Barack Obama said in his inauguration speech just a couple months ago, “…Our capacity remains undiminished. But our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions -- that time has surely passed. Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.”
The 1 Million plus in attendance stood on their feet and gave a thunderous applause…right before heading home to take a nap!
Ever listen to a motivational speaker? You leave the building all pumped up with renewed enthusiasm only to wake up the next morning and go back to the same old bad habits of getting up late for work or smoking a cigarette...thinking about how drunk you're going to get on the weekend. We’ve already lost the zeal for that great enthusiasm all bottled up just a few short hours ago. What went wrong?
Braking bad habits is hard. We are a creature of habit or say they say. So how do we get out of this vicious cycle that most of the world seems to be entrenched in? For the purposes of this post, I’m going to focus my efforts on America but we all realize the problems exist well beyond our borders.
We verbally say we’re going to work harder, but from my vantage point it’s business as usual. Lines at McDonalds are just as long, if not longer. Just as many SUV’s are filling up their tanks with no plans to make their next car purchase a “eco-friendly model”. The people that got motivated to join a Gym in January have started to drop like flies. Excuses for why it is impossible to be successful in business during these rough economic times are on the rise. Enough already!
Breaking The Vicious Cycle of Poverty by Nketiah, Nana Kumapremereh
“Economists have long argued that people are poor because of a low level of savings. Their argument is deeply rooted in the concept of vicious cycle of poverty. This concept holds that low productivity leads to low income, low income leads to low savings, and low savings leads to low investment and low investment to low productivity.”
Much like the Carbon Cycle, there are some elements of the business cycle that are out of our control. What is in our control is how we really attack this current crisis. We can’t keep doing what we’ve always done, that didn’t cut it.
If you’re 40 years old or younger you’ve most likely not gone through this economic climate. There may not be an easy blueprint staring us in the face of how we get out of this mess, but one thing is for sure. The people that put their heads down and as Gary Vaynerchuk says, “Work their face off”…will prosper the most over time.
Time to take action is now. There is no more tomorrow. If you are required to make 80 calls a day at work to hit your magic number, make 20% more calls. If you set ten appointments a week, schedule another two and stop complaining how exhausted you are. Be smarter with your schedules and your time management.
If you added up how much time you waste either complaining or explaining how it CAN’T work you’d have another 5-10 hours in the week to be productive. Sleep one hour less if it means doing everything and doing it well. I’m not perfect by any stretch. I don’t have all the answers but what I do know is that I have to push myself now with blinders on and not look back.
The real question is, will you be with me or dragging behind?
Barack Obama said in his inauguration speech just a couple months ago, “…Our capacity remains undiminished. But our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions -- that time has surely passed. Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.”
