What Do You Want to Be CAPABLE Of?

That is the question to ask. It is not, what will provide for me? Or what gains me prestige? Or what can I accomplish? These are all limiting questions. How do you expand yourself…yes, you as a man or woman walking this earth for a finite period of time till dust reclaims you? Todd Skinner’s book, Beyond the Summit, is a must read on this topic. He talks about battling one of the fiercest storms while trying to climb an impossible mountain with three other climber. He talks about the difference of success and failure lies in thinking in terms of “what you want to be capable of and where you intend to go when the storm ends.” I agree with him. I agree with Skinner in that we should base our choices in life on “aspiration - who you want to become.”

“To become remarkable people, we must see the extraordinary in ourselves and pursue the paths that lead us further toward our potential.” Yes, yes, yes! And again, “So when you ask which is the better path to take on this day, consider what you stand to gain from each alternative.”

Inside, we wrestle with the courage of such choices. That is what defines us. You can never expand beyond the experiences you have chosen. They bring out and demand your best response. If they don’t, you stop growing and start atrophying.

Criticism is Not Failing

Seth Godin states in Purple Cow that, “We’ve been raised with a false belief: We mistakenly believe that criticism leads to failure.” I agree with Godin’s assessment. Look at the winner’s around you who are novel in their approach to business and life. They handle criticism as part of their learning. There is only winning in their minds.

Often times, there will be adversity in your striving after a goal. It is part of learning. Keep at it. The rewards are great. The noise around you seems tempting to internalize, but if you can separate criticism from the feeling of failure, you will learn to win. As Teddy Roosevelt said:

“It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly. . . Who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause,, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who have never known neither victory nor defeat.”

Be that man or woman. Go for it and welcome criticism as part of your learning to move further towards the goal.

Fail Fast!

In Beyond the Summit Todd Skinner states, “To cross difficult terrain, you often have to make the wrong choice to discover the right choice. So it isn’t the fall that’s important, it’s what you do after the fall.” Many people I have come across equate falling to failing. The fear of messing up or not making correct moves inhibits movement forward towards a goal or limits creativity.

I heard a phrase a while ago that has become a mantra for me: “Fail Fast”. In addition, learn quick. In my mind there is no failing, there is only learning. If you are trying a new thing in unchartered territories for yourself, the fastest way to get to a goal is to make mistakes, collect valuable lessons learned and move on. You are not failing, you are learning in this process. Since you don’t know what is upcoming or have ever experienced it, you have to gather information. And when you commit, commit fully. Because as Todd Skinner says, “because the correct answer applied tentatively could fail, giving you wrong data on the right sequence.”

For some, this may take some rewiring, but I believe this concept offers your refinement towards excellence and winning. Look at the behaviors of successful people around you. Their attitude towards the new, the unknown, is one of learning and failing forward. This is pivotal, lest we stop growing and stop learning. The goal is not to fall or fail, but to find answers so we can succeed.

Function Follows Form

Had you ever noticed that if you set things up a certain way you are more apt to do them? We are creatures of inertia. By this I mean that it is easier for us to stay in motion or do the lowest resistance activity in the area or space we are engaged in. If we are sleeping we like to sleep. If we are working we like to work. Perhaps it’s “groove” or being “in the zone”.

If you want to be strategic about how you move, do an out of body exercise for a day and watch how you move. Do you notice that you do things easier that are within reach? Do you find you seem to not be able to get to the next step on a project because of inertia?

Why not use your nature to your advantage. Align with it and manipulate your spaces so you’ll do the next action naturally. Your movement will take you there. Put a book by your bed so you will read. Have your tools laid out so you can work. Place your ironing near the ironing board so you can get started. Whatever it may be, you can structure it so your function follows your form.

Knowledge Gain

I like the statement from John Maxwell I found in Tim Sanders’ Love is the Killer App: “You only gain knowledge from two sources: the people you know and the books you read.”

How true this is. We get real substantive and life-giving information from our learnings and our networks. Charlie Jones sated, “The only difference from where you are right now, and where you’ll be one year from now, are the books you read and the people you meet.”

Think about the economics of a knowledge economy. Wikipedia makes the following assertion:

“The economics is not of scarcity, but rather of abundance. Unlike most resources that deplete when used, information and knowledge can be shared, and actually grow through application.”

Isn’t that neat? The more you give the more valuable you can become. It is not the old economy of scarcity. How can you create more value for yourself? How about by giving your knowledge. Broaden your network. Grow.