Ego

The ego will roar to be fed. Achieving the objective seldom happens on the first effort. Failure leads to assessment of what went wrong. We don’t know what went wrong so we take the “facts” of what happened and determine an alternate course. Maybe the first two or three times we remain confident.

Then it happens again and again. The objective isn’t achieved. We start to doubt ability.

We can give up and not try but it is still new so we don’t do that. But we look for patterns. We see shortcomings and others don’t fix. Blame them. Blame situation. And since they have been identified we are hyper aware of them. We see failure, we see the perceived reason. We associate them.

The situation runs out, we give up or we are removed.

I worked sales on business consulting. Completed training, did ride along, practiced my pitch. I was raring to go. They sent me five leads. I failed. They sent me five more. Nothing. Four. Four. Five. It my last one had a good talk. Got farther than I ever had. I felt I was figuring it out.

Come Monday I didn’t get any leads. They said sorry. Next day sent me two. I didn’t make a sale. No leads. No leads. Complained. 2 leads. Nothing. Next Monday nothing. Tuesday nothing. Wednesday I get an email I won’t get any more leads. I didn’t produce.

I had a week where they really fed me.

Then just a couple more. Why waste the leads?

So you know what I did? I started cold calling to make my own leads.

My own worst enemy

Driving to an appointment today I was overcome with a feeling to skip it or have it over with.

I didn’t want to do the very thing that would help me achieve my objective.

On a sales call I saw a new account I could hit. Since I was with my supervisor coach, there was no question I would go in. But if I was on my own I am not sure I would have. Or truth be told, I might not have even done the original call.

I had a strong lead on a sale. The kind of lead I was hoping to generate with my all my efforts. Yet went it came in I felt put out.

I spend so much energy in my mind thinking about achieving my objective but get pulled off course with the simplest thought. I am my biggest obstacle.

Action focused

I spend too much time in my head. Thinking may make me feel better or it may make me feel anxious but it doesn’t produce results. I can’t think my way to achieving my objective. Objective focused is action focused.

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.

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.