How Bad Do You Want It?

How committed are you to your success? How bad do you want what you want?

This past week was a roller coaster ride for me. When the week started I thought that I had booked a spot in a major conference I was hoping to be a part of. Tuesday, I was disappointed to find out that not only did I not get that contract, but I actually lost two others contracts that I thought were almost in the bag. By the end of the day I was in a bad mood and feeling VERY discouraged.

Later in the week I contacted a speaker friend of mine who WAS booked for the event I was hoping to land. After expressing my jealousy that's he'd been booked and I hadn't, I wondered aloud what I was doing wrong or what I wasn't doing, that I should have been. Like a good friend would, he called me out and listed a few things that I could/should be doing to build my business and increase my odds of success, and asked why I hadn't done them yet.

When I explained that I'd avoided these steps because of the expense involved, he challenged me about how committed I really was to my success. I hadn't taken these steps because I didn't want to invest money in something when I didn't have much to invest and couldn't be assured of good ROI. His response was very challenging, "if you don't invest in your business, how can you expect it to grow?"

What an incredibly powerful question and challenge to all of us. We all say that we WANT to be successful. We all SAY that we want to be the best at what we do. But how many of us are willing to do whatever it takes to get there? Most of the time, the difference between those who do well and those who do great in their chosen fields, is that those who do great are willing to do what those who do well, aren't willing to do.

So this week I challenge you to do what your competition and colleagues aren't willing to do. Figure out the one or two things that you could do that your competition can't or are not willing to... then do it!

You may read this and say, great Mark, but tell me what those things are. What are we supposed to do? Truthfully I can't tell you what those things are for you. It's different for all of us. Maybe you need to learn a new skill, hire an employee or consultant to help you, read some new research, change jobs, or even get out of a harmful relationship. I don't know what it is for you. That's your job. But I can tell you this, when you make the commitment to do whatever it takes, success will come. That's a guarantee.

Nothing but death and taxes?....

It was Benjamin Franklin who said, "'In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes." While Benjamin Franklin is doubtlessly one of the wisest and most intelligent leaders to have walked the earth, he had this one a but wrong, or at least, incomplete. I would say that the only thing we can be certain about is uncertainty. After all, if you can be sure of anything in life, it's that you can't be sure of anything. No matter how well we prepare, how much planning we do, and how proactive we are, there will always be parts of life out of our control. For most, the uncertainty of life is something they just deal with. They just do their best to plan ahead and be proactive and understand that sometimes, things just won't go the way you planned. For others though, the uncertainty of life can be a great source of anxiety.

For these folks, not being able to control various elements of their lives is a source of great stress and so their natural response is to do whatever they can to eliminate that stress. That can mean different things to different people. For some it means drinking or doing drugs, for others it means checking out of life completely, holding themselves up in their house and "safe zone" so they don't have to deal with real life. There's no avoiding the fact that life is, at best, only somewhat predictable. There will always be uncertainly. The only question is; how will you handle it?

I would challenge you this week to think of life's uncertainty not as something to be 'tolerated' or 'coped with' but something to appreciate. Am I suggesting that I love uncertainty or that you should? Not exactly. I'm not the biggest fan of the unknown. In fact, I would suggest that by our very nature, human beings dislike that which they don't fully understand and can't predict. However, what is also true is that as much as we hate uncertainty, too much certainty can be even harder to cope with. Imagine for a minute what life would be like if you always knew exactly how everything would turn out? No need to plan anything, no need to set goals and strive after them, you already know what you'll accomplish. No interesting coincidences or even surprise parties, because you already know how everything is going to turn out. Sound fun?

We THINK we crave certainty in life, but in fact uncertainty is actually what makes life interesting. So the key is not to try to eliminate uncertainty from life but to embrace uncertainty. To do that all you have to do is think about the times in life when you were uncertain about something... how often did it turn out in disaster? How often did it turn out fine? And how often did it actually turn out even better than you'd hoped?

The fact is that while life has it's ups and downs and surprises, for the most part, life turns out pretty much as you'd expected. So if you expect great things, great things are quite likely in your future. If you expect bad... well. So rather than anticipating uncertainty with dread, try to see it with potential, even excitement. Chances are good that it' will turn out just fine, or, even better!

Appreciating LIFE

When was the last time you too a moment and really appreciated your life? Have you taken some time lately to sit back, examine your life, and realize how fortunate you are and how amazing life is?

Tomorrow is a special day for me. It is the 8th anniversary of the day I received my Heart and Double-Lung transplant. For me this day is a special as my birthday, maybe even more so. This day is the day that I was given a second chance to live life, and in the last eight years, I've been blessed to be able to experience many things that I would never have experienced otherwise.

I've been able to get married and have a child. I never thought I'd be able to have a family of my own. It's been an amazing blessing. I've also had the opportunity to become a runner, something I was never healthy enough to do before the transplant. Finally, I've been blessed to become a speaker and travel North America meeting thousands of amazing people, and hopefully inspiring them along the way (www.MarkBlackSpeaks.com). So when this day comes along each year it is a reminder to me to appreciate the life I've been given and ask myself if I'm appreciating it the way I should. (To learn more about becoming an organ donor, go to: http://www.organsandtissues.ca/english/ldpe/pdfs/English_LDPE_Brochure_NDD.pdf

So what do you have to be thankful for? What are you taking for granted in your life? Do you have children? Do they get on your nerves sometimes? Of course they do;)but you also love them more than anything in the world. Which do you spend more time focused on? Do you take time to appreciate that love and the miracle that is their lives?

The truth is that we're all guilty of taking things for granted in life (myself definitely included). The challenge is to recognize when we're falling into that pattern and shake ourselves out of it. It doesn't take much thinking to come up with something to appreciate, not does it take some major life event like a birth, or my case a transplant. For example, this morning I awoke to a beautiful blue sunny sky. The same blue sunny sky we've enjoyed all summer here in Atlantic Canada. Last summer we hardly saw that sun. So we're all very appreciative of it this summer. Last week we were forecast to be hit with Hurricane Earl. All indications were that the heart of the storm was going to hit us and hit us hard. In the end, it brushed by and hardly hit us at all. There was little to no damage done and everyone is fine. Something to appreciate; it could have been much, much worse.

So this week I challenge you to appreciate your life. Enjoy it. Recognize all of the things that are going right and focus on those rather than on the things that maybe aren't quite where you'd like them to be. By doing this you will not only realize how fortunate you are, but you'll also be in a better position mentally and emotionally to do something about the parts of your life that you want to improve.

Have a great week. And by the way, I very much appreciate the opportunity to share these thoughts with you and that so many of you take the time each week to read them!