Success isnât ever either/or, itâs always a balance and the balance is always shifting. Work/Life balance is a myth. And so is attaining success.
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What most people donât get is that the journey changes you. So when you work really hard and achieve the goals you set out to hit, sometimes you feel flat. Like, âwhat, thatâs all there is?âÂ
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Thatâs all there is because youâre more accomplished. So doing that thing that looked so hard a year or two ago is just part of who you are now.
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Remember that when youâre starting that climb, taking on that new project, or pushing to reach some new goal.
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Success is a DYNAMIC balance. Itâs not static. Itâs ever moving and, because youâre the one to give meaning to the things in your lives, the attainment of success is ever changing.
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Thatâs a good thing.
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You can look at what youâre really good at. Whether thatâs driving or doing surgery, none of it felt easy when you were first learning. Now, you know thereâs nuance. You know you co...
This is a bit of trivia. Some people will get it right away. Some people will wonder who the heck Iâm talking about. Some people will say that they didnât know that was his last name.
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Who is Mickey Goldmill?
That, my friends, was Rocky Balboaâs trainer. Played by Burgess Meredith in the first Rocky film, he was gritty, and he gave Rocky the Truth, even when it wasnât easy.
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We all need someone in our lives to encourage us, to tell us to get up when weâve been knocked down, even if they canât get into the ring with us to pull us back up. They tell us to stay down so that we donât have to take another beating and then they tell us to get back to work so that we never get in that position again.
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They celebrate the wins with us because theyâve seen the tough journey.
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We look at what looks like success after success of people out there on social media and we compare ourselves to them. We think that getting banged up is failure when, in fact, thatâs all part of the journey.  ...
Working with a mentor and coach can be tough. I guess itâs supposed to be. Each of us lives our lives to the best of our abilities and no one really wakes up any morning going, âgosh, I wonder how I can get further mired down in my own blind spot muck today.â
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Itâs why high performers donât stop improving. They seek an outside perspective. They know thereâs more for their lives and they know they canât see it all. Great athletes need great coaches. Great entrepreneurs and leaders all have great coaches.
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And even as a great coach â yep, Iâm known as The Exponential Success Coach â I have three advisors I work with for different parts of my life and business. I know what I know. I know what I donât know. And, most important, I donât know what I donât know.
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And neither do you. You donât know what you donât know. Thatâs a blind spot. We all have them.
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My a** was handed to me so gently by one of my advisors when I was talking about all of the things I needed to do and what I...
I love this topic so much. Itâs what reawakens the vital spirit in each of us. When we step back into Purpose and realize we not only can, we should be pursuing our passions. (For those of you who have been following my work, you know that I very rarely choose to use the word âshould.â It very much belongs here! You should pursue your passions!)
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But⌠but⌠but⌠what about the responsibilities?
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No one said to stop being responsible. The key here is to reawaken to listening to the things that are actually calling you.Â
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You Need To Listen To The Whispers
Your Passion Is Reflecting Your Purpose
What Is Calling To You â ââŚover here!â
Over hereâŚ!
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Youâre in your Purpose as a human when you follow the calling, the whisper of âover here.â Itâs not just the âwantâ or clicking âadd to cartâ because something is on sale. It could be pursuing guitar. I could be becoming a certified yoga instructor and not giving up your private practice. It could be buying the Big Green Egg barbec...
I get to do this.Â
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Who gets to?
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I get to.
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Do I have to?
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No, I GET TO!
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We all have things weâve stepped into doing that weâre not sure we are capable of. The project is too big. The prospect of failure looms large. And the judgment and self-doubt creep in.Â
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You wake up and the first thought you have is, what do I have to do today?
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Itâs almost like youâll be âcaughtâ by someone for not doing the things that you put onto your own calendar. I have to do this, and that, and then this, and then thatâŚ
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If youâve ever tried to manage a family and do your work, youâll get this. Kids canât do for themselves yet, so you have to help them.
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The project you agreed to wonât get done on its own, so you have to attend to it.
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Thatâs where fear and anxiety creep in.
Did you keep track of all of the details?Â
Are you good enough?
Are you smart enough?
Do you have enough of what it takes to get through?
