The first month of the New Year has just finished. Have you abandoned your resolutions? What changes have you made here in 2018? If you are feeling limited still, there is something wrong. You cannot expand your influence as long as you are of a mindset of limited ability. Your potential is limitless and there is no finish line.
It is my experience that a person does not know their true limits. These individuals spend too much time throwing up roadblocks and speculating about things that have not happened, and have little chance of ever happening. When a person is doing what they love every day, they will always exceed their limitations without ever knowing they have done so. Why? Because they have loved every minute of the hard work to achieve and live their dream.
Perhaps you are limiting yourself through your “capacity.” Capacity cannot grow with just the accumulation of “knowledge.” We must change how we think, how we apply what we learn and change our actions in order to expand our capacity.
If you have followed and or read this blog for many years, you know that in December I challenge my clients to do an “End of the year Exercise” where they evaluate every day of the past year. They must decide if what they did on any given day was worthwhile and they will repeat it in the coming year. If they found the one thing or things which drained them; they would not allow these items to go on their calendar in the first place . There are of course items which there was no room to put on the calendar and much of this was personal items and at home there was a disappointed loved one. So to put it quite simply: “Stop filling up your white space on your calendar and start thinking What is Working.”
How would you rate your “working ethic?” Are you doing what works? Are you being effective? Are you having those crucial conversations? Are you continually learning and growing in your own personal growth? My mentor, John Maxwell asks these three questions to answer our topic today:
- What am I required to do?
- What gives the greatest return?
- What gives me the greatest reward?
Looking for others to blame is not leadership. Instead of looking for someone to lay the blame on, start thinking “How can I/we do “x”?” A leader brings the entire team across the finish line not crossing the line alone.
There are thousands of books on every topic you can find a problem which needs a solution. We naturally look for the quick-painless solutions which do not require much of us. When we look beyond the finish line and take what we have learned and we think differently we discover, there are solutions, and possibilities which until we changed our thinking were not available to us.
I remember a dialogue between a newlywed couple, loading a dishwasher in their new apartment kitchen. One of the newlyweds loads the glasses and plates in one way and the other spouse begins to rearrange the items which were just placed in the dishwasher. Well, we may chuckle at this sight, but hurt feelings ensued, one stormed out, and the entire evening hit a sour tone. There are no dishwasher police out there telling us which way is the “right” way to load a dishwasher. This brings us to understand that in business as in our personal lives realize:
- There is more than one way to accomplish something and to be successful
- When we begin to live and work in a space of creativity and being adaptable in the midst of chaos we will also accomplish much and be successful at the same time.
- When we are intentional about being in this no boundaries space anything is possible.
- The greatest teachers in business and life are our failures and setbacks.
Let’s take a moment to look at your “spiritual life” for a moment. No matter what spiritual practices you engage in, if you do not block off time for those practices, you will not be connected, centered, balanced and in harmony with your inner being AKA your soul.
Everything we have discussed today, boils down to this simple premise:
“You make time, space, and energy for the things that you most value.”
Take a moment and pull out your calendar and look at what your life is saying about what you value most. If what you see is not pleasing to you, then change. Only you can make these decisions for yourself, no one else can.
Next Month we will talk about “Growth Increases Capacity”
If you are interested in being coached or mentored by Janice in 2018, she does have limited availability.
Send an email to begin the process: janice@janicebastanicoaching.com.
Visit my website at:
www.janicebastanicoaching.com or www.johnmaxwellgroup.com/janicebastani
