Working On Yourself vs In Yourself
Hey everybody. How you doing? It is a gorgeous Monday in Minnesota. It is like 30 some degrees and everything’s kind of melting. We’re looking forward to hopefully to getting some more snow later this week and colder temperatures so we can get some sleds out and do something fun.
Any who. Today, I wanted to get on here and just talk a little bit and challenge out a few on this thought. I’ve got on the title where it says, “Working on yourself versus in yourself”. This comes from a business principal of working on your business versus in your business. What does the heck does that mean, and why am I bringing it around to this piece?
Well, here’s the reason. In business, that means working on yourself or working on your business. In your business stuff is the day to day mundane stuff that you could pay someone just to do. That’s the stuff that really doesn’t take a … Not that it wouldn’t take any thought process, but it doesn’t take a lot of thought process. It’s something that is going to be fairly routine. Gets done over and over. Once you’ve done it a few times, you’ve kind of got it nailed. Right? That’s the in your business stuff.
The on your business is what we look at as your higher level, more strategic thinking piece. That is looking at where are we at, where are we going? What things can we put in place to try and do that? It’s the plan, do, review, adjust. Plan, do, review, adjust piece of working on your business. I was thinking about that today. I’m like you know, that applies to us as we’re trying to “man up” and what we’re working on in ourselves because just like in business where we have to give ourselves the time and allow ourselves the time to think and work on our business versus in our business. That’s strategic higher level thinking because it’s just as important. I think we have to make sure that we give ourselves enough grace and enough time to work on ourselves, that higher level strategic thinking of where we’re going and who we are and what that looks like in the different strategies we’re going to put in place to get there.
The, again, plan, do, review, adjust. Because none of us are going … It’s kind of like golf. Golf is one of the most frustrating sports out there because I mean look, it can go from swing to swing, from hole to hole where you can feel like an absolute rockstar and then the very next swing where you shake one into the [tullies 00:02:44], into the rhubarb.
Hey, I’m back. There was a phone call. You go, “What on Earth happened there? How could I go from being a rockstar and hitting the perfect shot to not?” That’s the game. Therein lies the challenge, right? If you could hit it perfect every single time, it’d be like, “Eh, whatever. This is boring.” I think that piece when we look at … when we’re trying to improve and be better is we’re not going to hit it every single. We’re not going to hit a smooth, sweet shot every single time. We’re going to be screwing it up. We’re going to shank one into the rhubarb every now and then, right? Whether that’s in business, with our kids, with our wife, with ourselves, whatever that looks like, we’re all shank worthy.
What I wanted to challenge you is a little bit different thought process and it comes from Seth Godin. Some people have heard of him. He’s a fairly well known business guy. I like a lot of what he has to say. It challenges me to think a little bit differently than I normally would and that’s another tip for you. Surround yourself with people who think different than you do then if you really want to grow. But I like what he had to say regarding the local max versus big max. Again, we’re talking about a twofer here. The first one was working on yourself versus in yourself, working on your business versus in your business. This is your local max versus your big max. I’m going to try and see if … I don’t know if I can do this, but I’m going to try to flip the phone around because it’ll be actually really good for you guys to see what I’m talking about versus … and you don’t need to see my mug like this.
Where is it? There it is. Okay. See if I can zoom on. Okay. Hopefully that isn’t reversed. I really hope not. Okay. If I can hold this steady. Let me see if I can get this … Bear with me while I try and get it squared away. Okay. There we go. You’ve got your local max right there. That is where when you’re growing, or in this case when we’re working on ourselves, that’s kind of your main goal. If you can hit … Let’s see if I can do this a little bit better so it’s more stable. That’s a little bit better. Not a ton, but a little bit. I’ll take a little, right?
That is the spot where you’ve kind of … You feel like you’re almost arrived. Now what happens is a lot of times you start working hard, you start working even harder. A is the first step. Then you hit your local max. You’re like, “Oh, hey. I’ve arrived. I’m doing really well.” And then all of a sudden you slip back down. It’s like you’re working hard, but you kind of back slide a little bit. Then the next tough spot is C. Right there. C. C is an absolute nasty place to be in because this is the place where you really go through that growth, that growth piece of where you’re working on … In this case, you’re working on your business, but you’re working on yourself. It’s not a fun place. This is the place where you’re having to be honest with yourself, honest in your business, and figuring out where you need to grow and how you’re going to grow.
Now D, right there, that’s the old A. This is what normally … People think of it this way. Well, let’s see if I can get here. They see this. That’s normally all they see. They see their local max and they think that’s the sweet spot. That’s where they got to get to. Then all of a sudden, as they go through this phase down here and they start to go up again, oh look, D. You still haven’t hit the top, but it’s higher than what their old local max was. The big max right there. That’s where some of the cool stuff happens. That’s like you’ve really put yourself out there. You’ve really done something cool with your business. Oh boy. Let’s see if I can get this straight.
That’s kind of how it is in personal growth too. I mean if you really think of … It figures. I start doing a video and I get two phone calls. I haven’t got a call all day. But anyway. But you look at that piece, we think, “Hey, you know what? I’ve got this marriage thing figured out. I’m doing really well.” Then you wake up the next day and you go, “Oh, shank one into the rhubarb. I got some work to do.” That was your local max. Now you start to … As your relationship evolves and your marriage evolves, things change, right? Now you have to kind of adapt. You go through that B, C phase now where, okay, I’m trying to be better. I’m working on myself because it’s the only thing I can work on. One thing I can change is me. I can’t change my partner. I can’t do anything for them. They have to do it for themselves. Now you’re trying to get to that D, that big max, that next place of awesomeness, if you will.
I think that’s the point I wanted to get across tonight is … Or today, not tonight. I’m so used to doing these at night. Is that giving yourself the permission to recognize where your local max is, that you’ve hit it and maybe it’s time to go for a big max instead. Not a Big Mac, a big max. But to understand that first arrival isn’t necessarily the main arrival and that there’s another arrival that’s possible for you and not to limit yourself based on preconceived notions and to give yourself that opportunity, that piece, and that time to really be able to improve and to work on yourself versus in yourself. Don’t get lost in the day to day mundane junk that’s going on. Allow yourself to think at a higher level, to take a 10,000 foot view down at your life and where you’re at and where you’re going, and then make a plan on how to get there from there.
Somebody said, “What’s in the bottle?” That is Macallan, so it’s a Highland Single Malt Scotch Whisky. Very delicious. I haven’t had any today. Nothing today. Anyway, hope you guys all have a great rest of the day. Hopefully that makes sense. If you got any questions on this, this is one of my favorite subjects to talk about, so if you got any questions comment below and I’ll try and scroll through and comment as well.
All right, guys. Hope you all have a great rest of the day. Yeah. We’ll probably talk before Christmas. Catch y’all later.