Yesterday’s “Iron Grip Cardio” class was a wake-up call. I thought I was in pretty good shape. Shoot, just two weeks ago I hiked to the top of Kauai’s Sleeping Giant! But yesterday the perky 20-something’s orders to jump and leap and squat and lunge and press and step and do it all again 30 times backwards reminded me that I spend way more time on the phone and computer than in a gym or swimming pool. Darn. Imagining I’m fit doesn’t seem to cut it.
If I really want to get a handle on this iron grip cardio insufficiency problem, it seems I need to develop a Plan of Action… and I need to work it!
And so it is with our businesses.
Many of us, myself included, enter into the Land of Entrepreneurship with dreams of helping a ton of people and with visions of earning a respectable (nay, healthy) income as we do so. Some of us are encouraged to paint a picture in our mind’s eye of what success looks like…to imagine it in its full glory. Well, guess what. According to Jena McGregor, a reporter for The Washington Post, “Studies over the years have shown that people who engage in ‘positive fantasies,’ or idealized images of future outcomes, are less likely to achieve them.” Whoa! You mean if I sit here and daydream about mastering that Iron Grip Cardio class, it’s less likely to happen? Jena continues, “A new study by researchers at New York University’s Motivation Lab takes a stab at why: Imagining these successful outcomes saps our energy from doing the hard work it takes to get there. … When the visualizations increased, people’s energy decreased.”
Hard Work. Action. Achievement. Not sitting in front of my computer or TV and simply visualizing success. Not daydreaming about all the people I can help but failing to pick up the phone. Not hoping I can make a significant difference in the lives of others but hiding my gifts and message under a bushel. Hard Work. Action. Achievement.
Sir Isaac Newton said something rather profound about an object at rest staying at rest (and an object in motion staying in motion!) unless an unbalanced force acts upon it. If we truly want to serve the people we’re meant to serve, if we truly want to make the difference we’re meant to make, if we truly want to be cardiovascularly fit, then we need to get off of our … cushy sofas—get out of our comfort zones—and take action.
In his highly acclaimed book Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill says success requires persistence which requires:
- a definite purpose backed by a burning desire for its fulfillment, and
- a definite plan expressed in continuous action.
Planning the work and working the plan. The “secret” to achieving success.
I’ve done my share of “imagining” about my level of fitness…in body, business and relationships. John Lennon’s song might be catchy, but dreams and visualization don’t get you very far without action! Thanks for the post.