What's in Your 24?

 What’s in Your 24?

Of all resources at our disposal, time is the most equitably distributed but also the most finite. I say this because it is evident that we all get dealt a stack of 24 hours every single day. The rich, the poor and everyone in between is given the same amount of time daily. Our utilization of the same, has a great impact on the overall quality of our lives. Whenever you waste your time, you waste your life. Plain and simple. Benjamin Franklyn says “lost time is never recovered.’ While Theophrastus adds that ‘Time is the most valuable thing you can spend.’

So what’s in your 24 hours? While we have learnt to track our expenditure of money (though we still have a long way to go) we are doing relatively poorly in tracking time. There’s a sense in which we don’t pay as much attention to our time as we do our money. The irony is that by using our time better we can generate more money.

Time is so significant that the ultra-wealthy buy other people’s time to generate massive value for their ventures. Some of you reading this are employed. You are basically exchanging time for money. Your employer has bought your time and skills and they are using it to generate value. I can guarantee you that you generate more value for them than what they pay you otherwise they would have gotten rid of you a long time ago. Those with harder to grasp, high value skills are paid significantly more than those who do what every Tom, Dick and Harry can do.

Whatever you choose to fill your time with determines how much you are able to generate. Benjamin Franklyn who has a lot to say on time says that time is money. Let me continue on the line of an employee. What do you fill your time with as an employee? Are you doing a lot of low value work that can be replicated by almost anyone? If so, you are likely to wait for a raise for a long time to come. Why? Because no one is going to pay you more if they can hire almost anyone out there to do what you do. If your job can be done by anyone out there or automated, then realize that as at now, you are still doing low value work. The bad news is that our machines are getting smarter and even those who think they are safe now are all set for a rude awakening. If you are doing what is considered high value work that machines cannot replicate easily and there are very few other people who can do it at your level, then chances are that you are highly remunerated, have the flexibility and leverage to ask for more and are secure in terms of having something to do in the long run. A very good question for you as an employee is what am I filling my 24 hours with? Am I focusing on high value tasks? Not all tasks on your to do list carry equal weight. Some mean more than others. Looking at your key performance indicators, what are the most significant outcomes you are supposed to pursue at your current job? What activities in your daily routine contribute the most to those outcomes? Your answer to these questions gives you an idea of what you need to focus on. The same applies to the self-employed, the entrepreneur, student or any other person.

Whatever dominates your 24 reflects your values and priorities. Many times what we think are our priorities and the reality are far removed from each other. On paper our priorities are grand and noble. In reality, you would be surprised. In this era of constant connectivity, we have a lot of threats to our time. It is possible to get caught up in endless browsing, Eric Edmeades calls it trying to reach the bottom of your Facebook Feed.  You can talk about what is important to you all you want but the question remains when you take a critical look at your expenditure of time, what do you see?

This lack of awareness can only hurt you as a person. Instead of adopting a don’t-care attitude when it comes to your time, purpose to be mindful about how you spend your time to have a better quality of life. The only way to start making better use of your time is by tracking your current usage of the same. Whatever you don’t measure you won’t manage effectively. Until you become clear about where you are losing your time, you will not be able to get a handle on it. The only way to answer what’s in your 24 is to track it. While planning how to use your time is critical, an evaluation of this usage will help you plan far much better as you go along.

If you have never clearly answered what is in your 24, I recommend journaling for you. A journal will go a long way in helping you track your time and how you are using it in a systematic manner. Before the journal however, it is important that you as a person are invested in the whole idea of tracking your time. Tools do not mean much when you are not ready to put in the work as a person.

If you are serious about managing your time better, then you have no option but to tell yourself the truth about how you are spending your time currently. This will get you on the path to optimizing your time which is a resource you cannot afford to waste.

At Optimize Institute we have a course tailored with you in mind that will help you get the most out of your time every single day for the rest of your life. Because you want to do this as a matter of urgency, type in the comments ‘Interested’ and we will get in touch with you. Alternatively you can write to me on asenasam@gmail.com or WhatsApp +254725832477.

I will end with a quote from Stephen R Covey-The key is in not in

 spending time, but in investing it.

Go Beyond

 

Beyond The Reception Lounge

What would you say to someone who lives all their life in the reception? Imagine booking a hotel stay for two weeks for example and on arriving at the reception, you fail to proceed to the other areas of the hotel. It would feel weird right? It is difficult to believe it but this happens more often than we think. Forget about a hotel stay for a moment and let’s think about a house you recently bought. What would we think of you if you only spent your time in the living room? Think about this being a 4 bedroom all en suite maisonette with a swimming pool and a host of other amenities. Why would you want to restrict yourself to the living room only?

