The first and best victory is to conquer self
There are a number of reasons why you use an escalator and don’t take the stairs. To put it simply, riding an escalator you have greater mobility, ease, convenience, pace and haste getting from point A to point B. Nowadays you exist in an “escalator universe” of “quick bucks,” “magic pills,” and “puzzling recipes.” You move in a world of procrastination, missing personal accountability, harmful living, undelivered promises, and botched obligations.
In the meantime, the blare and disturbance that come with a hasty lifestyle are pushing stress and anxiety levels to a higher degree, which damages business engagements and life concerns. And in your steady search for handiness and effortlessness, you are actually making the process of counting your steps an inferior activity.
In the book Take the Stairs, author Rory Vaden carves up a stimulating message: Successful people have the skill to do the things they know they should be doing even when they don’t feel like doing them. They have the discipline required to get things done regardless of their emotional state.
You live in an “escalator world” that makes it all too easy to slide into delaying tactics, compromise and mediocrity,” Vaden declares. That’s precisely why you need to take the stairs to whatever it is you really want in business and life. Vaden sums up the strategy for taking the tougher path to the top of the stairs in seven key steps: sacrifice, commitment, focus, integrity, schedule, faith and action.
The “short-term easy” leads to the “long-term difficult” while the “short-term difficult” leads to the “long-term easy.” Simply put, it is influencing long-term vision to bear short-term losses. Choices that are easy in the short term are very often in direct conflict with what makes life easy in the long term. What seems easy in the short term isn’t easy in the long term. It’s the paradox principle of sacrifice at work. You try to avoid conflict that is expected. So often, whether it’s in your relationship disputes, financial troubles, or even your physical health, you try to “ignore” such problems, shrugging them off as no big deal, and then try to run away at the last minute as these challenges are fast approaching. Unfortunately, as you have learned the hard way, problems tend to be more complex when you ignore them, and you end up exposed to something worse than what might have been.
The more you invest in something, the less likely you will allow it to fall short. The “buy-in principle of commitment” manifests itself here. To increase your commitment, ask, “How is this possible?” rather than succumb to the question “Is it possible?” For sure you have known people who seem to have so much potential but are never able to put it together to become a top performer. Or wondered why so many well-intentioned couples end up getting separated. Or have been curious why some people accept accountability for their choices while others seem always to be victims of circumstance.
No matter how you define success, getting there will inevitably require you to expend physical as well as emotional energy. This is seldom discussed but often the reason why you give up on your most meaningful endeavors. You need to stop spending so much of your time trying to make the right decisions and instead start spending your time making decisions and then making them right. If you aren’t consciously choosing a good attitude, then you are unconsciously choosing a poor one. Changing from the question “Should I?” to “How will I?” is the mindset shift that makes all the difference. Commitment may sound hard but it is necessary because no one ever said that self-discipline was supposed to be easy.
Focus is power, particularly when you intensify it. Spend time developing clarity about what you want most in life because the amount of your endurance is directly proportionate to the clarity of your vision. This is an inspiring mental picture that propels you to take action. A great vision is like a powerful magnet pulling you into a future of becoming a better you. The power of focus is a power that’s immediately available to you by simply being intentional about controlling your own thoughts. One thing certain is you definitely don’t pay attention to things you don’t first give your intention to. When you have diluted focus you get diluted results, and in the absence of disciplined focus, you become strangely loyal to performing daily acts of trivia.
In today’s escalator world, you don’t have to think much. You have cell phones that remember important phone numbers, you turn to the Internet whenever you have a question, and you rely on fast food and other modern conveniences to satisfy your basic needs. The danger, though, is that you’re always thinking. You just haven’t been thinking about it. “The frightening truth is that when you’re not thinking about your thinking, your thinking starts to think on its own,” Vaden asserts.
Focus on and think about your vision constantly. Affirm it in your mind and on paper, and frequently talk about your ability to achieve it. Consciously shaping your thoughts allows you to consciously shape your attitude, too. This results in surefire sound actions taking place, which inevitably leads to success and palpable outcomes that will work to your advantage. It’s an embarrassment that you spend many years of your life doing activities you think you’re supposed to do, and you spend only minutes figuring out what you really want. Identify and start writing them now.
Think, speak, and act with integrity, and it will happen. That’s the simple and powerful pattern in creating the principle of integrity. Be persistent at building congruence between your words and your actions. You have to continuously and reliably walk your talk. From the chair you’re sitting in, to the tallest building on earth, to the company you work for, to all of the media you consume and digest, the pattern is replicated over and over. Words are the engine that sets actions in motion. As with your thoughts, they carry tremendous power if they’re chosen with care and attention. There are a number of simple ways you can strengthen your words that add to your integrity and maximize your potential for positive change in your lives and the lives of others: inventing possibility, expressing gratitude, and giving compliments.
Letting go of the myth of balance and living your life by the law of seasons is key. This is anchored in the “harvest principle of schedule,” where appropriate timing and strictly controlled routine amplifies your focused efforts. You hear the word “balance” all the time these days, particularly in the all-too-commonplace phrase “work-life balance.” You think of balance as dividing your time equally among equal activities because, by definition, “balance” means equal distribution in opposite directions. But if you take a step back and consider this for a moment, you’ll see that it’s an impossible and dubious goal as it relates to how you spend your time. Balance is futile because the metaphor implies equal force in opposite directions, but in practice very few things related to our time are equal.
A big part of a “take the stairs” mindset is staying “on schedule.” This means more than just being where you’re supposed to be, doing what you’re supposed to be doing when you’re supposed to be doing it. “On schedule” is a way of thinking. It’s a condition of mental toughness. Allowing yourself the indulgence of saying, “I’m too busy” or “I don’t have time,” will lead you to “creativity disengagement” and you are suddenly “off the hook.” The moment you tell yourself you’re too busy is the moment you stop thinking creatively about how to get other potentially important items into your schedule and routine.
Your ability to have peace is directly proportionate to the term of your outlook. Latching on the “perspective principle of faith,” manage tragedy and setbacks by realizing that without the ability to see the entire future, you aren’t entitled to evaluate why things happen today. Regardless of what industry you work in, how old you are, or where you live, there are immovable “rocks” in your schedule that must be prioritized and taken care of every so often: faith, family, fitness, faculty and finances.
It doesn’t matter what you say you believe; your real beliefs are revealed by how you act. This is what the “pendulum principle of action is all about. Cultivate the habit of achievement by being unyielding about making progress while at the same time completely freeing yourself of the demand for perfection. Success is never owned, it is only rented, and the rent is due every day. Be confident in the knowledge that today is the hardest it will ever be and that one day your appetites will change. One day you will crave the thing that was originally a sacrifice and what was once an indulgence you gave up won’t even be a temptation.
“Discipline creates freedom. The freedom to do anything! It’s what took me from being a poor Hispanic boy raised by a single mother in a trailer park to speaking in front of thousands of people in just a few years,” Vaden shared. The central idea in his tome is self-discipline and it’s what makes for lasting success. Plato stated, “The first and best victory is to conquer self.” Although it can be most difficult, overcoming oneself is the simplest and fastest way to make life better.
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