dare” so backing down was not really an option.
So here is the plan … Friday’s post will be dedicated to “What I Learned This Week” (WILTW). I hope you will join in with me on this. Friday’s I will deliver my take-a-way for the week and give a call to action as we head into the next.
As I look back on this week, there were several times when I was involved in some type of interaction – training, webinar, coaching, conference call and so on – that brought to light the “greatest gap.” The greatest gap is the gap between what we know and what we do.
It Takes Results To Get Results
Earlier today I was on a call with Paul Martinelli, President of the John Maxwell Team, and he made the comment “Doing Nothing Is Not A Result” and proceeded to explain, in detail, how we can’t expect any kind of result without taking action.
I made similar comments to two groups of John Maxwell Team members that I am leading through a 90 Day Success Program. We will finish this 90 Day journey next week and I told them all that after we attend one of the bi-annual Maxwell Certification events next month, I want to reconnect and discuss their “action plan” in moving forward. You know … that accountability thing!
Are You Still Getting Ready To Get Ready!
All too often, we get hung up on the “getting ready” piece of accomplishing goals and when you think about it – getting ready has everything to do with what we know and nothing to do with actually doing it. Don’t get me wrong here, preparation is a huge part of success, but you could be the most prepared person on the planet and if you don’t execute your plan, it’s all for not.
Here is where I think a lot of people get stuck in this. They set a date to accomplish something knowing that they need to prepare. The problem is that we assume that just because preparation comes before execution, the chronological order of things will take care of itself. The net result is that we hover in the “getting ready” phase and the deadline slips by because we are still getting ready.
Quit Doing Something That Get’s You Nothing!
So what did I learn this week? I learned that somewhere between knowing and doing there is an point where preparation stops and execution starts. Yes, I realize that most things in life continue to evolve and that we will always need to be preparing for what’s next, but that CAN’T be a reason to live in get ready world. I know that doing something that get’s you nothing is not the result you are looking for.
So here is what you need to do. There is something you are working on right now that has you getting ready and you probably have some idea of when you need to actually do it. Break up this omelette of activity into it’s original ingredients and put a date on each step. Write this down ==> On (fill in the date), no matter what state of readiness I am in, I am going to start. And them make any necessary course corrections needed along the way.
If nothing is what you are getting from your something, it’s time to make a change. (Tweet This / Share on Facebook / Post to LinkedIn)
C’mon people – It’s time to close the gap and start getting results!
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If you are like most people, there are one or two things that you put on your list of goals every year and every year you fall short.
I have spent much of the past two or three years studying what separates those who succeed from those that don’t. I have come to the conclusion that it comes down to not what they are trying to do, but why they are trying to doing it.
Back to my opening statement. For me, that lingering item has been my health. I have never been able to figure it out. My wife Michelle sets a great example for me. She eats good, sleeps 8+ hours a night and runs five days a week. Beyond that, I want to be in good health. Even though I am 48, I feel like I am younger than that but at the same time, feel time catching up – if you know what I mean!
A couple of friends of mine, Chemae and Eric, are Take Shape For Life coaches and after years of listening to stories about success they have been having with their clients, I decided to put some of the health principles that they teach to the test.
About six months ago, I started eating smaller meals and cut way back on sugar and carbs. Boom! Instant results. By early November I had hit my first benchmark. I had dropped twenty pounds and thought I had this health thing all figured out. After all, I am a professional coach. Should be easy, right? Maybe not.
A month later and no more progress. So I did what I should have done to begin with. Reached back to Eric and Chemae and said “Help!” Three words made a huge difference. Here they are and why they are so important.
STOP
When things are not going the way you want. When you just aren’t getting the results you are looking for – STOP! I didn’t say quit, I said stop. I know you have heard the saying “If you keep doing what you’ve been doing, you’ll keep getting what you’ve been getting.” So if this is the case – stop and take a minute to figure out why things are not working out. How do you do this? Simple …
CHALLENGE
If you are not getting the results you were looking for, challenge the thought process that you have been using to get them. Challenge your why. Most of all, challenge what you know about what you want and why you want it. (Tweet This / Share on Facebook / Post to LinkedIn) Knowledge is power and sometimes even when our why is the right one – we don’t understand it enough to make it strong enough to provide the strength to succeed. OK, then what?
