Champions don’t become Champions in the ring. They are merely recognized there.
I learned a good lesson yesterday. In my brain I’m constantly and excessively challenging myself to do better.
I like to have the baseline for which I live at “extraordinary” and I know I’m intense and crazy and hard to handle. (to my future husband – if you’re reading this one day – I promise I have other highly redeeming qualities to make up for it)
I set my expectations of myself high and have low expectations for everything out of my control so that I won’t be disappointed. This month I set a couple specific goals for myself. But then halfway through the month some tragic stuff happened, and personally I was just distraught and distracted and depressed.
And for the last week or two I’ve been under the weather and coughing and tired and that doesn’t help. So I haven’t been working as hard or smart or focused for two weeks. Today, the last day of the month, I worked like mad – 11 hours straight – and I still fell short.
On the way home from work I was assessing the month and I just know that I can’t be disappointed. The results I got directly correlated to the effort I put in – throughout the month – not today.
Quality of input + quantity of input = quantity of output. At some point everything is a numbers game. Greater activity = greater results. I wouldn’t expect to finish the marathon first if I ran 12 minute miles and finished with a 4 minute mile. That said, I think I did the best I could under the circumstances, and I’m going to learn from it and move on.
The lesson I learned – or that was reinforced – is the Law of Process. Success, like Leadership, Develops Daily – Not in a Day.
John Maxwell’s Book – The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership – speaks to The Law of Process. Here are some of my takeaways from this Law of Leadership.
- Becoming a Leader, much like achieving goals, takes time, investment, and adjustments
- Invest in your own development and you will inevitably grow
- Successful leaders are learners – learning is an ongoing process that takes perseverance and self-discipline
- If you want to see where someone develops as a champion – look at his daily routine
Knowing all of this, I am looking forward to October and applying these in my daily routine and tasks, and inevitably see growth and success.
As our fearless Leader Scott Dinsmore would say… Onward.
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