I spoke in front of a bunch of graduates at Santander recently.
They bring me in every now and then to get the kids coming out of their corporate training schemes all fired up and in the right mind-set.
Santander is a huge, intimidating corporation.
It doesn’t make any difference. I’m still me.
I stand in front of the sea of expectant faces with Bon Jovi or DC Comics on my T-shirt. I swear. I don’t censor myself. I don’t edit who I am. I’m exactly the same with them as I am with you.
I get a lot of comments that my sessions are the best of the whole day.
I’m not bragging. My talks don’t have the impact they do just because I’m a bloody great speaker (although I clearly am!). They have impact because no one else is actually being themselves to these kids!
There really isn’t a lot of competition out there in being yourself. Hear me talk more about this in podcast episode 411 of The 7 Minute Mentor https://www.excellence-expected.com/7-minute-mentor/
What Would You Have People Say About You?
I asked the grads this question: “Do you want to be the person who says ‘You’re so lucky’ to someone, or do you want to be the person who hears ‘You’re so lucky’ from other people?”
When you start to be who you really, truly are, you start hearing people comment on how lucky you are.
New and wildly unexpected opportunities start coming your way without you seeming to be working any harder. People suddenly start thinking you’ve got a rabbit’s foot tucked away in your pants!
People say it to me all the time. “Aren’t you a lucky sod, Mark?”
Not really, no. I just am who I am. And I work f*cking hard too!
Deny Yourself and You Lose
I’m a big fan of taking time off when you need it. Just now I spent about an hour on my Nintendo Switch, throwing Mario around in a go-kart. It’s the middle of the day, but I needed to recharge.
Other days I need to pound out the work. A few weeks ago I was in the office at 6 am and left at 10 pm. Needs must.
I know myself. I know what I have to get done to move the needle, and I also know when I need to unplug and recuperate.
If you refuse to embrace what you are and everything about you, you’ll either resist the work you need to do and end up being lazy, or you’ll resist recharging your batteries when you need to and you’ll burn out.
Being defined by who you are (and not what you do) means accepting all your quirks, your needs, your strengths and your weaknesses. It’s as if you’ve become aligned, so that everything in you is moving in the same direction. That’s why you start being “lucky”.
When you embrace the entirety of what you are you can work the crazy long hours and you can take time off whenever you like to play Mario Kart. You can do whatever the hell you want. You’re not defined by what you’re doing. You’re defined by how you are, who you are, and how you feel.
Say Yes
I don’t bother with New Year’s resolutions. I don’t think they work. But I do set the “tone” of the year.
At the start of this year, 2018, I set my big-picture guidelines:
1. Play big.
1. No poison.
I want to be at a higher level by the end of this year, so I’m going to play big. I’m also not going to let into my life anything that makes me feel how I don’t want to feel. That’s poison.
Last year, in 2017, I also set a big-picture guideline for the year:
“Say yes.”
By the end of the year, people were coming up to me, amazed, asking me, “How the hell are you doing all this? How did you get all these amazing speaking gigs? How do you fit it in around your growing business?”…… “You’re so lucky.”
No, I’m not.
I chose me. I chose my audience. I chose my team. And I put those things above everything else in work.
You become lucky by being you. Ask yourself: Do you want to be the person who says, “You’re so lucky,” or do you want to be the person who constantly hears, “You’re so lucky"
If you want help with solving your business problems then come along and join me at my free coaching sessions that I run every single Friday live on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/mrasquith/ - 4pm UK, 11am Eastern, 8am Pacific. Together we can define, challenge and conquer your biggest problem.
Reserve your seat https://www.excellence-expected.com/freecoaching on the next free coaching session, now.
Don't forget, the more you expect from yourself, the more you WILL excel!
By the way, I’m a big believer in email marketing and in having the best email marketing tool to help you grow your email list. That’s why I use AWeber and I’ve paired up with them to bring you a special offer – just head to https://www.excellence-expected.com/aweber and use code exex.
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