1 – Identify – Identify precisely what the specific issue is that you need to address here & now.
2 – Understand – Look at your present context & understand the real reason you need to fix this now.
3 – Learn – Critique your way through a few reasonable ways to get the job done given your present circumstances.
4 – Apply – Choose your best option and boldly implement your strategy with confidence!
Think. Commit. Succeed.
There may be times when circumstances dictate that you absolutely must compromise.
Whenever this happens, make the best of it by engineering a scenario where what needs to be sacrificed is simply some perceived comfort, traded off for the benefit of strategically adapting to your current context.
Just have a care that you never permit compromise to be a matter of relinquishing or sacrificing your principles. Ever.
Consider this deeply: Treat intelligently managing compromise as investing in your future, not acquiescing to your present.
If you are an average person, you can probably run down the street quite capably without undue effort or stress. But this doesn’t mean that you automatically possess the capability to complete an Ironman event.
Pretty straightforward, right? But oddly enough, when it comes to thinking, people tend to ignore this simple rationale. They often expect to automatically be able to think powerfully & critically about a huge variety of extraordinarily complex issues, circumstances & ideas. And when they fail to do so, they are either shocked or disappointed or both.
Consider this: Having a body does not make you an athlete. And having many thoughts in your mind does not constitute thinking. Just because you can think your way through a typical day doesn’t mean that you’ve automatically cultivated the capability to think critically. So update your expectations, and don’t be surprised when you – or others – can’t seem to think critically.
My advice is to appreciate that powerful thinking requires both measurable time & energy. Thinking gets physical results because it is a physical act. And like any other physical act, it requires physical training in order to achieve excellence in it.
You can think critically – just accept that it requires consistent & deliberate effort on your part. Once you’ve trained yourself and cultivated your capability, capacity, skills & techniques, you’ll find yourself plowing through complex issues & ideas effortlessly.
And that’s when life gets a lot more interesting.
Searching for some practical avenues for achieving your Full Potential? Excellent!
How about…
Identifying your Blind Spots. Recognizing opportunities. Seeing possibilities. Reaching so far beyond your hurdles with such positive force of will that all your obstacles are overcome as a matter of course, and the entire exercise of doing so is a pleasure!
“Life on the tightrope is living; everything else is waiting.” – K. Wallenda
What is the most effective path to accessing your potential? Self-discipline.
Why? Because it is incremental. The elegance of Self-discipline is that it automatically carves out a manageable, bite-sized portion of your potential – and helps you digest it – every single time you engage it. So not only does Self-discipline give you traction on something as nebulous as your own potential, but it scales with you as you continue to grow, develop & improve yourself. How great is that!
Self-discipline is the most powerful tool that you have to speed you on your way to becoming your best. You don’t even need to guide it – it’s virtually fire-and-forget! So keep the better part of your attentions focused on Self-discipline, and I promise it will keep you growing into your ever-increasing potential.
Principles and Courage are two sides of the same coin.
Principles are guidelines for living, chosen by you for you. To be worthwhile they must be forged in reason – through deliberate thinking, not just emotion.
Courage is deliberately choosing at any moment to adhere to & be guided by your Principles rather than the dominant emotion of the moment.
Courage is not absence of emotion; it is mastery of it. It is choosing to follow the path proscribed by your Principles rather than the path proscribed by Fear; reason overcoming the impulse to react to your fears. So the best way to develop courage is to research & cultivate a clear understanding of your Principles.
Remember: Courage is ultimately a deliberate choice – guided by our Principles – that we are all capable of making .
Futility is a uniquely human experience. The poisons of Doubt and Guilt are the key forces responsible for it. And all three forces are incredibly toxic to the human spirit.
But when you manage to tap into your inner reserves of will, you can access the power you need to purge them from your system.
Inoculate yourself against the Doubt & Guilt that corrode your spirit, and you can be assured of maximizing your potential and living your best.
Sure, its hard work, but what an extraordinary payoff!