July 16, 2023 and I am watching the sun go down in our backyard in Georgia. Summer seems to be cruising by and there is no way to slow it down. When up pops a stream of thought that just might be readable. I guess we will find out when I am finished.
Seven billion people on this planet and one sun. It makes me realize that we are all a part of something larger than just our backyard, our job or even our country. To me that brings hope, hope that one day we all realize that being human is a thread of being on the same team. Sure, we all have differences, I just said, hope.
Greed is a sad thing, a sad place to be. I think that it one of the places where we fall off a bit, when greed overtakes a persons life, the human side of them can falter. One thing I know is that we can all get better, at whatever we do or whoever we are, we can get better.
In every one of our Dale Carnegie Programs in which I am the instructor, I tell my participants something I heard as a young athlete, you play like you practice, so practice hard. In essence, our preparation for life should be taken seriously because that is how we live. I mean by preparation, our thoughts. When you spend your energy building positive thoughts in your mind, you may have a more positive outcome.
Lets admit it, the toughest real estate to navigate is that space between our ears, our minds. It really is the first place that we allow fear and doubt to enter, both of those like to take control. Why can’t we replace that with a searing and healthy belief in ourselves? If fear and doubt can so strongly take hold of us, and that is where it begins, just work on replacing it with a strong belief in YOU.
Again, you play how you practice, we need to be diligent in our practice on believing in ourselves.
It seems like fear and doubt impact us quickly. We can be going along just so smoothly and a pang of doubt creeps in and takes over. On the other hand when we have a small little victory we justify it as luck or even something else. It would be better if we were able to celebrate those little victories, an inchworm moving closer to a positive goal. Celebrate, every bit of progress is a win and should be celebrated.
Maybe it is human nature to focus on our losses, maybe it is and maybe it isn’t. It seems that we spend more time on that, the losses. Mr. Carnegie has a principle, count your blessings not your troubles. We can grow from that in our lives, to count our wins and learn from our losses. We need to celebrate our life victories and learn from the times we fail or have a setback. Don’t allow the losses to overrun you, they are fantastic learning tools to study and then cast aside. Keep going in a positive direction.
Winning requires effort, in sports, it also requires teamwork. Surround yourself with people who lift you up and give you encouragement, that also means that you have to encourage others. Yes, you are a part of THEIR team and their journey towards success. We hear often that it is the people that we share life with that we need to choose wisely, be a person that makes someone that chooses you to have made a wise move.
Back in the 1980’s I read a book, The Seeds if Greatness by Dr. Denis Waitley. In the book he talked about the weeds that took over our garden, our minds. Things like anxiety, fear and doubt, plus many others. It prompted me to think about a pesticide, DDT. Something that was thought to be helpful turned out to be harmful and was eventually banned for agricultural use. My terminology of DDT was different.
Dedication Discipline and Tenacity.
My thought was that if we could dedicate ourselves to a purpose, a goal or a projected target, like lets say weight loss. Then we disciplined ourselves to do the things that were necessary to achieve that purpose or goal, whatever those steps were that we needed to do and attacked them with a ferocious tenacity, well we would have a better chance of making them come to fruition.
Take for instance a sales goal. Set the goal, make it reasonable and doable. Then figure out all of the actions you need to take in order to achieve it. The number of calls. The practice of your craft. Your sales pitch. The honing of your skills. All of the items needed in your sales journey. Then discipline yourself to do each one, every one and the practice that goes along with that process. The next step is to attack each one with tenacity. The learning, the doing, the time organization, prospecting, attack them with an enthusiastic tenacity.
Well, it is a thought. DDT. It is better than a half hearted effort.
Like I said an hour ago, not sure if this is readable, maybe it is and maybe it isn’t. Just thoughts that came out of my head watching the sunset on a Sunday night.
I hope that you find something positive here that you can utilize in your world. Just a bit of rambling. Thank you for reading.
rtg7 