Winning is a habit

"Winning is a habit.  Unfortunately, so is losing."  - Vince Lombardi

So is that a truth?  I believe it is.  When one is on the top of the world, anything seems possible.  When one is in the deepest rut, it's easy to believe that nothing is possible.  A losing mindset is one that keeps us looking to the ground.  A winning mindset is one that keeps us shooting for the stars.  Even when things are rough and the world seems stacked against us, it is our positive mindset that will pull us through.  Have you ever been stuck in a room with someone that does nothing but complain about their circumstances or gossip about other people?  Do you finish that conversation edified and motivated to conquer the world?  Nah, I didn't think so.  In fact, quite the opposite.  You want to crawl up on a ball, close your eyes and be alone.  Not quite the most constructive thing, don't you think?

In short, "Losers" blame, and "Winners" accept full responsibility.  When you blame, you lose all control, because the circumstances around you are controlling you.  They are affecting your actions, or in-actions.  They are the route of all wrong that is happening to you.  They are the problem and since you can't control the outcome, you have no control.

When you take responsibility, you control the outcome.  Sure there are many, in fact, most circumstances where we have absolutely no control over our situation.  Suppose you're wrongfully incarcerated.  Is that reason for complaint?  Sure!  Can that demoralize you? Sure!  Can you escape?  Well, not physically.  Can you escape mentally, well yes!  Even if you are in such horrible circumstances, you can use your mind to think as you would like.  Jailers may be able to contain your physical being, but they cannot contain your mental being.

So back to Lombardi's quote.  Even if the team is in a slump and has lost every game of the season, if they are negative and pessimistic will they will the next game?  Of coarse they won't.  If they keep working hard and keep pushing harder could they win the next one?  Possibly, yes.  It's just like goals.  We have to envision with clarity the outcome of our actions.  If our thoughts are of empty stands and our opponent's score of 42, against our 0, chances are stacked against us.  If the odds are stacked against us going into the game, all we have to do is out-produce those odds.  Sure we may not lose by 42, but even if we only lose by 35 points, we have taken things into our hands and controlled the outcome by our actions.

Oddly enough, it is often those that are closest to us that pull us down.  After all, they know us the best.  They have seen the failures of the past and may be doing their best to help by reminding use that we've tried that certain thing before and didn't succeed.  It is then that we have to put in our ear plugs, put on our blinders and move forward one step at a time.

A Tribute to Vince Lombardi – WARNING – Strong 'locker room' language used in this clip…

Course Correction

You return again and again take the proper course-guided by what?  By the picture in mind of the place you are headed for ...   -John McDonald

So here one week has past since my last update.  New Years intentions blew by the wayside this past week as a multitude of things (influences) were pushed my way.  In years past, I would have thrown up my hands and said, "There goes a perfect year of achieving my goals down the tube.  Well, better luck next year."  But this year I have a different mindset.  "Baby steps Todd!  Baby steps!"  As mentioned in my last post, "Rome was not built in a day;" well neither will the new Todd.   Despite a challenging week with the kids going back to school, late night homework sessions with the kids, unscheduled meetings and best of all a failed hard drive, I moved forward today.  It happened to be the best day in a week!  I got up, worked out (although too tired to push it much), but most importantly I got the muscles and the heart pumped and as a result invigorated the mind.  As always, I felt better half way through my workout that I usually do when I started.  Frog #1 eaten!!  Work was extremely successful as well.  There were a few things that were lingering from last week that were checked off as well!  Frog #2 eaten!  The kids all completed their homework quicker than normal allowing for some great family time together.  Ahhh.  Things are good.

So how could I not update my blog.  Things are great and will continue to be even better tomorrow, even though I'll be limping along without my primary computer and other distractions.

So back to my title.  Whether following Covey's "Sharpen the Saw", Six Sigma/Kaizen's "Continuous Improvement" or Jeff Olsen's "Course Correction" we must always refocus our attention and redirect our compass to true North.  Small stumbling blocks will come.  I guess the idea is to trod them down and make stones of them.  Then when I come around for another lap around the track, they are smaller and slow me down less.  After repeated contact, they eventually become pebbles and actually cushion the step.

