On The Pole

“On the pole.”

When you say that to a group of teenage boys it is a given that there will be snickering and murmurs of juvenile jokes. However, they didn’t last long because of what followed those 3 terrible words. In the corner of this field was a broken down basketball hoop that was reduced to a simple pole standing alone. That was the meeting place; the starting line. “On the pole” meant we were going to start practice with a timed mile. And then, whenever Coach felt like it, we would line up again…all throughout practice.

As a freshman, I truly hated those words. I would spend all day in class dreading practice and dreading hearing those 3 awful words. But by my sophomore year, I started to realize why we trained so hard. At the end of games, we would outlast every single team and still have energy in the last minutes. We were in better shape than every other team.

By the time I was a junior, I literally longed for the words. I had trained all summer. I was faster and stronger and determined to push my body to the limits. I wanted to be the best and was ready to put in the work. My mile time was down under 5:00 and I wasn’t even the fastest on the team. Most of our starting lineup could run a sub 5 minute mile. As a junior and senior, I looked forward to practice and I loved to train.

In the business world, we anticipate.

We anticipate situations, events and even decisions that we will need to make. Without realizing it, we develop fear of some of these future happenings. If we aren’t careful, this fear can paralyze us and keep us from living life on purpose. It can keep us from growing.

Confrontation yields positive results. Either you fix the situation or you part ways with the person or thing that is causing it. Do you know what doesn’t yield positive results? Ignoring. Worrying. Dreading.

My challenge to you is in 2 parts. 1) Figure out what you need to confront. For most of us, it is fear of rejection. Businessmen and women who have been in the game for 30 years still experience it. Maybe it is making calls or attending that networking meeting. Or maybe you need to confront the client who rubs you the wrong way or the partner who doesn’t follow through. Once you identify what it is, 2) confront it and change your mentality. Turn the skeptic into a raving fan. Use the knowledge gained from this experience to better yourself.

I will tell you that it is a lot more fun to run towards a goal than away from something you fear. Either way you are going to hear the words “on the pole”.?

So no matter what "year" you are in your business,? I will see you on the pole.