What Makes You You Suck It Up

There was three hours before my plane was scheduled to take off for Stockholm to speak at a convention.  I was on the phone with my client (and good friend) Hilde, debating if I should go, because I was battling pneumonia.  After two weeks in bed, and trying to treat it naturally with herbal treatments and acupuncture, I’d finally switched over to antibiotics and was on day three. 

On one side: Hilde and her husband Orjan were calling around, working to find someone locally who could possibly take my place.  They didn’t want me to do anything that would jeopardize my health long-term.  Hilde even graciously offered to allow me to keep the payment they had made, and do another program for them in the future.

On the other side: I pride myself on being a professional, and have never missed an engagement since I started speaking professionally in 1991.  Almost 3,000 people were expecting me to be there.  There were leadership coaching sessions and book signings that no one else could substitute for.  According to Google, at that point with antibiotics, I wouldn’t be contagious.

So I sucked it up and went.

And things went flawless.  Each day I got stronger and by the time of my keynotes, I was ready to rock out.

After three leadership sessions, two book signings and two keynotes, Orjan and I were sitting in the green room, reflecting on the success of the event.  He suggested something that resonated with me: He said I had come, because I had built such success habits, that it was easier for me to come, than it would be to stay home.  He saw it as a demonstration of cosmic habitforce that Napoleon Hill learned from Carnegie.  He’s onto something there...

Think about your own life and habits.  As a kid, you probably didn’t want to brush your teeth.  But now you feel sketchy if you don’t do it.  Once you establish an exercise program, you actually want to do it, instead of skipping a workout.  That's cosmic habitforce.

You build habits, habits build routines, and routines develop character.  And each time you drop a bad habit and replace it with a positive habit, you further advance this process in your life.  Each time this plays out, you create a new tipping point, that spot where it’s easier for you to do the best action, than it is to avoid it.

So what’s the next positive habit you want to develop?

-RG