The BENCH: SILENCE

You should be asking yourself, after so many weeks, actually now a full year of the BENCH, what is Kevin talking about when he says "SILENCE". Have you every thought about what it means to just quiet yourself? I mean literally stop, take a few deep breathes and just silence the outside noise, the distractions and the "things" that just take away from what we do and how we do it? THE BENCH, is a true lesson in how one learns to focus, to avoid wasted time and distractions.

Year's ago, I mean way back when I was 16, I will never forget, I worked out in the basement of our home. I was in the early stages of lifting weights, and a typical teenager, I was superman, I was "ARNOLD" and I was determined to get super strong and as such, I could do anything. I lucky was naturally strong and was already bench pressing 200 plus lbs. So here I am on my JC Penny bench and my weight set that I had been given by my family at Christmas and added to it but as I am benching, ( and the lesson here is when you are holding over 200 lbs. over your face you have to be laser focused( think about it) someone shuts the lights off!!!!!

Suddenly here I am with 200 lbs. over my face, total darkness and silence. Trying to "rack" the weights and missing now the panic but the silence. That was the lesson when I realized it takes all you have to be totally in the moment, avoid every distraction because what ever I did could either hurt or maybe even kill me or be a huge lesson. Obviously I survived it but it taught me how deeply you must be in the moment, the ability to laser in and shut out everything to know what to do, do it right and avoid what distractions could take you in a wrong direction.

When I sit in meetings or listen to people present and take, it amazes me how much talking gets done yet how little listening. WHY? If you really want to solve issues or set plans invest your time to "SILENCE" yourself. LISTEN, by doing so you filter out all the noise, you hear what is the real issue, what has been done, what is it the client really needs or wants from you? , what has been the reason they might need you or your service? BUT, how will you know unless you are silent long enough to listen? This is a discipline and self control of FOCUS.

I will tell any leader the greatest communication skill to learn is be silent, listen 80 to 90% of the time talk 10%, be silent, FOCUS on what you hear and why. LEAD in this manner. There is an old saying, you have 2 ears, 2 eyes, 2 nostrils and only one mouth. You were built to absorb more for learning than pushing out words, use the way you were built, be silent, listen, focus.