Protecting Yourself From Yourself
June 7th, 2017 // 3:39 pm @ Scott Manning
Based on the feedback I received last week, I wanted to take two weekly newsletters (although it deserves a never-ending year long topic) to drill down deeper into this idea of sabotaging oneself and talk about the two most important ways to avoid it.
First this week protecting you from you.
And then next week protecting you from others.
Here is the first key to achieving your goals. And I’m not talking about the easy to reach ones, but the real ones, that ones that put fire in your belly, churn your stomach, get you excited and drive your ambitions – those goals.
The very first key is: DO NOT WORK AGAINST YOURSELF
This is what so many people do either in behavior or in thinking. As my dear friend and certainly one of the most influential emotional thought leaders in my life, Lee Milteer says that ‘you can be certain you will become a self-fulfilling prophecy.’
If you are doing negative things you will soon have negative results. If you are thinking negative thoughts you will soon receive negative things. If you are around negative people you will soon become a negative person.
And so on and so forth.
This is why I strongly suggest and really am adamant with my clients that they have a deliberately decided list of rules for themselves and for others they will engage with. They must have a custom designed and self imposed modus operandi, not the other way around. In addition to this, thye must have a daily routine and other life rituals.
It’s the only way to really protect yourself from getting off course or putting obstacles in your own way. Have structured discipline all the times you could find yourself wandering. I don’t care if it’s your work, your focus, your health, your marriage, your money. Your destination is somewhere specific on a trail and wandering gets you eaten by bears or falling off a cliff.
Protection begins with five principles (and I’m focusing on business though you can swap out business and put in life and it’s all just the same) –
1 – What is the point of your business, what are you achieving, how do you measure success? What is your ultimate purpose that you will protect against all odds?
2 – How do you have to live, be, think, work, execute etc in order to support this mission and fulfill your commitment to yourself?
3 – Who else has to be involved? Then answer question number 2 for them.
4 – What can’t you allow in your life, business, customers, routines, thinking because this would be leaving yourself unprotected and therefore vulnerable to failure?
5 – What rules will you not break with yourself and in what routine and structure will you use to control this?
Something else Lee says that I have always remember is: everyone gets the same precious minutes every day (1,440) and hours every week (168), the only difference is what you do with them, how you invest and ultimately how you protect them just like you would any other asset in your life.
This is the beginning of self-protection. These are the 5 components and decisions that you can’t live without… well you can, but it won’t be you living your life, you will be at the mercy of everything else.
Next week, what to do about the people who want inside of your beautiful creation and want to take something from you.
Category : Blog
