Saturday was the first meeting of the “Kick Ass Club”. The idea arose from the insight that our motivations and drivers are key to getting more out of the business, life, etc. As with much anything, there is lots of tools, but for this exercise we had gone with the workshop from the Human Performance Institute and the book The Power of Story by Jim Loehr.
The core of the exercise was to discover the ‘core’ purpose or as the authors put it the ‘Ultimate Mission”.
Step 1
To this end to help in the process we had to answer some questions, interesting questions at that.
1. How do you want to be remembered?
“As a person that made a world a better place, better for my daughter, my staff, my friends and the people I touched”
2. What is the legacy that you most want to leave for others?
“ That anything is possible, there is no limits – and the only limits are those we place on ourselves”
3. How would you like to be hear people eulogize you at your funeral
“Caring, fair, honest – changed someone’s life in a positive way”
4. What is worth dying for?
“My daughter, people I care about” ( in fact here I had said that I would trade my life for a number of lives of my staff, as a collective. ie. one life for one life, no – BUT if, for example, if it was a choice between 5 of my staff that I care about and me, the choice would be easy for me, it would be me that would die). I actually didn’t quite realize how much I care about the people that work with me/for me!
5. What makes your life really worth living?
“Learning, self-growth, growth, challenge, change’
6.In what areas of your life must you truly be extraordinary to fulfill your destiny?
“Share and teach the message that all is possible through living my message. By delivering on what I want, I can not only tell BUT prove to people that they can do it to” Or as Klaus has said “Walk the talk”
Step 2:
Purpose/Ultimate Mission was the next section. This is where something very interesting happened for me, I wrote my original Mission as
“To make a world a better place by helping people become all they can be. To watch people grow and achieve self-fullfilment. To be an example and inspiration to other about saying that everything is possible! To be a coach and a teacher”
Interestingly after sharing this mission with the guys, they had very rightly pointed out that the above was the mission that I have lived for last 10 years – and that for me to get to the next level I need to change the story. Interestingly, here, my high preference for risk taking had become quite apparent. Basically, I discovered a slight logic flaw in my thinking.
- I believe anything is possible
- I have no fear
- I believe that I can fix anything
In theory the above is great, except when applied to health! Part of the premise of this workshop is that ultimately health plays a large part of the ability of the person to succeed. However, given my attitudes above (1-3), the boys pointed out that I have been able in the past and continue to think I can neglect health BECAUSE I have such a strong feeling of fixing anything. And in retrospect that has been true – however – unlike with business, fixing health MAY not be possible.
Hence, my risk-taking attitude that has severed me well in other aspect of my life, has also placed me in somewhat of a danger when it comes to area of health – because with my belief that health is fixable (which it really isn’t). Further, having faced death straight in the face so my times in my life, I no longer fear it – so, what could be the ultimate fear (death) for so many people doesn’t motivate me.
So, through this, I gained a very new perspective and perhaps a ‘kick’ to focus on health (eating, exercise, relaxation, mediation). Not only so that I can achieve my ‘mission’ but because I had an incorrect assumption about its fixablity.
So, given the above, I had chose to rewrite my NEW mission, as:
“To live a long, healthy life in order that I can make world a better place by helping people become all they can be. To watch people grow and achieve self-fulfillment. To be an example and inspiration to other about saying that everything is possible! To be a coach and a teacher”
The above is a better reflection, since it is with age that wisdom is gained, and given that I enjoy sharing and helping people, it really would help if I lived longer to be able to do that. Without health, my mission could be cut short.
When I also looked the analysis of my ‘engagement score” it became very apparent, that although I am operating at VERY high levels in the Spiritual, Mental and Emotional Area my Physical Area is weak. So, one of my biggest opportunities for ‘tuning up Paul’’ and enhancing my performance is to now address the Physical part of the equation. So, if I look at myself as a ‘product’ that is designed to deliver results, Paul, the product, the ‘delivery machine’ now needs a tune up in the Physical Area.
Part of this was also ‘facing the truth’ and that is looking at the areas in my life that are NOT working well. Yes, tough thing to do, but ever so necessary.
So, there was a great section where we had to look at which areas of our lives we need to engage more fully to meet our Ultimate Mission:
For me, 4 things – Health, Food/Diet, Exercise, Self-Induldange become the 4 areas where I will engage more. Based on this, I believe that if I rewrite my ‘old story’ to a ‘new story’ that includes this focused – I will truly be able, in Mirko’s works, “Take off like a rocket ship”.
So, how does this relate to business?
Well, if I am driving the business, and I am operating at 69%, while I could be operating at 90% – I am doing my staff, my partners, my investors and myself a dis-favor by not changing and improving what is so easily in my control.
And so it will be!
Our next meeting is in January. We will be writing our ‘old story’ – meaning how we operate now – and then during the get together we will write our ‘new story’ – how we want to be. From there, it will be a simple task of assigning tasks, plans, etc. and then holding each other accountable for the changes we commit. And so, starts the “Kick Ass Club” – It will be interesting to see how it will co-relate with the business growth.
