Day 532. Repeat, repeat, repeat, and when you’re done, repeat again. An actor on a stage has rehearsed an incredible amount of time to make you feel the play is natural. A habit ingrained in our behavior is the consequence of thousands of conscious or unconscious repetition. If you want to play a music instrument, you’ll need to repeat hundreds of time a sequence before it becomes « natural » for your fingers.

And we want things to be perfect in a matter of hours! It’s foolish! The 10,000-hour principles describes by Malcom Gladwell is the book Outliers, though it can be proven wrong sometimes, shows that perfection does not come overnight, but it the consequence of hours and hours and hours of repetition, of work. Rome was not build on a day, as the old saying goes, and so is perfection.

The path to success is neither straight nor easy, it’s not what is shown in magazines or on TV. The path to success is paved with sweat, blood and tears to paraphrase Winston Churchill. Your goal is there to be reached, it’s your choice to put the efforts to make it, and to fall one hundred times and stand up one hundred and one times.

Day 531. I was busy, I was tired, I was about to say, tomorrow is fine. But no, tomorrow is day 532, and day 531’s post has to be written and published on day 531, so this is it. Just a simple post to remind that a commitment is a commitment, today is today, tomorrow’s another day. Never think doing tomorrow what you can do today.

Delivering on a commitment on the promised day is putting off a weight carried on your shoulders, and building the trust in yourself and the trust others give you. It’s simple, but sometimes difficult. It’s the simplest things that are the hardest, and the one that are so overlooked by mediocre people. It’s generally not a matter of great effort, it’s just a matter of being true to your words. Have a good night! Mine will be, I put the weight on the floor.

Day 530. Every month, my boss’s boss reminds everybody that either we win or we… learn. I like the idea, because it shifts with subtlety to a positive stance. Popular wisdom says that the « winner takes it all » and the others get nothing. Actually, you can say the others get nothing and if you are one of the others, you can put in your minds that you lost and got nothing.

However, it’s your choice to decide whether you got nothing or got something. Because I truly believe, you got something invaluable: you tried and did not come first. The two questions being: Why did not I come first? What should I do differently do come first? And this is the best learning ever. Coming second or third is a blessing, as much as coming first. First gets the reward, second gets the learning.

If you start looking at potential failure as learning experiences, you will change the perception you have of risks. This does not mean you should start to act foolishly as consequences of foolish behaviors can be dramatic, but this will make your decision making process fluid and bold.

Day 529. After a long day at the 2015 Mauritius Toastmasters convention, and having won the Humorous speech contest, two things come clear:

– If you want to succeed, rehearse, cut, rehearse, cut again, rehearse, cut more, rehearse, rehearse, rehearse and go!

– When shit hits, laugh, make fool of yourself, laugh at the shit and make it your ally. Martial art tells to use the energy of the enemy against him, today I understood it!

Your mistakes make your success!

Day 528. I talked multiple times about resistance, the little voice in your head that stops you. However, sometimes, it is the external voice that is hitting you badly. A surprising fact is generally, those voices come by two, three or four. It feels like a gang of thugs coming to hit you badly.

However, excluding all physical injuries, even when reality hits, the way you react starts in your mind. Because of our natural evolution for hundreds of thousands of years, we are not wired to stay flat, we are wired to kick back, to fight. The fight will generate the level of dopamine, endorphins, and adrenaline necessary to fight cortisol in our bodies. This is the natural fuel our brain generates to get back on our feet.

So, when you’re hit, even badly, regroup, breathe and kick back!

Day 527. I love personal development and am committed to personal growth. For the last couple of years a recurring theme has surfaced in most if not all personal development publications: leaving a legacy. Basically, think about what you will leave once you’re gone. I thought about it, trying to identify the one or two things that would make me live, work and play differently to leave the so-called legacy and I came to the following conclusion: there’s a deep confusion between doing our best possible work and working to leave a legacy.

Did Galileo Galilei want to leave a legacy? No! He wanted to prove the earth was orbiting the sun. And for that he did his best possible work.

