You’ve been training for your first marathon. You’ve lost some weight, built up your stamina, you’re re-gaining your shape from your youth and you’ve finally gotten to the event! The race begins, you complete the course and you’ve tasted victory! Woo Hoo! You’ve celebrated with your family, friends and comrades on this journey. It’s tomorrow morning and everyone’s gone back to the routines of life. Now what?
B.B. King used to sing a blues song called, “The Thrill is Gone”. That’s how you’re feeling. You’ve set a goal, you’ve done all the research and hard work and you’ve achieved it. Now what? While you were preparing, you could only dream of a morning where you could sleep late. Now, you can, but your mind is racing too much for you to sleep. What do you do now?
The answer is: You get up and you set another goal. You keep running. You keep training, you reach for the next “brass ring”. That’s what successful people do. They keep going. No, you don’t have to be the “Energizer Bunny”, but you keep moving. Keep challenging yourself. Why? Because that’s how you get from good to great. This first marathon was an awesome training ground, but there are more marathons to run. You can beat your current time now that you’ve been through the process.
Do the same thing in your career. Today you may have a job. It can be minimum wage, hundreds of dollars per hour or anywhere in between. Go to that job and work. What are some attributes of a good employee? Are you consistently meeting those goals and expectations? If you’re self-employed, the same applies. Are you consistently meeting the goals and expectations you have of your employees? Would you hire you?
The goal is to be your best at whatever you do. Take a lesson from ants. All throughout the summer, they work. There’s no one standing over them ordering them around. They just instinctively know to go. Go get food to store up for the winter. They’re consistent and diligent. If you’re cleaning bathrooms, CLEAN them. Make the people happy to come in and use them. If you’re a teller at a bank, provide the best customer service you can. No matter what your job is, do it to the best of your ability every time you report for duty. Will there be days you just don’t FEEL like doing your best. Probably. However, your customers need you and they need the service you’re providing and they’re paying for. So do your best every day.
The natural “high” we get from accomplishing something we’ve worked hard to achieve is wonderful. Spend this week paying attention to every accomplishment. Did you make it to work early so it was a relaxing start to the workday? Did you spend the 15 minutes each day writing a “success is” statement? Did you cook dinner at home for your family 5 days this week like you wanted to? No matter what area of your life it is, what successes did you have this week?
Remember, you are success walking on 2 legs.
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