A lot of the time we can’t see the wood for the trees. It’s all too easy to get bogged down in the details of what we’re trying to achieve, while missing the big picture. I know I do this a lot. In the gym, I tend to focus on what exercises and weights I’m lifting as opposed to what my overall goal is. With my diet, I tend to focus too much on calories and macros, rather than whether I’m trying to lose weight or gain. With my business, I tend to focus on slick features, rather than what features move my business forward. We all need to take a step back more often and evaluate where we want to be, and whether or not what we’re doing is actually getting us nearer to our goals.
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I’m moving gym this month, and while the new place I’m moving to has a lot more equipment than my current gym, that’s not the reason I’m moving. If I really wanted to, I could probably achieve all my physical goals at my current gym, but I’m starting to feel stuck. A change of scenery and new challenges is what I need. Sometimes you’ve just got to move on, to move forward. The same is true at work a lot of the times. It’s very easy to get comfortable. To turn up day-in day-out, do your work and go home. But when we do that, we don’t grow as people. That’s what this is really about, growth as a person. One must take in new experiences and new perspectives. Not always to give us a better understanding of the world “out there”, but to also give us a better understanding of the world closer to home. Seeing how people live half way across the world may not interest you, but it can have a profound affect on how you live your life back home and give you a profound sense of appreciation for the things you have and have achieved.
Read MoreI was thinking some more about my post yesterday on Ivory Towers. Not being on the front lines not only means that you don’t get the lay-of-the-land, but you can’t get a sense of the morale of your people. I’m sure that no one would be enthusiastic about being ordered to march to their own demise. And when you’ve been told to shut-up and to stop being negative, what can you do but put your head down and blindly follow orders. Not exactly the most productive environment to work in. I’ve been watching “Undercover Boss” recently, and nearly every boss is surprised when they find the people at the bottom have very low morale. That the orders they pass down the line just end up causing more problems, lower productivity and lower quality offerings. It’s a classic case of bosses living in their Ivory Towers and thinking that all is well is good, while the people at the bottom grumble and can see all the problems before them. Reminds me in a way of the Cylon rebellion against their makers and in the end against their masters. You can never excel when you feel like you’ve been set-up to fail.
Read MoreI get this a lot. Orders come from up high about what needs to be done, while the people on the front lines are reporting back that it’s not working and something needs to be done. This can only be a losing battle. So what does one do? Give up and go home? Ignore the orders given to you and forge your own path forward? How can you work with someone who isn’t willing to listen to your input and advice? Simple answer is you can’t. If people are not willing to take on my advice based upon my experience and from what I’m seeing first hand, then they deserve to fail based upon their own decisions.
It amuses me to no end when in this situation. It’s evil and cruel I know, but you can’t save someone from their own moronic whims and desires. When that person’s decisions and actions are based upon emotion and reaction rather than logical and rational thought. It reminds me a lot of people I see in the gym. The posers who come in more to look like their doing something rather than actually achieving anything. They’ll swing some dumbbells around, run a bit on the treadmill and maybe even attend some classes. But they won’t break a sweat and they won’t progress. They want to appear to be busy. They want to spin the wheels. It’s the same in the business world. Meeting and greeting people and telling them about your hot new startup is just spinning the wheels when you’re not taking care of the flip side of it. Don’t sit in your ivory tower. Get down to the front lines and see for yourself what the real deal is.
Read MoreDoes thinking really count for anything? I’m not talking about solving problems or equations. I mean, if I spend all my time reading books on business or computing, where is it really getting me? If the practical doesn’t meet the theoretical side, then I don’t believe it counts for much. I’ve grown weary of reading business books over the years. The vast majority of books have the same underlying message. When you boil away all the fluff, you’re usually left with the same thing. The same thing is true of self-help books. I used to read a tonne of them until I eventually realised I was digesting the same thing just phrased differently. There comes a point when it comes time to put the books down and to put what you’ve learnt into practice. Pondering the finer points of business or self-help won’t get me anywhere. Turning that knowledge into something tangible is where it’s at.
Read More“They realized that to be in power, you didn’t need guns or money or even numbers. You just needed the will to do what the other guy wouldn’t.” – Verbal Kint in the Usual Suspects
Everything in life is about getting up after every fall. If you want to achieve anything in life, you’ve got to be willing to take the punches. A life where we just roll over and accept our fate is no life to live. If that’s the life we choose, then it’s a life spent solely waiting for death. You need to get up every time life knocks you down. Don’t accept the cards you’ve been dealt, because you’re the one dealing them. Get up and fight for what you want.
Read MoreSometimes it’s easy to meander through life thinking we’re doing well, that we’re achieving all the things we set out to do, but are you really? The biggest example of this is at the gym. You see so many people keep coming back, but who aren’t actually going anywhere. You see so many people pumping iron and getting “big”, but really just look fat. We kid ourselves into thinking we’re doing alright, when really need to take a good, long, hard look in the mirror. I’ve done it. I’ve been going to the gym for years, but have I really got anywhere? Not really. I still look fat, flat and like I don’t even go to the gym. Only now have I really made the commitment to reach those goals that I would lie to myself about, as being unreachable. And only now have I broken the cycle of getting big but looking fat.
Are you really seeing the results that you want? Don’t kid yourself, but be honest. Don’t flatter yourself to feel better. Don’t congratulate yourself for a half won battle, because the hardest part has yet to come.
Read MoreOne of my favourite moments when training, is reaching the point where every single ounce of you is telling you that you’re finished. That you have nothing left. To just give in. And then from nowhere something tells you to get up. To push back. To give it everything you’ve got. It’s such a beautiful moment. Every single session is like a voyage of self discovery. It’s in that moment that I feel complete and I’m faced with my true self.
I’m not finished. I won’t give in.
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For whatever reason I’ve been made my gym’s “Member of the Month”. I had to write a short paragraph which I include below.
Read MoreLast year I dedicated myself to strength training and managed to smash all my previous personal bests on all my lifts. Now this year I switched my focus towards Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu with the aim of losing weight and improving my conditioning ahead of this year’s competitions. Looking back on all the years I’ve spent in the gym, I wasted so much time not pushing myself as far as I was truly capable of, and only recently have I found the ability to really dig deep and to be relentless in my training. This year has been as much a mental progression as it has a physical one.
A lot of this wouldn’t have been possible without the great support and encouragement of all the staff in the gym. With such a great fitness team around, I’m never short of ideas for my own workouts. It’s a real inspiration to see how hard both they and their clients work, as well as motivating me to also do the same.
Recently I’ve been spending a lot of time contemplating what I need to do to become better in certain areas of my life. Namely work, the gym, BJJ and Japanese. Do the answers lie in books? In videos? In talking about it with people? No, the only way to become better at these things is to do more of the thing itself. Nothing counts more than experience does. Whether that’s time in-front of a keyboard, time spent with a barbell, using the language, or rolling on the mats. The auxiliary actions of reading books and watching videos will propel you onwards faster, but they are in no way a substitute for actually doing.
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