Did Martin Luther King want to leave a legacy? No! He wanted equal rights for all. And for that he did his best possible work.

Did Marie Curie want to leave a legacy? No! She discovered radio-activity and wanted to use it to generate energy. And for that she did her best possible work.

I could go and on and on. All those famous individuals did not have the goal to leave a legacy, they had a goal to reach and delivered masterful work. Because they did masterful work and stand above many other individuals, they left a legacy. Legacy is not something YOU chose, is something you leave and OTHERS chose. Legacy is a product of your masterful work. Forget the legacy, focus on your art and craft, and day in, day out, produce the best for you and others. Legacy will follow by itself.

Day 526. Life is movement, life is breathing, life is smiling! Whatever happens during the course of the day, keep doing these three things:

• take some time to breathe, feeling the air going deep in your lungs
• smile at others and at events that happen
• keep moving

Life is too short to do every day the same thing, complaining about what does not work. It’s a wonderful gift that we need to celebrate every day. So breathe, smile, and move!

Weathering the storm

Rule number 1: Switch your TV off! – Third Part

Day 525. So you want to try to go on a TV detox. The main question remains what to replace TV by. Whether you were watching TV one hour or three hours a day, it’s just possible to take this time and transform it in something not only meaningful but helping you to reach your goals, to realize your dreams. Here are 7 ideas to replace your TV time that do not need efforts, just a decision:

• Go to bed and sleep. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention calls sleep deprivation a public health epidemic. It can have horrendous consequences. This article from the Harvard Business Review shows the correlation between sleep deprivation and cheating. So get one hour or more of sleep every night and enjoy the benefits of a good night of sleep.
• Have a drink or a dinner with friends. No need to spend a fortune. This could be just a bring-and-share at your place. You will cultivate friendship and create social bounds. A 2013 study by the London School of Economics found that respondents’ moods improved by more than 8 per cent when they were with friends.
• Write letters or emails to your friends and family. There are so many things you claim never have time to do. Among those are saying our friends and family that you love them and why you love them. Take time to write it, it will make miracles.
• Prepare your next speech for your Toastmasters club. If you belong to any form of nonprofit, like Toastmasters or Rotary, there are tons of things you can do to improve your life or the one of others. On a Toastmaster’s journey, you need to deliver over forty speeches, and this requires some time to prepare. If you invest some time, you can propel your career to new heights.
• Spend some time with your spouse or your kids. Have a chat about your next holidays, the project you want to realize together. Play a game of Risk or chess. Quality time is important for a healthy relationship.
• Read a good book. Maybe you do not like to read or maybe you have not read for a long time. Remember what you liked as a kid and try. Or find a topic that you really like and purchase a book at the local bookstore on that topic. The idea is to rejuvenate something you are passionate about. Passion drives action.
• Make love. If you have a significant other, invest some time to make love, spend time cuddling. Love is the most incredible human feeling and making love is said to be the best activity for health. No cost, huge return!

Those are simple ideas, and I am sure you can come up with hundreds of others. The idea is shifting from being a spectator from being an actor. Nothing good will happen if you stay in your couch watching others having a blast or playing a role. Despite reality show success, people tend to forget that in reality show, there’s the world show. A show is not the real life, it’s fake, it’s just an entertainment. Do not get brainwashed by fake lives, live yours fully!

Day 523 Just for the fun of it… Sunday is like no other day. It’s supposed to be a day without constraints. However, it’s not a day without some routine so you make it as productive as any other day of the week. Hey routine has not to be lame, it can be fun too. Here’s mine: lounging in bed, late breakfast, a long run in the forest with my wife (slow pace, long discussions), some gardening (there’s always something to do or to clean) under a glorious sunshine, checking kids’ homework, waterskiing, surfing or kitesurfing depending on wind condition, enjoying a nice barbeque, going back on water, and if all goes well, we can almost call it a day.

The only parallel with other days? It’s full, of action, of love and of care. Grateful!