Sunday Story...The Willl Garden

Sunday Story…The Will Garden

The other evening I had the privilege of listening to an icon of business speak. Stuart Ochiltree, former CEO of Avon products and the man who brought Avon from 700 million in sales to 4.5 billion in sales, was here in Reno to speak to a group of Univera associates (of which I am one). Mr. Ochiltree is the current president of Univera. Although he dispensed many nuggets of wisdom during his talks there was one in particular that stuck out for me. As a matter of fact I wrote it down! What he said was this: “Will is probably the most factor in achieving your goals.”

Last week we talked about goals and setting them and making a plan and then following it up. Most of us are familiar with these steps. It really is simple and easy. There is no big secret. Yet many of us don’t achieve our goals. We might start but there is no will to continue. It is too easy to let those goals go and stop far short of our objective.

This seems to be what happens far too often with dieting, quitting smoking, or any number of other things we might try to do. “I’m going to lose these 30 pounds! I just signed up for this new diet plan and all I have to do is eat this special mixture of seeds, nuts, and twigs for the next 30 days and this really cool drink and I will be back into my skinny jeans next month!” So away you go…got the goal, got the reward, got the plan, got the decision and the motivation. About 10 days into the whole thing, you are doing pretty well, the weight has begun to drop and you are feeling good. Then the dreaded banquet dinner comes up with all your favorite foods and you just can’t resist, or its opening night of the baseball season and the whole team is going out for pizza and beer. Your resolve falters and you fall. And the next day you just can’t get back on the plan and you let it go. Will

Or you are going to start exercising so you join the gym and hire a trainer for a few sessions. After the first session you hurt. And the day after you hurt worse. Intellectually you know this is to be expected but dang…it hurts bad. Maybe you should take the next session off. Just until you feel better, then you will be right back in it. Of course the next day isn’t your day. By the third day, well the memory of the pain is still fresh so you find several other things to do that preclude you going back to the torture chamb…I mean gym. Pretty soon your fitness goals become fitness dreams and they get put up on the shelf next to some of your other goals that never got done. Will

What if you just showed up? What if you just got back on the diet one more day? So you blew it. So maybe you won’t lose 30 pounds. Maybe it will only be 20 pounds. Are you going to beat yourself up for only making 2/3rds of the goal? How many pounds will you lose if you quit 10 days into the deal? None? Quitting is a habit, so is winning, and so is finishing what you start. Perseverance is a trait to be cultivated. Will

Your life, in many ways, is like a garden. There are traits you want to develop and grow, things to be cultivated, and other things to discard, pull out, and get rid of. If you learn to quit you will quit. If you learn to finish you will finish. It becomes part of what your garden, what your life looks like every day. When finishing becomes an expectation your will no longer needs to be the power behind the effort. I expect to finish, I don’t struggle. I might have to suck it up down deep and find the part of me that really wants to finish but I KNOW I will finish.

Hitting your goals is similar. I expect to hit my goals. Part of that expectation knows I am going to do what needs to be done. I expect I will harvest all the bounty from my garden. I expect my goals to be reached. I will do what I will need to do to reach those goals. It’s a habit like watering the garden or pulling weeds.

Will or mental toughness is a very hard thing to teach. How do I teach you that there is always more you can do? How do I instill in you the drive to reach down and do one more repetition, or one more sprint, or one more jump? How can I inspire you to practice just a little longer or harder? What makes one player stay after practice and shoot 100 free throws long after everyone else has gone home? Is it that some people just have it and some don’t? Is it that some people have the drive, the motivation, the will to succeed and the rest of are doomed to always just coming up short?

Here’s the answer…it’s a practice. It is something you do day in and day out. You decide to shoot those free throws and you aren’t going to let anything get in the way. Rain or shine, sickness or health, whether you feel like it or not, you go out and do it. You ask more of yourself than I do. You give more of yourself. It becomes a habit, something you do, the way you are. And when the going gets tough you already know you can do the hard, the tough things since you have developed the habit of seeing those things through day in and day out.


If your life is like a garden what are you cultivating? What are you growing…indolence, mediocrity, and terminal normality? Wouldn’t you rather have excellence, abundance and success? Grow your will, cultivate your mental toughness, and look to creating the life you deserve by making it a practice…just like anything else…Will is a practice. So get out there and practice.

Namaste
John
“Teaching Focus, Inspiring Transformation”
www.martialartsnevada.com

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