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First, YES. Yes, you do. And yes. Yes you are!
Youâre a ...
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Itâs said that if you put a frog in cool to lukewarm water and ever-so-slightly turn up the temperature, the frog wonât notice as it becomes acclimated to the higher temperature. When, at some point, the frog ends up in boiling water, itâs too late.
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Kind of gross, I know.Â
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Whatâs sad is when we do that to ourselves. We tolerate and tolerate and tolerate until weâre overwhelmed by something we would have never let into our lives if we were paying attention.Â
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For me, it was clutter⌠piles of papers and reading material that was (is?) sooooo important, I just had to have it out where I could see it. If it were to be filed (or tossed) I might forget about it and then would never circle back to it.Â
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You might think that if it were that important, certainly, Iâd come back to it. The truth is that I donât know if I would or not. I can tell you that I had a bad habit of saving stuff because I might want it âsomeday.â Thatâs in quotes because that day isnât on my calendar. I ...
I just got back from a root canal. WooHooo!!! Such exciting news, I know. Pretty much everything in life brings with it lessons because of the meaning that we give to things. And we are amazing at giving meaning to things, right??
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Is it hard to go to the dentist? Is it exciting to be referred to an endodontist for care? Um, well, it depends. Itâs not the easiest thing to wake up in the morning and say, âYessss! Todayâs the day for my root canal.â Everything is hard until you experience it enough. Then, it becomes not so hard. That said, no one should become an expert patient when it comes to having root canals done.Â
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The truth is that practicing anything that isnât something you look forward to makes it easier and builds expertise. And practicing anything you do look forward to makes âthe easyâ even easier.
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Iâm an expert dish-doer. I can just get âem done. I donât look forward to it and I also donât run away from it. Iâm an expert cat-box cleaner. I donât look forward to ...
Why does everything seem so hard?
Some people live their lives with that question, while others look like theyâre floating from task to task, situation to situation with such ease. Â
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The key is that it, whatever IT is, really can be easy.Â
Whatâs the thing that youâre focusing on?
Whatâs the smallest component of that thing? Ah, think even smaller.
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If you were to stand pillars up in a row and had them arranged in size of height, tipping the smallest of the pillars into the next â much like dominoes - each would fall to the next and the next. The demonstration is one illustrating how moving the smallest can easily topple the biggest in incremental waves.Â
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Be aware of the thoughts you tell yourself as you tackle your tasks, your conversations, or really any of your daily activities.
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Make it easy, because it is.
Be mindful so that it stays easy.
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Whether itâs coming through a divorce or packing for a vacation, there are tons of details to manage. There are emotions ...
I had a realization recently that was sparked by feeling really uncomfortable. I was almost defending what I had been doing for the past three and a half decades. While Iâm always working on improving and I continuously learn and grow, I found myself defending my expertise.
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Itâs my area.
What happened that I felt like I needed to prove myself?
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Old stories. Itâs just that simple. A question got in that wedged doubt in and pushed the ânot good enoughâ button. Old stories carried forward and the questions surfaced: âDo I actually know enough? Am I the right person to show up for this?â
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So whatâs The Truth?
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The truth is that questioning worth is allowing the lie of an old story a lot of us carry forward. Weâre good at what we do. Weâre even experts when it comes to what we do. And when a small sliver gets in, just under the skin, it starts to fester.Â
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Clean that out fast.
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Remember who you are.
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Remember what you are.
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Remember that you ARE enough. You ARE goo...
Hereâs something that has come up over and over throughout the years and I donât think I ever wrote it anywhere. Itâs a way to keep yourself emotionally neutral when youâre dealing with family members or team members, managing up or down the line.
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Hereâs an especially great approach to use for yourself, too!!!
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Focus on three things:
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Counseling a team member or celebrating a win can use these steps!
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Resetting goals for yourself can rely on these, as well!
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âHey (team member or family member or your name here), your job was to get (xyz thing) done in a particular way. That did/didnât happen. In fact, what did happen was ________. What needs to happen next is (action steps or celebrations).â
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Also, check in with what support might be desired to reach that goal.
And contract for an immediate and sustained behavior change in order to maintain the pr...
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