The Official Nametagscott Guide to Stick-to-itiveness, Part 3

November 02, 2010 3:03 PM

Stick-to-itiveness can be learned.

Aka, “Stick to it.”
Aka, “Stick with it.”
Aka, “Stick in there.”

All you have to do is shift your attitude completely – work hard, smart and long while nobody notices – and design a daily practice of self-determination and commitment.

Hey. I said it could be learned – not that it would be easy.

Up to the challenge?

Cool. Fortunately, I’ve already published part one and part two in this series.

Today we’re going to explore part three with additional strategies for sticking with it – whatever “it” is:1. Call upon the full range of your faculties. At my yoga studio, our instructors remind us to use every part of our body to achieve the total expression of the posture. Even the parts that are relaxed.

Erin says, “Just because something is disengaged doesn’t mean it’s unimportant.” After three years of practicing, I’ve seen this principle play out during every class.

It’s the stillness of one leg that fuels the exertion of the other.
It’s the rock-solid locked knee that frees up the motion of your lumbar spine.
It’s the relaxed, drama-free facial expression that counteracts the inevitable mental exhaustion.

The cool part is, this is a principle non-yogis can apply to their lives. To call upon the full range of your faculties, all you have to do is ask the right questions. Try these:

*What unique aspects of my personality can I enlist to slog through what matters?
*What personal skills have I not tapped into yet to sustain stick-to-itiveness?

You don’t need yoga to stick it out – you just need you. Who, according to Walt Whitman, contains multitudes. Maybe it’s time to start using them. Are you making use of everything you are?

2. Increase the probability. My favorite scene in The Bucket List is when Jack Nicholson makes a crucial decision: He’s going to kiss the most beautiful girl in the world.

Confused, Morgan Freeman asks him how specifically he plans to accomplish that. And in one word, Jack says it all:

“Volume.”

Now, a lot of the time, that’s what stick-to-itiveness means: Playing the odds. Trusting the numbers. And you have to believe that even the weakest step toward the top of the hill still helps you through the strongest storm.

And you have to trust that if you stay determined – not deterred – eventually, you’ll engineer your way through the landscape of your life current craziness.

Remember: Going until you cannot beats stopping when you still can. Are you a pioneer of carrying on, or a purveyor of calling it quits?

3. Practice pressing the off button. Stress is a funny thing. It’s related to ninety-nine percent of all illnesses; yet it’s one of the healthiest tools for jumpstarting a new realm of human ability.

Truth is, stress can’t hurt you if you learn how to displace the impact. That’s how you press the off button: By finding a counterweight. Something that creates an inner sanctuary. Something that provides rest, recovery and renewal to balance out your tension. And something that allows space for quiet within yourself.

Yoga, meditation, singing, dancing, writing, massages, turning your cell phone off for twenty-four hours, watching low-budget horror movies by yourself in the middle of the afternoon, whatever works.

The whole point is to gather the quiet so you’re able to stand up in the storm. Otherwise, if you never take the time to press the off button, you become so action-oriented that you forget to stop and reflect on what’s happening.

And that’s when you painfully discover that persistence without reflection is blind ambition. Have you pressed the off button lately?

4. Maintain a strong focus when surrounded by chaos. Good news: You don’t have to be overwhelmed by circumstances. You just need to ask: Which part of this chaos can I tame? That’s how you avoid the ocean of overwhelm.

By taking charge of your emotional climate and, with a steady gaze in your eyes, tapping into your indispensable stabilizing element. That’s my new favorite phrase: Indispensable stabilizing element. Damn that’s good.

And the best part is, everybody has one. For me, it’s my breath. Not just because I’m a yogi, not just because I meditate – but also because I once had a collapsed lung. And I certainly know how essential it is to have a healthy relationship with your breath to sustain stick-to-itiveness.

Your challenge is to indentify your indispensible stabilizing element. And to create a system that enables you to access it instantly. Then, to practice using it every day. Do so, and you will rise again, more balanced and more steeled each time. What’s your inner bolster?

REMEMBER: It takes guts to stick yourself out there – but it takes gusto to keep yourself out there.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
What’s your secret for sticking with it?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…
For the list called, “13 Ways to Out Develop Your Competitors,” send an email to me, and I’ll send you the list for free!

* * * *
Scott Ginsberg
That Guy with the Nametag
Author, Speaker, Entrepreneur, Mentor
[email protected]

Who’s quoting YOU?