Recently I wrote an article about “success tips from baseball” – I am going to share a series of posts to point out success tips from the many life encounters we have to help you develop an awareness to look for these in your everyday life.
Recently, we were at the beach celebrating our friends birthday. One of our friends promptly went in for a swim as soon as she got there. She is an amazing woman, always leading the charge in everything we do. It was the 28th of May, and certainly in everyone’s mind the water would be much too cold for swimming. After all, two weeks prior, it was snowing.
After sitting in the blazing sun all afternoon, I had to go in to cool off. I had my bathing suit on underneath my dress, and my intent was to walk in to my knees and if it was warm enough I would take off my dress and go for a swim. I was very surprised at how warm the water was, so ventured in a little further and attempted to step over a big rock to the sandy area, but slipped and went under. That made the decision to go for a swim easy! After that about 6 or 8 of our friends joined me for a swim. The water was beautiful, about 75 degrees.
What is the lesson in this? We can choose to believe something without ever testing it and miss out on life’s journey.
We all thought that my friend that went in the water first was brave to jump in the freezing water. Our perception was it had to be freezing….we had only had warm weather for just over a week. The fact was, she simply lives life to the fullest, never misses an opportunity for fun and adventure and doesn’t use anything as an excuse. She simply decided to go for a swim, and took action. Oh and by the way, she isn’t in her 20’s, 30’s or even 40’s…she is in her 70’s!
This is a powerful way to build a business. What lessons can we learn from this example my friend set? Jumping in with both feet, not being afraid to lead the way, not “testing” the water, but boldly going forward in your decision. Seizing opportunity. She didn’t over analyze the water temperature. Trusted her heart and followed through in what she wanted to do. She didn’t need the approval of those around her to do what she wanted to do. She took immediate action on the idea she had.
Successful entrepreneurs practice this same type of thinking in their businesses. They make decisions quickly and change their minds slowly, if at all. They take action. They make decisions that support the goals they have, regardless of the possible obstacles. They trust their intuition. They don’t make excuses. They take action as quickly as possible on their ideas.
It’s a great philosophy to live life by and to create the success in business that others just dream about. Always be on the lookout and have an awareness of the lessons that are right in front of us….most would never think you could gain entrepreneurial lessons from the beach, or a ball game, but lessons are all around us for those that have the awareness. Once you have the awareness you will see lessons in absolutely everything you observe and take part in. It becomes a fascinating way to live life, and allows you to learn every single day, something new you can apply to your life or your business.
After Muhammad Ali’s death, I watched a documentary about his life, and that gave me some more new distinctions to share in an upcoming article. Remember, everything and everyone is our teacher. Success messages from the beach, or the ball field….there are messages everywhere. Our job is to have the awareness to pick out the success tips that are right in front of us.
