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Keep Moving Forward
Let’s face it, there are times when life just seems to be against you. Every time you seem to get ahead, life comes and knocks you down again. When this happens, the key to success if to just keep moving forward.
Have you ever felt like you are barely treading water in life? You get your head up and a wave comes to knocks you down. You gather you senses and get your head back up just in time to get hit by another wave? This is bound to happen to you at some point in your life. By definition, this is adversity. Some kind of obstacle that gets in your way. However, sometimes, the adversity seems never ending.
When Life Keeps Beating You Down
In 2020, the World was brought to a standstill with COVID-19. At the time I am writing this, we are still in the middle of it. I don’t often like to write with time specific material, but the COVID-19 situation is a great example. The pandemic brought the world to a halt. Business were forced to close. Some businesses were able to pivot into different services. When counties were allowed to reopen, businesses weren’t the same. This time was really rough for small business owners. The hits just kept coming. Again, while writing this, we still don’t know what the future is going to look like.
For some, this constant adversity is going to knock them down too far and they will quit. The problem is that when you are focused on your goals, when you are trying to live through your purpose, when you are trying to be 1% better every day, you cannot let adversity get the better of you. Giving up is the exact opposite of the Aggregation of Marginal Gains. In order to keep from giving up, just keep going forward.
Get Off The X
Jason Redman said it best in his book Overcome. Get off the X. The X is a military term that means to point of attack on the battlefield. The one area where all fighting power is directed. If you stay on the X, you die. So, get off the X by any means necessary. That should be your mindset when you hit constant adversity. If you stay put, you will die (metaphorically of course). So, get off the X by any means necessary. But how?
Refocus On Your Purpose
First, refocus on your purpose, core value, and pillars of success. When everything is going well, we can lose focus on our purpose and value. We get caught up in the easy flow of life and take it for granted. Therefore, when the going gets tough, you need to remember why you are doing what you are doing. Those who quit often don’t have a good focused purpose. Once you are refocused on your purpose, let your values drive your actions. You know what the right thing is to do because you already took the time to establish your values. Don’t question them, just let them guide you.
Focus on Actionable Items
Second, focus on actionable items. Actionable items seem obvious, but they need to be something that requires you to actually do something. That means more than talking about strategy, or ideas, or what you plan to do. It isn’t enough to schedule a meeting with your employees, for example. It also isn’t enough to plan to complete tasks that end up becoming passive items, like creating a Facebook advertisement that runs while you do something else. Actionable items need to require your full attention. So, have the meeting, set plans, schedule the advertisement, and make sure you have another actionable tasks ready to go.
Strive for Excellence
Finally, perform your actionable tasks with excellence. If you step back for a moment, and look at those who you admire as leaders and successful people, you will see that they do what they do with excellence. That means they put 100% focus on doing whatever the best. When life is beating you down, it is the perfect time to invest in some continued education in your area. That will help you remotivate you. Additionally, extreme focus on being your best will require all of your time and attention. Therefore, you can’t help but move forward.
Whatever you do, get off the X and KEEP MOVING FORWARD!!!
