Wayne-isms Part FIVE - You Can't Give What You Don't Have

What is the mistake that leaders make that results in a pretty bad crash and burn?  They either fail their teams, their families, or themselves by ignoring one simple truth with two deliberate paths. 

 

Hint: You MUST do both!

 

You’re here because you are playing to win and not just playing not-to-lose. That’s another concept for another day and we’ll dive in deep on that later. For now, you’ve got to know that if you came over to my place and asked for orange juice, I couldn’t give you any.

 

Why? Because I don’t have any to give. And that’s a funny thing because, I know where to get it. So, let’s play out this analogy.

 

Your special person, your team members, your community – they’re each in need of something from you. What if you’ve been giving and going and giving, and going, and you just don’t have any “juice” left to give. You’re exhausted. And yet, you feel the needs of others pulling on you. (Moms understand this all-too-well.)

 

First, you can’t give what you don’t have. You can’t go that extra mile if you’ve already run out of gas. And so, the key here, is to take time – Schedule Time – whether that’s just eight minutes between your meetings or going to sit in your car for two or three songs, or scheduling a long weekend, put it on your calendar. It’s the most important appointment you’ll have today. Refueling allows you to keep going. More important, while I don’t have the citations handy, there have been numerous studies that have shown creativity spikes after a period of time away.

 

Got vacation time? Use it. 

Don’t have it? Put “me time” in your calendar in a few-minute blocks throughout the day. 

 

PART TWO – THIS IS SUPER IMPORTANT, TOO.

 

You can’t give what you don’t have means that you need to commit to your own growth. This is going to sound frivolous to some people and obvious to others: I have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars (yes, really) on my own growth and mentorship. I can’t give at a level of excellence if I’m not honing my craft and getting myself out of my own way.

 

You can “yeah, but” your way to limitations and you get to hold onto the limitations you fight for. We all have people in our lives that we see such potential in and are saddened by not being able to help them. They’re fighting too hard to stay stuck in their life. 

 

If you ache to be more, do more, and have more – you know there’s more life in your life – then you need to do the work to become the person who can, in fact, be more, do more, and have more.  

 

If I wanted to learn a new language, just wishing to be good in that language isn’t enough. I need to do something to become good. That is a metaphor for literally anything you want in and for your life.

 

The work is about gaining skillsets for thinking, decision making, and confidence. It’s about really owning the life that you want for yourself. And that takes three things:

 

1. Awareness – until you’re aware that there’s another level you could be operating at, you won’t know that you have a choice in your life.
2. Choice – you get to choose to level up your life, your lifestyle, and in so doing, you level up the people around you. That’s a choice. Will you make it?
3. Dedication – There’s action (and personal work) to do. Will you commit to doing what it takes?

 

Okay, a longer blog today. Thanks for hanging in and challenging yourself a bit. 

 

Level up and keep making your magic.

 

= Wayne = 

🡪 Do you really think that you don’t belong at my small-group mastermind where we focus on all of this stuff? You DO belong. Remember that you level up by committing to doing so. Click the link and at least choose to look at options that other successful and happy people have leaned into: Exponential Success Summit