Welcome to the Champion’s Brew, a weekly pick-me-up designed to equip and call you to uncommon leadership. I believe you will discover that the format that is not only useful, but also that you can consume it within the time it takes you to enjoy your daily ‘brew’!
Here is your weekly drink of what I have been reading and experimenting with to help me to:
- Think Positively: If your desire is to be successful in a specific area of your life (Family, Faith, Fitness, Finances), it is important that you have a positive ‘picture’ of what good looks like. When I coach folks in the development of their story, I ask them if they have a picture of what it looks like in the future. If you don’t know where you are going, how do you know you got there? Here is a recent excerpt from a book, The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari that outlines the need to have positive thoughts about what target state you are working toward and how to keep you motivated to start the habits you need to get there.
“The alarm goes off and you start to think of staying in bed rather than get up for that morning run. CHALLENGE THE MINDSET to overcome the desire. Start to picture in your mind’s eye who you will look, feel, and act when you are in peak physical shape. You hear the many compliments your colleagues and friends offer when you walk by them with a trim physique. You focus on all that you can accomplish with the increased energy a regular exercise program will bring. Your days are filled with vitality, enthusiasm, and meaning!”
– That sounds like a worthy cause…. So, GET OUT OF BED and get to work!!
- Stay Strong: I finished Developing the Leader Within You 2.0 recently while soaking in some sun at the beach. Not a bad place for personal growth.
The last chapter was on Personal Growth. I found one section of the chapter to be totally aligned with being Uncommon(or not being) – to living into purpose and to ensure that we do not ‘retire’…ever.
“You must strive for excellence [sic Uncommon]. Recently I came across a piece by telecommunications executive team leader David Lewis that describes what it means to be average [sic Common]:
- “Average” [sic Common] is what failures claim to be when their friends ask them why they are not more successful.
- “Average” is the top of the bottom, the best of the worst, the bottom of the top, the worst of the top [sic ‘Cream of the crap’]
- “Average” means being run-of-the-mill, mediocre, insignificant, an also-ran, a non-entity.
- Being “average” is the lazy person’s cop-out; it’s lacking guts to take a stand in life; it’s living by default [sic ‘retired’]
- Being “average” is to take up space for no purpose; to take a train through life but never to pay the fare; to return no interest for God’s investment in You.
- Being “average” is to pass one’s life away with time, rather than to pass one’s time away with life; it’s to kill time, rather than working it to death.
- To be “average” is to be forgotten once you pass from this life. The successful are remembered for their contributions; the failures are remembered because they tried’ but the “average”, the silent majority, are just forgotten.
To be “average” is to commit the greatest crime one can against oneself, humanity, and one’s God. The saddest epitaph is this: “Here lies Mr. and Mrs. Average – here lie the remains of what might have been, except for their belief that they were “average”.
So, nobody wants average. Nobody wants to ‘be’ average. Nobody pays for ‘average’.
How’s THAT for a cold bucket of water in the face? the word average could be replaced with Common… the word excellence with Uncommon. BUT a great piece would be to turn the entire piece around and write another segment that talked about what it meant to be Uncommon and what IT means to BE Uncommon… Look for this in an upcoming Brew…
- Be Happy: Here is a fun, light story about “The Most Popular Fast-food Chain the Year you were born” – I didn’t know I shared a birth year with The Big Mac!! – What about you?
What you need to do:
Call to Action: What area of your life are you just “average” and you want to turn it around and BE Uncommon?
I hope you enjoyed this week’s edition of Champions Brew. If you liked it, do me a favor and share it with someone you think might get some value. Or, if someone shared this with you and it added value to you, please subscribe and I will make sure you automatically get this email every week.
Until next time, go and Grow Champions!
P.S. the Uncommon Leader Podcast came out this week. The first episode is a great conversation with Paul Dechant, MD. You can check that out here: http://growingchampions.net/podcast/
One Response
This is great stuff!
I really appreciate this view of “average”. Average sounds a bit like a commodity… lot’s of this stuff available and nothing that sets it apart from others.
Well done!