When Will You Choose to Be Successful? An Irreverent Rant on Personal Motivation
Filed under: Career, Leading Change, Life and Business, Making Decisions, Performance, Social Commentary, Social Satire, Your Professional Development "To Do" List
You can distill an entire shelf of self-help books down to this simple question at the top of the post: “When will you choose to be successful?” Based on my calculation, I just saved you somewhere between $400 and $800 dollars or more at retail on self-help books. Make checks payable to…
It never ceases to amaze me how many excuses people have for not succeeding at something they view as important to them personally or professionally. While behavioral psychologists might label this as an issue of “external versus internal locus of control,” as I listen to the excuses flowing for not getting the job, not losing weight, not saving money, not making it to class, not writing a book, not keeping up with blogging, what I’m really thinking is (in very loud terms inside my mind), “YOU HAVE NOT MADE UP YOUR MIND TO SUCCEED!”
Just a Few Examples:
- Let’s take diets. First of all, we’re all on them. Eating is required for life. The type of diet that bedevils most people is the one that involves doing this less often. To my own knowledge, there are very few incidents reported every year that involve someone force feeding someone else donuts and super-sized gargantuan fast food meals. Given the lack of external coercion, we are left to conclude that free-thinking people with free will are jamming the extra calories down their gullets and then lamenting the struggles of dieting. My suggestion is duct tape over the mouth. For multiple reasons.
- Want to write a blog or a book? It’s darned hard to do without understanding the secret behind S.A.I.C. That stands for “Sitting Ass in Chair.” Quit talking, sit down and start typing.
- Interested in reinventing yourself? This is a common topic during these unpleasant economic times, and a few courageous souls are active in pursuit of this challenging activity. However, more than a few know that they need to do something, but suffer from too much S.A.I.C., and need to apply G.A.O.O.C.a.G.G. That stands for “Get Ass Out of Chair and Get Going.”
- Still smoking? Yeah, big tobacco got you. It’s a plot. It may well be, but why are you committing slow suicide along with your donut eating, super-sizing, friends. Same issue. No one is holding the gun to your head saying “smoke me.” I get the nicotine thing…but find some help and get on with it.
- Would life at work be great if only the boss would hurry up and eat/smoke/reinvent himself out of your life? Get over your boss and focus on yourself and your performance. Some of the best performers and most successful people you’ll meet got that way by using the motivation of a lousy leader to help them push forward.
- Sales down this quarter? The last time that I looked, there’s still a lot of money flowing through the global economy. Someone somewhere is selling something. Why not you? Maybe it’s time to reinvent your approach to getting clients to know, like, trust, try, buy and refer you. (Thanks, John Jantsch…those are part of his Marketing Hourglass terms!). Shameless plug…call me on this one, I can help!
The Bottom-Line for Now:
Just so that you know that I’m an equally opportunity pain in the ass, I’ve got a few challenges on my plate that I’ve occasionally found myself looking around for good excuses to attach to my lack of progress. However, I know better and the excuses only make me realize that my biggest failure on the issues at hand is that, “I’ve not yet decided to be successful.” OK, I’ve decided. Now back to work. Right after I take a lunch-time workout to make some progress on another goal.
It’s your turn. Have you decided?
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