As crazy as it may sound, many of us live our lives like this. We are stuck in gear one and have not thought of anything beyond. When it comes to exploiting our immense potential, it seems like a majority of us are still only scratching the surface. This is not the way it was meant to be. We are called upon to do more than just be content with what we have experienced so far. We must aspire to go beyond the reception and exploit the depths of the Hotel. We must look past the beauty of the living room and see the rest of the house. We must scratch beneath the surface and discover what else is out there.

I write this article with many people in my mind but to narrow it down, I will focus on musicians, authors and actors. The thoughts herein though are applicable to anyone who cares about being all they can be while we stay this side heaven.

What do I mean when I refer to living in the reception as an artiste, actor or author? It could mean not looking at your talent as bigger than the release of your best-selling album, movie or book. If the exploitation of your talent ends at the release of that chart topping album, then friend you are living in the reception. Life in the reception ain’t all that miserable. A lot goes on at the reception. There are all these people coming in and going out. You are able to meet and interact with all of them at the reception. Allow me to add however that a lot of this interaction is at a shallow superficial level. If you are to get to know these people intimately, it takes more than your interaction at the reception. There is a lot of beauty at the reception because the reception represents the front office of the hotel. This is where the hotel’s face so to speak is. Nobody wants a reception that looks beaten and all washed up. You can easily get lost in the beauty of the reception and fail to grasp all the other things in the hotel. At the reception there are these beautiful magazines and maybe the screens are on showing you a whole host of interesting things to keep you enjoying the moments as they pass-by. Suffice it to say that the reception is a place full of life and you would be forgiven for thinking that this is where all the action is.

Shock on you, there is more life in all the other areas and as a matter of fact, the best of experiences are away from the public’s view. Beyond the reception, lies the restaurants. I mean it’s all great being where the action is and all that, but when hunger strikes, all that action means nothing unless your stomach is taken care of. When nightfall comes and you are tired and worn out, you need the privacy and peace of your room to sleep and unwind. At such times, the reception is not the best place to be. If the hotel or resort you are staying at has other amenities like swimming pools and golf courses, you will find that there is more fun in those places than at the reception. If you have your kids with you, you will want to engage them in activities which will obviously be beyond the reception. If you are carrying valuables with you, I am 100 percent positive, you will not want to display them in the public area that is the reception. Supposing you want to hold a serious discussion, you will want the privacy of your room or a booth where you will be sure no one will hear a thing about what you are discussing. I share all of this to illustrate the point that the reception as beautiful and exciting as it is, is not everything we need when we are booking a hotel room. Your living room as exciting as it is, is not where your most serious business takes place. Your treasured possessions are most likely locked up in a safe within your bedroom or some other place not so obvious within your house. You do not talk about deep matters at the living room table in the presence of all the visitors and children. You will want to pull your spouse aside and share the things on your heart in private. I guess what I am trying to put across makes sense to you. 

When your exploitation of talent ends at the point of your best-selling album, movie or book, you have just settled for staying in the reception or the living room. Look at all those people in your field who have gone on to enjoy massive success. One thing you will note about them is that they didn’t remain at the reception. They looked beyond the joys of being in the limelight and went for something better out there.

I can tell you this for free, Jay-Z did not become a Dollar Billionaire off of his music alone. His music was a door opener to many other things which combined have brought him such a great fortune. He decided to look at how to ride on his fame to go into many other ventures which have made him who he is today. The same can be said of many other successful artistes, athletes, actors and authors.

Courtesy of the clarity of his thinking, Jay was able to go into endorsement deals, ambassadorial roles and many other entrepreneurial ventures as a result of the recognition of his name. You see the reception was important in his story but it was not all he was about. He used the beauty and appeal of his reception to take people with him into the depths of his hotel so to speak. What are you doing with the recognition of your name in the particular field you are in? Are you simply basking in the glory and forgetting to go beyond? As we speak Jay is into Talent Management through Roc-a-nation, fashion through Roca wear, music streaming through Tidal, he has partnerships with watchmaker Hublot just to name a few of the offshoots of his success as an artist.

