Watching a short segment of my daughter’s swim practice got me to thinking. As I was sitting in the comfort of air conditioning in my car, watching her swim, I realized the physical challenge she was going through. I’m no swimmer. Don’t get me wrong, I can swim, but I don’t swim the way these kids do. She is 9 years old and swims pretty much year-round now. It occurred to me that she was doing some endurance training this morning. Shortly before her practice, she was complaining that she didn’t want to go (since she was tired from the 4th of July Celebrations), but eventually attended practice with just the right amount of parental persuasion.
One of my points in the matter is that she eventually made the decision to do it and go to practice. Recognizing this, I’ve also realized that I have been making excuses in several areas of my life. I’ve kind of been going through the motions. Despite encouraging and making sacrifices to provide a good living for my family, I’ve made excuses and cruised along in several aspects of my life including my health and business.
Lets discuss the health part. Ironically, I work in health care. I’ve spent countless hours studying and delivering wound care to the equally countless people over the years. I’ve also spent the same time over the years, NOT taking caring of my health. I’ve grown to be a fat ass. Physically, I’ve suffered a few injuries including a shoulder and now a knee injury as of last week. These are limiting injuries as its definitely affected my work. Due to the pain, I’ve not spent much time in front of the computer (yes I know, that can be a good thing) nor been able to fully focus on some tasks that are well overdue. Funny though, I recognized this for a few years and tried to initiate a change in life-style only to be sucked back into similar patterns of self destructive behaviors.
A few weeks ago, I decided to invest in my health. I purchased P90X after doing some research and seeing amazing results that others were achieving by using the system. I stopped my excuse pattern and decided to invest both some research and effort into something that was a proven system which consisted of pattern interrupt on a physical and dietary level. I had to stop making the excuses in both departments and do a pattern interrupt. My diet is completely unhealthy, and I’ve had to unlearn the bad habits I’ve practiced for years. However, its not just the monetary investment that makes a difference. It’s the action you take to utilize the new tools you’ve invested in that does make the difference! Much like my daughter’s actions of actually getting in the water and swimming the laps and practicing, I have to now put my investment to work and start doing the P90x system (diet and exercise).
My business is something else that I’ve reflected upon. “Business’ in this case speaks for everything I’m involved in that brings me income. I’ve noticed that making money has been ‘routine’ like ‘punching the clock’ for me recently. I’ve been going through the motions with this one too. Also because of physical injuries, I’ve had a set back. I’ve had this inner gut check feeling for the past week or so, while all I could do was try to sleep through the pain I was experiencing. I had a lot of time to think and ponder what I needed to do.
So today, July 5th, 2010, I’ve decided to take some actionable steps. Get back to my roots and get some things done and start ‘shipping’ to quote Seth Godin. I need stop getting side tracked and distracted. My reflecting has yielded some interesting insights such as the fact that I tend to over analyze and investigate which consequently limits me from creating and delivering! It also presents me from taking those actionable steps to get some of the things I plan to do or the ideas that I come up with into results.
I need to get better in this area. It really is what matters in terms of delivering results and accomplishing something. It starts with a decision, work through your excuses, and accomplish what you’ve set out to do. I’ve have some plans in the pipeline, but now I have to work on delivering.
What’s your excuse?
