I was rereading Tom Rath’s valuable book, How Full Is Your Bucket, last week when I came across a suggestion that caught my attention. Rath and co-author Don Clifton point out that cigarette smoking has been shown to reduce life expectancy by 5.5 years for males and 7 years for females. (Of course this doesn’t mention the consequences of second hand smoke on the rest of us) Relating these smoking statistics to research on positive emotions and longevity, the authors suggest that negative emotions may very likely shave off more years of life (10) than even smoking. In light of this, maybe there should be a Surgeon General’s warning about the danger of negative emotions. No doubt, negative emotions are responsible for far more damage to individuals and families than smoking. This got me thinking.  

Smoking and negativity have a lot in common. Obviously, both begin as a choice. Over time, these choices become unconscious, automatic reflexes that inflict damage to oneself and those in close proximity. In addition to short term consequences, there are also the ultimate consequences of both smoking and negative emotions. Like smoking, expressing negative emotions provides temporary satisfaction that will inevitably need to be quenched again in the not to distant future. Both smoking and negativity become stubborn addictions that their owners become accustomed to and rationalize quite cleverly. As a non smoker, it’s hard for me to understand how someone could knowingly, willingly pollute their bodies with a cigarette or anything else for that matter. And I have the same curiosity for the negative crowd as well.  The damage spreads well beyond the source. As with smoking, the negative “bucket dippers” create a ripple effect of second hand negativity that circulates and pollutes their surroundings.  

If you have enough reasons to quit, you can snuff out that final cigarette once and for all. We all know those who have done it. Likewise, if you have a big enough “why” you can overcome negativity and the collateral damage it causes as well. Consider who you are building up as a result of your positive emotional energy. And, who are you pulling down as a result of your negative energy? How could you infuse your best relationships with your best self in the next 48 hours?  It’s worth thinking about! What do you think?

Coach

In an AP story that ran yesterday on Fox News, it was reported that “more than 1.5 million Americans are injured every year by drug errors in hospitals, nursing homes and doctor’s offices, a count that doesn’t even estimate patients’ own medication mix-ups, says a report from the Institute of Medicine that calls for major steps to increase patient safety.” Aside from the scary implications of this report, it is certainly another great reason to proactively take care of yourself, rather than relying on a pill to do this for you. After all, there is a decent chance you might just get the wrong pill. 

My business partner, Steve Cesari, and I attended a writing conference with Mark Victor Hansen last weekend in
Orlando and one of our fellow participants had lost her sight permanently as a result of accidentally being given the wrong medication following a automobile accident. Now, I’d hate to live in a world without the great physicians we have these days or without the breakthrough medications, but as a society we seem to overdo it a bit. During sixty minutes of prime time TV earlier in the week, I counted 7 pharmaceutical advertisements. Every condition from restless legs to ADD to herpes to depression and few more were represented with a pill solution of some sort. Isn’t this out of hand?

What do you think?

Coach

During a recent workout my trainer suggested that I stand on one leg on the back/flat side of his Bosu Ball while I lifted my other leg to my chest and then back toward the ground without ever touching the ground or the even the ball. In other words, he wanted me to balance on one leg on a very unstable surface while moving my other leg back and forth from fully extended to touching my opposite elbow. This may be as hard for you to visualize from my explanation as it was difficult for me to imagine myself performing this exercise when he was instructing me to do so. I remember looking at him like he was crazy (as I often do) in the gym. Since my glare did not discourage his insistence on my attempting this stunt, I went ahead and gave it a try.

I was very deliberate, making sure that I placed my foot in the proper spot and concentrating on not falling and leaving the workout in worse shape than when I begun. I was extremely careful. I was very cautious. I didn’t want to make a mistake. I was playing great defense so to speak.And…I kept losing my balance as soon as I started lifting my leg up and down. Richard, my trainer, walked over and again demonstrated effortlessly and flawlessly how to do it right. (As if I’d missed some important key the first time) He just stepped up on the ball and did it. It was simple. He wasn’t careful. He wasn’t cautious. He just launched. So I made an important decision at that moment. I decided to “just do it” as the old Nike slogan puts it. Richard told me to, “trust and launch.” Trust and Launch!