CHOOSE
Now you are a little bit smarter. Now choose a new path. The destination might still be the same but now you can make the needed course corrections and get back after it. Life is about choices and usually, the better informed we are, the better choices we make. Clarity also makes the decision making process much easier. Eliminate the things that didn’t or won’t work and then you have less to choose from.
So does this work? Well, one week into following the Take Shape For Life program and I was down 5 more pounds and getting more sleep. In reality, the process impressed me so much that it struck me that this would be a great addition to be able to provide the same support and resources to my own clients. Most of them have health related issues on their list anyway so why not add a plan that actually works into the services I provide.
So I have added health coach to my resume. I joined the Take Shape For Life team earlier this month and am looking forward to sharing a path to Optimal Health with my network of clients and colleagues. If you are interested in finding out more about the TSFL program I would encourage to visit my TSFL page by clicking here and contact me if you think it makes sense for you and I will help you get started.
There is also a great opportunity that you can sign up for through March 1st. If you are interested in finding your own path to Optimal Health, join along with thousands of others and sign up for the STOP CHALLENGE CHOOSE (sound familiar) 12 Week Health Transformation. No cost. No strings. Simply an email a day full of great content and tools that can really make a difference for you in your journey to getting healthier.
Just click here and you will be redirected to the Stop Challenge Choose webpage. Click on the I Know / Have a Coach button and put in my name “Barry Smith” and that’s it. Starting on the next Monday, you will receive a daily email full of great value related to improving your health. If you have any questions along the way, just let me know.
A question today that you may have never asked yourself before – What does Optimal Health look like to you?
You might have already guessed my challenge – Sign up for the STOP CHALLENGE CHOOSE 12 Week Health Transformation and find out what Optimal Health might look like for you.
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National Quit Day has come and gone. My hope is that the “why” behind your 2014 goals was strong enough to keep you on course and that you continue to productively pursue the goals that will make 2014 your most successful year yet.
If you are still on track with your goals – good on you. That being said, it takes about 30 days to start a new habit or become consistent in the transformation you are seeking. It will probably get a little tougher before it get’s easier.
I don’t want to jinx the future, but I believe this post will help you through the tough times as you take on these new challenges. One of my mentors taught me that failure won’t ruin you, it will reveal you. What does that mean? What I believe it means is that as you begin to slip from your commitment to heading to the gym, writing 500 words a day or whatever else it might be, challenge yourself to understand what is being revealed in that failure.
Sometimes You Win, Sometimes You Learn!
Remember what John Maxwell says; “Sometimes you win and sometimes you learn.” You see, failure won’t ruin you. You have attempted many goals in the past and like all of us, have failed almost as many times. That doesn’t have to be the end. But here is the deal – you won’t achieve every goal you set out to. Sorry – simply speaking the truth here. I am more concerned with why we fail. More specifically – what is revealed in the process.
It has been said that; “When you have a strong enough WHY, the how will take care of itself.” (Tweet This / Share on Facebook / Post to LinkedIn)
So put your why to the test. When you fall short you have two choices. You can look at it as failure or you can see what is revealed during the process.
Plan Your Work And Work Your Plan!
Maybe your why is strong enough, but you have failed to set yourself up for success and left out a key ingredient to success. Maybe the environment you are in is not conducive to your success. Achieving goals is much more than simply the desire to change or start something new. You need a game plan – and one that will work.
I think the biggest reason people don’t achieve their goals is because they don’t put enough thought into the way to achieve the goal. They simply write down on a piece of paper what they want to achieve, tape it to the refrigerator and hope that looking at it a few times a day will give them the motivation they need to achieve it.
The Fifteen Minute Miracle
I know many of you are killing it so far. On track and feeling strong. Some of you may be struggling or have already given up on one or more of the goals you set for 2014. There is nothing wrong with the idea of “don’t fix it if it’s not broke” but if there is an opportunity to get better, why not consider it? Don’t give up! There is still time to get back on track – maybe all you need is a little more clarity and a slight course correction.
15 Minute Miracle
I lead a group of new members to the John Maxwell Team through a 90 Day Success Roadmap and one of the resources we use is called the 15 Minute Miracle. This very simple and highly powerful tool almost guarantees success – if you use it right – and will make you much more productive immediately.
All you have to do is break down your day into 15 minute increments. What? That’s it? Yes! I know what you’re thinking … it can’t be that easy. Well it’s not – it’s not because you have to actually do it and do it consistently. Give it a shot and tell me I’m wrong.
