Kerry Hearsey - Dial Up Your Day
We all have £1440 given to us each and every morning – how are you choosing to spend them?
“The world is moving so fast these days that the man who says it can’t be done is generally interrupted by someone doing it.” - Elbert Hubbard
Time is money, or so you hear people say. We each gain 1440 minutes a day, or £1440 depending on your perception. But how are you spending those minutes?
We often get caught up in the “not doing enough” mentality, or worse, “I am not enough” mentality – both paralyzing at times and often internal chaos presides. But how do we stop this way of thinking? How do we shift our focus to our own lives and business in order to be more efficient, more successful and with less energy spent looking over our shoulder?
Now we all know that competition, whether in business or sport, can be healthy – it often drives us outside of our comfort zones, encourages us to explore new ways, and ultimately ensures that we are connected with our passion and purpose in terms of our definition of success.
Thing is, we can often get side-tracked by our competition or even social media images of someone’s so-called life (remember, it is one view portrayed) which knocks us off our game. The “enough” gremlins come out in full force “not doing enough” and “I am not enough”.
Over the last 20 years, I have been exceptionally fortunate to work with some incredible individuals from across the world of sport, many of which have become Olympic or Paralympic champions. We often hear and see their physical capabilities on the big screen or in the newspapers as we cheer their success with pride. But for me, it has always been their brains that have fascinated me most.
How did these individuals push past pain barriers? How did they mentally get back up when they trained for 4-years straight to be disqualified for a false start at a major championship? How did they line up face to face with their competition, no technology or social media protection in place, just them against another?
“The hardest skill to acquire in this sport is the one where you compete all out, give it all you have, and you are still getting beat no matter what you do. When you have the killer instinct to fight through that, it is very special”. – Eddie Reese
We often see these people as heroes. And they are – as we all are, I should add. But they are no different in terms of the emotion, hurt, and feelings that they experience in their “business” of sport. They too have moments of self-doubt, of wanting to quit, of questioning “enough”.
But what is magical and amazing about athletes and sports teams is something we can all transpose to business – it is their ability to structure, practice and reflect – each and every day – the foundations to success. To a point that I have seen many athletes moan “do I really need to practice that skill AGAIN for the 10’000 time!?”. Yep! You sure do!
Athletes and teams become SO FOCUSSED on their lane that it leaves limited time to concern themselves with their competition or the gremlins in their mind. They respect these areas of course, but knock them off their lane? Nope! They have TRUST in their daily process of structure, practice, and reflection.
We may all be leaders in our business field, but for the Dial-Up-Your-Day Series on the MIBA VIP, I really want to take you back to a “beginners’ mindset”. In the beginner’s mindset - we seek adventure with curiosity and apprehension. We set our intentions and priorities. We set our importance. We set our minds to be free and open. This is where the magic happens. It allows us to be truly honest with our self on HOW we are spending those 1440 minutes.
The Dial-Up-Your Day series on the MIBA VIP does just that – it starts to open your mind to reflect on what you are currently doing and to provide some strategies and changes so that you can be action focussed in order to get the very best out of your day. With structure, practice and reflection you can slowly start to move those gremlins and realise the importance is in your own running lane, simply put, the importance is YOU!
“It isn’t the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; it’s the pebble in your shoe”. – Muhammad Ali