UP Your Game

You know what comes with success? FUN! A lot of it! And I don’t mean the kind of fun that most would think like materialistic fun. But, people fun. The journey is fun. Anytime you can live life to the fullest including at work or during your hardest stretches, your game is right where it needs to be. Hang in there long enough you will get to enjoy it.

It started for me with a deep personal investment in a growth mindset. Not accepting things for what they are. That they could be more. Curiosity alone was enough to take me take a deeper look. Excellence doesn’t just come along and happen, it takes work.

I needed to ask the right questions to start with because I was asking the wrong ones for a long time. I wish I could tell you what they were, but it’s also personal in your journey. It’s different for everyone. My right questions could very well be your wrong ones. But, I do know taking the time to or a moment to think things through and asking yourself what the solution might be, is the same for everyone.

Ask yourself not just what you want, but how you wish to get there. That’s where my journey and yours come to a fork in the road. You have to take your own road and I have to take mine. You have to ask the right questions. One of mine was, “What do I need to do in order to get seen so I can earn the right to help others?” I’m an ambivert which means I am both introverted and extroverted at the same time. And, they’re both at war with another all the time. It’s exhausting. I needed to be seen so someone else can give me feedback to help me find out which way to lean.

Listening to others was not easy for me, nor will it be easy for you. Especially if you have not developed your self-awareness enough to not let ego dominate your reasoning. You need to hear valuable feedback that will help you improve. Can you get over yourself enough to listen to the other party? The more critical the feedback the trickier it is to take it on board. Cultivate and enhance your listening skills. It helps. Probably the first feedback you need to ask others for is, “How well do you think I listen?”

“Listening is a never-ending journey upon an ever-improving road.”

Everyone is a coder. I don’t mean necessarily a programming coder. We encode messages in our brain daily. Any time you use negative self-talk like “I’ll never hit this goal” or “ I can’t run a marathon” you won’t. Henry Ford said it best, “Wether you think you can or can’t – you’re right.” Once you get this, you will have the power to choose whether you feel bad or not. We have more power and control over our feelings then we think.

Build systems in your daily life. It would sound silly to you if I told you I plan out my work and daily life in a calendar. Why would I do that? Live off a calendar? I learned in today’s age of disruption its the only thing I can do. If I don’t plan my time, someone else will. Creating structures will up your game. You’ll find margin in your life to do the fun and exciting things you’ve always wanted to do. If you don’t plan or use a system, that time may or may not happen. More often than not, it won’t. Don’t waste time and energy by just reacting to your days. Plan them out!

You won’t up your game with out fully being committed and immersed in the work you want to achieve. There’s a great analogy of this that has stuck with me. A plane as heavy as it is takes a lot of energy and velocity to get into altitude high enough to fly. But, once it achieves the altitude it needs, flight is effortless. The same applies to us. Be ready to be exhausted initially. Once you are flying, flow takes over and it becomes fun. It will almost seem effortless. This is the point you will really enjoy what you are doing.

We can’t just go through the motions. If you want to truly up your game you have to elevate yourself to the highest levels you can. There’s a time where you will be unsure of where to start. When that happens just show up. Ask yourself what you want to change and be different, change it. Once you’ve clarified the flight path, the sky is the limit! Have a great flight.

✌🏻 Shawn