A simple but very important question for you today. Have you created the right plan to achieve your goals? Remember – set yourself up for success! When you face failure, ask yourself what is being revealed – what has contributed to the failure and how can I change it.
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Most of my High School years were spent trying to stay out of trouble. The only subjects I ever really did any good in were shop, gym and math. English? Not even close. In fact, the only good memory I have of English class was my freshman teacher, Mrs. Miller. It really didn’t even have anything to do with english, it was just that she was pretty cool!
You remember high school? How many cool english teachers do you remember? (No offense if you are an english teacher, remember – this was from the mindset of a teenage male.)
High School english class must have been a traumatic experience!
I honestly don’t even remember what we did in english class. Maybe I have formed one of those mental blocks that keeps you safe from traumatic experiences. So how does someone like that become a writer? I have no idea! It just sort of happened.
As a project manager in the construction world, I often needed to write letters. Usually they were because I wanted something that the person the letter was addressed to probably did not want to give me. Man, as I look back, I wrote some good ones. So I guess I became a writer by way of necessity but I never enjoyed it.
Somewhere around 250 blogs in less than two years, one kindle book and a hard copy due out later this spring. You know what? I like writing now. So what happened? I think it comes down to WHY you write. Just so happens that those in the Jeff Goins community were recently challenged with that question – Why do you write? Additionally there are many of us committing to 500 words or more every day this month. (Interested in joining in? Click here)
Isn’t about time you share your story?
I pondered this question for a while and I think it comes down to this – I write because it is a way for me to share my story and add value to others that I would not be able to otherwise. People all over the world read and comment on my thoughts and I think that’s pretty cool.
I used to live in a pretty small world with lots of walls but a few years back my world opened up, or maybe it was really my mind that did, but I realized that there are people that believe what you believe but think different thoughts everywhere.
Now I get to collaborate and connect with these people every day. I got to tell you – it has made a huge difference in my quality of life. It feels good to help other people and have them help you. I guess that’s why I write – it makes me feel good.
There are a couple of other reasons that I think are important. I believe everyone has a story, and their story needs to be told. What better way to do it than put it out there and share it. The other thing that I think results from writing – it empowers the reader to change the way they think. Some of you already know what’s coming next … my favorite quote by Dr. Wayne Dyer:
“When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.”
Could you use a little change in your life? What if your words could change the life of someone else? What if your story might just be what someone else needs to hear?
Obvious question today: What are you writing? Uh oh! I think I heard someone say they’re not writing? WHY NOT?
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Well, we have made it through another Holiday season and I hope that yours was full of joy and happiness. I love this time of the year for many reasons, one of which is all the classic Holiday Movies that we have come to love.
One of my favorite is “The Santa Clause” starring Tim Allen. There is a scene in the movie where Allen is at the North Pole and tells one of the elves; “I see it, but I don’t believe it.” She replies; “You’re missing the point, seeing isn’t believing, believing is seeing.”
I have seen so many blogs written about goal setting and New Year’s resolutions. Hey, nothing wrong with that and most of them if applied and followed will no doubt, net positive results. I want to put a little different spin on it.
I think that most people fail at reaching their goals because they need to see them to believe them. What is we believed they would come true before even beginning that “Day 1” activity. I don’t know if this is true or not but I have heard one of my mentors refer to January 10th as National Quit Day. The average day that most people quit their New Year’s Resolutions.
For the sake of this post, I will assume this is true. Why do most people quit less than two weeks into what they saw as their goal for the new year? Simple, if you buy what I am selling – they have not seen any change and therefore don’t believe it will come true. End of story!
I am taking a little different approach this year. I have my goals and a plan to achieve them, but I have simply accepted the fact that they will happen. This may sound a little far fetched and that’s OK. My mentor John Maxwell, once told me that; “What other people are saying about you is none of your business.” Good advice as far as I am concerned.
So I am sure you would like to know how this works. Well, here is my take. I have been working hard on building my business for over two years and I am seeing the results of doing the things that required believing before seeing. I am not going to pretend that my own self-limiting beliefs have not taken me to some lows along the way, but I do believe.
I know that there will always be bad with the good, but accepting that allows me to move past the challenges knowing that they will always exist. Believing that good will happen and then watching it happen reinforces my belief that this will be my best year ever.
