Stop Coasting...

[Phil Parkinson]

To develop yourself as a person, and maximise the positive improvements in your life you must start to apply yourself in whatever you are doing. This could be at the gym, at work, with your family. Don’t just coast through life; put effort in to maximise the results you achieve.

An ex-student of mine, and a great bloke, Spencer Horsey told me in a workshop

“Train for the impossible and the difficult will become easy.”

While not exactly the same, I believe there are a lot of common principles with this quote and what I am trying to say.

Stop coasting and start pushing yourself.

If you use the gym, don’t just have a 45 minute workout so you can say to yourself “I have done it.” Go to the gym and spend 45 minutes doing heavy weights with exceptional form. Don’t leave the gym with a light sweat, leave dripping in sweat knowing that you gave everything you had to the workout.

At work, don’t just do enough to get by and collect your monthly pay cheque. Make sure that you give your absolute best while you are there. Aim to be the best in your team and the best in your department. (If you job is boring you to the point where you cannot increase your motivation, are you doing the right job?)

When you are boxing; you are 2 minutes into the round and you are exhausted. Your entire body wants to stop and rest. DON’T DO IT. You only cheat yourself. Push yourself to the limit and you tell me how you feel when that final bell sounds.

You don’t get a second chance at life, so make your experience the best it can be.

My Mindset: “I want to be the best”

“Train for the impossible and the difficult will become easy”. [Credit, Spencer H.]

If you aim to reach a certain level, you may hit that level or you may come up short. If you aim for the very top, you probably will come up short, but you will get a lot farther than if you stayed within safe bounds.

I aim to be the very best at whatever I do. It doesn’t matter how big or small the task or activity is I want to do it to the very best of my ability.

• When learning how to box, I want to be the fittest, fastest, hardest puncher… I put my everything I have into my boxing training to make sure I improve faster than everyone else; and I do.

• At work, I don’t want to hit my target, I want to be the best salesman on the floor. I aim to smash my targets to pieces. I set my own targets far above what the business deems to be sufficient and then I work like hell to hit them.

• If I go paint-balling, I want to shoot the most people and come out with the highest score.

• I want my social circle to be filled with charismatic, deep, good people who enrich and add to my life experience. I will cut out anyone who has a negative influence on me. When it comes to women, I will not settle for second best. I want the most intelligent, vibrant, beautiful girls to be a part of my life.

You only get one crack at this life; one chance to make a life you can be proud of. I want to look back at my life and think to myself: “I gave it absolutely everything I had to make it the best it can possibly be.”