I remember 10+ years ago, I got together with a friend for happy hour. It was a Friday afternoon and I was getting ready for my third Ironman triathlon.
It had already been a hard week of training and the weekend was going to be even harder.
I sat down at the table and started complaining about the 100-mile bike ride I had to do the next day.
He looked at me and said, “You’re choosing to do the race, right? No one is forcing you to do it.”
He was 100% right. My attitude changed immediately.
Believe it or not, I thought about that story a lot this week. I’ve given 8 speeches in the last 11 days, in 3 different states, with a couple of flights and 9+ hours of driving. Oh, and I ran the Twin Cities Marathon on Sunday, too.
I caught myself thinking about how much I HAD to speak. How I HAD to run the race.
Here’s one of the most powerful shifts you can make in your internal psychology and it only takes one word:
I don’t HAVE to do it. I GET to do it.
How many things do you tell yourself that you have to do?
Go to work?
Stop at the grocery store?
Exercise?
Do the laundry?
There are very few things in life that we HAVE to do. We have to eat, we have to sleep, we have to drink water. If you don't do them, you'll die.
Everything else is something you GET to do.
These last two weeks we've talked about goal setting and goal achievement. You might not think this simple one word pivot will matter, but if you're anything like me, doing it will not only help you count more of your blessings but you'll become more empowered by your conscious thought and choice.
You get to Outperform. Let's go do it.
