Stacking the Odds In Your Favor for 2025

Three cups. Six cups. Three cups. Stack. Unstack. Reorder. Repeat. Slap the timer!

My nine-year-old daughter is a whirlwind right now. Yes, the holiday season is full tilt, but her eye is on early 2025.

The World Sport Stacking Association regional competition is only weeks away.

See, she's already timing close to the championship level for her age group in the cup-stacking categories.

And that's why I discovered her crying next to the Christmas tree two nights ago.

Through tears-drowned eyes, she blurted, "Daddy, I'm still not getting the left-hand switch!"

Yes, it's a real thing, this whole 'left-hand switch,' and the odds (and cups?) are stacked a bit against her.

While a vast majority of the competition is right-handed, my daughter is left-handed.

The way everybody else seems to do it isn't working for her left-handed dominance.

Spoiler alert: I'm terrible at the whole cup-stacking game. Even my four-year-old gives me a run for my money.

What I do know is that the way everybody else does things simply doesn't work for many coaches, consultants, or advisors.

The pressure to have a podcast, be on all the stages, host a mastermind or retreat, be a wizard with AI, write a small mountain of bestsellers, achieve Grandmaster-level proficiency in highly technical parts of what you do, and 39 other things can be overwhelming.

And the hardest part?

You likely see a newsfeed full of overnight 'goo-rus' telling you that you have to do all the 'things' a certain way, or you're doomed!

That can bring a whole monster of insecurity slicing to the surface.

It sounds like this:

• "Jon, I'm petrified of getting in front of a camera!"
• "Jon, I hate the way my voice sounds."
• "Jon, I just do not love how I look on the stage. I'm at least 20 pounds overweight, and I feel soooo uncomfortable when all those people look at me!"
• "Jon, I have dyslexia, but I know I should write blog articles for SEO..."

Each of those is a direct quote from clients over the past year.

The stakes are much higher for you than in a cup-stacking competition, as cool as the trophy is.

Your income, impact, industry authority, and legacy are tied to your ability to stand and deliver.

The good news is you can discover what works for you:

• Are you a writer who speaks, or are you a speaker who writes?
• Are you more comfortable in front of a keyboard, a camera, a podcast host, or a live crowd?
• Would you rather work with people one-on-one, in a small group, or in front of as many people as possible at one time?
• Do you like big crowds or small crowds? ("And I like big crowds, and I cannot lie..." Shhhh, you're welcome.)
• What platform do you enjoy spending time on where you know your crowd also loves hanging out: podcasts, YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc.?
• What opportunity, platform, or technology do you feel the most pressured or shamed ('should-ed') to pursue right now? If it feels forced, let it ride for a week or two. That may be the perfect platform for your message, but I never want you to feel bullied or shamed into taking action.

Try a variety of ideas and avenues. Let yourself be a bit messy in what you test-drive. Be kind to yourself as a human who's figuring this all out.

The most important principle is to find what works for you - and invest in that opportunity.

If you don't take action, you'll stay stuck in indecisiveness, shoveling shame, doubts, insecurity, and other people's expectations on top of your joy.

Joy thrives when it's closer to the surface. That's how life breaks through faster, and joy blooms full.

I'm taking part of the Christmas break to figure out this whole left-handed switch with my daughter.

It might take using a big mirror.

It may mean slowing the pace down to half or even quarter-speed.

Shoot, it may mean taking silly dance breaks to ease the tension between reps.

This is all figureoutable, to quote Marie Forleo. It's worth figuring out because my daughter and I are making great memories for the future.

And you're building something worth the work by stacking the odds in your favor this next year.

What's one area that works well for you where you can focus more in 2025?