The Power of One More – Ed Mylett
“Here’s a simple example that illustrates the point. When you were a child, the first time you tried to ride a bicycle, you didn’t do so well, did you? You probably started with training wheels, going slow, and with your mom or your dad by your side to steady you. As you climbed on your bike day after day, you got better at learning how to balance, pedal, and go foreword. Eventually, those training wheels came off, and slowly but surely you started to ride away on your own. Not long after that, you were whizzing up and down streets and sidewalks without a care in the world. And your life had changed forever. Until you understand and embrace the fundamental, life-changing power of One More Try, you won’t fully understand why it’s essential to try and make one more call, do one more set in the gym, meet one more person at a conversation, or learn one more skill to put you head and shoulders above everyone else. When you act and do the same things as everyone else, you’ll get the same results as everyone else. When you implement a One More Try mentality, that’s where you’ll find your greatest successes and your most significant personal growth. Doing so also will give you more confidence than your competitors. It’s a secret weapon of sorts. Although they may not see it, you’ll know you’re willing to do more than them. That’s a tremendous advantage in your favor. This isn’t exactly a new idea. Confucius understood the battles that go on in a person’s mind when he wrote, “The man who thinks he can and the man who thinks he can’t are both right.”
Confucius knew that an individual executes to the level of what he or she believes in themselves. Confidence fuels your belief that you’re worthy of making One More Try.
Many people like to think of themselves as overachievers. If you call yourself an overachiever, you’re declaring that your standard practice is to go above and beyond what’s necessary for achievement.
There is another critical component to this. Even though you may be willing to do the things that other people aren’t willing to do, you must be intentional and look for opportunities in everything you do. That mindset must become second nature to you. When you practice this strategy long enough, it becomes a reflex. You don’t think about it. You just do it.
I learned long time ago that we all have the wisdom inside us to create the future we want for ourselves. Most of us simply don’t tap into this rich vein, for whatever reason. We block that part of our identity and accept something less.
Sometimes we accept a lesser life because we weren’t given a good role model to follow, or we’ve suffered through adversity that’s made us mentally fragile. We wither under criticism and refuse to dig deeper to find the mental toughness and grit that even we didn’t know we had. Here’s something that should excite you. When you do break through, the places where One More Try takes place are a lot less crowded than when you run with the pack. Most people give up. They don’t do the work you’re willing to do. So they won’t get the results you’ll get.
Changing you emotional mindset is a challenge, I’m not going to lie. There are mental barriers to overcome when you’ve been pre-conditioned to think a certain way, a way that brings you comfort and goes to great lengths to avoid pain. Often, the actions you take in your life are because you think they’ll give you a particular emotional response. You buy flowers for your wife or girlfriend because you want to show your love for her and feel the love in return. You take a long walk on a beach or a hike alone in a park as a way to clear your mind and find peace. You work your butt off to reach a year-end work goal because you know you’ll enjoy the recognition you receive and the pride you’ll feel. Emotions are stronger and more permanent than feelings. Feelings are emotional reactions. They’re more transitory, and shallow in nature. Emotional responses run deeper and can be measured by physical cues. What’s mother’s heart does not race when her child comes home from a long deployment in the military to surprise her? If you get in a fight with your spouse, at some point, they’ll stop talking to you, but their body language will tell you all you need to know. Studies have even shown that unhealthy anger in its repressed state has been linked to cancer. Unaccompanied by positive emotions, negative emotions can create an endless stream of ruminations. This repeated negative thinking increases the brain’s stress levels, flooding our bodies with the stress hormone cortisol. That can lead to depression, overeating, drug and alcohol abuse, high blood pressure, and cardiovascular disease.
Although you want to hoard and experience only positive emotions, the fact is that all emotions are entirely normal to experience. That means anger, fear, disgust, sadness, contempt, shame, guilt, and other emotions we perceive as negative are just as normal as surprise, happiness, satisfaction, joy, and relief, to name a few. When you try to repress perceived negative emotions in your favor of only seeking and allowing positive emotions to exist in your mind, you tip a delicate balance that causes problems instead.
People are intentional about their actions, but rarely do we spend enough time thinking about the emotions attached to those actions. And we must be truthful when we do so. Rich Dad, Poor Dad author Robert Kiyosaki puts it this way: “Emotions are what makes us human. Makes us real. The word emotion stands for energy in motion. Be truthful about your emotions and use your mind and emotions in your favor and not against yourself.”