I wasn’t even sure exactly what he meant. Was I supposed to trust him? Was I supposed to trust God for this exercise? It didn’t seem particularly spiritual at the time. But, I realized just what he meant when he said, “You’re body knows what do. Just force it to do it!” So I walked to the ball quickly, stepped on the center without over-thinking it and simply started exercising. I kept my balance, worked my core and felt awesome and accomplished when I finished. That’s easy, I thought. As Richard and I discussed the principle at play, I gained some important clarity. My hesitation and negative expectation (that it wasn’t possible, safe, or even necessary to do this exercise) interfered with my potential to get the result. Yet the instant I made the decision to launch, I became a different student and a better athlete. When I launched on top of that oddly shaped ball I demanded greater balance than I’ve ever had before…and my body supplied it, but not a second before I really needed it. Demand and supply at work!

How often can our doubts and fears manifest as delay, procrastination, and postponement?

Rather than trusting my body’s ability to balance itself under unusual circumstances, I demanded to know how this would work or if it could even work. When I finally did launch, my body took over. I still don’t know how I did it, but now I don’t care about that. I got the result in this instance when I got out of my own way.

Is there something in your life that you’ve been putting off? Is it in your business? Is it in your marriage? Does it involve your health and energy?

If you wait until it feels right and safe, that time may never come! Why not trust God, trust yourself, and yes, even trust your body and then blast off? Focus on the “what” and leave the “how” up to a higher power. Just do it today!

Think Huge,

Coach

You may not want to become the next American Idol, but I suppose you do have a big dream of your own. But, what are you doing about it? The winner of the most recent Idol competition was encouraged by his brother to attend the first audition. Who is encouraging you to pursue your big dream? What is your big dream anyway? We all need people in our life who believe in us and remind us of who we could be. We need people who trigger our imagination more than our memory. Who is that person in your life? 

More people voted to pick the winner in the American Idol competition a few nights ago than voted to elect President Bush in 2004. What does that tell us? Do you believe there are 60 million Americans actively pursuing their big dream? I am not seeing them. Are you? Polls show that 84% percent of the population would rather be doing something else for a living. I wonder if that means they would rather be living their dream.  It seems that Americans can easily be satisfied in watching vicariously as others pursue and then reach their dreams, even as the clock is winding down on their own vision for the future. So what is your big dream?  

With the nudge of his brother, Taylor Hicks took a leap, expressed his unique gifts and originality to the world and was rewarded appropriately with the crown of American Idol. In The 1% Club, we say he “found his Genius.” Do you have the guts, the tenacity of spirit to pursue your dream? Write it down and then go make it happen. You could be the next American Idol… 

Think Huge, 

Coach

Imagine facing an important career decision and not knowing what to do…Would you ever consider taking a poll? Not a poll in your family or with just your closest friends and confidants, but a poll of the general American public. Imagine finding yourself in a difficult marriage relationship…Wouldn’t it be smart to find out the opinion of how the general public would respond in a similar circumstance? Maybe your child is suffering from a serious illness…Wouldn’t it be helpful to take another poll so that you could come up with the best course of action? Imagine leading your entire life by following the advice promulgated by the pollsters…Could it be that the true path to success is following the opinions circulated through polling data. Maybe the whole idea of running your life around timeless principles is off base. Maybe, instead of asking yourself, “what is right or wrong”, in any given situation, you should instead take a representative sampling of the population and make a decision based on the results. Maybe, instead of asking “what’s the wise thing to do”, you should ask, “what would most people do”? So what drives your most important decisions? How do you make important decisions? What should drive our leader’s decisions? Reflect on what would happen to our country if our leaders did what the general population wanted them to do.  

Does it seem that the media is constantly telling us what we should believe: You are dissatisfied … You are getting even more dissatisfied … You are pessimistic… You’ve lost confidence…You’ve really lost confidence…You are in favor of this or that. Good grief! 

The antidote to this nonsense is, of course, to think for yourself! Anchor your future hopes and dreams in timeless principles. Take a stand on what’s most important in your life and the difference you intend to make in your lifetime. Then set some goals to make it all happen. Then consciously begin developing the beliefs that you must believe in order to develop your full potential. You are not born with beliefs. Beliefs are learned along the way. Refuse to let this happen by accident.  Instead, deliberately insulate yourself from the residual drip, drip of mediocrity that attempts to nudge all of away from our “A-Game” and into mediocrity. Refuse to be conditioned by what other think. Live by a much higher standard. Then take action and lots of it! And when you think for yourself, remember to THINK HUGE!