Playing The Bigger Game - PART 1

The MEGA World of Lil Mogul
by Lil Mogul

STEP 1: Accept The Fact That You Will Have To Stretch

(And That The Pain Will Be Worth It)

So far, you’ve been paralyzed by at least one big step you have to take because you know – you just know - that it’s going to be incredibly hard or painful or scary. There’s something you need to do, but it’s beyond your comfort zone. And you’ve made the discomfort of taking that next step so big in your mind that there’s no way in hell you’re going to take it.

Guess what? It’s not nearly as scary or painful or destructive than you think. You’re just blowing it out of proportion. Will it be easy? No, of course not. But it won’t be nearly as hard as you think – you’re just seeing it that way because you’re not “all in.” You have one foot on the train that’s going to take you somewhere and one foot on the ground, and it hurts like hell to live life and do business in that situation.

So you need to decide to go all in and do it. But that’s scary. I get it. But I also get how to defuse that feeling of scariness, and it all starts with the first sentence of the first personal development book I ever read. (a book that literally saved my life during a violently traumatic time as a kid)

“Life is difficult. This is the great truth, one of the greatest truths … because once we see this truth, we transcend it.” – M. Scott Peck, The Road Less Traveled

Don’t let the word “transcend” make you think this is some fluffy woo-woo thing (and to all my fluffy woo-woo readers, no offense, my friends). By transcend he means “get over it.”

Yeah, life and your business can be difficult. It really is. However, it seems much more difficult than it really is because society is training us to think that it should be easy. Microwave popcorn, drive-throughs, magic pills and American Idol have conditioned us to expect everything to be easy and push button and if it’s not, then oh-crap-what-is-wrong-with-me-I-am-such-a-failure.

That’s why we get livid when someone isn’t doing 10 miles over the speed limit, or the drive-through is slow, or *gasp* Twitter is down. We’re trained to believe that trivial things are difficult, and that the things that are actually kind of challenging – well, that’s impossible. Yeah! This happens to me too, and I have to find someone to kick my booty and read that quote again.

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Here’s the point:
If you wish/expect/hope things should be easy, then getting out of your comfort zone is terrifying and paralyzing and something you will never, ever bring yourself to do it. Goodbye big game. It was nice to pretend I really wanted you.

But if you accept that life and your business is difficult, then it stops being so damned bad. Yeah, it’s a pain sometimes, but you expect it and it’s not so bad simply because you expect it. You know you’ll wince, but you know it’s going to be worth it.

This is the first and most important truth you have to accept if you want To Play The Bigger Game - it’s not going to happen without some uncomfortable stretching. You can’t get there with the muscles that got you here. But you can push yourself, you’ll survive (really), and after you go through the discomfort you’ll be stronger on the other side.

When Omaba was three, he was riding his tricycle at the playground, and he was complaining about how hard it was to go up the less-than-gentle incline. He was worried he wouldn’t be able to go there often on his trike because it was just too hard. So his mother told him the truth: If he just stuck it out today, then his legs would get a little bit stronger, and tomorrow would be a little easier. And then the next day it would be even easier, and so on, until it wasn’t a big deal anymore.

Most kids would have shrugged it off or complained some more. But not him. He actually pedaled slower, so it would be harder, and so he would build up his muscles faster. Holy crap! The kid was three and he was already upping his game.

What if you had that same attitude? What if you decided the temporary pain or discomfort was just a natural part of the process, and that going through it wasn’t “hell,” but just the dues you have to pay to come out stronger on the other side?
You’d Play a much Bigger Game, that’s what.

So why aren’t you? You most defuse the programming that has tricked you into thinking that the challenge of personal and business growth should be feared instead of devoured.

Game on!!! Until next week..