The question is are you looking beyond the reception in your own field of operation? Do you see yourself as capable of accomplishing so much more as an artist, actor, or author? Do you realize that there are so many other avenues for you to increase your impact beyond what your music, film or book can do? My challenge to you is that you begin to look at all the different ways in which you can move beyond the reception and go to the places where life is happening. As a musician ask yourself how can I build an enterprise around my music? As an actor ask how can I use my recognition as a force for social good? As an author ask how do I leverage on my authority to impact many more lives for generations to come?  Nobody can answer this question better than you. People’s paths are as unique as they are. What worked for one person might not necessarily work for another. What I am certain of though is that as you deploy yourself in these matters, clarity will come your way concerning what you need to do.

I encourage you to appreciate the fact that there is more to your gift than what you have accomplished so far. I will end with a proverb from Solomon which says a man’s gift makes room for him and brings him before great men. Proverbs 18:16.  Purpose to release your gift and allow it to take you where you cannot go otherwise. Resolve to allow your gift to manifest beyond its basest form. Don’t get so caught up in the little successes that you forego the biggest rewards that await you.  Whatever you do, look beyond the reception and enjoy the fullness of the resort.

Do you want to go beyond with your talents, resources and so much more? Make a point of getting in touch with us via asenasam@gmail.com 

Tight Spot Mentality

 

                                    Tight Spot Mentality

Dr. Benjamin Hardy, a psychologist is the first person I heard using the phrase forcing functions which is the basis for what I would like to share here. He describes them as the pressures you apply to yourself intentionally to raise the level of your performance.

One of the quotes I love which aptly captures the philosophy behind the Tight Spot mentality says that ‘Work expands to fill the time allocated for it.’

As humans we are surprisingly adaptable to the situations we find ourselves in. Whenever your boss or someone else in authority over you gives you a task with a strict deadline, you find ways and means to make it happen. The truth is that you always have this capacity only that you have not been called to bring it out more often.

Embracing a tight spot mentality is critical to anyone who wants to set high standards of performance for themselves. What if a tight spot mentality is something you can turn on anytime you want rather than wait for it to be forced down your throat all the time? How much more would you accomplish if you learnt to apply pressure to yourself irrespective of who was watching over you and waiting for you to deliver?

The Swahili have a saying that goes ‘maji ukisha yavulia sharti uyaoge.’ This can be loosely translated to once you have stripped yourself of your clothes, you have no option but to take that shower. Sometimes the best way to learn how to swim is to throw yourself into the water. When your survival depends on your ability to swim, you learn what it takes very quickly as opposed to when there is no immediate danger. Human ingenuity will help you find ways and means of coming out of tight spots that you would never know you had until you found yourself there.

Think about what happened with many of us when the current pandemic first came our way. We had to adjust swiftly in order to survive and we did it. If you had told us that we would wear masks, sanitize and keep social distance in 2019, it would have sounded strange to us but when COVID 19 showed up, we have had no choice but to adapt. Your ability to adapt depends on what is at stake. The things you won’t do in your comfort zone become easy breezy when your life is at stake. How many creature comforts did we give up quickly to survive the pandemic? All of a sudden, our unnecessary social gatherings were a thing of the past, some of our culturally significant practices like spending much time planning for a funeral for example were thrown out the window. Give a man sufficient motivation and he will accomplish the seemingly impossible. For a moment a majority of the things which looked indispensable in our lives took a back seat. Who would have thought we would close down schools, entertainment joints, places of worship and so much more. I can guarantee that it was never going to happen under normal circumstances. These things were and are vital to our living but once it was apparent that cutting down on them was necessary for our survival, we did it without blinking an eye. Visits to the hospital were also significantly scaled down and a lot of us realized that we visit hospital for trivial matters just because we have a medical cover.

The million dollar question is, what are the other things you have elevated in your life to a degree of necessity that is not reflective of reality? How many things can you do without yet you have made them a critical part of who you are and your existence? What are these things you can cut out or scale down in your life without affecting you adversely?

The secret is to become at peace with creating tight spots for yourself in all areas of your life. You will accomplish so much more once you normalize a tight spot mentality. Cut down the time you use to complete a task by half to see what you can come up with. More often than not, you will realize that you have the capacity to do it once you put your mind to it.

