My
boyfriend sent me this video the other day and it really resonated with me and
I needed to share it. Jim Carrey is a comedian but he says something so
profound that you will have a new found respect for him.Watch this and then ask yourself – are the decisions
you are making right now being decided in love or fear?Probably the most important thing I took from
this speech is that you can fail at what you don’t want so you might as well
take a chance on doing what you love.Just don’t be afraid to ask the universe for what you really want.
You are ready and able to do beautiful things in this world.
Not much
needs to be said after this video except – go out and do what you are meant to
do in this world.Remember what makes
you passionate and go after it!
Motivate the mind and the body will follow. I have struggled with running, a particularly grueling boot camp workout
or even sitting down here at my computer to write. I can find a hundred
reasons to quit but I know if I just keep going that I will find the results
that I really want in my life.
Last Saturday my boot camp crew and I participated in the
boot camp challenge at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego. It is
a 3 mile obstacle course that the Drill Instructors put the new recruits
through for 13 weeks. Now I will say this – my boot camp is tough.There is no doubt about it.But what these recruits go through for 13
weeks is grueling.We only had to run it
one time and I will say that was enough.Last year I finished it in 41 minutes and this year I finished it in 36
minutes. I am extremely proud that I improved by 5 minutes.It makes me realize that everything that I have
been doing this last year has been leading up to this challenge.I could have not run as hard, not jumped over
those logs with everything I had, not crawled through the sand as quick as I did
but I knew that at the end I wanted to improve my time so I kept going.My mind was screaming at me to stop, slow
down, you are exhausted, you need water, you need to walk, you need to
quit.I never did.I kept running and when I got to the last
mile I knew that I could make it because I had come this far and I knew that
there were no more obstacles in my way.(Literally and figuratively).
How many times in our lives have we not pushed as hard as
we could? How many times have we listened to the little voice that says stop, don’t
go on? More times than we care to admit I bet.I am interested in working with companies to motivate and coach their teams
to success and here I am thinking how hard it might be.I am talking myself out of what makes me
passionate because of fear.I need to
learn that my mind, while a powerful force, is not always the controlling
factor in my life.I know that many
times the mind will warn you that there is danger or that something doesn’t feel
right.I am not saying to ignore
that.You know when something isn’t right
so go with your gut.But, when you know
it’s your dream and your passion and your mind is telling you that you might
fail – then ask yourself:Are you scared
of failure? Or of being happy?I believe
that many of us believe we are not worthy of happiness which is why we sabotage
the things that are going well in our lives.It’s easy to blame the failure on other forces other than ourselves.I think if you take a good hard look at your
life you will see that many times we are standing in our own way. Now I am not
sitting here preaching at you.I have
and sometimes still do these things and it is the acknowledgement that makes it
easier to move on.I know that sometimes
it’s easier to just give up and stay in the status quo but ask yourself.Are you really happy? Or just really
comfortable?Remember:you cannot spell challenge without change.You have to be willing to step
out on that ledge and take the risk.Do you
think those Marine recruits didn’t think about quitting every time they had to
run that course for 13 weeks? Yes, most of them did think about it and some of
them did quit; but the ones that made it through know they did it because they didn’t
let their mind overpower them.You are also
capable of anything but you have to convince your mind to keep going.
Moonshot thinking.Many of us have never even heard of the term. I hadn’t until today.We had our monthly leadership meeting at work
where all the managers and leaders get together and usually pat each other on
the back for whatever good thing they got accomplished this month.Today was different.There were 2 guest speakers who have regular
day jobs but on the side they go around and talk to businesses about moonshot
thinking and how to change the dynamic of your organization.The premise is that you take this fantastic
goal, something that you would love to do and think more than anything is
nearly impossible to achieve.Much like
Kennedy saying we were going to put a man on the moon but hadn’t even created
the technology or had any idea how it could happen.They just knew they wanted to so they started
creating the plans.
One of the most important things I took away from the meeting
was that just as I have been saying in my blog posts there is power in
partnership.If you hold all your cards
to your chest and don’t share any information then the organization cannot
grow.You must trust that the team you
have is capable and has valuable input in the process.When you take one person’s ideas you are just
dealing with what that one person knows.If you have 10, 20, 50, 100 people all putting in their input you are
creating what is called social capital.It is a dynamic approach at creating an organization that is highly communicative,
energetic, passionate about the relationships with their teams, and supportive
of one another.How many companies out
there that you have worked for have you felt that way?Usually you are just trying to keep your head
above water and get the pertinent information out before the entire building
burns to the ground.If you approach it
from a standpoint of collaborative work then you are not putting out fires you
are creating fires within the team you are leading.
One of the speakers said that leadership is not a
position it is a decision and that in any organization you will have 18% of
the team that are toxically disengaged, 50% that are just disengaged and 32%
that are highly motivated and interested in pushing the business forward.If you just step in and build a relationship with
the team and create the vision and mission with them they are more likely to
engage in what they are doing.Be clear
in what your mission and goals are and when you create mission driven
leadership you will have a team that is actively engaged.
The exercise below was one they had us do at the beginning
of their presentation and it helped me realize what I am interested in doing
with my life.I am starting a leadership
organization that will focus on life/work coaching, mentoring and inspiring
teams and leaders.That is my
moonshot.
I saw a quote once that said “Intensity is not for everyone –
neither is success.”You must be willing
to be intense, scary, loud, excited, passionate and most of all be willing to
go to extremes for your goals otherwise don’t even bother setting any.
I drag my feet sometimes because something I am working on isn’t
exactly exciting or isn’t igniting my passion.It is during this time that I can find yet another great sitcom on Netflix
to watch, see what’s happening on Facebook again or find another awesome Pinterest
page to get sucked into.Now I am not
saying that you don’t need downtime and that Pinterest and Facebook aren’t helpful
in inspiring you but really you should be asking yourself why am I not working
on something that does push my levels of creativity rather than working on something
I find boring and tedious.If you are
serious about a goal then you will do whatever you need to in order to achieve
it.If you make excuses then you know
you are not that interested.My boot
camp instructor says you must be “committed not inspired.”Commitment takes over where inspiration
stops.It’s great to be inspired by
something or someone but what are you going to commit to?Are you willing to make the ultimate
sacrifice? Are you willing to push for everything you want?Are you willing to overcome the resistance
that keeps holding you back? (Thank you Jason Rasset for suggesting I read the
War of Art).
I hate should haves or could haves.There is no room in your life for those
statements.You must be willing to
sacrifice everything to be successful.You
must go forward in your life with purpose and shake things up. My favorite quote
is change is the only consistency and I know that in order to be successful you
must be willing to change.So my commitment
starts now.I know that in order for my
blog to be successful I need to write every day.I need to refocus my energy away from the “time
sucks” that I keep falling back on and I need to realize my goals and my
success are bigger than my fear of failure.
