Experience is a great teacher, but reflecting on those experiences is even better teacher. Each week I post a blog stating what learned the week before. This little exercise forces me to reflect on the meetings I attended that week, the people I interacted with, the actions I took or didn’t take, did I pursue my goals and dreams and live each day intentionally. This blog post is for me and it is an exercise that makes me better, but I love sharing it with others.
So what did I learn last week:
The value of a coach: Those who read my blog know that I realize the value of having a coach. And if you know me personally, you know that I have a coach (that I pay) to hold me accountable in different areas of my life. These coaches in these different areas of my life hold me accountable to the things that I said I was going to do. I say I am going to become a nationally recognized speaker/consultant, they are holding me accountable to the activities that will allow me to get there. I say that I am going to become a top ranked sales person in my field. My coach holds me accountable to the activities that will get me there. Regardless if you pay someone for coaching or you don’t, we all need coaches in our life to get us where we want to go. If you were able to do it on your own, you would have already accomplished those things. Sure your coach can be a friend, a colleague, a spouse, however, are they going to hold you accountable? The second question? Are you willing to be held accountable? I know that for me to get where I want to go, I must continue to bring coaches in my life. I know this, but this week I was reminded again how critical it will be.
Be careful with your time: Last week there were a couple of days that I allowed a few meetings and a few people to hijack my time. I allowed the meeting to go a little longer than it should. I allowed an individual to take more of my time than was productive. We all know that our time is valuable. It is actually the most valuable and important resource we have. Sure, we all have meetings and interactions that we must be involved in, but the ones we can control, we have to manage to not allow them to take more of our time than necessary. When you burn a day, you don’t get it back. So we have to be sure how we use our time. I know you know this and I know this, however, going in to this week, as I look at my calendar, I see a few interactions that I know could take more time than it should. I am preparing myself to be sure that I don’t let those interactions take more time than necessary.
Comfort zone: “Do the thing you fear most and the death of fear is certain.”–Mark Twain. Now, I know that we don’t mind getting out of our comfort zone. Matter of fact if you are reading this blog, you are probably doing it pretty frequently. So the question I have for you is this: Do you do it intentionally or do you wait for it to happen? I can only speak for me here. There are times where I will only do it when it happens by circumstance or through the natural course of the day or something. I am always a gamer and will step up to whatever it is. But where I have to be better is intentionally doing it on my own. These last two weeks, I have been intentionally getting out of my comfort zone in several different ways in my life. Am I growing? Yep. And I getting better? Yep. So I must continue to do the things that stretch me. I am learning that this intentional living is getting me closer to my goals and my dreams.
I hope you had a great week last week, and you are planning to have an awesome week this week. What did you learn last week that you could share? Please share with us.
To your success and your future.
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