Creating a tight spot mentality

It is important to ask yourself what positive pressure you can apply to yourself in order to get there faster. For some people making public commitments is a way of getting in the zone. This must be accompanied by a heart of integrity such that you can’t be at peace if you fail to fulfil your commitment. For others it is about taking the first step of a project after which it is fatal to drag your feet. With this you have no choice but to carry the project through. In some instances, you apply pressure to yourself by committing to certain consequences which are severe enough to make you do what you have set out to do. A good example is a client of mine who committed to pay a hefty fine for any deadline she misses. The thought of paying that fine is enough to drive her towards doing the right thing. You could think of buying the things you need for a task especially if they are expensive. The fact that you spend money to get those things will drive you to get up and do it whether you wanted to or not. Another tactic is to enter into an accountability partnership with someone who will keep you on toes with regard to keeping your commitments. You can design it in such a way that failure to do what you committed to means you lose out on money that you have already committed in a common pool to your partner.

Many goals are abandoned midstream because there isn’t sufficient motivation behind them. We all need meaningful safeguards around our goals if we will have a chance to actualize them. There is no tool as effective as developing a tight spot mentality. You must make the consequences of failure severe in your mind so that you have no option but to press on. Sometimes it requires that you burn bridges so that there is no chance of going back.  This is a tactic that has been used by many generals to ramp up the motivation of their troops on the war front.  Alexander the Great burned his ships upon arriving in Persia in 334 B.C and when he was asked by one of his commanders about how they will get home, he replied ‘we’ll use their ships.’ This despite the fact that his army was outnumbered probably ten to one. A chines general Xiang Yu ordered his troops across the river and burnt the bride behind them quietly leading them to be so motivated that they beat the mighty Qin in the battle of Julu in 207 BC. It is a risky business but it works magic in getting people motivated to bring out their best. 

What fire are you going to ignite in yourself and what means will you use to ignite it? From this article and any other thing you know about engineering conditions to drive performance, what are you willing to do to accomplish your goals in 2021? What public commitments are you willing to make to get yourself out there? I would like to hear your thoughts and ideas in the comments below.

Do you need help developing a personalized tight spot mentality around your goals and key stone results? Are you ready to throw it all on the line and reach your goals in 2021? Reach out to me via my email asenasam@gmail.com or +254774776413 and let’s get you going down the road of no return.

Managing Success

 

What is Success?

Many people define success differently. It could be as simple as the accomplishment of an aim or purpose.

Good old Wikipedia defines success as the state or condition of meeting a defined range of expectations. It may be viewed as the opposite of failure. Different people measure success differently.

A good question would be what is success to you? I would very much want to read your responses in the comments.

More important however is how do we go about the process of managing success. For many people it is a difficult task to get to the top (whatever the top is in their context) but it is actually much more difficult to stay at the top.

You can’t start the next chapter of your life if you keep re-reading the last one-anonymous.

There are many forces and factors that stand in the way of that person who has risen to the top all trying as though by default to bring the person down. Maintaining and growing on your success is one of our greatest challenges. When it is not pride assaulting you, you could find yourself struggling with impostor syndrome. For some people what their success affords them is the very thing that brings them down. It is said your true character is revealed when you have the means to do it without having to care what anyone else thinks. Money they say doesn’t change people, it merely unmasks them. Apart from this very obvious challenges to the maintenance of our success, what other forces are at work in trying to bring us down.

Carey Nieuwhof says the greatest enemy of your future success is your current success

Threats to the maintenance of your success

1)      Comfort with the Status quo. When you get to a point where you think you have arrived, then you are in danger of losing it all. There is a big difference between contentment and being comfortable with the status quo. The former teaches you to be grateful for the far you have come while leaving the door open for greater advancement while the latter tells you that there is no reason to go further. It is possible to mistakenly believe that there is no higher height than what you have achieved until someone else comes and surpasses your record. Records exist to be broken and therefore if you choose not to break your own, remember someone else will come along and do it. You need to remain hungry if your success is going to be sustainable. Complacency is the fastest killer of success. We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things because we are curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths-Walt Disney. 

2)      Arrogance. The other danger you are likely to fall into is that of a know it all. Arrogance keeps you from learning from others because you mistakenly think you are the smartest bloke in the room. When this happens, people start avoiding you and cannot offer you any advice. When you get to a point where you are surrounded by Yes-men who do not question anything you are doing, then you are on your way down.  While you don’t have to do everything people suggest, you must never reach that point where you don’t listen to anyone for that matter. Jim Collins says in how the Mighty fall that leaders who broker success over a long period show an astonishing humility. They realize that despite their hard work, they are fortunate to be in the position they are in. They never rest on their laurels; they work hard to keep the mission advancing. Never allow your success put a ceiling on your willingness to consider other opinions.

