Author: mikemeyer949

Protecting my ego

Sometimes I lose focus when I exercise.

I begin full of enthusiasm but as I tire I think about quitting or easing up.

I fixate on the time I have left. I ask myself why am I training so hard? I think I should pace myself or quit early.

The same is true with my career objectives. I start full of enthusiasm but when it becomes difficult I begin to pull back.

My mind wanders. I day dream about winning the lottery, catalog excuses for failure or wonder if I should look for a new job.

The fear I can’t achieve my objective, initially or consistently makes me fall back on my default objective, protecting my ego. It is seductively easy to accept failure and find an excuse. Staying focused and on task is not simple or immediate. It is a choice made every day, every minute, often multiple times a day.

Objective Focused Growth

Have you ever wanted to make a change but were not sure how? Or perhaps you started to make a change but it didn’t stick. Do you feel the desire to accomplish more but not sure what that means or how to get started?
All of us feel we have more potential, that life could offer more. We see people living lives that are larger, more fulfilling but we are not unsure how to get to it or unlock our full capability. This blog is about change and how to achieve it. It does this through explaining objective focused growth.

“It can’t be done”

The market is too saturated we don’t have the right features, I wasn’t trained. If you have worked in sales you know all the excuses for failure.

I know. I have managed many sales people. I have heard all the excuses. I have also been a sales person. I have used the excuses.

In the end there were only the jobs I hit my objective and was rewarded and jobs I missed my objective and was dismissed. I have been fired many times. I haven’t to use a baseball teen batted 1.000.

In sports the objective is clearer. You can say the defense was too hard or you didn’t have a good scheme but in the end you still didn’t score or win the game. Emotionally we naturally gravitate to excuses because they relieve the tension.

Even as you are reading this you are thinking he is a hard ass, he is too narrow focused I don’t like this all or nothing attitude. You are going back to the squares and seeing what is easiest to see and accept. And if you do what you have always done you get what you always got.

Don’t look at life as an emotional have and have not. Identify your objective, strive for it, achieve it or not then set the next objective. In your career and business life you will be much more focused and stress free.

Break past limitations

A good coach, boss, leader, trainer drill Sargent, etc is someone that pushes you to break past the limitations you believe exist. There is an alchemy that occurs when you are at the point of breaking but choose to go forward instead. You find a gear, a new expanse of existence. Like the example in a previous post, you start to see the circles.

And like the circles you don’t see them at first. Someone tells you to keep looking. You might not know they are there. Then they disappear. Then your mind starts to see them. Being objective focused is the circles. The squares are emotions, ego, politics, games, excuses, accepting and rationalizing not achieving the objective.

Do not be ruled by toys

Staying focused on the objective is a second to second thing. Your mind will wander at any moment and re-prioritize your energy. Oftentimes that re-prioritization feels justified. At work you seek fair treatment. You look for commiseration from peers or validation from bosses. You seek respect, benefit of the doubt, accolades, recognition, awards or prizes. All of those things feel valuable. But they distract from achieving your objective. Do not pull up short of your objective. Do not be ruled by toys.

The Dream Addiction

The dopamine high is one of the biggest traps I fall into. I start to work on my project. I come up with a good idea. Once I feel I am right on the verge of achieving my dreams my body floods with dopamine. I get the best high possible.
I got my fix. So instead of pressing on and achieving my objective I stay in the moment, relishing the feeling of satisfaction without really achieving anything until the high wears off then I go start working on my objective again but pulling up when I get another high. It is the dream addiction.

Rewire your brain

can you see the circles in this picture?

At first it is difficult. You might not even be able to do it. Then you might see them but they disappear quickly. But if you find them and keep looking at the picture your brain will more easily identify them and focus on them longer.

The same is true of focusing on your goal. It is there but difficult to identify. Or it might be fleeting.

After a while you get better at it and can stay focused.

Impenetrable wall

Doubt assails relentlessly. Brick by brick a wall of unshakable confidence is erected. That wall creates a foundation. That foundation sustains forward motion to achieve an objective. Doubt will always be present and rise against. For every inch ceded take two forward the next time. Achieving your objective is methodical not easy or instantaneous.

In Defense of Growing

Yesterday I asked the question am I just futilely spinning my wheels or am I on a journey of growth.
Today I posit that I am growing. In the late 2000’s and early 2010’s I was working on creating representation for unaffiliated religious people. By the time I had put as much effort as possible into it I had put together a compilation book and self-published it on Amazon. The book itself is not very good and I think I only officially sold one copy (maybe two) but the effort was there and I had something to show for it.
The same is true of thirtydayjobcleanse.com. I put the effort fort and felt like I was really close. Again perhaps the material was not good but it was a valiant effort that I believe was on the cusp of producing revenue from my marketing efforts. I just couldn’t quite pull it all together. In fact this blog is morphing into the actual Thirty Day Job Cleanse so I am not even sure it is dead yet.
Whatever the case I believe I am growing and becoming. I need to keep walking even when it seems like it will never end.