Wake With Winning Intent - Morning Motivation

0:00Came across a quote recently that said the road to success is dotted with many tempting parking spaces. I thought this demonstrated or captured a realization that's pretty hard to articulate. And that is just how tempting it is to rationalize, stopping, or discontinuing your journey when life gets tough. How much sense it always makes to want to call it quits when things get uncomfortable. It's like it's not just doing something valuable is hard. It's that it's hard and every three feet there's an invitation to not have to do it anymore. There's an endless supply of exit signs and escape routes. Therefore accomplishing a goal is simultaneously saying yes to the challenging things while

1:04also saying no to the comfortable things. It's fighting off two demons at once. The good news though is that you were made to do just that. You just have to change the way you internalize the process. You have to change what you see along the way. I talk a lot about perfection as the enemy, and that's something I wholeheartedly believe to be true, but I generally talk about it in the context of perfection keeping us from starting, right? I try and unveil perfection as this defense mechanism that it truly is. Oh, things aren't perfect. I'll wait. Things aren't exactly where I want them to be. Then I won't go. Emphasizing that it's in growing, the perfection is crafted, like a statue being chiseled

2:04from stone. You fall. You get back up and find that in doing so, you end up with a little more clarity than you had when you started. You let the trials and tribulations of the journey refine the product. And so that's the beginning, right? That's finding the courage to start removing the idea of perfect when really it's just our fears masked. But what about when you've already started? What about when you're underway, when you're in the midst of those trials and tribulations? As we all know this, when you're in pain, your body wants one thing to remove yourself from the pain. When things are uncomfortable, your default is to seek out those aforementioned parking spaces, reprieve from the grasp of the unknown.

3:09Things aren't perfect, then I'm done here. Things fail awkward or uncomfortable or unclear than why bother. But I want to do right now is make the argument that it's most important to continue forward when we're in these moments. It's most critical to move forward when the road is unclear and those tempting parking spaces start revealing themselves. Things are not perfect, maybe even far from perfect. This is right about the time when we forget why we started. I've run into this in my past, right, particularly with injuries. It was a period in my not too distant past when my ankle and shoulder were simultaneously messed up, right? So couldn't run, couldn't really do any upper body work. My physical activity really took a dive, right? So I'm a little discouraged and sure enough, I found the eat whatever you want, parking

4:13space. It's like who cares? You're not working out, what's the point? Just focus on the business, put a pause on all that stuff. And then eating whatever I want, it became, well, what's the point of getting up at five when I could just get up at seven? I sleep two hours longer as how I rationalize it. It's not like I'm going to be running. And then there goes some very important, alone time thinking time and you can see how easily the wheels sort of fall off the wagon, not because you're a bad person or don't want the result, but because the second thing stopped being perfect or working the way I wanted them to, I found a parking space. There will be few stretches of time in life when everything's perfect. Things going exactly how you want them to. It will simply be the exception, not the rule.

5:16And then the question becomes, can you put your head down and continue forward knowing that life will call for adaptation and adjustment? Like that those tempting exit signs are not for you, they are weakness, they are for those who forget their strength and their courage. I mentioned a little while ago that growth is fighting two demons, saying yes to the mountain ahead and no to the off-ramps. But when you step back and look at things different, you change the dynamic, you put the odds in your favor. When the off-ramps become reminders of your strength as you pass them one by one, indicators of your commitment to move forward. And when the mountain ahead becomes merely the way, not some giant sacrifice or monster,

6:16but merely a path, things simplify in a way that empowers you on your mission. There is no perfect or imperfect. There is adjusting when necessary and taking the next little step along the way. In using the previous example, it's like a manger, okay, this will definitely be a time for adjustment. Maybe it's yoga, stretching, practicing, being more patient, maybe greater emphasis on meditation, mental strength, whatever it is, but we don't stop. We continue stepping forward. The next step will look a little different, but that's all. If perfect is a standard one seeking to maintain, they'll always be pulling over. They'll always be backing off, because very rarely do we have stretches of perfection. Life isn't an adjustment game, not a perfection game.

7:19Nobody asks, what can you do when your hands are tied behind your back? What can you do when you're tired? What can you do when you just endured loss when your pride hurts your plans fail? And trust me, that's when you see all those off-ramps. That's when something in the back of your mind says, hey, all this goes away if you just throw in the towel. If you go seek perfection somewhere else, you'll find it there. But you can chase that rabbit down a million paths. There is no perfection waiting for you, and there is no flawless pursuit. Life comes down to what will you do now? Where you are, with what you have, can you find a way to win when it hurts? We all need to understand that life is innately difficult, and success calls for a simplification

8:23that is adapting and stepping forward. That's all. Things are hard, you step. Things don't go as you planned, you adapt, and you step. But you are always moving towards that North Star, whatever it is for you. Steaming those parking spaces insignificant with regard to your life and your journey. Quitting is not brought about by the external world. No failure is a decision. Failure is saying, you know what, this costs more effort than I'm willing to pay. Those parking spaces have become more tempting than the top of this mountain. Failure is a choice. And so, for one to succeed, they must simply stay in motion, choose adaptation over a self-imposed end. Yeah, enjoy those moments of perfection that times the stars do align.

9:29But see them as the exception of the rule, we are not to find when things are great. We are defined by our ability to pick up the pieces and keep moving forward when they're not. Our lives are shaped by the exits, we don't take the parking spaces, we don't even notice as we ascend the mountain that is light. Because anything other than the road ahead was never an option. You didn't succeed because things were perfect. You succeeded because you found a way to win when they won't.