3)      You stop leading and start managing. Leadership is about innovation and taking people to new heights. Management is concerned with maintaining what has been achieved. While maintenance is good in and of itself, there needs to be an emphasis on progress. You not only want to keep your current success, you want to ensure continuity. Allow yourself to see new possibilities.

4)      Over-celebration. There is nothing wrong with celebrating a great milestone or accomplishment. By all means we should spare time to be happy about what we have done to get to where we are. This however becomes a problem when we fail to snap out of it in time. This is how we end up talking about our great past but have nothing noteworthy to talk about today. I always like giving the example of Apple, Samsung and Nokia especially with regard to Smartphone business. Before the advent of the smartphone, Nokia was the undisputed leader in the mobile devices industry but for some reason they missed the boat when it came to this new shift and they have never recovered. It is very difficult to think that either Apple or Samsung will fall for the same. The speed with which they move on to the next one keeps them winning. Whatever success you have enjoyed, never let it go to your head and cause you to lose sight of what the future holds. Celebrate but then quickly get back on the grind. This is the only way to keep winning. Remember the idea is not to win once but to stay winning. In his book Only the Paranoid Survive, Andy Grove says that ‘success only happens for that short time prior to the next market disruption.’ You had better not get caught napping. 

 

Growing beyond your current success.

There are a number of things you can do to move on from your success in a healthy way.

To guard against the dangers of success, Les Trachtman recommends that you need a balanced ego alongside a healthy dose of paranoia. He goes on to say that success is often the predecessor of failure. If you are not careful, your success might be the very thing that leads to your downfall.

To survive your success, you must maintain childlike curiosity, remain open-minded and pay attention to the subtle changes taking place around you. Disruptions are never obvious. They hit you like a bolt from the blue. It serves you best to appear as the foolish one and listen to new ideas. A failure to do so could lead to you biting the dust sooner rather than later.

Jen Rao in an article on fizzle.co says that it is important to look in the mirror. It’s about being self-aware whenever you are sabotaging yourself. As you see yourself and the ways in which you are sabotaging your growth, you will be in a position to act differently.

Stepping away from the success could also be immensely helpful in forging forward. While in the midst of it, it is possible to stagnate. By stepping away probably through taking some time off or looking at your success from an outsider’s perspective, you might just be able to see new windows of opportunity to move forward.

One of the other great things to do is to grow your circle of friends. When you maintain the friends you had at a lower level of success without bringing on board new friends, you are likely to start feeling like the big fish which will cause you to rest easy. Always seek to be around people who are smarter and further along the road. This has the twin effect of keeping you hungry and humble. You get to realize that there is so much more to accomplish than what you have seen so far. Super-successful friends will also show you a different way of doing things which has enabled them to get to where they are. You will be able to gain from their networks and everything they bring with them.

I will close with a famous quote from Apostle Paul, I do not consider, brethren that I have captured and made it my own yet but This one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the supreme and heavenly prize to which God in Christ is calling us upward. Philippians 3:13-14.

How are you going about managing your own success? Share in the comments so we can learn together. 

Vintage Self

 

In Pursuit of Vintage Self

There are certain times in my life where I have performed at such high levels that as I look back over I wonder what it would be if this became my daily mode of operation. Looking back at when I did very well in sales or when I was writing my first book and putting together my first course, I realize that I was in a particular state of mind that guaranteed great results. I would say that I was in a state of flow and everything was possible in those instances.  I was truly at Vintage Self. What do I mean when I talk about Vintage Self? What is vintage and what conditions do I need to meet in order to regularly get to vintage self?

Vintage is mentioned many times in relation to or denoting wine of high quality. The definition however goes beyond wine and looks at many other products. This is why we talk about Vintage cars among others. When we refer to something as vintage, we are looking at it as something from the past of high quality especially representing the best of its kind. It means something representative of the best, most distinctive and most typical. A vintage product is characterized by excellence, maturity and enduring appeal. Your vintage self therefore is the best, typical, distinctive, highest quality version of yourself. This is what you need to pursue constantly. As you look at your life, have you had moments where you produced vintage stuff in whatever compartment? Share such moments in the comments. Every time you work, serve or do whatever it is you are doing, are you delivering vintage results? Are you constantly delivering your A-game? Does what you do carry a touch of excellence, maturity and enduring appeal? Are your results memorable?

