Why Its Important to Get Going

Briskly walking, I hear a faint whisper that calls my name.  As I draw nearer, my senses are invigorated by the high-octane aroma as it passes by in the easterly wind,  it’s so strong my brother starts popping antihistamine like it’s Halloween candy.  For some reason, I start to get nervous, but it’s a good nervous, an excited nervous.  The hike up the stairs is impatient, I cannot wait to see the stadium floor, I wonder, what will it be like this year?  As the floor unveils itself to me, it all becomes real, Supercross is back in Seattle.

That’s enough creative writing for one night, here we go.

I love Motocross… Actually, anything that involves two wheels and dirt, love it.  Either doing it, watching it, reading about it, being involved in it, whatever I can do to be around Motocross, Supercross and Off-road.  It’s an illness, just ask my wife Sissel, I know for a fact that I drive her CRAZY when I talk about it.

For some that maybe a huge shocker, but to those who have been around me the last few years, you know I have a problem and it’s a good problem (as far as I’m concerned!)

I brought up motocross to start this post because as I re-watched the final Supercross of the season on TV, it sparked the lesson for today.

There is a strange phenomenon I would like to discuss that is not exclusive to motocross, happens all over the place really, but unless you skipped the first few sentences, you’ll know why I picked it.  It generally used to happen once a year, sometime in late July and into August.  What seemed to be out of the blue, a select number of riders would magically find that speed they’ve been searching for (sometimes their entire career) and start getting the results that have been expected for them (there are exceptions, but we’ll get into that later.)

More often than not this all goes down just weeks before their contract is ready to expire.  The “silly season”, where riders are on the free agent market generally happens between the end of the Motocross season in late August/September and the start of the Supercross season, which is in early January.  Turns out there is quote a bit of motivation to produce good results, when their alternative career is potentially much less glamorous.

Anthony Robbins calls this phenomenon the “Niagara Effect” meaning that people generally are floating down the river of life and when they suddenly see the top of the waterfall they are about to go over and suddenly find the motivation to be, most often temporarily, ultra productive.  But like I’ve always heard – easy come, easy go…  This is not motivation that sticks, complacency eventually kicks in and those pushed by the Niagara Effect are more often than not, right back where they started.

To find motivation that sticks, it needs to come from within.  Sure your circumstances will help lead you to that time when you finally say “I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired,” but like anything else you want to do in life, it’s a choice we have to make individually.

That is what the people who reach the top of a sport or industry do.  They have the sense of urgency like “today is the last day of my contract” and they have it everyday.  That is why guys like Roger DeCoster, Bob Hannah, Jeff Ward, Jeremy McGrath, Ricky Carmichael, James Stewart and a select group of others, dominated Supercross and Motocross for so many years.  Yes, they all had/have talent and natural ability, but above all else, they worked harder and were more willing to do what ever it took to become a champion.

Staying in this mind frame is tough and it takes consistent and never-ending commitment to make it last a lifetime.  Personally, I have struggled with it in the past.  I had a moderately successful college basketball career, where I was motivated everyday to becoming better, but I got complacent, lost my mojo and regrettably gave up on basketball too soon.

I didn’t realize it till a few years later, when it was too late to do anything about it.  So I have had to change my focus, from being the best basketball player I can be to being the best husband, father, mentor, businessman I can.   Now, I compete with myself, trying to make myself better everyday, so I can help others realize their goals and become successful.

So to help get ourselves kick started in the right direction, we need to adapt the idea that our contract is about to expire, that

“Today is the last day that I have, to show the world and more importantly, myself, how good I really am.”

Take this sense of urgency and use it in your business or career, your relationships, wellness, finances, anything and everything you are committed to success in.  You’ll begin to see measurable improvement the longer you can stay in this state of commitment.

Like training our body, we need to train our mind to get this sense of urgency.  During my day, I pick the things that I do best and then try to delegate as much of the other work as I can.  Then, with a focused intensity, I try to work quickly on one task at a time.  There is a distinction to make here, it is one thing to be quick, it is an entirely different thing to be in a hurry.

Hurrying is frantic and sloppy, errors and mistakes are abundant.  Quickness is moving at a pace that maintains superb attention to detail,  is under control and free from a frantic feeling.

This allows me time to work on special projects, other interests and by creating more time for myself, I have to opportunity to use it however I like.

To wrap it all up, champions condition themselves (with the help of a good coach(es)) to have a sense of urgency, a high level of importance, on how they go about their day.  Maximizing the same 24 hours we all have, better than those who sail through mediocrity.

Finding this place for ourselves is one of the key factors in determining how far we will get in our lives, how far forward we will put our children down the road and how many people we take with us on our climb to the top.

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