Here is an excerpt from the book, ’28 Days To A New Me’
Chapter 8 –
Day 8 – You Need CPR
Pick Me-Up Line
You don’t need to be PERFECT, just PERSISTENT!
– RK3
I need CPR?? Wait a minute…you must be trying some sort of slick analogy, right? Because, if I needed CPR, I wouldn’t actually know it, would I? Well, if you were awake, having someone pumping your chest and possibly cracking a rib or two might not be something you would take kindly to. But, saving your life might be something for which you were grateful. I’m just going on a hunch. Silliness aside, I can’t seem to think of anyone I’ve ever met who has had a goal or commitment and did not struggle with it at some point. In fact, many people get to the point of giving up on it when things hit the fan or when the challenge/resistance comes.
CPR involves some of the key ingredients to resuscitate those journeys and stories that have reached a failure point.
C = Commitment
P = Persistence
R = Responsibility (100%)
It’s easy to talk about commitment and that’s just what we have been doing. The problem is that some people assign a right/wrong to commitment and there really isn’t. Either you are committed to something or not. If you are, GREAT. If not, then ok. Maybe you just weren’t ready. The point is that we determine what we want to accomplish and then WE commit to it. If you mess up, so what. Jump back on the wagon and keep moving. The commitment doesn’t stop when you fail. The commitment stops when you stop moving towards that thing you are committed to. So, the first ingredient here is commitment.
Speaking of screwing up, I just alluded to the second thing….PERSISTENCE. It’s worth saying again. PERSISTENCE! Do you know who are the most persistent people that you’ll ever meet? Kids. I know that many parents teach their kids to ride bikes by pushing them and running along with them. That works for some kids. But, I had the pleasure of watching my daughter learn how to ride by her simple persistence. She asked me one day to take off her training wheels. At first, I only took off one of them. She took her bicycle and rode up and down the driveway until she got it. She fell quite a few times, but no tears were shed. She was COMMITTED to learning to ride this bike and not just learning to ride, it had to be TODAY! After an hour of this, she simply asked me to take off the second training wheel. What do you think happened? More spills and some bruises. Tears? Nope! She wanted to ride! She kept on getting up and doing it until in about 2 hours, she had learned to keep her balance and do a pretty good job of turning without spilling. Persistence goes right along with commitment. You may not be able to be perfect, but you can be persistent.
The R? Responsibility….100 percent. So, what exactly does that mean? We’ll revisit this in more detail but simply put, it means that you take control, 100 % responsibility for everything in your life and how you choose to respond to it. It’s not your fault per se, but its your responsibility. Things affect us, ultimately, in the way that we choose to let them affect us. Where possible, I choose to affect things instead of them affecting me. I choose to CREATE instead of only REACT. I choose what to say, how to proceed, where to step. The phrase “I couldn’t help it” or “it wasn’t my fault” doesn’t exist in this frame. You commit, you persist and simply take responsibility for everything surrounding your commitment. Scary? Maybe! But then, anything you commit to brings out resistance and fears sometimes. Do fears go away? Some do. Some don’t. I still have fears. I’m just not afraid of fear anymore. Make sense?
TODAY’S ACTION
Think about a time that you had a goal and failed to reach it. Write one sentence about the goal. Then write down one thing that blocked you from reaching that goal.
Take that paper, crumple it up and throw it in the trash while saying out loud, “You won’t block me from my goal again, and even if you try, it’s just temporary!”