-An excerpt from Elevate to Great by Brian Nunez
In sports, things are black and white; you either win, or you lose. You do not get points for trying in any sport. In football, if you only make it to the one-yard line, you do not earn points. It would help if you took it to the end zone or failed.
But we do not approach life this way at all. In fact, the older we get, the less we try to win. We eliminate the scoreboard, and instead, we do things blindly. We mistake activity for achievement. We think to ourselves, “Well, I’m working 12-hour days, and I am working my ass off 60 hours a week.”, but we forget to ask ourselves the more critical questions.
We forget to ask ourselves what we are doing. We forget to look at the results we are producing. Working a 12-hour day is not an accomplishment, and neither is working a two-hour day. Going to school and getting ten different diplomas is not an accomplishment unless it helps you accomplish your mission.
Your mission will change over time, but you must have one; otherwise, you will have no way to measure the results of what you are doing. You must know what winning means to you.
When I set out to become a successful personal trainer, I had to create a scoreboard. I had to develop a way for me to know if I was accomplishing something or not. So, the first financial goal in my career I set out to accomplish was to make enough money to buy a house.
I did not even know what a mortgage was when I set this goal to buy my own house. I did not know about insurance or much of anything about the adult world. I was never interested in that stuff in my early 20s, but my goal was to buy a house. If I could earn enough money to do that, then to me, that meant a win.
I set my goal in the year 2008 when the economy crashed. At the time, I heard people saying we were in a recession, but I did not know what that meant/ I kept hearing people talk about it, but I was too embarrassed ever to admit I did not understand what it meant.
I used to focus more on training people. I would hear stuff on the news about how things were not looking suitable for people financially, but what I was hearing did not line up with my life. I was in my lane, doing my thing, and I was making money. My ignorance was bliss, but the important thing was that I did not get distracted by all the negative talk.
When you focus on what matters, you focus on the result rather than the unimportant details.
Focusing on winning is about focusing on the big picture. It is about putting your head down and not getting frustrated when the results you want do not show up right away. Your goal is not to execute every single play flawlessly or to be the most intelligent guy on the field. Your goal is to win. Do not let what you do not know to hold you back.
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