It's -15 degrees outside and I just took my friend's dog for a walk. I'm fifty shades of cold.
Tony Robbin's raspy voice reads the ending of his book "Money: Master the Game". And as cheesy as the title is, the book feeds the soul just as much as the wallet.
Top performers want to live extraordinary lives, says Robbins, and that means that they will definitely face more criticism than others.
The actor who takes the stage at Broadway will face far more rejections than the actor who gives Broadway a try and returns to the community stage.
Truth is, you will get rejected, criticized, "reviewed", analyzed, talked about, gossiped about (perhaps even in the tabloids) the more remarkable your goals become.
Just like a good ol' Dr. Seuss character, if you step outside the lines of what everyone does, you'll become subject for criticism:
"All alone! Whether you like it or not, alone is something you'll be quite a lot."
Here are three tips to develop a growth mindset no matter how far you venture in your goals.
1. Give, Give, Give.
For those that choose to give back just as much (or more) as they financially gain will be criticized for "taking the high road." Why? Because they're making everyone else uncomfortable. For some reason, most people buy the Ferrari first and then donate a million dollars to charity second, not the other way around.
Choosing to give to someone in need first will motivate you to want to give more. Giving, Robbins argues, gives you far more satisfaction than buying something for yourself.
Giving feeds the soul (like it has for Robbins' own foundation which feeds homeless families) and pushes a person to grow to give more. And more. And more.
Choose a purpose that makes sense for you: i.e. Charity Water, Children International, No Kid Hungry and Lyme Disease Association.
2. Start and End the Day With a List of Things You're Grateful For
One of the first things top performers do in the morning, says Robbins, is start off the day listing five things they are grateful for. Do the same at the end of the day before nodding off to sleep writing down five things from that day which you are grateful for.
Start off the day with being grateful for five things and you'll radiate positivity. It's a rewiring of the brain over the long-term to focus on the positive instead of our natural innate state of sensing threat first and being ready for battle.
3. Reflect on Failures
When you push yourself, you will fall over. Getting back up on the proverbial horse is great, but don't do the same thing to just fall back off again. Instead, find out what you did wrong and learn from it.
When we fail, it's a lot easier to just push it under the rug and forget about it. Instead, take a look at a failure and examine it like dissecting a pig in high school biology class.
Pick it apart. See what worked and what didn't work. Then throw it in the trash and forget about it. Move on with your day.
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My ears nearly froze when I waited patiently for my friend's dog to find a nice place to "go duty." My hands turned red as a lobster.
As I sit here and finish this blog post, I take a sip of my morning cup of coffee. My hands have thawed, my body has warmed up, and the sun glistens off the snow globe outside my window.
Just a few things to add to the list of what I'm grateful for today.