Vintage Wine

A number of conditions needs to be met if a crop is going to deliver vintage wine. The timing of different activities in the process of cultivation is critical to the success of this endeavor. The region and location where the crop is cultivated is also a factor in the success. Prevailing weather conditions during the life of the crop determine how well it will come out. The crop must also be protected from unwelcome visitors which may end up interfering with what the farmer has worked so hard to put together. What is done at harvest time also determines the final product. The bottom line is that a vintage crop is no accident. High quality wine or anything for that matter does not come about by chance. There is need for you to control the variables to ensure crop success. What variables do you need to control in your own case to ensure you are producing exemplary results?

The kind of results we are looking for might be different but there are certain conditions which we all need to meet to position ourselves where we are producing the best results. Environmental design is critical to great results (we are products of our environment), Character development (what are you made of?), Our company (The people we spend our time with), Managing distractions (focus)

Just like the right weather is needed at different times in the growth of vines to produce wine, you need to create the right environment for yourself to bring out the best results. Your environment determines how well you can concentrate on the task at hand. What kind of environment is ideal for the type of work you do? Some work well with regulated white-noise while others want total silence to function. Two people studying might require different set ups to focus on the task at hand. It is important to understand yourself and what you need to function effectively so that you prepare your environment accordingly.

Who do you need to become to produce your best results? The idea that who you are is cast in stone is a fallacy that must be dispelled. We all have capacity to grow and become the best versions of ourselves. To get to your vintage self will call on you to marshal all your capacity for growth and development. You cannot be the same person you were when you were not producing vintage results. What do you need to cut off from your life to get to your best self? What do you need to add to who you are to guarantee the best fruit? The conditions must be just right. A good crop cannot survive long in a crowded field. Character development can be likened to weeding, pruning and thinning your field. These are all activities that shake up the crop and field in serious ways. While weeding gets rid of clearly unwanted plant life, the latter two work on the plant itself. Are you ready to work on yourself and chisel your character into shape? Pruning will get rid of parts of the plant which do not add value to it. What do you need to cut off from your life because it represents zero or little value? What is competing for your resources yet it doesn’t bring added value? Same case happens with thinning. While pruning is about cutting off parts of the plant, thinning gets rid of entire plants. Are there segments/compartments of your life that need to die completely? Where and how are you willing to die in order to go to the next level? Top dressing your crop is also part of its growth process. You should look at this as the things you are adding to your character to become better. Ask yourself what you need to add to your life to deliver a vintage crop. Set yourself up for a vintage harvest by doing the right things now.

You are the sum total of the five people you spend most of your time with. 1 Corinthians 15: 33. Bad company ruins good morals. You cannot disentangle yourself from the way of life of your close confidants. If you want to experience a vintage harvest, you cannot continue to hang around people who are comfortable with average results. Reevaluate your friendships and close associations then adjust accordingly. You don’t have to cut people off completely but you can reduce contact with them while increasing contact time with those who matter to your quest. Don’t waste your precious time with those who are not adding value to your life but do not throw them under the bus unless they totally merit it. As you build connections, seek to surround yourself with people who are smarter than you. The moment you realize you are the smartest person in the room, the wise advise that you leave that room immediately. Which rooms are you leaving right now? Which new rooms do you need to enter where there are people smarter than you? As you share with others who are learning from you, see to it that you are also sitting in rooms where you are tapping from wise minds. People form part of your external environment and they have a huge impact on how your life turns out. Make sure you are surrounded by the right kind of people. This will position you where you are all set to reap a vintage harvest.

Vines are attacked by many different pests at different times. Among them are climbing cutworms, European red mites, grape berry moths, grape leafhoppers, grape phylloxera, grape root borers, grape cane gall makers, grape cane girdlers, grapevine flea beetles, Japanese beetles, red-banded leaf roller, Rose chafers and nematodes.  What pests to your focus do you need to rid yourself of? Is it Email and Social Media? Do you get distracted by colleagues who pop in and out of your office unannounced? What are you weak and wobbly around? Do you lose track of time and your goals when you get hold of that interesting Netflix series (I can relate). What steals your focus so easily? For some of us just a little setback is enough for us to throw the year away. You must learn to rise above discouragement, disappointment and disillusionment. Others suffer from shiny object syndrome. We are so focused until someone comes along with a plan that seems like what we’ve been waiting for. Right there and then, our eyes get off the goal and off we run to chase the next thrill. Too many things are present in our lives and surroundings whose aim is singular-to move us from what we need to be focused on. I love the analogy of how predators mark out their prey and focus on it to the exclusion of everything else. It doesn’t matter who else shows up along the way, once they are locked in on their target, they do not turn to the right or left until the prey is secure in their hands. To produce a vintage harvest requires extreme focus which is only possible by ruthless management of distractions.

