Date: May 20, 2007

Word count: 901
 Reading time:  2-3 minutes

Benefits of Taking Action: as deep as you want it!

Last week I had the pleasure of speaking at the same conference as Blaise Winter, an 11 year NFL veteran who played with the Colts, Chargers and Green Bay Packers. I saw him present three times and had the chance to talk to him on his own. One of his first comments was that he was there to make some "simple reminders" - well you can be the judge of that. This is not a summary of what he said, merely my interpretation of what was most important to me.

•1.       Take Charge of Your Mind.

In Accelerated Learning Techniques, Brian Tracy says:

"Your brain is like a super computer that's been delivered to you fully installed but with no instructions of how to operate it with maximum effectiveness."

Blaise is the first person I have ever met who explained to me personally that he has deliberately, consciously and consistently learned to program his own mind so that it brings him what he wants in life. He has transformed himself from a child with a severe speech impairment who was told at school he would live a quiet and slow life to someone who went from a walk-on at college to enjoying a successful 11 year professional football career and subsequent 11 years as a professional speaker. He may have worked hard to develop his physical attributes but it is what he has done with his mind that has got him where he is today.

He said; "I feed my mind messages all the time that are positive and tell me I can do it." Sound simple? Oh, sure. But how consistently do we really do this?

•2.       Take Charge of Your Body.

"God gave you a gift." How are your treating it? "You need an edge. I want to generate my own energy and enthusiasm" he said, not be dependent on caffeine and other stimulants. The benefit? "I learned I could outlast people." Discipline required.

•3.       Connect to Your Spirit.

A combination of the three will help you confront your fears.

•4.       Consistency.

Stephen Covey called them habits; Winter worded it in two ways: "You need a consistent state of mind" and "this body is the product of conditioning," - in other words, it is the repetition of positive thoughts and actions that gets you where you want to go. Yes, stuff we have heard before, but what kind of shape are you in?

One side note to this: Be aware of what you do consistently. People like to be seen as consistent. Sometimes this hurts us if what we consistently do is not helping us achieve our goals. Sometimes our fear of being seen as inconsistent will cause us to continue to do things that are not in our best interests. For example, let's say that there's a client you visit regularly and they always serve you coffee and a cookie. You want to start eating better and avoiding caffeine but when you visit them you feel awkward asking for an orange juice so you don't. I know there's a woman in one of my big classes at the gym that I wanted to talk to more. But everyone knows I like to stand in the front row to the right of the instructor and she is always way off on the far left side towards the back. I have felt very self-conscious about not being in my ‘usual' spot and some times just feel too awkward being anywhere else. How silly is that? All because it makes me look inconsistent. When people ask me; "Matt, what are you doing over there?" I don't want to lie but I don't really want to tell them the real reason!

•5.       Be authentic; be yourself.

Blaise had a refreshing honesty about his strengths and limitations. I really enjoyed hearing him say how important it is to just be yourself and not put on heirs and graces. He was more open than most speakers. Also he was not afraid to express himself, his feelings or his opinions and tell the audience things it probably did not want to hear. I'm sure this wins him more fans than detractors. I think this is true for all of us provided you know what you're talking about. The audience could not dismiss what he was saying because he was living breathing proof it was accurate.

•6.       Sometimes we are too nice and lack the courage to speak our minds.

If we see others making poor decisions, we need to get more comfortable telling them so.

According to Brian Tracy, "the fears of failure and rejection, caused by destructive criticism in early childhood, are the root causes of most of our unhappiness and anxiety as adults."

•7.       You need to put pressure on yourself to be all that you can be.

You need to challenge yourself and challenge others to get more out of life.

"Are you ready to act? You better!"

Action Plan.

It's hard for me to put into words the impact of #1. Picture a large, very powerfully-built man with intense eyes standing next to his Green Bay Packer helmet and shoulder pads explaining to you how he programmed his mind over and over to create his own reality and ignore people who said he couldn't do it.  

Blaise Winter can be reached at http://www.blaisewinter.com/