Overstep your Boundaries on Purpose!
How to go Big or Go Home! Bump into life, trip over it, dance with it, skip with it, wrestle with life and you will ultimately find your true purpose. Go all out and you’ll find out what you’re worth in the Marketplace.
But you have to stretch a little. Purposely. Of course when we are young we don’t know that yet. Usually someone will put us in an awkward spot that we have to figure out a solution or they’ll give us larger assignments because they believe in us more than we believe in ourselves.
It could be one big event that gives you a different outlook and shifts you. It could also be a number of events and experiences that you are exposed to that shape your persona and character as you go through life. It could also be someone who influenced you via being a coach or a mentor.
I remember when I played Hockey and my Coach’s name was Brian Brady. He was a great coach and we had a winning team. Matter of fact I used to play against Wayne Gretzky. I say that like he was my next door neighbor but truthfully we used to go to a tournament twice a year and they always used to move Wayne up into our league. I didn’t know we were playing against him until later in my life when my father explained it to me as Wayne got drafted into the NHL. But it was amazing watching his amazing stick handling and puck control with his gift of skating circles around us..
The position I played was defense. In our practices, our team would work on our different plays and strategies and really work on doubling up on our strengths. I was a good defenseman and one of my strengths was my slapshot and had one of the fastest slap shots in the league. Some Goalies would sometimes move out of the net when they saw me wind up to shoot.
Brian would coach us and treat us all with ultimate respect. Give us praise when we were excelling and doing things right and constructive criticism when we messed up.
The game that night was an important one. Brian was not going to be able to be at our game that night, but spoke with us in the dressing room at our last game and wished us luck. We won the game and were quite chuffed with ourselves.
At the next game, as I was coming through the lobby to get to the dressing room, Brian was there out front greeting everyone as they came in.
As I walked up, there he was smiling and said ‘Way to go Gunner, you got another one last night!’ as he slapped me on the shoulders.
Wow! I just never forgot that moment. It really came at the right time as I had some personal issues going on in my life. It made me feel good and so happy and grateful that I was part of a winning team.
So you never know right? Sometimes, you never know that what you say might just give someone the boost they needed at that time. Something you said or did that they took with them through their whole life. After all, we never always know what someone else might be going through.
It's those moments in your life that when you add them up over a lifetime can really make a real person out of you.
When I talk about stretching or going beyond your boundaries it could be going that extra 2 miles when you were on your workout. Or some extra weight to lift in the gym. Or maybe it's a talk or a presentation you might do in front of your peers. It's not something you normally do so just doing it would be a stretch.
Doing something you wouldn’t normally do or stretching by doing something you really didn’t think was possible. Sometimes we do things that are beyond our capabilities or beyond our own standards. Sometimes without knowing it.
For example, I went swimming with sharks in the Ocean at night without a cage. Just right out there in the open water. But wait there’s more to that story. We were with some friends and away for the weekend staying at a Condominium resort on the Ocean. That night I was a little restless from flying that day and so woke up around 2 a.m. Then I remembered where we had traveled too and felt so good about that. I decided to go for a walk on the beach. It was the middle of the night and other than the moon that gave off a bit of light, it was quite dark.
The next urge I had was to go for a swim. It was just me out there and really quite an ominous feeling. I waded in and felt the warm water on my legs and slowly let my body acclimate to the temperature. Wow, it was such a great feeling, so I swam out a little ways till finally I left the sandy bottom and got into deeper waters. I swam around for 10 or 15 minutes. It felt so refreshing just to be able to loosen up my body after all the flying that day.
Anyways the next morning I was in the Condominium Clubhouse having coffee and telling one of the travelers I was familiar with about my middle of the night swim. One of the local guys overheard me and asked me if I was referring to swimming last night and then pointed his finger towards the Ocean just out our window and said ‘ here?’ and I nodded. ‘You’ve got to be kidding’ he said and took me over to a big photo on the wall and pointed to the area with all the Sharks. It was an overhead shot that was taken during the day with hundreds and hundreds of Sharks that resided in the Ocean right in front of our beach. Right where I was swimming.
Honestly, I was pretty flabbergasted.
So that was what I call a stretch. But really it was an accidental stretch. Had I known there were all those sharks out there, I definitely would not have even considered the night swim.
I did go swimming with sharks without a cage though. That's my claim to fame. I always laugh when I think about it.
Another Risk could be Parachuting. I don’t do it regularly but I have had the experience. The feeling of stepping out of the plane into the open sky is one of the craziest things I have ever done. I must say though, it really gets your blood going and endorphins racing. It’s so hard to explain to someone unless they have also done it. Participating in an activity like this causes you to see the world differently.
A business associate I knew that was a Real Estate Agent, would work all week from Monday 5 a.m. until Friday 12 p.m. Then he would forward his number to his Real Estate partner or to his assistant and would say ‘Don’t call me, See ya Monday.’ Then he would disappear and go parachuting all weekend. He would go up in the plane, then parachute out, then land. Back on the plane and do it again. He did it the whole weekend. It sounds risky however when you calculate the statistics for parachuting, it isn’t much different than driving a car.
The diversion though was what really transformed his whole career. He said he would zone out and totally forget all his problems for the weekend. It was like the risk he took by doing all the parachuting gave him the edge. It freed up the thinking in his mind and made some space to create more deals. And that it did. In the following year after he started doing this, he doubled his production.
When you change your physiology, your brain operates from a different paradigm. From movement of the body you get all your feel good chemicals in your brain making you feel alive and ready to take on anything you set your mind to.
It could be Yoga that works for you. Running a few miles each day. Going for long walks in nature. Mountain climbing & hiking. Lifting weights.
Any number of activities that get you up and moving around and feeling good.
And you know it doesn’t take much to assist your brain and remind it that you are winning.
Sometimes you have to give yourself credit and your own affirmations about your beliefs that work for you. You could just start by walking a bit each day. Then each day increase it by a little bit until you get to a level where that feels like the right distance. Just a few activities every day that you do for you. That makes you feel good. This time is reserved for you. It's your turn.
We all have one or two strengths or areas of excellence that we excel at and are better at it than anyone. When you find out what that is for you, then it is just a matter of harnessing those strengths and using them to help you create and achieve your life’s plan. It just takes a little nudge to get going. Then some more. Then some more and before you know it you are up on the Leaderboard amongst the 5 percenters. The 5 percent club.
The thing is, if you are going to spend 8 or 10 or 12 hours a day doing something then you might as well be enjoying it.
