Compartmentalizing your life

Start your morning by energizing each part of your life – spiritual, physical, mental, emotional/relational, financial, and career. Take time to be grateful for what you have presently, the past experiences that have gotten you to where you are, and the future that lies ahead. Visualize success in each of those areas, whatever that means to you. Then plan your day out and see how you can get closer to achieving success in those areas. If you don’t have a plan, then it will be really hard to get what you want.

Focus and effort

If anyone is an international example of success, Dwayne Johnson has to be in the conversation among the most relevant at this time. He has said, “Success at anything will always come down to this – focus and effort.”

After thinking about it, any amount of limited success that I’ve had has come as the result of those two things. And there is a positive correlation as well…The more focus and effort you put into something, the greater the results will be. You have to put in work for something to work. And you can’t do it inconsistently either. You have to focus on it, otherwise you are basically starting from scratch every time.

For example: Imagine working out once per week. You might get marginally healthier, but if your goal is to be as physically fit as possible, you’re not going to see the results you want. You have to go consistently, with a clear objective, and work hard towards achieving those goals.

Feedback vs criticism

View feedback as a shortcut to success. If you only see feedback as criticism and shut down, you will limit your growth potential. If someone is being honest with you and helping you realize what needs to be improved upon, use that to your advantage. Either way the information is still there and it is still true. You can choose to ignore it and continue to be substandard at whatever it is they mentioned, or you can do something about it. This will also reinforce others to continue to give you feedback. It may not always feel the best, but you will always know where you stand.

Equality of opportunity, not outcome

We need to be careful not to confuse equality of opportunity with equality of outcome. What I mean by this is that everyone should be able to “play the game” if they want to, but not everyone should “win” an award just for playing.

Systems that give everyone a reward so their feelings don’t get hurt is not helpful in the long run. Sure, it saves people from temporary heartache, but it also makes us less resilient and, ultimately, less capable of overcoming obstacles. Not only that, but it can diminish a true sense of accomplishment. For example: If you come in 8th place in a race, or if your team loses a competition, you know in your heart that you didn’t earn a trophy. So if a trophy is given to you, the trophy is devalued to yourself and to those who finished in front of you.

Make sure to work to build your resilience everyday. Do something difficult. Lose occasionally – not on purpose, but because you’re challenging a worthy opponent. Realize that failure is inevitable, but it doesn’t mean that it is final. Fight for equality of opportunity, but don’t accept equality of outcome (even if you are the beneficiary).