Make your Move 3 of 3 – Skate across America Day 71

December 13th, 2010

Total Distance for today: 0 miles
Total Distance for Tour: approx. 553 miles
LOCATION: Raleigh, NC
STATUS: Holding down the Freedom Mobile (or bearing with it ;-))

This is part 3 of my 3-post series about “Making your Move” and getting what you want.

Part 1 – Squash Passivity
Part 2 – LEAD

Make your Move #3 of 3: Adapt and Bounce

In the last post, we talked about the importance of taking decisive action and leading in your own life. We also talked about the fact that you will certainly experience failure, when you start leading. This is actually a very good thing because it means that you are pushing yourself and growing. We can plan to no end, but in the end, decisive and bold action will eventually lead to failure. If you’re not experiencing failure in your life, you’re probably not taking enough chances.

Since failure is a certain and big part of any bold leader’s life, we need to find a way to deal with it. The first thing to recognize is that failure does not imply a sudden reduction in your self-worth or value. On the contrary, someone who makes trying and failing a major part of their life shows very strong character. You should treat failure exactly as it is: feedback that allows you to make minor adjustments and have another go at it. The truth is: You will never achieve “perfection” in any endeavor, but you can always get just a little bit better. Use failure to help you adapt and bounce back smarter, more focused, and stronger. This takes a playful attitude.

Now, it takes wisdom to know when pursuing something is more costly than just letting it go. The only way to gain this wisdom is to constantly be putting it out there, failing, learning, and going again. Over time, you will gain an intuitive sense of what is no longer worth your time.

Here are a few very useful tips:

1) Focusing on excelling in your strong areas, rather than patching up your weaknesses, is the fast-track to success.

2) At the same time, if you have bottlenecks or disproportionately weak areas, the 80/20 rule and the law of marginal returns dictate that building those weaknesses up to an acceptable (non-bottleneck) level will be 10 times easier than achieving near perfection in those or any areas: Smart people take advantage of this fact to rapidly fix serious weaknesses and then focus on their strengths.

3) Not all projects are worth continuing. Some simply can’t succeed; however, the most important way to know is by assessing whether the project aligns with or hinders your greater life goals.

4) “All men are self-made, but only the successful will admit it.” – anonymous quote that continues to prove itself true in my life.

That brings us to the end of our 3-post series about “Making your Move” and getting what you want. I hope these posts have been helpful to you, and thank you for taking the time to read them. Please remember to share this and leave a comment, if you liked it!

Remember: To get what you want, you must:

1) Squash Passivity and define what you want
2) LEAD boldly and decisively toward what you want
3) Adapt and bounce back playfully when you fail (lead again!)