Success

Success seems to be an elusive unicorn. There have been so many different measurements and tests and surveys and models. Yet authors have not been able to write the definitive book that will lead to the success anyone is looking for.

On many levels it is easier to assume fairies show up and sprinkle success dust over the successful and do not sprinkle success dust over the unsuccessful.

I know I would rather assume the successful writers, speakers, authors, and software companies I want to align myself with are sprinkled with success dust and that is why I have not been able to attain a certain level of success or accolade in my life.

The more difficult assumption is to assume the successful showed up and put in the hard work and now they are successful because they started putting in the hard work and did not stop.

They

Did

Not

Stop

I am sure they wanted to stop. I am sure they had reasons to stop. There were hard moments when they were losing it all. Things were on the verge of not working and everything was about to catch fire if they stopped working.

Still, they kept going. They did not stop. And today they have the mark of success I look at and admire. It was not given to them. It was not an award the received for being the 1 millionth startup that year.

They showed up. They kept working. Especially when it was hard, they kept showing up.

What are you working on? What excuse are you giving yourself about not showing up? How can you start working on your project? When can you show up again? Have you put the appointment on your calendar to keep yourself from scheduling over it?

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Discipline

Discipline is an amazing part of our human capacity to push forward and succeed. It requires so many parts of my personality and the more I do it, the better I get at it. Much like a muscle, the more I work it the stronger and more sustainable it is. I love the feeling of accomplishing my goals as I bring together my ability to be disciplined. 

I love seeing how I have to use my ability to be diligent in order to be disciplined. I have to keep watching my work to make sure I am producing quality work. I have to keep a watchful eye on my tasks in order to make sure I am addressing my most difficult tasks. For me, diligence is the portion of discipline making me stay on top of what I am doing.

Discipline requires me to set goals. It does not let me be disciplined for the sake of disciplined. It requires enough foresight to know I am headed somewhere. I cannot sit alone in a room by myself and say I am being disciplined unless I am trying to develop the skill of sitting alone in a room.

Most of all, discipline requires me to push myself farther than I have been before. 

Discipline means I am pushing into an area of discomfort. 

Discipline breeds more discipline for me.

Where in your life are you pushing yourself beyond where you have been before?

Disciplined,

–JT

Soap Box Derby

Have you ever been to a Soap Box Derby? I actually have not, so kudos to you if you have. The concept behind this type of race bugs me. 

I grew up watching Nascar and Indy cars. More horsepower than most people will ever need or experience in their lifetimes or ever need to experience. These types of races have always made sense to me, probably because I grew up with them being overly important. 

I take a look at soap box derbies and wonder how they interest so many people, not in a negative sense where I am looking to ‘hate on’ their passion or dreams. Quite literally from an analytic point of view, I do not think I could enjoy roller cart derbies as a hobby or even a spectator really. These soap boxes on wheels are not self driven. They are driven by gravity, the angle of hill, the aerodynamics of the soap box, and who knows how many other factors I am not qualified to guess at or discuss. There is an impressive amount of craftsmanship and science I am not going to discount. However, at the end of the day, the car will never propel itself. As soon as you run out of hill and science–motion, inertia and things, you are done. You are not going anywhere. 

Similarly, I have been coasting on the hill built by those who have come before me. They put in the leg work and prepared the way for the success I have experienced. I have never had to do much more than show up and work hard. Those two elements have allowed me to coast on the same science–motion. Oddly enough, I have been coasting uphill. I have been traveling uphill as others have towed me along. I did not have vision or plans. 

The people who have come before me have built the hill for me to coast on. They built the racer I get to sit in. They towed me to the top of the hill and pushed me down it. They did the science of how to build the car, found the best materials, and greased all my axels. 

It is time for me to start contributing to the hill building, soap box car building, science calculations, and wheel greasings. It is time for me to use my team to continue develop direction and height to the hill so others might be able to coast down it as well. 

For a while I might be left to drive back up the hill I just rolled down. However, when learning to drive, it is probably best to do so in a familiar environment. 

Where are you coasting? What does it look like to start putting in the work to build a new soap box racer for the people who come after you?

Working,

–JT