#ENDURANCE tweet Book 01 -- A Little Nudge To Keep You Going

I’m so excited about #ENDURANCE tweet — A Little Nudge to Keep You Going that I decided to expand the book by writing my thoughts about each aha as a series on my blog.

An “aha” is that moment of understanding or triumph when we figure out something. It’s also that moment of clarity where the path forward finally reveals itself.

There’s 140 of them and I plan on publishing at least two a week. I hope you will endure this adventure with me.

Aha’s Amplified

It’s hard to really capture the meaning behind a 140 character saying, mantra or tip. That’s why I decided to amplify each one of them via a series of blog posts.

Each post will detail my thinking behind the aha and some actions you can take to apply it today.

Tell me a Story

Another reason I wanted to amplify the aha’s is something my friend Bob Walsh recommended.

He reviewed one of the first drafts of the manuscript and one of his critiques was the lack of stories. Bob is a big believer in telling stories to reinforce a lesson or best practice, which I think is a great idea.

Unfortunately, the THiNKaha format does not lend itself nicely to telling stories but blog posts do.

My goal with the majority of these amplifications is to tell the stories I wanted to put in the book and for you to add your own stories in the comments. That way, we can all benefit from our experiences.

Thanks for Your Support

As I complete each post, I’ll add a link to them below. If you find the aha helpful or inspiring, I would appreciate you either forwarding to a friend, leaving a comment, buying the book or doing all three. Thanks for reading and keep enduring!

List of Ahas

Incremental improvement is better than fleeting leaps

I’m a big believer in making slow and steady process. I know, sounds kinda boring but what I have found is that the incremental solutions (e.g. those that have been methodically conceived and executed) stick. The fleeting leaps where you make huge leaps usually fade away.

The Breaking Records Mentality

Don’t...Read More »

Those Who Try to Tear us Down will Only Strengthen our Resolve to Endure

We touched a little bit about negativity in Our Negative Perceptions About Ourselves Create our Biggest Barriers. Now, we’ll deal with how the negativity of others can get in our way and why it should strengthen our resolve to endure past the barriers we face.

That Will Never Work

Bessemer...Read More »

We Set Our Own Pace when Overcoming Barriers. Forward Progress is all that Matters

It seems to me that there is a lot of pressure to make things happen quickly. Our fast paced world wants every problem, project or priority to be number 1. It can be down right maddening to feel all that anxiety to get everything done right away...Read More »

Our Negative Perceptions About Ourselves Create our Biggest Barriers

Let’s face it. A lot of us are just plan negative.

Yeah, I said it.

You, me and our friends tend towards the negative instead of the positive even though we know that negative perceptions do us know good. It’s like we can’t help it.

Actually, It’s Hard to Remain Positive

We talked...Read More »

Our Only Real Barrier is our Negative Attitude Towards Them

We live in a negative world. To prove that, just look at the news.

Almost every news cast, report or story focuses on the negatives and hardly ever reports on the positive. Why is that?

Fixation on the Negative

We tend to remember the negative far more than the positive because negative...Read More »

Learn to Zig and Zag and You’ll Find Barriers Few and Far Between

Adaptability is a good trait to have. Organisms that adapt to their changing environments are far more likely to survive than those who don’t.

Adaptation is at the heart of zigging and zagging around barriers. By adapting to our changing environment, we can overcome barriers before they become barriers.

Be Intellectually...Read More »

A Barrier is an Opportunity to Learn How to Jump

Continuing on the We Create and Destroy our Own Barriers theme, this aha puts forth a different type of attitude about barriers — that they are growth opportunities.

When we take a more positive attitude about the struggles, obstacles and barriers we need to overcome, we start to change...Read More »

To Endure is to go Over, Around, or Through Obstacles

Obstacles pop up all the time. They could be a missed deal, fatal bug, slipped deadline or failed venture.

All obstacles test our mental and our endurance. They typically happen at the most critical time in a project or venture.

Most of us pause too long at obstacles. We tend to...Read More »

Every Second we Make Progress, Another Barrier gets Knocked Down

Progress is a beautiful thing.

Anytime we make progress, we not only feel better but we chip away at any potential barriers. The reason this occurs is because barriers will always rear their ugly head if and only if we allow them.

By making progress, we reduce the frequency and severity...Read More »

We Create and Destroy our Own Barriers

I’m a big fan of mind over matter. So much so that I’m pretty convinced that the barriers we encounter our created within ourselves.

If we accept this premise, then breaking through our barriers is simply a matter of telling ourselves that the barriers we encounter are there because we...Read More »

A Barrier is an Opportunity to Create a Path for Others to Follow

The last 20 ahas dealt with starting and how important it is to start down the path to success.

Now that we have started, we will eventually hit barriers. These next set of aha’s deal with barriers and how to overcome them.

