Don’t Look at the Wall (and There is Always a Wall)

As part of my continuing series, “Tips to Help Your #Hustle,” here is another quick tip to help dominate in your working life. The sooner you conquer your career the sooner you can be free to start living the life you’ve worked so hard for.

Every day, I drive 30 minutes up a winding mountain canyon, typically surrounded by cars and semis going 80 miles an hour. There is a quarter of a lane between the painted line on the pavement and the cement barrier keeping you away from the side of the mountain. People around you are texting, it’s windy, big trucks create their own vortex; you are often not in your own lane. To stay on track you have to look ahead quite a ways. The secret is to never look at the wall. If you look at the wall you will hit the wall.

Mountain biking is the same thing: don’t look at the rock, don’t look at the tree, don’t look at the cliff. If you look at the rock you will hit the rock. Be aware that there are rocks along your path, but ffs don’t focus on them. What about golf? Keep your eye on the ball. (That works as a golf reference right? Yay sports!) If you look away or to the sides then your swing suffers.

Okay fine, too many literary devices, too little subtlety. Point being,  you plan to succeed or you plan to fail. You create scenarios in your mind that support your fears and then wouldn’t you know it, you’ll start to see signs of your fears manifesting and blammo! You are rewarded with just exactly what you’ve been freaking out about focusing on. This is the basis of every self-help book ever written. What you perceive is what you receive. Your inner world creates your outer world. Don’t build negative neuropathways. Etc. etc. etc. I like the wall reference because I live it twice a day, every day. Do I know where the wall is? You betcha. But I don’t need to watch it to know where it is. I have other, more useful, more powerful things I should be doing.

So hustle. Hustle hard. Learn everything you can about your business. Think ahead. Anticipate needs. Work smarter, harder. Be the very best you can be. Don’t stifle that fabulous spark that makes you you (people love you for you, trust me, you’re adorable). And don’t spend your precious energy looking at that wall.