Did you ever hear of a teenager loving Scrubbing Bubbles™? Crazy right? But my son would go head to head with me like the very best door-to-door salesman to ever pass my doorstep, to convince me that these magical little bubbles could clean the bathroom so much better than a cleaning rag, scouring powder and a little elbow grease.
For Chris, Scrubbing Bubbles™ were the next best thing to sliced bread, because he could finish his chore in lickety-split time, and fulfill on his commitment to contributing to our home’s responsibilities … with little to no effort, an appeal for most on-the-go teenagers.
But underneath my struggle with him about this seemingly trivial matter was my insistence of, “How can you ever achieve greatness inside ‘it’s good enough?’”
We lose something, I would explain, in this ‘good enough’ equation.
- We lose all that could be possible by trying our best.
- We lose out on experiencing the juice that comes from completing a job well done.
- We lose out on the victory feeling we gain only when we move beyond the resistance of ‘it’s not that important.’
- We lose out on experiencing the sweet juice that flows from doing good work. The menial, day in, day out tasks that ask us to commit to something more than superficial and fleeting wins.
Somewhere within, I knew I was playing the ‘good enough’ card regarding my work.
In February of 2015, I declared that I would bring my message of healing to ‘the stage.’ I knew then, as I know now, that speakers choose ‘the stage’ to expand the reach of their message, so I created a picture for my Vision Board of me standing on a stage. One month later I joined Toastmasters.
Every morning for the past year, I’ve looked at the picture of me standing on a stage on my Vision Board to visualize, to actualize my goal. Every two weeks for the past year, I’ve met with ‘my’ local TM group, to expose my vulnerability and fear of public speaking, to look at and shake up the ways I don’t feel confident speaking in front of people, to practice, learn, train and develop myself beyond the small egoic voice that wanted to hold me back.
In spite of all my efforts and all the strides I’ve made, I woke up this past Monday morning riddled with fear and doubt. I was slated to speak about healthy habits to a group of 75 people the next day, but fear had grabbed hold and had me believing I didn’t have what it takes to speak in front of a group that large.
I’ve studied, practiced and taught how to create a healthy lifestyle with healthy habits and a healthy mindset for years.
I know what it takes to heal a body and to live healthfully. I’ve walked, talked and lived this ‘game’ for more than half my lifetime. I also know what to do when fear and panic take over.
I know because I’ve stayed the course. I’ve done the work. No quick spit-shine or Scrubbing Bubbles™, but lots of elbow grease.
So I got into action in the ways that I know makes a difference, and the alchemy of all my steadfast work in studying optimal health, healthy lifestyle habits, public speaking and shifting the mindset to create lasting results, which was ironically exactly what I was speaking on the next day, began to transmute my fears and doubts into “I’ve got this,” confidence.
I woke up Tuesday morning ready for the event.
Focused.
Centered.
In my zone.
But the ‘sweet juice’ of my efforts showed up Wednesday morning. I woke up with a feeling of expansiveness in my body that I’d not felt quite the same way before.
I stretched myself.
I grew myself by moving beyond the doubt and fear that had held me back from serving a larger audience.
I could literally feel ‘it.’
It is, as Darren Hardy says, “Small smart choices + consistency + time = radical difference.”
It is, as I taught my son many years back, in the seemingly menial, day in, day out tasks that ask us to commit to something more than ‘good enough’ that we get to step beyond the world of mediocrity and into the juice of our greatness.
You eat clean, but you can’t lose those last 10 pounds.
I recently met two really cool people, Varuna and Dhrumil.
I vividly remember one of the times when I swore off sugar once and for all, when I went looking for my equally sugar-addicted coworker. The drill went like this, I’d whisper “they like you,” about the pastry chefs we worked with, “pleeeze get us a treat, they’ll give you anything you want,” full well knowing I’d long out-used my ‘just this once’ ‘pretty please’ reasoning with them.
In a meeting last week, a corporate leader asked, “How could your work help my employees?”
