Three disciplines to achieve your destiny

The primary hurdle to maximizing our success is ourselves.  Here is a relatively simple three-step process to move beyond any pain of your past to better apply your strengths to achieve your true potential.

DISCIPLINE #1

Your past does not define you.  Your past prepares you to achieve your potential IF YOU PROPERLY APPLY IT.

Rather than let your mistakes drag you down...

• Consider the lessons learned
• Commit to never repeat those mistakes
• Develop an awareness of the triggers that led you to make poor decisions, and
• Put processes in place to make different decisions in the future when you are triggered / tempted to repeat a mistake.

When you hear that taunting voice inside you or the sneers of the arrogant, then remind yourself your life's game is not over yet.  Read this prophecy from The Lord of the Rings while you envision how you will make better decisions and experience more prosperous outcomes in the future:

"All that is gold does not glitter,

Not all those who wander are lost;

The old that is strong does not wither,

Deep roots are not reached by the frost;

From the ashes a fire shall be woken,

A light from the shadows shall spring;

Renewed shall be blade that was broken,

The crownless again shall be king."

     - JRR Tolkien

"...The crownless again shall be king."  That is you.  Believe there is something more significant that yourself happening in your life.  Easter not a time of death, but of resurrection.  These days are not a reminder of defeat, but of destiny.

Play to your strengths.  Renew your vision, rekindle your hope, and refocus with laser-like focus on the meaningful work that is before you.  In your own world, community, family, relationships, and spirit...  you were born to be a queen or king.  You are impacting the lives of others.  That is certain.

The question is, are you shredding the orcks that jump into your daily firefight to detour you from your quest?  Increase your focus.  Have faith in your future.

DISCIPLINE #2

Jessica Stillman posted an article to Inc. Magazine this week about the mental tricks Olympians leverage to perform their best.

Physical fitness and good health are critical to your long-term prosperity.  Most of us will never invest the tens of thousands of hours to become an Olympic athlete, however all of us can apply the proven visualization techniques great Olympians leverage to achieve more than they have in the past.

Charles Duhigg, the author I recommend for his books The Power of Habit and Smarter Faster Better..., is quoted by Stillman in her article.  He says:

"Your brain has to decide what deserves attention and what deserves to be ignored, and the way it does it is compare what we expect is going to happen to what's actually going on," Duhigg told Quartz in an interview.  When you've visualized your day before embarking on it, you make it easier for your brain to screen out irrelevant information and catch the important stuff that's going on.

This simple but powerful mental preparation, "...primes our brain to be able to pay attention to the right things," Duhigg says.

Science of Us blogger Melissa Dahl in her write-up of Duhigg's book comments, "Those who keep it together under pressure are storytellers, essentially.  They narrate their own lives to themselves--things that have just happened, things that are about to happen.  They daydream about the day ahead and review the hours that have already passed.

(My summary)  Why daydream?  Visualization trains your brain where to focus and how to ignore the less relevant or less important stuff.  Some scientists call this "mental modeling."

"Duhigg suggests spending your commute imagining your day, envisioning with as much specificity as you can what you expect to happen, step by step.  This way, so the theory goes, when something goes awry, you'll spot it quickly, and you can compare it to the script you already worked out in your head.... That script helps you figure out how everyday interruptions fit into the big picture--which, in turn, helps you figure out what deserves your attention and what can be ignored," Dahl writes.

How true...  Can't we all gain from more easily and QUICKLY discerning what deserves our attention and what must be ignored?

Basically I recommend Discipline #1 helps you gain ground by assessing your past with a proper perspective that gives you a leg up as you climb to the next ledge of your mountain (metaphor).

Then Discipline #2 enables you to focus your time, energy, and interactions to reach that next ledge of the rock wall you are climbing, ledge by ledge, until your reach the top / achieve your destiny.

What holds these two disciplines together? 

DISCIPLINE #3

The third discipline is the third strand of the rope enabling you to climb your mountain:  Habit.  

Develop a new habit, a daily discipline more powerful than your bad habits and temptations of rabbit trails and bad decisions.  

End each day with a reminder of your restoration (Discipline #1) and visualization of your plans (Discipline #2).  Then you are much better equipped to achieve your destiny.

Unless of course you're insane, or totally unrealistic...  but in those situations you need a professional therapist not a leadership coach like me.  :)

Think about the insanity option for a moment.  Hitler instinctively lived these disciplines.  Mao Zedong of China and Joseph Stalin of the USSR did this.  On a more positive note, I suggest Florence Nightingale, Mother Teresa, President George Washington, President Abraham Lincoln, and President Ronald Reagan had these habits too.

You can do this.