A caption to the original image above found here, said the following:

This is the first manned launch of the Saturn V spacecraft, Bill is on top of that rocket with crewmates Frank Borman and Jim Lovell.  The biggest surprise to Bill was the violence of the lateral shaking as those F-1 engines gimballed back and forth to keep the giant rocket pointed in the right direction.  (*Emphasis added.)

Was the lift off smooth?  Was it comfortable?  Of coarse not!  There was continuous course correction even at lift off.  Those huge boosters jockeyed back and forth to keep the rocket pointed in the right direction.  Imagine if they didn't make corrections.  It would have completely missed its mark and even possibly one booster could have overpowered the other eventually steering it back down to the surface of the earth.

Jeff Olsen reminds his readers that the Apollo rocket (an engineering marvel) spends 97% of it's time "off course" between Earth and the Moon and still gets to its destination as planned.  Or to put it another way, for every half-hour the ship is in flight, it is on course for less than sixty seconds.  That would be the same as being on course one day in one month.  So if I have already had my best day today, any other improvements over the month put me over the curve.  Pretty exciting to see that I have already beat the odds and am not working in the green.

Remember the rocket got there.  Followed by many others.  And so can you!  Why?  Because of continuous improvement.

Rome wasn't built in a day

In my workout today, Tony Horton, the trainer who created P90X, mentioned something about fitness that reminded me of my topics of late and the value of actions repeated over time.  He said, referring to our bodies, "Rome was not built in a day."  You see, muscles aren't built overnight.  Well, at least not large ones.  As we lift weights or stress those muscles beyond their current comfort zone (even while doing yard work, house work, etc.) there are micro-tears in the muscle.  That's why we're sore after workouts or certain activities.  While we recover, those tears are repaired and additional muscle fills in the tears.  This is adds lean-muscle tissue, which by the way, is the stuff that burns the most fat.

From Tony Horton's blog from just a couple of days ago:

Everyone knows by now that the start of a new year creates the desire to be a better person. Smoking, drinking, bad eating habits, procrastinating, better work habits, spend less, save more, get fit, lose weight, and so it goes. Enthusiasm that will last well into April. Turns out that long term change is really hard and falling into old habits can happen with very little pressure from the outside world.

Turns out that success comes to those with good mentors, a rock solid plan that fits your lifestyle, a means to stay accountable, and surrounding yourself with like-minded people. Many many folks with the best of intentions have been winging it year after year with little or no change. I meet far too many people who have fallen off the wagon. They were on the program but something happened and before you know it 3 or 4 weeks went by and 10 to 15 pounds come back and they're right back where they were. Sound familiar?

1. Follow the person and/or program that makes sense to you.
2. Write down a plan that forces you to stick with your goals for the next 12 months.
3. Find 3 ways to stay accountable even under the most adverse conditions
4. Run from lazy naysayers and find people who want more out of life.

Work hard, create a plan, stick with it for 12 months and surround yourself with other positive people. Great suggestions Tony!

So can we expect huge, lean bodies after working out for just a week?  What about a month?  Can we expect to do Yoga like Gumby after just a week?  What about a month?  Sure we'll see improvements happening immediately, but the most impressive improvements will come over time.  Not only will our bodies begin to change, but our minds will also.  These changes will not happen over night. The next day after a hard workout, we may ask ourselves why we do what we do.  Why stick with it if there is so much soreness associated with the activity?  Why 'punish' our bodies?  Plainly put, the improvements gained, far out-weight the discomfort.  In my experience, most of those improvements are internal and not viewable to others from the outside.  Improvements include, better breathing, stronger muscles, increased flexibility, more confidence, increased blood flow to through the body, a stronger heart, better concentration, more restful sleep, etc.

Whatever area of our life we're working on, we need to remember that "Rome was not built in a day."  Our success will not happen over night.  This will take a plan, time, dedication and a commitment to succeed.....a daily commitment.  Decide...  Commit...  Succeed...

Harness the Power of Habits

Getting up early can become a habit.  So can getting up late and staying up late.  Complaining can become a habit.  Spending more than you earn can become a habit; so can putting a piece of every paycheck into a retirement account.  Looking for the positive side of every challenge can become a habit, so can finding the cloud in every silver lining. - Jeff Olson

Since we've been talking a lot about how success in any pursuit is the result of minute actions repeated consistently over time, those minute actions repeated consistently become routine or habit.  Rachel Bruner has a great collection of tools that are very useful to create a good habit or end a bad one.  They are simple templates you can print out, put somewhere you'll see it multiple times a day and allow you to check off each successful day.  Once you have repeated the action consistently for more than 21 days you can consider the action a new habit and can move on from them with a new habit or you can track that same action for a full year using another chart.

