Challenge Talk: Why Negative Thoughts are Good and the Secret to Eliminating Doubt and Smashing Personal Records

A man very close to Henry Ford once said, “If you don’t want Henry to do something, you better not tell him he can’t.”

In the movie based on a true story “Men of Honor,” Carl Brashear is asked by his future wife why he wants to be the first African American Navy Diver so badly? Without hesitation, he looks her dead in the eyes with his head raised and jaw-clenched, a look of absolute certainty, and says, “Because they told me I couldn’t have it!”
( If you haven’t seen the movie, go rent it.)

When told we can’t have something many of us react same the way. Something extra inside of us kicks in to prove them wrong and a fire starts burning inside of us until we do. Sometimes that person telling us “You can’t do that,” is exactly what we need. A football coach of mine used this tactic on me if I ever began to slack at practice, because he knew I wouldn’t back down from the challenge. He was a great motivator and even though I would be mad when he challenged me, I’m glad he did because I was better for it.

But sometimes we won’t be challenged or insulted or dared, but we throw fuel on our fire daily, we just mistake it for water. Thinking positively is extremely useful but that’s not what this is about, this isn’t even about avoiding negative thoughts. Instead, this is about using them.

Very often when we’re trying something new or attempting something we’ve failed at before we tell ourselves something along the lines of, “Man, I can’t do this.” Instead of fighting it, use it! Take the approach of Henry Ford, everytime you tell yourself you can’t do something, take it as a personal challenge and then prove yourself wrong. If it’s a big, long-term challenge, write it down in a place you’ll see everyday. The bigger it is the better. If it’s just a shot you’re doubting in the moment, remind yourself it’s just another challenge, and go after it.

Don’t dodge the next challenge that pops into your mind, go after it and crush it!

4 Steps to Becoming the Best at Anything

“If you chase two rabbits at the same time, both will escape.” - Anonymous

First, know what you want. Second, figure out what you need to do it great. Next, focus all of your resources on it. Finally, don’t get distracted.

1. What do you want? – At some level, all people know the answer to this question but we like to make up excuses for ourselves or save our self-esteems but not pursuing it and risk failing. I won’t tell you that it’s easy but I will say that it’s exhilarating once you decide on what you want, and choose to go after it.

2. Figure out what you need to do it great. – Many people go to the extent of figuring out number one and then lead ourselves to the second great excuse. “I don’t know how.” We live in the information age. We are drowning in it. So stop kidding yourself. Go after it! Here’s what you can do after you’ve decided what you want to do.

3. Focus all of your resources on it. - Go to Google. Search whatever it is and narrow it down to the best individuals in the world at your chosen endeavor. Read about them, but only enough to learn what it is they do that makes them great. Go back to Google and read about that. Once you have some background knowledge on the topic, take your trip over to Amazon.com. Search for a book on the topic. Everything on their has already been reviewed, so you will know right away whether or not the book is worth your time and their reviews will let you know if the book is really covering what you want. That will serve as your strongest resource but you can also check out the many free how-to videos on Youtube.com but make sure the people posting them really know what they are talking about before you take their advice.

Once you have learned the proper technique or whatever you need to succeed, perfect it. Constantly, work on improving that one area. Don’t just simply practice. Make it deliberate. You can become drastically better if you give yourself exact criteria to measure yourself against in your quest for perfection. For instance, in golf, you don’t want to just practice chipping for 100 swings, you want to maintain 80% of your shots within 15 feet of the pin for 100 swings. That is deliberate practice and what it takes to become great.

4. Don’t get Distracted – I recently learned that a lion trainer will take a stool into the den with him and point the legs at the lion. It will back away from the trainer because it tries to focus on all four legs at once and can’t. Don’t be a lion. This is one of my greatest flaws and could be what’s stopping you from achieving what you want. We have so much going on in our lives and many of us want to be great at all of it, or we see something that looks like fun and drop what we’re doing right now to chase after that goal. Stay focused. Strive to improve that area you have just learned will make you a master. Become a star in this first area and then once you reach that point, chase something else. Finish what you start and the momentum from this will carry you through to that next goal.

Make Today Your Masterpiece.

NB