Happy Sunday Everyone:
Why am I sending this later in the day than usual? Because I didn’t want to do them at all. I’ve been thinking all weekend how I didn’t feel like doing Sunday Thoughts. Not sure what I was going to write about. A few times a year I question doing them at all. Thinking through it this morning I was questioning why I send them, what do you get out of it? what do I get out of it? Some of you read them, move on, some of you read them and ask questions etc…, some of you delete without reading. Then I started thinking about what I get out of them, which I believe is 10X of what anyone else gets out of them. Why? I force myself to think about the positive and negative events that have taken place throughout the week. I then have to focus on what I learned from those events, I reflect on them, I talk to Kim about them. Some are wins, some are losses, some are personal, some are business. Then I have to write about them, and spell out what my take aways are. By doing this exercise, week in and week out, I grow from it….I think about what I learn a lot, and I make future decisions based on what I’ve learned from these Sunday Thoughts. Like as I type this, I believe my life would not be as good without Sunday Thoughts, and I’m not sure if I’d write them, if I was only writing to myself, long winded way of me saying for those that read these, you’re stuck with me for a bit longer.
I’ve been talking to some of my students over the past couple of weeks about trying to get ahead of the decisions they make. It’s a bit of a Jedi mind trick but if we can be one step ahead of our decisions or indecisions, we’d start doing more good things in our days and stop doing, or at least minimize, the bad things we will regret. This email is being sent, not because of today, but because of me thinking about how I’m going to feel tomorrow. I would have woken up tomorrow morning having regretted not doing this today. For me, this is a healthy habit, for the reasons I stated above. If I didn’t do this today, I’d consider more about not doing it next week, and then I’d get much closer to pulling the plug entirely, I genuinely believe that would happen.
I mentioned a comment my friend made around trust last week, you earn it in drips and lose it in buckets….I believe the same can be said of our good and bad decisions. We drip our good decisions daily to create healthy habits, but we have to be scared to death about getting off track as it will come off the track in buckets. This exercise has helped me a ton in what I’m choosing to do and not do…as simple as “I don’t want to return this guys call right now”……and then “how I am going to feel tomorrow morning having not returned this guy’s call”….I make the call.
I’d be honored to be a 250lb angel on your shoulder this week every time you’re about to choose not to do something that will make you better, think about how you’ll feel tomorrow and change your decision.. I’m confident it will lead to a better day, which leads to a better week, and on and on. Little wins create a better life. Being aware of them is the only way to change the outcome for the better.
Have a great week.