Welcome to a new year, in fact a new decade. This year is my year, and, I am excited for what it will bring into my life and through my life. I hope you feel the same way. I am excited because I have made some decisions, have some clear focus and am very much cleaning out the doubt, confusion and clutter to simplify my life. For a short time, I was wondering whether I was good enough to truly have the impact on the world that I want to have. The result was that I wandered off the path, was distracted by shiny objects, and away from what was most important.
There is no doubt about it, I was, and still am to a certain extent, very tempted by shiny objects. I think we all are, at times in our life. For me, it happens only when I start wondering. As a human being, and one with self-doubts, fears and who enjoys the comforts of life, I often start to wonder whether I good enough to or even want to pay the price to achieve the success I want in life. Do you know what I mean? When something is hard to achieve, like everything in life, we often; either doubt our ability, or, whether we truly want to go through the discomfort to achieve. In those moments of wondering, we wander off the track that will lead us to the success we want.
I can give you an example when I stayed laser-focused, strong, determined and achieved something totally unlikely, and, when, in the same field of endeavour, I wondered and wandered to my own destruction. From a young age my dream was to play professional Australian Football. It was an obsession. It guided and directed my thinking, my choices, and much to the chagrin of my parents and teachers, my actions. As a result of this one-eyed, laser-focussed and obsessive desire, I was invited to come and train at a professional club at the age of 16. At 17, I played my first senior level game and at 18, I was playing the highest level of professional football in the country.
There was no doubt in my mind, there were no other options and I was easily able to resist any and all temptations to wander. I knew what I wanted, I knew why, and I was determined to make it happen. To cut a long story short, that’s the reason I played professional sport, certainly not because of talent! So, what then happened to derail a career I worked so hard to create? Simple, I started wondering. I had been playing regular senior football for four years, and we had not experienced much on-field success at all. To be honest, the training, the effort and the losing were becoming a bit of a drag. I started to wonder whether it was worth the pain and suffering. I started wondering whether I really needed to put in the same effort, since I was now a proven senior player (or so I mistakenly thought). I started wondering if it’s what I still wanted.
You can’t wander to success!
Have you ever noticed that when you wonder, you are easily distracted by shiny objects? Well, that happened to me anyway. All of a sudden, the temptations I was so easily able to resist, when I was focused and clear-minded, seemed to be appearing everywhere, and, much harder to resist. In fact, so hard to resist, that at times, I didn’t. Instead, I wandered. I’m not going to go into the whole sad story, you can read that in my book ‘Kicking On’ with a box of tissues! What I will say, with great confidence, is that you cannot wander to success in life. The result of my distracted wandering was that my intensity dropped, my performances suffered and, before I knew what had happened, I was a sacked professional footballer.
Unfortunately, it seems, that we human beings tend to do too much wondering. We wonder whether we are good enough, and the result of that is that we are constantly looking for something easier or different or shinier or better. The second we realise that success is not easy, no matter which path we take, and we focus on what we want and move towards it, without wonder, is the moment we will start to experience the success we want in 2020 and life. Have you set a new year’s goal or resolution? As you are reading this blog, the year is almost one-week in. Are you still focussed and on track, or have you wondered and wandered already? Many people, I guarantee, have already given up, because they wondered.
There are people who wanted to get their health and wellbeing back on track and decided to join a gym and/or start a new regime. Within a short time, they wondered whether they were good enough to stick it, wondered whether the gym they chose was the right one, wondered whether they could do the work, and wondered whether they really needed to improve their health. They wondered so much, they, already so soon, wandered to an easier option, and, gave up on their goal.
What about the people who wanted to build their business or enhance their career, but very quickly started to wonder if they had what it took? Then there are those who want to improve their relationships with important people but started to wonder if the other person really wanted to do the same, or if there was a better option for them elsewhere. Many people have goals to increase their financial position but will wonder themselves right out of the game because they doubt their discipline, the interest rates and will simply settle for what they have.
Are you writing a book right now? Do you want to be a better person? Do you want to be leaner and healthier? Do you want better relationships with your partner or your kids? Do you want to be out of debt and in the black? Do you want business success? I’m sure you do want one or more of those things. I know I do. Well, let me tell you how to achieve everything you want; stop wondering. Stop wondering whether you have the discipline and decide to have it. Stop wondering if your partner wants a better relationship. Assume it and go for it. Stop wondering if you can achieve your financial goals and just follow the predictable plan for its achievement. Stop wondering if you’ll ever be a best-selling author and commit to the only thing that will allow you to know for sure.
Wondering is the killer of success, because you’ll never wander your way to your dream. It will never come knocking on your door or bump into you in the street. It will only happen with; belief, focus, determination and persistence, but you already knew that. The only reason you wonder is because you don’t believe in yourself. So, I’m going to say it here again; you are enough! No need to wonder, you have everything it takes to create amazing success in 2020. Why not just believe that? It takes just as much effort to believe you can as believe you can’t. Why not just believe in yourself? Trust me, before this year goes any further, if you wonder, you will wander. So, simply focus and have your best year ever.