Where will you end up at the end of the day?

“The first step towards getting somewhere is to decide that you are not going to stay where you are.” (J.P.Morgan) - from the Jack’s Winning Words blog. Jack went on to say - I’ve read that we have 35 chances each day to change the direction of our life—not just one fork in the road, but 35. The same article said that intuition, hunches and gut-feelings should not be dismissed. They are the brain’s way of taking shortcuts. A significant decision probably put you where you are today.

Many people (and I fall into that category all too often) wake up in the morning without a plan and without having made the decision that they aren’t going to stay where they are in their careers or in life. The strategy of people like that is usually to wait and react to whatever happens during the day; in other words to wait for opportunities to come to them. It’s funny how often at the end of those days they are lamenting how nothing happened or about how little they feel they got done. Well, duh! You have to start the morning unhappy with where you are in order to end up the day somewhere else.

Now, I suppose that you could spent the day moping about where you are in life or your career; but you’d probably end up in the same place at the end of the day. Once you’ve decided that you’re not going to stay where you are another key is to start taking action to get somewhere else. Too many of us would spend a good part of that day trying to put together a complete plan of action. We’d convince ourselves that sitting there planning and maybe writing out an extensive roadmap for change is actually accomplishing something. In many cases detailed planning is just a very insidious way that we use to avoid taking the first steps towards a different place.

 

Like that TV health ad says a body at rest tends to stay at rest and a body in motion tends to stay in motion. Get up, get out and get going! Even if you’ve ended up going in the wrong direction for a short while, at least you’re not where you were and you’re moving somewhere. I’ve found that to be particularly true when cold calling for fund raising. It is very hard to overcome the inertia (you can read that as fear, too) that our brain builds up about cold calling; however, after that first call (successful or not) I’m pumped and ready for the next call – I’ve become a body in motion.

 

So, decide this morning that you’re not going to end the day in the same place in your life and your career and get moving!