Sunday, July 16, 2017

Go FAIL Yourself

At this moment that I sit down to write whatever pops in my head, I'm also playing 3 chumps at chess... 1 has already lost to me today, badly (requested a best out of 3), another is about to lose (it'll be over by the time I'm done writing) and the 3rd just began; watching ufc; washing laundry; and getting ready for Monday.

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The past couple weeks or so, my landscaping has gotten my attention.   In the past, I never really noticed the yard much.  If grass was cut and nothing insane was out of place like a down branch or anything unsafe, it looked looked ok to me.
On my facebook time hop, a picture of my youngest daughter came up.  It was from about 3 years ago, with fish in hand, my yard in the background.  And I noticed how nice the bushes and perimeter of the pond looked.  So for about 4 hours on the weekends, I try to give it a little attention... until today.  I charged up as many batteries as I could find for the weed eater and hedge trimmer and anything else I could find.  Pulled out 150' of extension cord and my wheel barrow (one of those easy ones I ant spell... was it right?)

So I'm out there, having a nice time, sweating and pulling weeds, taking down dead branches and cleaning an area... no music or distractions.  Kinda hit me...    how fast things can get away from us if we don't give it attention.

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I was visiting a business this past week and they invited me to wait while they finished a meeting.  Caught my attention because the conversation was about sales and prospecting and such, setting weekly/monthly goals.  So I paid close attention to the head of the meeting as he watched the staff talk about success numbers and to set goals of completing x sales per day.  This went on for about 10 minutes.  All about how many sales they needed for the week to hit the month goal, then ended with that.
I wanted to take it further... daily goals and then not just success goals but failure as well.  "I have to fail at least once today."  I literally have this goal for myself to fail at something everyday.
Before reading on, think about why I or anyone would want to fail.

If I'm setting out to do something outside of my range where failure is high probability, I'm going to grow from it.
If I'm just going about a care free day, doing what I can roll out of bed and do... A) its not very challenging and then B) because it's easy and not challenging, there's no movement or growth or opportunity.  Playing the safe, easy, care free day will always keep me in this exact same place.  And that can relate to business, or relationships or training or anything.
Came up for me twice recently.  As a real estate agent, we have to prospect a bit and reach out to "for sale by owners," and that kind of thing.  So its not easy and I'm not exactly Mr. Social.  I dont really ever just walk up to people and start talking.  So my goal wasnt "I'm going to get a fsbo to sign with me today."  Odds are greatly not in my favor.  Its just not something that happens like that (click your fingers).  So saying "I'm going to get one today," would be like "I'm going to run a marathon today."  The goal is the marathon, as the goal is letting the fsbo know I'm the man for the job.  So for the marathon, its "I need to run 3 miles today," and the FSBO its "I just need to knock on a door."  That's it.  You cant hit a grand slam with no one on the bases.
My other example was at football camp.   Summer camps and we install new ideas to see how things look and tweak it moving forward.  So we installed plays we needed and then set it into motion...
failed.  And failed.  Error after error.  I let them know "All good... we should be failing now and making mistakes... and then fail and error another 50 times... why?  Because it shows you're still working and then eventually you're going to have that AH-HA moment and it all comes together."
Ever fail on repping a max weight?  How did it feel the next day or moving fwd?  Providing you didn't tear a rotator cuff)  I have
Ever fail sprinting up a hill?  Just run and run and eventually thats it... legs are just jello and lungs burn so bad you wonder if anyone's around for CPR?   I have
Ever fail in competition?  I have
Ever fail in _____?  I have
And all those failures are so needed.  People that have it easy, and I mean easy.  I mean people who really never had to bust their butts to pay bills.  People who never recvd notice that electric was turning off.  People that didn't have to buy a car for $1000 just to get through the winter.  People that never didn't lose a house.   Some people were just born a little further ahead in class and didn't have to grind the way others did.  Those people, they just dont know failure the same way and because of that, they just dont have the armor that you do... they'll break and you wont.  They'll "tap out," and you'll keep pushing.  Because you've failed time after time after time and you continue to fight and push and find your way, because of that persistence, you are stronger, better and more equipped to handle every damn thing that comes your way.  You've already experienced the pain of failure and pushed forward.  Learned and grew stronger.  Now do it again.  Reach for the shelf that's just a bit too high and when you fail, call out that guy in practice thats a year older than you, put in one more hour at your craft, sign up for the class and finish the degree, take that side job you've been thinking about.  And swing away.  Fail and miss and come up short and then reload and do it again.

And when you succeed.... dont forget to take minute to yourself to sit in the backyard with your dogs... and just remember the actual important things in life.  

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Chess news:
I tweet out "Free #POWERFUL to anyone who can beat me in chess."
So I whooped Brad, badly and moved on to take out Louie.  As this was going on, Brad requested "best of 3."  Sure.
Within 4 moves I thought 'This isnt Brad anymore."  So I text Louie during our game to ask who is playing Brads board.  Sure enough "His dad."  So then I had to turn my brain on, but it was too late.  Lost about 8 moves later.
Lesson learned. never underestimate an opponent.

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This Is Blue Chip