Imagine being one of the 97% of people who go to a job every day when they would rather go somewhere else to work and do something else with their life. Why do people settle for less than putting in their best? Is attitude really all it's cracked up to be? Do you really control your own destiny?
On Sunday afternoon, I was sitting in my seat on a Continental flight leaving Houston for Seattle and then a connection to British Columbia and one of our Internet sites LPG consults. I received a call on my cell phone from a general manager of 5 media properties in Missouri. She told me on Saturday, the Operations manager and production director died while working on his yard that afternoon. His pregnant wife, who is six weeks away from delivering their first child, was inside their home on a normal weekend day. She wondered after 45 minutes why he had not come inside. Ryan was 33 years old. Ryan died of an apparent heart attack.
It's a tragic story. Life is too short to let it slip by and let it slip by doing something you don't want to do. Ryan was an up and coming broadcaster. He was good at what he did. I had a chance to meet him on two market trips, the last one coming in early September. He was happy and doing what he loved to do-run radio stations and do creative for business owners and also for the radio stations. Ryan didn't settle for less and put in his best every day. He'll be sorely missed by all who worked with him and of course his family. We can take a lesson from Ryan and others like him that do what they love to do. Sometimes we think if only we could do this or do that, we'll be happy. My last experience with Ryan, I saw someone who really loved what he was doing.
In tough economic times like we're experiencing, it's easy to lay excuses on why we can't accomplish our goals or meet our responsibilities or become the best we can be at whatever we do. Professionals, top notch professionals buck up and get it done. Times like this are tough on everybody. We all experience pressure or something I call self imposed pressure. What is pressure? Can you measure it? People say pressure happens when you are stressed out. I've never seen pressure. Show me pressure. Some people say there is pressure when you have to hit a deadline. I've had people tell me there must be pressure when you running late to the airport and you might miss the plane and there is no other flight out other than the one you're on that day. I don't think that's pressure, I just think I might miss the flight-that's all. Life is too short to lose time by stressing out over missing a flight. It's not life or death.
Love what you do and remember life it too short to let it slip by doing something you don't want to do. If you don't love what you do, then take a step back today and think about what you really want to do in life and set a course to achieve that goal. Your attitude controls your destiny. I often show a movie at my seminars called, "Facing the Giants." There is a part of the movie where players on a high school football team are required to do an exercise that is so tough; they call it the "Death Crawl." In the opening segment of that part of the movie, the coach tells his players that "attitude is the aroma of your heart. If your attitude is not right, you heart is not right." How do you smell today?
We all have a gift. That gift is the life you have and the opportunity you have to make a difference in people's life. Whatever you do today, do it with everything you have and love it. And remember, it's always up to YOU, to make it a great day!