This first one sets the tone for the entire...Read More »

We Can’t Succeed Unless we Start Down the Path to Success

The last aha in the Getting Started section sums up the real reason getting started is so important — success.

Successes will be few and far between if we just stay in our present status quo and not push ourselves to start. Success is a game of probabilities. The more...Read More »

Overcoming Inertia is as Simple as Giving Ourselves Permission to Start

We touched a little bit on this idea of starting inertia in The Courage to Finish is Trumped Only by the Audacity to Start.

If you recall, inertia is starting’s public enemy number one.

It does take energy and commitment to overcome the status quo inertia and start. Even though...Read More »

It’s Never Too Late to Start Doing What we Were Born to do

In the documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi, Jiro Ono explains his passion for making the best sushi in the world and the secret to his success.

Jiro’s restaurant was the first sushi restaurant to receive 3 Michelin Stars. Jiro’s attitude about his work is a fanatical pursuit of perfection...Read More »

Never Let Lack of Money or Talent Get in the Way of Progress

We are smarter than we think.

Most of us don’t take action because we feel that we are not good enough, smart enough, liked enough or lucky enough to be successful. This attitude manifests itself in all sorts of excuses not to start.

One Red Paperclip to a House

Canadian blogger Kyle...Read More »

Fear is a Noble Motivator When it's the Spark that Ignites Action

Fear has been with us for a long, long time. It’s a primitive emotion that protects us from danger. Nowadays, most of the fears that trigger our fight or flight reaction are not life threatening at all.

As I mentioned in Stop Thinking so Much and Just Make it...Read More »

Those who Endure Make Things Happen

Funding a project, starting a company or winning a contract can be as simple as having the will and determination to endure longer than your competition. The ability to endure reinforces the ability to start and be successful.

Think of being able to endure as “success breeds success” or “the...Read More »

Learn to Appreciate the Simple More Than the Complex and Starting Becomes Easy

Complexity tends to make starting harder. The reason for this is simple. The more complex we make a project or task, the more energy required to overcome inertia to start.

Couple complexity with the status quo and we get a noxious cocktail of negativity that will thwart any chance...Read More »

Start Today. Waiting Until Tomorrow Will Not Make Things Any Easier

We talked a little about procrastination in the Stop thinking so much and just make it happen! aha. It’s a common problem to put off what you want to do today to some later date.

The classic dialog goes like this:

Friend: “I can’t wait to retire. Then I can...Read More »

Our Attitude Often Gets in the Way of Our Aptitude

Our negative attitudes about our skills puts us at a disadvantage. We sometimes don’t push ourselves because we feel we have to possess all the skills required before we can get anything done.

That’s simply not true.

Our aptitude for certain tasks needs to be developed but not at the expense...Read More »

The Courage to Finish is Trumped Only by the Audacity to Start

In order to finish, we have to start. That seems obvious. What’s not obvious or easy is starting down the path to finishing. In fact, the art of the start takes more energy, commitment and moxie than getting past the finish line.

Let me explain.

The Enemy of Starting

Inertia is...Read More »

Having the Will to Succeed Works Only if we Take Action

Big dreams. We all have them.

The will to be a successful author, business owner, singer, dancer or poet gives us motivation but without action, nothing will happen.

I’m sure by now you can see a recurring theme in these first aha’s — action is the only thing that gets us...Read More »

Stop Thinking so Much and Just Make it Happen!

Constantly practicing is one way we avoid performing but probably the biggest barrier to making things happen is over thinking.

Over thinking is when we worry about all the things that could go wrong. Like practice, over thinking is a way to give ourselves excuses to not put ourselves...Read More »

Persistent Practice is Noble, but Specific Goals Make Things Happen

All of us know people who have talent yet don’t do anything with it. They practice and practice and practice yet never perform, show their art, form a band or start a company. These are some of the same people who constantly go to school yet never really find...Read More »

We Win Half the Endurance Battle the Moment we Start

We have been exploring having the guts and courage to start over the last several aha’s and now we come to why that’s so important.

Starting fills our endurance reserves. It’s the fuel that will sustain us through all the struggles we will face. We’ll talk more about...Read More »

Making Progress Can be as Simple as Having the Guts to Start

Progress.

We all want to make progress on our goals but sometimes it feels like progress is an elusive muse.

Our progress muse usually leaves us when we talk about making progress instead of actually doing something.

All the progress talk in the world does not move us forward. It takes determined...Read More »

Everyone Gets Butterflies Before Starting. Make Yours Fly in Formation

It’s hard to fight our nerves.

Being nervous is part of our primal fight or flight reaction that is engrained in our DNA. Even famous actors, people you would think could handle the pressure, sometimes throw up before taking the stage, or even hyperventilate.

If we control and channel this nervous...Read More »