Mind For Life Insight: January 2023
Every new year, the world goes into "goal setting" or "resolution" mode when we usually take a moment (or several), reflect on the past year and think about how we can continue to grow and improve ourselves and our lives in the year ahead.
I’m sure it has been a challenging year for you as it has been for all of us, but I am also confident that with hard work and determination, you can achieve great things in the year to come.
It’s possible (and even probable) that the resolutions you have made this year have already been broken.
So what.
Remember, every day is a new beginning. Every week can be a new start. Every month can bring about new opportunities to dream a new dream, to set goals, and to move forward in your own personal journey. Though the start of a new year is a natural time to begin something new, it's not the only time. Don’t let early failure sideline you from the rest of the game.
I enjoy watching sports. Not just for the entertainment aspect, but to watch how players respond to adversity. When a player makes a mistake that costs the team the game, their response is critical to their and their team's future.
The great players have a unique ability to fail forward. To learn from their mistakes and to put the past behind them in such a way that it doesn’t impact their future performance.
This is incredibly difficult to do. In fact, you see some players who fail and it ruins their career - they are relegated to the bench, or traded to another team, or they are cut from the team and the sport altogether.
Other players - the great ones - have the ability to use failure to propel them to growth and future success.
Ultimately, this is about a person’s mindset. The mindset is a difference maker between those who move forward successfully in life and those who continue to allow excuses and failures to prevent them from reaching their goals.
What’s your mindset when you encounter adversity and failure? Do you find excuses for why you didn’t succeed or do you take responsibility, learn from the failure and move forward, putting the past behind you?
Do you place the blame in failure? Do you play the victim? Is it always someone else's fault? Or do you focus instead on moving forward despite the circumstances?
As someone famously said "Your attitude determines your altitude." You have the ability to choose your response to failures, to obstacles, and to challenges in life. Don't be the victim of your circumstances.
Fail forward!
Developing a Plan for Personal Growth
We cannot underestimate the power of a personal development plan. Consider this story. This individual was born into a family of seventeen children, the son of a poor candle and soap maker realized early on in his life the importance of self-improvement. Though he only attended one year of grammar school, this young boy would learn on his own how to read and write. To improve and learn, he would study the writings of famous authors and force himself to write in their same style.
Though his father wanted him to enter the clergy, his family’s poverty only garnered him an apprenticeship at his brother’s printing shop. Here his exposure to a variety of books prompted him to not only read the tomes but to form a group of people who would get together and discuss them. Through this intellectual exercise, each of the members sought to improve their minds and in turn, the world.
This young man would go on to do that — dedicating himself to a personal journey of physical, mental and moral improvement. He became a vegetarian believing a vegetarian diet to be healthier than one with meat. And though as a youth, he didn’t always behave responsibly. At the age of 20, he decided to change his life by embarking on a course of what he called “moral perfection. In doing so, this gentleman created a list of four resolutions:
1. He resolved to become more frugal to save enough money to repay his debts.
2. He decided that he would be very honest and sincere in every word and action.
3. He promised himself to be industrious to whatever business he would undertake.
4. He vowed to speak no ill toward any other person and rather to “speak all the good I know of every body.”
This man would go on to great things:
Benjamin Franklin’s list of achievements reads more like that of a group of scholars, politicians and businessmen let alone that of a single individual. Among all these accomplishments, Franklin was a model of self-improvement and his life shows the benefits. At 20, he would list the thirteen virtues to which he aspired in his life:
领英推荐
Listing these virtues was not enough. Franklin developed a plan to track his progress in each of these areas.?Check it out here…
Get your FREE personal development plan template. Click here to get started now!
Thought on Motivation:
If you wait until you're motivated, you’ve already lost.
Surgeons don’t always feel like doing surgery. Teachers don’t always feel like teaching. Parents don’t always feel like cooking. Firemen don’t always feel like rushing into a burning building.
If you let motivation dictate your actions, inertia conspires to keep you in place.
Action creates progress. Progress creates momentum. Momentum creates motivation.
via Brain Food Newsletter.
Go Deeper…
Level 2:?Inconvenient Facts about the impact of electric cars on the environment. I’m sure Elon Musk might have something to say about this ;)
Level 3:?Excessive alcohol use is a leading cause of US preventable deaths. Here's what experts want us to do. - CNN
On the Podcast:
I an opportunity to speak with Dr. Richard Lanigan about communicology and the science of communication. Take a listen, but be advised, this podcast goes deep!
Also, I’ve started putting the podcast interviews on YouTube. Check out the?Mind For Life YouTube Channel?if you get a chance!
Free Resources:
Do you have problems starting difficult conversations? Are you afraid to speak or communicate your feelings to other people? Do you have difficulty being assertive? If so, we have a few resources for you. First, check out the article “A Nice Person’s Guide to Being Assertive” on our blog. Second, you can download our cheat sheet -?How To Start a Difficult Conversation. It’s a quick 5 step roadmap to navigating those challenging and difficult conversations in your life.
Thanks for reading the Insight. Have a great week!
Best!
Jeff
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