If you think about it, there are many things in life that really require believing before seeing. Things like love, joy, peace and happiness. Really, put this to the test – if you get up in the morning believing that you are going to have a great day, you will. If you wait to see something good happen before you put a smile on your face … well, good luck with that!
“If you think you can do a thing or think you can’t do a thing, you’re right.” – Henry Ford (Tweet This / Share on Facebook)
My hope for you today, and really the rest of this year, is that you can find some truth in the idea that believing is seeing. So a simple question for you to ponder today; “What do you believe will happen this year?”
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Barry Smith 1/2/14 photo by author © Building What Matters 2014
The post Believing Is Seeing – What Do You Believe 2014 Holds For You? appeared first on BUILDING WHAT MATTERS.COM.
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Today’s post is one I never really envisioned myself writing but I have come to understand, and appreciate that our physical health had a tremendous amount to do with the way we do just about everything.
I had lots of goals for 2013, and to be honest, some of them won’t be met. The good thing is that in almost everyone of them that I will fall short in, I know why. It may be due to being unrealistic to begin with, maybe it was lack of commitment on my part or maybe just the fact that some of my priorities have changed throughout the year. But at least I can learn from these failures.
A few months ago, my mentor Kary gave a group teaching on having a solid core so you could show up with all your energy available to best serve your family, your clients or simply anyone that came across your path. I really felt convicted by his words as I knew that my fitness goals were some that I was way behind on.
Most of you know I am always looking for the next “great” book to read and about the same time as I was trying to figure out how to reverse the downward trend in my efforts to improve my eating, exercise routine, and sleeping habits, a book comes out called EAT MOVE SLEEP by Tom Rath. Now some of you may recognize Rath as the author of StrengthsFinder 2.0 and I found this title surprising given his previous efforts – that was until I found out the rest of the story.
As it turns out, Rath has been dealing with a very serious illness for more than 20 years and refusing to just accept his fate, he set out to find out how he could do for himself what his body would not. For more than 2o years Rath has been studying how the food we eat, the exercise we do, and the sleep we get influence our body’s ability to function and take care of itself.
I am not really going to break down the book, but I would like to share what I have learned in each of these three areas.
EAT
If you would have asked me 3 months ago “how well do you eat?” I would have probably said that I don’t eat bad, but I don’t really eat good either. I actually have stayed away from the really bad stuff (except ice cream and pizza of course) for the most part. My big problem was that I skipped breakfast, snacked my way through lunch and ate a big dinner – because I was hungry – Hello! And then had a snack later at night to finish off the day.
Now I get it. Get a good breakfast, snack on healthy “whole” foods and eat a normal dinner. If you are going to have a snack at night, choose something healthy like fruits or nuts. I know everyone is different, but the elimination, for the most part, of all the sugars and carbs I used to eat and a better schedule has allowed me to lose 20 pounds in less than three months and I feel much better.
MOVE
My relative inactivity over the last 12 months has certainly had an impact on me. Losing twenty pounds has helped but simply stated, I need to start moving more. No extremes, but some consistency would be nice. I have some colleagues holding me accountable to this so I intend on making solid, lasting improvements.
If you want to know all the things you didn’t know related to why it’s important to exercise, grab a copy of the book. I learned a lot of new stuff and I thought I knew most of it already.
SLEEP
I find it interesting that Rath just happened to list these three things in the specific order of how well I am doing on them. The bottom line is that you need 7-9 hours of sleep a night. That means my bottom line is at about a minus 3. I have a much better understanding of sleep and what happens to your body when you don’t get enough of it.
So here is the bottom line that I believe will help anyone reading this. It doesn’t matter how much you know about any subject. What matters is how well you implement the needed changes in your life or business. I am headed in the right direction and the reason is that I finally figured out that you can’t do it all at once. You need to take it one step at a time and develop habits. Get one thing out of the way and start the next.
A very important challenge today. First, get a copy of Eat Move Sleep. This book will provide some valuable information that can change your life. Second, choose one of these areas – any one of them, and start doing something different. Set yourself up for success and start today.
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Click here to get a copy of my Kindle Book “The Manifesto Of An Influential Leader”
Don’t miss a single post from Building What Matters by subscribing at the top left of this page.
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Barry Smith 11/21/13 photo courtesy of eatmovesleep.org © Building What Matters 2013
The post How You EAT, MOVE and SLEEP Will Change Your Life! appeared first on BUILDING WHAT MATTERS.COM.
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