Are you open to change?
I don’t know about you but I don’t wake up everyday feeling all pumped up and excited. Thanks to the fact I hit pause on alcohol I do wake up feeling good most days, which was a much-needed improvement. But excited?
Fact is we’re not all fired up all the time. Much of life is spent between times where you’re excited and inspired about your life. The rest is what you’re simply doing day to day—the mundane.
I had a conversation recently with a guy I meet with regularly. He was discouraged with where he thinks he should be in his life presently, and that he’s doesn’t have a clear vision of where he’s headed.
I know what he’s striving to do daily, and they’re good things. I encouraged him, pointing out he’s laying a foundation of stability that’s making him healthy in a number of ways. As I told him, he’s doing what is getting him ready.
Legendary basketball coach, John Wooden, was a master at getting his players ready by focusing on the small, mundane things. He insisted on his guys putting on their socks and shoes in the right way, which to him is the best way possible.
Really? Things like socks and shoes? How they tied their shoes, even? His results? They (UCLA) won ten NCAA championships in a twelve year span, seven of them being consecutive. That’s pure dominance.
If you have any appreciation for sports, winning, or excellence, then you agree those results are beyond impressive. And he did it by focusing on the small things first. Coach Wooden said this:
“When opportunity comes, it’s too late to prepare.”
He knew the foundation for greatness, the groundwork for excellence, is laid in the times prior to the arrival of opportunities. That being ready when the time comes is critical, or you miss out.
I say that to say this: what are you doing right now that’s distracting you or undermining your progress? What daily thing in your routine is not helping you? Are you open or willing to look?
That was really the subject in a recent interview I did with my friend Dave Stuart, JR, where we talked about hitting pause on our drinking and some of what we learned doing that. We discussed our need to be curious about ourselves and what we’re doing—to being open and willing to learn more about ourselves and our own MO.
Alcohol may be seriously undermining your progress. It may be what will keep you from being ready when opportunity knocks. Maybe it’s something else. Do you know?
As Dave and I discussed in the interview, most of us truly desire things to be better for ourselves and others. We want good change.
The question is, are you open to it?
Here’s to change for the better!
Tim
PS—If you want to discuss what may be holding you back give me a call. It could be a number of things: your thinking patterns, habits, go-to reactions, relationships, prescription drugs, just to name a few. It’s never too late to change for the better.
Feel free to share.