I created a few templates in Excel since I wanted to combine more goals on a single sheet of paper.  If you are interested, email me and I'll shoot you a copy.

So in summary, write down the new, wonderful habits you want to create and make routine in your lives.  Post them on your bathroom mirror, fridge or next to your computer screen.  Mark off each day you repeat your new habits.  Also, before you go to bed, be sure to review your progress and make plans to repeat your success the next day.  By reviewing this just before going to sleep, your subconscious mind will go to work all night long and help you be more successful the next day!

The Magic Bullet

It's the beginning of a new year and many people (including myself) are reviewing their lives over the past year and asking themselves what will change and improve over this next year.  This is a time for goal reviewing, goal setting and vision planning.  How can we even set goals if we don't have a clear vision.  Vision is a different topic all together.  More on that at a different time.  To whet your appetite until then, you have to see, smell, feel how your life will be.  There must be clarity.  As Brian Tracy puts it, Imagine you have the inborn ability to achieve any goal you could ever set for yourself.  What do you really want to be, to have and to do?  You have to picture it.  Be able to recall it to your mind with a single thought.  Vision Boards help a lot with this....I digress...

In Jeff Olson's Book "The Slight Edge", he reinforces that success in anything we do is a result of small, microscopic steps, compounded over time: day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year and so on.  This concept can be applied to our relationships, our professions, or our fitness -- really anything.  Here is an excerpt applicable to this, the first week of January:

Every single January in every gym in America, hundreds of thousands of people start over in a process that they will soon quit-- only because they haven't set themselves up with the right expectation.  They aren't looking for an incremental progress; they're looking for the results they can feel.  They're looking for a breakthrough.  They never had a chance.

Easy to do, easy not to do ... and in that tiny, seemingly insignificant little choice not to do, so many people needlessly live out lives of quiet desperation....

Our society is sliding rapidly into an ever-increasing economic crisis of poor health.  Endemic adult onset diabetes, heart disease, obesity and a score of other chronic illnesses have steadily fed a monstrously overgrown health care system, tax system and social security system -- there isn't a single 'cause' anywhere in sight.  As I'm writing this (early 2005), several of our most widely used over-the-counter drugs have suddenly been found to make things worse.  And as cancer continues its climb, the drumbeat litany goes on as it has for decades: A cure is just around the corner... we're just around the corner...the latest research says... with your dollars, we'll soon see a breakthrough...

A cure is not just around the corner.  The cure is right here, under our noses and on our plates.

We look for the cure, the breakthrough, the magic pill --the medical-scientific quantum leap miracle our press has dubbed the "magic bullet".  But the solution already exists.  It always did.  Is it magic?  Yes-the same magic that caused the problem: the power of daily actions, compounded over time.  The magic of the Slight Edge.

Plainly put, we have control over ourselves.  We have control over what we put in our mouths.  We have control over what we do and say to our friends, family and others around us.  We have control over what time we wake up and what type of exercise we give to our bodies.  We have control over what put into our minds, either through print, through the TV, through our computer monitors.  We have complete control.

Now this is the first week of January.  Let's set some goals.  Let's write them down and review them daily.  Share your goals with someone that can help you stay on track.  The results we have been 'expecting' for years will only come after we have taken the first action on the first day.  Repeated that action day after day, week after week, month after month and year after year.  Make this year the Best Year of Your Life!

Take action and repeat it, repeat it, repeat it, repeat it......  As Jeff Olson puts it, quite nicely:

You're already doing the actions.  All you need to do is choose to have them serve and empower you -- and keep on choosing.

Happy New Year

A New Year has begun and I have started to blog. I will use this blog as a way to convey thoughts and ideas I have regarding our lives and how we control them by our thoughts, actions and in-actions.

I'll be addressing things physical, spiritual and emotional.

I have been steeped in Wisdom Literature (as Stephen Covey calls it) as of late and have seen tremendous improvements in my outlook and expected returns from my day to day life.

Enjoy the journey!