Our Attitude and Our Action

In the last post, I referenced what I’ve always heard as the only two things we can control; our attitude and our action. That ties right in with something we looked at in this series a few months back regarding what I heard a mentor of ours call The Cycle of Success. He said, “Our beliefs drive our thoughts. Our thoughts produce our feelings. Our feelings are seen through our actions. Our actions yield results. And those results reinforce our beliefs.” 

So here’s the thing… If we neglect taking complete responsibility for controlling our attitude and our actions, we can’t expect to have any real say in where that success cycle leads us! When we do make a decision to take control of that cycle, then we back that decision with action, we’ll see that cycle have a compounding effect! Understand though, it won’t be an easy path to follow. Remember John Maxwell’s quote I shared before, “Everything worthwhile is uphill.” Over the last several months, I’ve heard him add to that by saying “and sometimes that hill is really steep!”

Before we dive into what I believe is one of the most important things we can take control of, let me stress something else about that Cycle of Success: it can absolutely have the inverse effect if we choose not to control our attitude or our actions! While building a cycle of productive beliefs, thoughts, feelings, actions, and results moves us toward the success we want, allowing each of those things to be controlled by the craziness of the world around us is highly likely to take down quite the opposite path! Jim Rohn told us this in saying, “If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much!”

OK Wes, I got it… Control my attitude and my actions… Then what?

Then we need to assume complete control of when we’re doing those things, and that brings us to something that can often make us seem incredibly boring.... Consistency!

As we look at several other specific things we can, and should, control in our lives, we need to do each of them with extreme consistency if we really want to achieve the results we’re hoping for - regardless of our industry - and so we can provide the strongest possible example of leadership to the people who are depending on us most! If John’s correct about everything worthwhile being uphill, just know that developing this kind of consistency means we’re going to keep climbing that hill indefinitely…

I’ve heard so many stories telling how hall of fame athletes were doggedly consistent about how they practiced and trained. I’ve heard that Larry Bird shot at least 500 free throws every day. I remember a story about Tony Gwinn taking 500 swings at a ball on a tee before he ever left his bedroom each morning. I may have the numbers wrong, but you get the point… And I’d guess you can think of several other examples!

Here’s my question, can you think of an example of this kind of consistency in your industry? How about this kind of consistency in someone you’ve known in a leadership role?

Let’s get serious with these last two questions… Where have you developed this kind of consistency in your life to this point? And where has lacking consistency held you back from achieving something you’ve been working toward?

In the next post, I’ll share one area of my life where developing extreme consistency has yielded compounding interest!