This weekend I received the most beautiful email from a client. It stopped me in my tracks. Just like Mr Happy in the Roger Hargreaves books, I turned my mouth up at the edges and smiled – oh and then maybe a little squeeze of an ‘eek’ and virtual happy dance followed by the holding back of a few very happy tears.
This email proved the strength of staying in the zone of your own conviction and belief. That when you play to your strengths and do something you are passionate about the ripples quite simply have to happen because you started something.
And the more you stay in the zone, focused on your vision of what you want to change, become, or achieve – well, the bigger that pebble you are throwing becomes, the more impact you have, the wider reaching the ripples and eventually a whole wave of activity starts to happen.
This is when;
- the idea to enable people at the side of the road to control which taxi they order takes off;
- the belief of a gym owner to open 24/7 becomes the norm;
- an obsession with flights led the Wright Brothers to invent three-axis control— a method that continues to be the standard for aeroplanes today;
- groups of people connect and collaborate, collectively creating opportunities for others, going out of their way to help make another’s dreams a reality, driving mutual success and achievement.
These ideas all started with someone like you and me, having an idea.
But let’s get real – sometimes it’s hard, really hard, to stay in the zone. Competitors do something, the media shows us something, friends say something and we can choose to either listen or ignore that something.
At the start of the year many of us are embedded in the zone. We are well and truly focused on the goals we want to achieve, the connections we want to make, the direction we want to take our careers, our businesses, and yep, even our waistlines. But how long does that focus remain before something far more shiny comes along or even just a little old excuse bubbles to the surface to explain why we gave up.
Well, at the end of the day we’re all human – aren’t we?
Staying in the zone takes determination, resilience, a hunger and a belief that what you are doing, whether in a corporate organisation or your own enterprise, means something. It’s about doing the work, whatever is required, to consistently follow your passions and beliefs. It’s about taking the right action and making the right decision to move towards your goals.
It’s about you staying in the zone.
The power rests in each of us and our ideas to create change and momentum for another; to begin a new flow in direction; to reinforce a decision and a dream.
Individually we are capable of creating significant ripples of change even when we don’t realise it. Individually our consistent focus, belief and action has the ability of becoming its own wave of momentum.
So, go on, do the work. Stay in the zone and throw that pebble as hard and as far as you possibly can.
Create your own wave.
