Monday’s Inspiration – the key to success
Aristotle:
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.
Helen Keller:
When we do the best that we can, we never know what miracle is wrought in our life, or in the life of another.
John Capuzzi:
A free lunch is only found in mousetraps.
Liane Cordes:
Continuous effort – not strength or intelligence – is the key to unlocking our potential.
Today my inspiration comes from a tv show in the U.K. that I have been following avidly on youtube. The show is Celebrity Big Brother and if you have never seen the show before, the premise is 12 “celebrities” are locked in a house together for a month. Every few days the housemates elect 2 housemates for elimination and the “celebrities” who garner the most votes are then up for eviction – the public vote by telephone for who they want to be eliminated and those with the most telephone votes are then out.
What I found interesting was to observe what qualities (or lack of) seemed to influence the housemates nominations. Gameplay clearly comes into it to a point as these people want to win but I think the initial votes were more about what made a person valuable as a housemate rather than looking at voting out the strongest competitor. The universal value that seemed to affect the nomination was hard work. Those who did little around the house were nominated whilst the person who did the most housework (Vinnie Jones) was able to build a power base around his efforts.
This is a rather long winded way to illustrate my point that hard work is really the key to success – of course that hard work has to be channeled correctly or it can quickly become pointless. This is a lesson for me as much as anyone as I freely admit I probably do not put as much effort into any areas of my life to make them truly outstanding. I do not do enough housework to make me proud of my house, I do not do enough of the publicity work on my business to make myself known more, I do not exercise enough to really get the body I want. I always do enough to get by but not enough to reach my full potential, to be truly happy in my life. I work hard at the things I really enjoy – when I am coaching, my clients get my very best and I think I do a good job parenting my 3 children. What I need to learn and I would imagine applies to many of you reading this, is the discipline to work hard at everything that needs that commitment.
