Don’t Look at the Dogs
June 19th, 2008 by Ann Vertel
You may remember Tom Selleck and the show “Magnum P.I.” a number of years ago. In this one episode, Magnum had driven to the home of his boss, gotten out of his car, and was walking to the front door when two large Dobermans came tearing around the house, snarling and barking, heading straight for him. In a panic, he ran for his car, fumbling to get his keys out of his pocket.
He pulled them out and, while trying to get the right key into the door lock, he kept saying to himself, “look at the keys, don’t look at the dogs, look at the keys.” For just an instant, he turned and looked at the dogs. And in that brief second he dropped his keys in the dirt.
At the very end of a running race you can often see the finish line. You may be exhausted and drained and, although you can see the end, it still seems so far off that it is almost discouraging. My best strategy at that point is to put blinders on, look down at my feet, and watch them move one step closer to the goal with each stride. If I look up at the finish line I might stop or slow down. If I focus on each step my feet are taking I’ll finish before I know it because at the end of a race, this is what I can handle and this is what will get me to the goal line.
When Peter got out of the boat and walked across the raging water to Jesus, he was focused and he believed. But as soon as he looked on the storm, he sank.
There is a storm swirling around you, like a giant tornado in the middle of the room. If you look closely, you’ll see what it is made of - negative self-talk, naysayers, doubt, panic, worry, and all the people in your life who just can’t or won’t bring themselves to believe that you are serious about your goal. If you get too close to the tornado it will suck you in. Just step back and observe it and say, “isn’t that interesting.”
Then get back to work.
Your goal is enormous. You will not get there if you focus on the storm. You WILL get there if you focus on the action steps, one after the other, then the next one, and the next one. Take the next step, make the next call, book the next class, and don’t look at the dogs.
Now go have a POWERFUL day!
- Ann Vertel, UnitCoach
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This entry was posted on Thursday, June 19th, 2008 at 5:24 pm and is filed under Booking. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
August 20th, 2008 at 10:15 am
I’ll have to remember that… don’t look at the dogs!
Cheers,
Brenda L.