One of my favorite teachers, and someone I have learned so much from is Rich Litvin, here is a paraphrased quote from one of his sessions that I look at often,
“Life can’t be amazing if you say yes
to anything less than amazing”
This concept made me stop and really look at all that I was doing and ask myself, “What am I doing that is less than amazing? What am I saying yes to that I shouldn’t have?”
For me I had some projects that I had already started that needed to be finished, because I said I would and they were less than amazing, but I told myself, after these are complete we will take extra care choosing the next project. I quickly found that some of the challenges I was running in to got clear, like trying to answer these questions:
What am I passionate about and would do regardless if I got paid?
What is the work I can’t not do?
What do I want to be when I grow up?
When I adopted this filter, everything started getting easier, I saw my passion and enthusiasm increase, my projects became more personal, more like me, and best of all they got easier. My guess is before I was making things harder on myself, choosing to struggle with stuff that wasn’t amazing, I taught myself to be OK with grinding along.
I still slip here and there, but just knowing what to look for takes the pressure off.
Give this concept a try and let me know what you think…