F53-73: Where Do You Feel You Haven’t Been Your Best?

Show Summary: Today's show is about a question I received from my business coach. Mark Silverman. He's a great guy and I love him to death. He really knows his stuff so please go check him out. And the question is... What area/areas do you feel you haven't been doing your best? This is a pretty deep one. It makes you reflect on yourself and what you are doing versus your expectations. And if you're okay with it, sitting with it for a minute, and really processing it - the goal here is to be brutally honest with yourself. I'm going to give you what mine were and I hope this resonates with you and will get you to sit down and think where haven't you been your best. Everyone knows, giving your best is important but only giving your best for the right things are important. So this implies which areas should you be giving your best that maybe you are not. Making good food choices and working out This is a big one for me and it always is and always has been a struggle in my life. Eating like crap translates into feeling not as good and then this spirals down. So the two big dominoes for me are making good food choices and getting a workout in every single day. I brought this up on the show a number of times now but the year I trained for Ironman (which was just over a year ago) that I competed in was my best business and financial year (so far) of my life. A coincidence? I don't think so. Because it becomes part of your life. You become laser-focused on the time that you're not working out because you're working out so much and you're working out only on the things that are important to you. The Domino Effect So this is a massive domino for me and I believe it is a massive domino for everyone. If I am working out, if I am competing for something, it makes me feel better and it brings up the energy, and then I also make good food choices because I don't want to be running with what it feels like a bag of concrete in my gut. I don't want to be swimming with that and I don't want to feel crappy. So these are the two things that I haven't been doing my best at and I know that. Asking I am very much a Type A person and I have this weird and crappy belief that I'm working on that I don't ask for help. It's a very prideful thing. I don't ask my best friends for help. I don't ask my family for help. I don't ask much of anyone for anything really. And while that may seem like a good and a prideful thing, the people that love me the most, that can help me out the most, that would love to help me out the most, I don't ask them for anything. So I'm working on this It's not asking in a way that I'm asking for money, but things like, asking for introductions or if they know anyone that would be a good fit for my business. I've been telling myself this lie to my closest friends and to myself for the better part of 15 years that they can't help me in my professional life. The reality is they know people that need the services I do and I just haven't asked. And this is just a big, big, black spot that I need to address, which is an area I haven't been doing my best in.   Being bold This is an interesting one because if you ask my friends, who are stable and conservative and have day in and day out jobs, they think that I'm the boldest guy they know. I have multiple businesses. I travel. I am not afraid to go to conferences or talk to people. And they consider that being bold. The truth is... I don't feel like I'm being bold. I feel like I'm playing half-ass a lot of times. Being bold is relative to the person but for me, I haven't been playing my best. I have not been bold. I have been conservative and laid back and that's a focus area for me.   Playing safe Every week, it changes potentially but these are constant themes I see as I go through. I use the 100 Day Journal as something that my business coach, Mark, gave me for some of my journaling goals and my business goals and this is a common theme I see. This is a culmination of all of the above areas I've mentioned. Playing safe for me is really this mindset of putting limits on the things that I can do.   From Ironman to now... I know that when I didn't play safe, I put a date on the calendar and signed up for Ironman when I hadn't trained and when I hadn't run more than 5 miles in my entire life. That's not playing safe. That's being bold. That's going after what I want and I did that! And it feels really good to do that. It feels like you get a new lease of life that you've proven to yourself that you can do something great. And I haven't been doing that ever since the Ironman. I have been playing it safe on many levels - on a professional level and on a fitness level. This is something I need to work on and this is where I haven't been my best. And I'm looking to change that. What about you? Where haven't you been you're best? I encourage you to go deep with yourself and be honest with yourself. Really sit with yourself and stew on this because the places where we aren't being our best and the areas that we want to be our best are massive opportunities for growth and success. And this is very different than, "I'm not being my best at watching Game of Thrones." Being the best at that isn't going to move your life forward. Where I am definitely doing my best at: Commitment to my family and my faith What you don't see on this list which I'm very proud of are my family and my faith. I am committed to both of these and I am extremely committed to being there for my family, probably a little too much on the family side. Because if I have to travel for any reason, I get a little frustrated because I want to be with my family. It's probably healthy for me to be gone. But what you don't see on this list of where I haven't been giving my best is with my family. I feel like I'm doing a really good job at that and there's a lit of things that I do feel good at. But for me to grow, I have to really focus on what I haven't been my best in and these are the things for me right now and I'm working every single day to change that whether behavior changes, daily practice changes, or habits. I'm a big habit guy. So if I change my habits, then I'll change these things natively. And the biggest domino of all of these is getting workout in so that's what I'm focusing on.   Books, People, & Resources: I'm researching former professional athletes and how they transition from being an athlete or a new lead athlete into the "real world." I'm interested in hearing about their struggles, their challenges, roadblocks, successes, and everything in between. Sports has always been a big part of my life. I love them. I have a special interest in athletes and specifically the ones that have competed at the highest levels. Do you know anyone like that? If so, I'd love to hear from them or maybe it's even you. Shoot me an email at [email protected]. eye9design - A boutique web design and WordPress agency that just celebrated 10 years in business (an eternity in the web design space). They built hundreds of websites for businesses of all sizes. Finding a web design company is hard. There are lots of options, lots of good ones but lots of bad ones. Let the team at eye9design take care of you. If you need a great website for a great price, visit www.focus53.com/eye9. Mention this ad and get 10%.