Planning and Playing - Day 6 for Teams Y and Z

Teams Y and Z have dipped their toes in the pool and are ready to take the plunge into focusing on their goals. There are 8 days left. I asked the teams to reconnect to their goals and play. Here is a portion of the email I sent to Teams Y and Z:

The Theme for Day 6 is Playing and Planning

This Monday morning I would like you to reconnect with your goal. Say it to yourself. Is it compelling? Does it excite you? Play around with expressing your goal a few different ways until you have 2 - 3 crisp one line explanations of your goal. This exercise gives you more ammunition for sharing with others and may help you further refine your goal. Challenge yourself - is this really the goal? Make sure your are focused on the goal an not one action within the goal.

Let’s play a little basketball - to play, we need to get on the court.

You have 8 days left in the program. Your opponent is tough, has been practicing for years, and has been well fed (your opponent is your habits, beliefs, fears, resistance). I don‘t know what the score is right now, as it is different for all of you. But here’s the thing - it does not matter. You can win even if you have been asleep on the bench (or in the stands). Most of you have been playing the game.

What’s your game plan? What plays and maneuvers will ensure that you win over your opponent?

You can only make the shots you take.

Take some time today to redeclare your goals and to plan your plays. Have fun with it. Make sure your thoughts and ideas are “on the court“ conversations.

I am sure you have heard this before. Many professional athletes will admit that conditioning and athletic capabilities are important, but that the difference between winning and losing is often a head game. This applies to all of us. We need certain skills and experiences, yes, but what’s most important is what’s going on in our heads (belief-action cycle).

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Teams Y and Z are off to a very interesting start. Several folks have had what I consider to be pretty major breakthroughs already. Others are just getting warmed up! No worries, there's still lots of opportunities to create breakthroughs. There are several participants who struggle with "Stargazing" - thinking too much and acting not enough. They are writing each other about their challenges and helping each other "just do it."

Y and Z - How are you feeling?

Comments

[Jessica]

I liked the playing with my goal today--it gave me some additional options when it comes to sharing, which is something I'm still finding a bit challenging.

I wrote my 2000 words today, though I didn't write at all over the weekend. So, I'm now on to Part Two tomorrow, which is pretty exciting.

Lisa, you'd mentioned that I could get started on talking to other writers about possible promotions for when the book is published, and I really think this is a great idea, but felt like it was almost "cheating" since the goal itself is to get the book written...

[Lisa Haneberg]

Jessica - Congrats on getting 2000 words written and I am glad you had fun playing with your goal. You may find that engaging in conversation about other writers helps to motivate you to get the book done and out there. You are so close, and I look forward to seeing it!

[Paul]

> You can only make the shots you take.

That's a very good line. I may need to tape it up on my monitor!

I read somewhere that Michael Jordan missed more shots than anyone else in the league over the course of his career, and that similarly Babe Ruth had more strikeouts.

Being a perfectionist at heart, these are valuable lessons for me to remember.

"Show me someone who hasn't failed, and I'll show you someone who hasn't tried hard enough." :-)

I'm working on increasing my productivity - and thereby increasing the throughput of my requests and acts. 2 a day per the Daily Practice minimum - but as many as time and schedule will allow. Hopefully should equal more failures and more successes. We'll see!

[Adrian Trenholm]

The national lottery in the UK changed their advertising slogan from "it could be you" to "you have to be in it to win it." The whole ad campaign revolves around those people who dream of winning but don't buy a ticket because the odds are so ridiculous. Then lady luck whispers in their ears "your chances of winning are considerably increased if you buy a ticket." I am not a Lotto fan, but I like the new sentiment: you can only make the shots you take.

Tom Peters writes about "Fail. Forward. Fast"

I am sending an update on requests, actions and sharing to the Yahoo Group.

[Lisa Haneberg]

Paul and Adrian - thanks for the additional inspiration!