Get set physically, mentally and emotionally. Are you in tip-top shape in these three areas? Everything hinges strongly on how you are doing here. Manage your body through great nutrition and physical exertion. Keep your mind young through constant renewal. Ensure you have a great relationship with your emotions where you don’t allow them to run wild while you are also not keeping them caged. If you are sound in these areas, everything else will take shape as needed.

I would like to help you set yourself up for a vintage year. You are welcome to join my Free Introductory Master Class where I share great insights on expressing your Vintage self. Make 2021 a Vintage Year and build on it in the years to come. WhatsApp me on +254725832477 or email asenasam@gmail.com to book your spot.

Do you Love a Challenge?

 

                                                              Do you love a challenge?

Your perception around a challenge can determine what you do with it. What kind of attitude do you have towards the challenges around your life? If you ask many of us, they would rather live a life devoid of challenges. But is it possible or even worthwhile? The truth is it is impossible to live minus challenges. They are the fuel of life. It is also a mundane existence if there are no curveballs that need us to apply the best of ourselves.

Challenges create necessity. And necessity is the mother of all invention. There would be zero need for invention and innovation if there were no challenges. We advance as a race because of the constant need to deal with emerging challenges quickly enough.

Somebody had to encounter the challenge of moving swiftly from one place to another to be inspired to come up with the locomotive, the automobile and the aeroplane. Imagine what it would be like to still be travelling on foot over thousands of kilometers. Some other people thought about how inconveniencing it was to have to be in a fixed position to make calls across the world. This is how the world of cell phones came about. But that was not enough. We realized that there is a lot that we can do with a hand held device rather than just calling and texting. The need to do more with our hand held devices brought about the smartphone. The one thing that cuts across all these advancements is the presence of a challenge to be solved, a need to be met.

The best thing you can do for yourself is to fall in love with challenges. It guarantees that you will have an exciting, thrilling life. There is no greater thrill than to know you have worked on a challenge and put it to bed once and for all. Challenges make you constantly improve on your best self. Success is a journey of overcoming challenges and not just the final destination.

A life devoid of challenges is uninspiring and not something you want to constantly have. It has the potential to make you lethargic or numb. You run the risk to have a robotic experience of life which is the result of predictability. Such a life kills your imagination and creativity and leaves you high and dry. Cowards want to live where everything has been figured out for them. What kind of life is that?

Challenges do not have to be negative. Some challenges can be very positive in nature. You can create challenges for yourself for the purpose of pushing yourself to the next level. We must get into the habit of placing ourselves in situations where we crack our brains to come out of where we are stuck. Dr. Benjamin Hardy has an interesting way of looking at this. He calls them forcing functions. You need to start creating forcing functions all around you to push you further down the road. Not al your challenges need to be external and catch you by surprise. You need to get to the point where you are creating challenges for yourself and figuring them out in order to make good progress.

Think about things like making public commitments to get something done. The fact that the public is watching will spur you into doing the very best because you do not want your failure to be in the public domain. Another example of a forcing function is to get started down a road of no return. There are certain things you can do like jumping into the water which will force you to learn how to swim for survival. Many of us are capable of so much more in life but because there is no life or death situation facing us, we move at a leisurely pace. A little instability can help us adjust our pace and accomplish much more.

Challenges have a way of building our muscles. The more you encounter what you are unfamiliar with, the stronger you become both physically, mentally and psychologically. There is no shortcut to stronger muscles. The only way to strengthen is to engage in endurance training. David Goggins the renowned ex-NAVY SEAL says that our bodies start to shut down when we are only at 40 percent of their capacity in a bid to preserve themselves. The secret is to push through that resistance until you get to the other side. Once you overcome this initial resistance, you realize that you can go much further down the road.  

Question? What forcing functions are you going to apply on yourself going forward? What challenges have you been sidestepping that you are going to face going forward? I would like to hear your thoughts in the comments in this regard.

Challenges are not to be feared but embraced because in embracing your challenges, you embrace your future. Why would you run away from a better future? Your perception is much more important than the degree of challenge you are facing. If you see it as a way to grow and progress, that is exactly what it will be. If you see it as something to be avoided at all cost, then be ready for a mediocre existence at best. I am sure no one would choose a mediocre existence willingly but anytime you run away from challenges, you are slowly but surely drifting towards a mediocre life.

Would you like to learn more about being at home with challenges and how to make them work for you instead of against you? Hit me up on asenasam@gmail.com and let's talk. 

