(As Always Can you Be the First to Spot the Leprechaun?)
Have you ever had a day that you felt totally sluggish and did nothing? How did you feel?
Have you ever had a day that you were going out of your mind and way too stressed and you may have even snapped and yelled things you don’t want to repeat at your children, a spouse or a friend? I know I have!! 😂😂
Now on the other hand have you had that day that you felt super productive, not too stressed, not too sluggish but just like goldilocks that just right amount of stress? How did you feel?
Probably amazing!
Everyone of us had a day like the ones listed above, but I want to focus on the last one, why is it that on the day you worked hard you felt great and even more vibrant and alive?
It’s because you had the right kind of stress in your day! We need and crave the appropriate amount of stress in our lives. I will share another metaphor using a guitar below to illustrate this but first want to share how this has impacted me recently.
I was in a group conversation last night with the author, Richard Paul Evans and we were all talking about what we wanted to accomplish this week, he said that he was going to write a certain amount of words. So I was feeling driven and I told him that I was going to write 10,000 words. Fortunately, he pushed back and asked if I had ever done that and I told him I hadn’t and he told me it’s actually a lot to do (The average book is only 85,000 words long.) So I cut it down to 5,000 words which was probably really smart!
Now I haven’t taken on a number goal for quite a while, most of my goals are currently written in times. I generally just write fifty minutes a day, and do lots of other things for fifty minutes a day. And in case you are wondering, YES, I was actually setting a timer until the other day, my mom, who knows how precise I am with using timers so I can make sure that I do things exactly asked me if I ever do anything without using a timer?
It caused me to pause and reflect, which is often when we learn the most. So I decided to try it without and enjoyed it a lot more. Does it really matter if I write 48 or 52 minutes? Probably not.
Now tying the conversation with Richard Paul Evans and my mom together. I realized that not only was I just putting in the time, but because I measured everything by time, I wasn’t even having that much to show for my writing and no sense of urgency. I mean even this past week, I mostly just went back and reworked my outline. I felt this was important even though I’m already 86,000 words into my book. But I really didn’t get any new words written. So last night I realized that I needed to have a specific measurable goal of how many new words that I added to my book.
When we share our goals with THE RIGHT people we get excited and are ready to take on new challenges, Even just setting that goal and sharing it with Richard Paul Evans, I got really excited and motivated! I began to see possibility. And now if I measure that each day of the week, and make sure each day I get 1,000 words in, then I will hit my goal and feel amazing. It is the journey of getting to our goal that we actually enjoy more than the results of the goal, and it’s on that journey that we learn and become the person we desire to be.
It is not about the amount of time you put into the work, it is the amount of work that you put into that time. If I go to the gym and spend all my time walking on a treadmill talking to a cute girl, I will have a much different experience instead of if I had just put my headphones in and got to work.
Which days do you think I would feel better after?
The hard workout! I’m sweating, my muscles are on fire and I LOVE IT!
Our body and even our spirit crave that effort!
Think about a day that you have gone and approached it with tons of purpose and just attacked your goals!
How did you feel? Probably amazing.
That’s because we need the right amount of stress in our lives.
Have you ever tuned a guitar?
If you haven’t I highly recommend you try this.
Take the big fat string which is called the E string, and tune the peg down so there is no tension, keep doing it until you can’t hear any sound anymore. Now tune it back to E and then tighten even a few steps higher to an F. Don’t go much higher or you will hurt the guitar. Now if you do this with the smallest string, you will snap the string. Ask how many guitar players have snapped that lovely little E string– probably every single one of them.
Out of each of those tunings, what would you prefer to hear? The tuning so low that it doesn’t make noise (unless you count it ricocheting off of the guitar itself); the high pitched tuning or the just right tuning?
Probably the just right tuning!
The more you tighten the string, the higher the pitch goes. The more you loosen the string, the lower the pitch goes. But between that low and high pitch is a sweet spot, the place the note plays perfectly and THAT sweet spot is what you are aiming for in your life, that sweet spot of tension! That’s where the magic of life is created. And how is that sound created? By pressure and tension. Too little stress and we don’t make any music, too much tension and we snap, but when we find just the right amount of tension, we can make some incredibly fine music.
We need stress! We need an appropriate amount of stress in our life, without it life wouldn’t be vibrant and full.
So where do you need to tighten up or loosen up your guitar strings? What is the specific measurable actions that you need to take? It doesn’t matter how small the action is…
Just Start now, because it’s always better late than never! When you start, the make the impossible possible!
-The “It’s Possible” Guy
Joseph
Remember You’re okay, start doing what’s possible in Your life and you will create miracles!
P.S. If this article has blessed your life, please share it! It may be just what someone else needs to hear, and they will thank you for it!