“Most people overestimate what they can do in a year and they underestimate what they can do in two or three decades.” – Tony Robbins
Ready. Set. Go!…CRASH!
How often have I set out with great intentions to work toward my auspicious goals. Hour after hour, day after day burning the midnight oil well beyond the strike of midnight to accomplish the impossible. But don’t tell me that. Nothing is impossible. I can do whatever I set out to do. I can be whatever I want to be. I just need to apply myself and go for it. My mother told me so.
Well, how true is that? Would if I want to be a Nigerian prince, could I? There seems to be so many, it must not be that hard to become.
I am sure it is true, with limitations, however. I can be and do many things but I believe there are limitations beyond my control. Some things take more than hard work and dedication to accomplish. There are many factors that can legitimately fill that side of the column; genetics, government, laws, and living environment, to name few. I could continue the list but there is a fine line between the columns and an even finer line in our thinking and judgment of what we put on each side.
I have no desire to discuss what we claim to be holding us back and preventing us from attaining our goals. When I see a long list in the right side of the column, the holding me back side or the beyond my control side, I begin to believe that they are really just excuses. I am more interested in discovering how we move beyond those and move them to the left side column where they are converted into assets that make us stronger.
The truth for me when I look back to reflect on my journey, the opening quote by Tony Robbins is so true. I totally overestimate what I can do in the short term. That can be a year, a month, a week, or even a day. Just placing this in the context of a to-do list holds true. No big life changing goals I’m trying to accomplish, just a simple daily task list. I never cross everything off. When I look back five to ten years and compare where I am to where I thought I would be, I am often further. Yet when I look assess my six month goal I often find myself short of the mark.
Why is it? Am I too ambitious in the present and short term? Is the future just too far out and unknown to really imagine what can be accomplished? Are there too many daily obstacles that steer me off course in the short term? Am I just too lazy?
Maybe it’s a mix of all the above. What I have learned for me is that the more I leave uncrossed on my list, the more discouraged I become. As an owner and operator, there is always unfinished business. There are always things to do and as one thing is completed another to-do materializes. It’s just the nature of running a business. What I need to do is learn to not become discouraged or overwhelmed, and for me, the key is acceptance.
Acceptance that time is the scarcest asset. Acceptance that everything is never done. Acceptance that the quote above is true. Acceptance that I am good enough. Acceptance that I’ve sold myself short, again.
The really lesson for me is that I am good enough, it’s the goal that is not. Failure is part of the learning process. In the short term I am overzealous and in the long term I don’t give my ability enough respect. Time is a tricky thing. Ten years seems an eternity and a year seems like more than enough but appears in a blink of an eye. So, being good enough only matters in the present. I can’t be good enough ten years from now and what was good enough yesterday might not be today.
Regardless of where in time I place my checkpoint or finish line, the steps that get me there are taken today. Therefore, the essence of this lesson for me is to learn to live, and work, in the present because when I become too caught up with time, goals, and those never ending to-do lists, I miss out on life and sell myself short.
Talk Soon,
Kevin W @LEAP272
Owner-Operator
You have to leap if you want to live
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