Feel free to also order a copy of my book Blessed to be a Blessing and learn more about why your experiences both good and bad, including pain are gold which you should embrace and extract value from. 

Goal Setting 2021

As we Approach 2021 for most of us it is a time to set new goals or resolutions. For others the New Year is not the best time to do this. Each camp has their own reasons. Whatever your thoughts are, I would like to encourage you to reconsider your approach to goal setting. This article will shed light on a different approach which you might want to consider next time you want to do this. 

Acceptable Goal Setting.

It has been preached to us that SMART goals are the way to go when it comes to setting goals. This has been the default approach for a long time. I have used it myself all the time I am setting goals. It is a very effective approach and some of what I am going to discuss here will still capture elements of the acronym. Let me get a few things out of the way first before I delve deeper into the discussion.

There is no changing the fact that goals must be specific. If they are not specific then they do not mean anything. They are just statements of intent. Goals must also be measurable meaning they must be quantifiable in terms of size and magnitude. I am also persuaded that goals need to be achieved within a particular set timeframe lest they become wish lists or someday items. I have a problem with attainable and realistic because they are limiting words. Goals need to stretch and scare you. Attainable and realistic mean if you stretch just a little bit you will be there. That does not excite me at all. 

Winner’s Goal Setting.

How does Grant Cardone approach his goal setting? In his book ‘The 10X Rule', he suggests setting goals 10times bigger than you normally do and be willing to do 10 times than you do. According to him, we set our goals too low and put in too little effort and end up disappointed. 

Goals need to excite us and pump up our blood. They need to scare us when we think about them and achieving them. It is when we are looking for average results and an average life that we set attainable and realistic goals. We tend to dabble in attainable and realistic because we want to fly under the radar. When you start talking big, there is no way you will fly under the radar. Everyone will be watching you. Some will even take it upon themselves to keep you accountable. The mockery you will receive from others will drive you even more. If your goals do not scare your peers, be prepared never to rise above them. 

Attainable and realistic goals guarantee that you will live beneath your potential. 95 percent of us live beneath what we are capable of. It is a case of poor stewardship of our abilities and if you are religious I bet it is sinful. Why would any of us want to live beneath our capabilities? 

The exciting way to do it is to set big goals. There is a need for a shift in mindset from us so that setting big, scary goals becomes the norm. There are many reasons for this. What we think we need turns out never to be enough courtesy of the many variables that come about. When this happens, only those who had outsized goals will weather the storm. Big goals provide enough motivation for you. They inevitably make you realize that you have to step up your activity levels. Big goals hold our attention. When they are small or attainable with little effort, we tend to lose focus and drift into other more exciting things. The bigger and more unrealistic goals are and the more aligned they are to your purpose, the more they’ll energize and fuel your actions according to Grant Cardone.

If you must follow the examples of others, then be careful about those you choose to follow. You have a responsibility to set your goals against the benchmark of those who have achieved massive success. This way the goal is so scary you are almost sure you won’t attain it. Anytime you think your goal is easily within reach, the goal is not big enough.

As you do it, realize you have been raised, educated and conditioned by restrictions. You are more conscious of what you can’t do than what you can do. From our parents to our teachers, we have been taught to think in terms of limits, to be real. Whenever we looked like going too far out of line, we were punished and brought back into the fold. We have been taught moderation which isn’t a bad thing but still comes as a limiting mindset. It is possible even your environment at work tells you to play it cool. Maybe they sneer at the very idea of ambition. With a history of limited thinking, your default approach is ‘I need to be realistic.’ This means that a lot of times we are capable of so much more. Keep this in mind as you set your own goals so that you are challenged to target higher.

Advantages of Unrealistic Goals

They help us exploit our potential more often than not. Using up our potential is often a hit and miss kind of thing. One of the surest ways to improve our odds is to set unrealistic goals and commit to massive action to realize them. 

They also have a greater reward. If I achieve 30 percent of a small goal and 30 percent of a big goal in the same area, the results and rewards are surprisingly different.

Big goals motivate. We need to be in pursuit of big things to remain focused throughout the journey.

They also cushion you from inevitable shocks. When you achieve massive success, you stand a better chance of conquering shocks that come your way from whatever quarters. 

What will you do with your current goals? Are they big enough? Do they need a fresh look? What about your team’s goals? What is your takeaway from this post? Share in the comments below.

If you need someone to walk you through setting and tracking your goals going forward, feel free to DM me or comment below. 

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