Abraham Lincoln Ruined You

Abraham Lincoln famously quoted

Good advice… fits into everyday life?

-Thinking before acting.

-Sharpening your skills before doing.

More practical

-I have a big career change coming up. I need to spend time thinking this through

-If I want to start my own business I’m going to need to learn X,Y,Z skill set. This will save me time in the long run

-I want to personally develop and get in shape. I need to start reading books and listening to more podcasts (and reading Zach’s emails)

Abe Knew… The importance of preparation. Without preparation it would make the job itself harder. It would take more time and more energy.

Shifting Gears

I spent a decade lifting weights before I ever formally coached. Coaching was never my end goal. Dont get twisted what I’m about to say next. I already had the skill set/ knowledge when I started coaching. This lead to opening my first business IronValleyBarbell. I had NO CLUE about business. But I knew lifting. I read zero books on business, taxes, systems, sales, nothing. I DID NOT spend time thinking about those things. Here’s how I saw it.

Give me 6 hours to chop down a tree I will spend the first 2 hours swinging the axe like hell!!

Abe Lincolns advice sucks if you ask me! The more time I spend thinking before making a REAL MOVE in the REAL WORLD the more likely I am to live in procrastination. Never moving forward. Never actually doing the thing! Now that’s a real word for many of you reading this. You already have the knowing and skill sets. What you are lacking is the DOING!

I gave a keynote at a real estate confrence in Miami. Very fancy place. I shared the importance of stress management and practical action steps such as:

Ice Baths

Breath work

Time in nature

Walking with Jesus

Time away from the phones

Waking up earlier for alone time

To make it REAL I even lead a breath work and ice bath session

When I got to the end I was asked “do you have any podcasts I can listen to about this?”

I said… “PODCASTS? That’s defeating the purpose. Filling more of your time. How did you feel after today? Great? Do more of that! Action, what is happening in reality teaches more than you could ever learn in a podcast. It becomes REAL with action”

I get it, I get it. You want to “learn more” about X,Y,Z buts it’s a trap if you ask me

Spending all this time learning and never doing. You love information but hate wisdom. “Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad!”

It’s what you do with it that matters! Put a tomato is a fruit salad once… I bet you never do it again! Make 2-3 mistakes in the business the cost you time, energy and money. Bet you never do it again! Oh, by the way, it’s official now… if you’re making mistakes in business that means you HAVE ONE and it’s not just an IDEA!! How many books you going to read about being a better man before you put it down and take your wife on a date?! How many podcast you going to listen to on personal growth before you put the phone down and play with the kids? How many fitness blogs you going to read before you get off your ass and take a walk and stop eating candy?

You Don’t Really Want To Change

You just like the idea of change. You like learning about change. You never swing the axe!! Go ahead.. use the Ab Lincolns quote to justify your procrastination. Sit on the sideline forever like a loser. Or get up, right now, and start swinging that axe like a mother fucker! (Pardon my language… I’m fired up! SOMEONE NEEDS TO HEAR THIS!)

Get in the game!! Swing and swing and swing again!! I bet after an hour you’ll know damn well what to do next. It will be clear because you’ve been DOING.

DoHardThings

Do the things!