What Would You Do?

A few years ago I had to ask myself the question, “What would I do to stay alive?”  I was a smoker, ate whatever I wanted without regard, never exercised, powered up on energy drinks, and lived a very busy “sedentary” life behind a computer screen and steering wheel.  The doctor said my blood pressure was high, my cholesterol was bad, I was borderline diabetic, and if I didn’t change my lifestyle, I was simply going to die . . . soon.  Right after I stopped going to the doctor, I asked myself, “what am I willing to do to stay alive?”   The problem was that I was always exhausted, I had no time in my life, and I didn’t really think I was that bad off.  I was wrong on all accounts.  Worse yet, he was right.

While building my relationship with God, I gave up many things through Lent.  I quit smoking, gave up soft drinks, no more fried foods, no sweet candy, very little junk food, and started exercising.  It has been a long process, but the weight came off, the energy levels went up, my overall outlook on life increased significantly, I developed a sense of confidence, and most importantly, I became healthy.  I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.  It sounds cliché and even like a worn out verse, but it is true.  I found the time in my life to start living full and happy with energy and confidence every day.

One of my friends keeps posting about his high blood pressure.  Every time I see it, I think about how much he exercises and how much weight he has lost, but he still smokes, eats crap, and powers up on artificial things like energy drinks.  We all know these things are bad for you and it makes it difficult to have sympathy for someone who knowingly makes the decision to use products that cause adverse health effects.  I decided I would show him that living right pays off.  I went to the same blood pressure machine and checked mine.  Well, that backfired.  It had not occurred to me that I have not checked my blood pressure since that doctor told me I was going to die.  It was 152 / 91.   I checked it again when I got home only to have confirmation from a different machine.

I had an exhausting day that started entirely too early.  I nearly fell asleep several times during the day and couldn’t wait for bedtime.  As I laid there in bed, I pondered what went wrong.  Heck, I eat Cherrios nearly every day.  Could it be that I have been backsliding or was it that my blood pressure never went down like I thought?  Why was I so tired, because of the lack of sleep the night before or is it the opposite, is the blood pressure making me tired?  I don’t feel like my blood sugar is out of whack again.  What is causing my blood pressure to be so high and is there anything else going wrong?  The questions went on and I fell asleep worried.

At 4:30AM I woke up and started to worry some more.  I asked myself, “What am I doing wrong?”  Even though I don’t drink soft drinks or eat fried foods, occasionally I do enjoy cheeseburgers, pizza, and some other not so good for me foods.  Maybe drinking a few too many beers over the past year has put on an extra 10 pounds.  I do enjoy coffee every morning.  I exercise a fair amount; at least three times per week I run and / or bike.  However, all of my exercise is from the waist down; nothing that is above the waist to take care of this flabby donut.  Now that I think about it, a lot has gone wrong.  Of course, lying there in bed stressing over this is probably making my blood pressure even higher.  Then it hit me again, “What am I willing to do to stay alive?”  I don’t want to die anytime soon.  I enjoy my life.  None of the things mentioned above are worth dying over.  I can give up some coffee, beer, and pizza.  I can do different types of exercises.  I can live right.  Deep down inside, I know what I am doing wrong; the question is, “What am I willing to do to stay alive and actually live?”.

There is a saying, “No matter how fast I go, I lap everyone on the couch”.  However, I realize that I am not competing against anyone sitting on the couch or even running beside me; I have much better competition than that.  I have to race myself.  I must push on harder, stronger, and better.  I am a fierce competitor, and I am racing to win my life.

Focus on Success

Back when we were young we had this idea of what we wanted in life.  We called it the American Dream consisting of the companionship of a spouse, kids, house, cars, career, and a few other specific ideas.  Fresh out of school and ready to start life, we would greet every opportunity with eager zeal because we had nothing to lose.  We got a job, started dating, and went out spending money freely on things.  The progression seemed natural and it was very successful.  Life was exciting, good, and fun.  We eventually got married, had kids, career, house, and cars and we settled in comfortably.  We come home at night and relax as we enjoy our success.  We can now ease back on the throttle and simply maintain what we have worked so hard to accomplish, besides there are others in our lives that depend on us.     

As an entrepreneur we start out with an idea that gets us excited.  We focus on the concept and start implementing ways to make it grow into something grand.   We talk to our closest friends and discuss possible avenues.  We work diligently toward getting it off the ground putting in long hours.   Eventually the hard work begins to pay off and we have a business.  We even make it grow and hire employees.  The business that started out as an idea has now evolved into a smooth running machine.  We realize the responsibilities of running this business: the employees, the customers, the vendors, and even ourselves.    We are now accomplished executives running a successful business.  In doing so, we turn our attention to macro news events and study the current state of the economy and how it affects our particular industry.  The responsibilities are numerous and demanding, but that is acceptable because this is our invention and we are in control.  Gradually our focus becomes one of retention rather than growth without ever knowing it happened. 

Due to the increasing number of responsibilities in our lives, it is only natural for us to migrate our focus and mentality away from growth, expansion, and forward progression to something much more conservative.  We recognize the importance of our responsibilities and do not wish to jeopardize losing what we have worked so hard to accomplish.  The worst part is that this conservative mentality has an element of fear.  This fear can completely reshape how we focus our energy in our daily lives.   As the responsibilities grow and the fear consumes, the ability to grow is inhibited to a point that our goal is completely not to lose anything: not to lose money. 

As our business begins to cycle down we blame external forces of the macro economy while never recognizing that the business model is a cyclical machine that needs constant growth.  We attempt to hunker down and cut expenses, attempt to retain as many employees as possible, and maintain a certain level of income while always vigilant of that bottom line.  If we are unsuccessful at maintaining, we start to make sacrifices to cut expenses, certain luxuries disappear, some divisions of the business get dissolved, some employees get laid off, and worst of all, there is no opportunity to grow.  We are overwhelmed with trying to survive.

There is a natural glass ceiling that eventually slows and stops us from continued advancement.  The level in each of our lives when this happens varies.  Certainly some have much higher thresholds based on mentality, responsibilities, and security.  Ultimately, we all hit our plateau of success in life.  Each step for advancement seems more and more difficult.  We place too much emphasis on the risk of what we can lose.  We even start to blame ourselves as being lazy and unaccomplished.  We could hope that there was some sort of safety net that could guarantee that we don’t lose it all, but there isn’t.  Fear has overcome us and growth has been starved out of the picture.  By nature, our successful business and lives are consumptive and diminishing.  It takes a certain level of income simply to buy food, gas, and necessities.  We focus on that level.  Additionally, we live in a competitive world where everyone else is attempting to succeed; this includes taking from us.  We become defensive and restricted.  We have unknowingly evolved into something we did not expect.

Now, is our focus not to lose money?  Are we only here to maintain and manage what we have accomplished?  Can we possibly manage ourselves into success?  No.  If we have found that comfortable level and given up on any growth, then daily life becomes a fight not to lose what we have worked so hard to accomplish.  We get trapped in the details of daily life.  Even though we created this successful business and life, we do not have to get wrapped up in the micro aspects of management.  It is possible to have a successful team in our business that knows how to maintain.  For others, that may be their level of growth while simultaneously allowing us the freedom to go out and grow ourselves. 

If we were to teach someone else how to be successful in what we do, what would we say to them?  What were the fundamentals that we used to create so much success?  Get back to basics and start growing.  We did it and can do it again even better!  It is time to turn our focus around.  We can and must consciously refocus our energy to our American Dream.  Grasp a hold of that inspiration, motivation, and drive toward success!  Refocus our energy!