Breaking Through

"Reaching Our Full Potential" by Elsa Mora

Win Today!

Victor

Crisis of comparison?

Reality TV, walls, reunions, and top ten lists.  All modern day measuring sticks to let us know if we are doing ok. If we see someone else of similar background or measure doing worse off than ourselves we may feel empowered about our current condition. Conversely, if we fail by comparison, we may feel defeated. As narcissistic and even ridiculous as this may sound, it is a common theme that commentaries are beginning to observe in western culture. Can it be that the deep need for comparison is a symptom of something deeper?

Rise and grind. What to do when emotion ends and reality remains.

We've all had those days. The ones when the emotional tank is on empty and the motivation to keep turning the crank of responsibility seems to wane.  Similar to those Hollywood scenes where the spirited rebel gets in their car and drives down the highway to escape the mundane, only to hit reality when the fuel runs out in the middle of the desert with no gas station in sight. Suddenly, the romance runs dry and the dream seems less inspiring since the distance to destination didn't match up with what you originally calculated. For any new venture, or an old one for that matter, a person will surely hit this wall. Whether it be a business person or a romantic relationship, the wall moment isn't a signal of failure, but rather an opportunity for growth. It's in these times when we feel that we've gone too far to go back, but question our ability to get to the other side that our capacity can increase if only we will chew on the fundamentals of work.

So what do you do?

So what do you do?....It's a question that we have come accustomed to asking or being asked when introductions occur. Having witnessed and experienced the awkwardness of this scene one too many times, lends me to believe that the understated profoundness of this question may be serving as a driving force for much of the relational and career choices that we experience. If we assimilate to the social norm of this repetitive Q & A scenario, we can then consciously, or subconsciously, build our lives according to this "existence" defining scoreboard. In order to "win" the next time this question is asked we may overextend our financial and social resources for presentation sake. And this is when the trap snaps! Just like a dog chasing its tail, the feeling of never arriving in our own skin cycles with each "what" achievement. As the what piles up, the loneliness of why can haunt us. The real question to be asked is "Why do you do what you do?" What's motivating you each day that you wake up? The what achievements will fade quickly. The why motivation will fuel us continually.


Simon Sinek, an organizational consultant, has been helping groups re-evaluate their business paradigm in order to reposition their motivation to the Why instead of the What. He shared his "Start with why" model at a TED conference video below.  I believe that this model has profound implications to our Win Today efforts since winning today isn't about achieving the largest to do list that we can before we go to bed, but to the contrary, it is about engaging in, and finding value with each moment that we are granted to exist. Life is happening right now, not in some past or future state. By discovering a constructive why to replace the soulless what for each of our domains of life, the well of passion has a greater chance of being tapped into instead of just hoping to discover it.  

Win Today!

Victor