Effortless

Growth has an exponentially aggressive gear, and once you've put in the work toward experiencing heightened levels of awareness, and you're minding the gap at will, it's time to take this skill to the next level. The choice to move in this direction must be made with complete intention and discipline, only to be followed by complete surrender. Overthink or over strategize it and you'll fall into a world of deception. Attempt to control it and you'll be pulled into an infinite loop of chaos. The nuance of managing this stage of growth is less about developing an obsession to diligently reinforce these principles and more about gentle, real-time, self-induced nudges to express yourself with purpose and passion. As you're transitioning to this stage, you'll be able to distinguish your new self from your past. Weak traits that don't serve you well will begin to separate from self, providing the necessary room to conceive and install better programs to rewire your internal framework of thinking, decision-making, and action orientation. To transition forward not only requires one to understand and accept the newly revealed path but also must involve a deep love for self. A nod to your current self, honoring your recognition that it's time to move forward, is the confirmation that catalyzes this new stage. Growth is meant to be a glorious step forward, a beautiful aha moment of newfound knowledge to be cultivated into deep wisdom. All too often, humans land in a shameful recant of our past instead of embracing the pain and suffering we've endured as an integral and perhaps unavoidable part of our journey. Now is not the time to wonder how you got here. It's time to spread your wings, surrender, and daringly dive into the unknown beauty of where you're going.

This is Installment 10: Effortless

My poor Facebook community has put up with me posting about meditation, cold plunges, breathwork, yoga, working out, developing a growth mindset, spending hundreds of hours studying philosophy, spiral dynamics, systems thinking, existentialism, flow state, religion, and on and on and on. Today, I'd like to do my best to explain how to access this new level of effortless growth. This is the beginning for me. In time, it will become easier for me to convey what it means when flow state and ekstasis seem to merge at will. This installment is gonna be a bumpy ride, and I hope to impress upon you the magnificent relevance of it all.

The moment we recognize we're at an elevated level of performance is the moment our skill moves forward indefinitely. Sure there will be a time when our bodies will fail us and our minds will deteriorate, but this wisdom carries forward in the stories we tell, the good work we do along the way, and the influence we create as we walk the path. These increased levels of performance are not fleeting moments. They are an awakening of the soul. A glimpse into what is within reach. There is a neurochemical firestorm taking place at these moments. Our body and mind are cozied up to the bar, pounding shots of endorphins, serotonin, oxytocin, and dopamine. When this turbo cocktail kicks in, we're gonna enjoy it. I teach leaders to pause during these moments and truly lean into their emotional and physical states. Having a data point for this moment is the key to the breakthrough. Chasing the replication of this feeling must come with complete surrender. If not, you're positioning yourself to endure a never-ending quest riddled with inconclusive outcomes.

Today, I'm seeing more and more leaders convinced they need to be more driven, more relentless in their pursuit. The enigma of it all is that while being relentless and driven can place something on your radar, a north star to aim toward, this mentality will actually define the limitations. Once the limitations are defined, our limitless pursuit will be blocked. Our growth will stall, stagnating into repeatable decisions to push harder and become more driven and more relentless. This loop is hell on earth. You'll know you're in the depths of it when you're sitting back regretting things that literally just happened. If you're spending more time regretting the decision you just made, the thing you just said, the action you just took, you're at the doorstep of what it takes to learn to mind the gap. So, if you haven't read Installment 2: Growth yet, I urge you to step into that one for a quick read, reach for the door handle, and let yourself in.

I know my top 5 strengths by memory. I've leaned into them during the last few years, with a burning desire to strengthen my strengths. I'm now crossing the chasm of minding the gap so often that these top 5 strengths are becoming effortless. Instead of strategy being my top strength, I now call it effortless strategy. Instead of adaptability as one of my top strengths, I now call it effortless adaptability. In doing so, I've rewritten the code in my software program. We are whomever we tell ourselves we are. If we want to change, we must first change our minds. If you're so driven that you're making yourself anxious or impatient, I encourage you to add the word effortless into how you describe what seems to come naturally to you.

Freedom.

That's the best way I can express what this small shift can do for you. To trust yourself implicitly is the most freeing moment you can imagine. And in the context of trusting your top strengths, it's not that I'm asking you to stop learning against those subjects. I'm asking you to put aside the expectations of it all. How will you know you're on the right path? It's when you choose to seek nothing from learning but you're creating joy simply from the act of learning. No big strategic plans for implementation. No dynamic spreadsheet highlighting your growth curve. It's simply a state of mind. And when you choose to feed what you now describe as an effortless strength of yours, it will begin to magnify exponentially. You won't be able to contain the growth. As you're molded forward by this stacking of knowledge, your surrender to it all will allow for deeper access to these personality traits. Today, I don't plan to be strategic. In fact, I've stopped preparing for meetings. I used to be obsessed with simulating a meeting beforehand in order to understand and be prepared for all the potential outcomes. It was exhausting. Today, my meetings are more effective than they've ever been because I implicitly trust my skill of effortless strategy. If you've been driven and relentless enough, you've created familiarity against this mission. Trust there is a neuro pathway to build upon and completely surrender to this familiarity. This is the step toward effortlessness.

Imagine if I said this to myself every morning, telling myself a story about 2 of my top 5 personality traits...

Rob, you're not just really good at strategy, you're an effortless strategist. The ideas flow...constantly, making it an effortless task to simply grab one of them, guess at the direction and potential outcomes, and immediately take one step forward. You won't ever need to second guess your decisions because you'll be able to shift and effortlessly adapt to any situation that presents itself. Continue to learn about being a great strategist, but there is no pressure to become better. It is already an effortless endeavor. Trust it and do good work today.

Onward & Upward