So, what if everybody was watching you? You know, this morning I got up early, and while I was actually foam rolling getting ready for my workout, which I’m about to go do now. And while I was doing that, I was watching Gary Vaynerchuk’s talk to the Dutch Brothers Company. Now it’s two and a half hours, so I just got into the beginning, but one thing that Gary said that I thought was really interesting as he talked about the times that we live in. The times that we live in today versus our grandparents. So Gary was relating with saying, “Hey look, when your grandparents were around, your grandparents could have been jerks and they just had to move, right? So your grandparents could have lived in Portland and something could have happened, they could have done something bad, or something could just have happened in their lives and they wanted to move away from it. Now they could have moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, and nobody would have known, and they would have started afresh. But nowadays, everything we do is carrying with us, right? With the advent of social media and the internet. You really can’t hide from things. Whether you’re doing bad things or good things, they do carry with you.”
What this reminded me was, was a quote I had hanging above my desk, and I actually gave it to all my staff at one point, was “what if, act as if everybody is watching.” Now the idea behind that is what if you lived your life as if people were recording you, you were your own reality show. And I can watch what you’re doing right here, right now at this moment. More importantly, I can watch what you’re doing right after you listen or watch what I’m talking about. Are you taking action, right? Are you living your life to the fullest? Or are you making excuses? Sleeping in, not doing the workout that you said you were going to do last night. Last night you were super-motivated and tody is going to be the day, and then you, the alarm goes off and you kind of roll over and you look at the alarm and you hit the snooze button once, twice, three times. And it’s tomorrow I’ll work out, or whatever the excuse would be.
Or maybe it’s the food you’re putting in your mouth, right? Maybe you’ve said you’re going to go paleo or aikido, or you’re just going to eat better, make better choices with your food, but you find yourself at lunch and going “I’ll have the burrito please with the side of nachos and the coca-cola.” Or maybe it’s in your relationships. Maybe you snap and you yell at your kids, or you yell at your loved one, or you yell at your employees and you blame them because you’re late, or something happened in your life. Or maybe it’s in your business. Maybe you have a deadline due, or you need to get a proposal out to a client and you’re like, “Ah you know, it’s Thursday night, it’s football and I want to watch it with the guys, and I’ll get to it tomorrow.” Tomorrow becomes next week.
But what if someone was watching you. What if today you act as if there was a camera crew following you around the whole entire day. And that’s the quote I had above my desk, and again, I pass this out to my staff and we talked about this often. What would you do, would you act differently if everybody was watching? Of course, you would.
You know, everybody likes to think that they don’t care what other people think of them, but that’s just not true. We’ve talked about the spotlight effect, but what I’m talking about now is an act, having that mentality of acting as if the things that you do at each and every moment are being watched and recorded, and therefore being scrutinized. But this time you want to scrutinize them yourself, and the reason we’re doing this is to be critical, to act as if we are being on our best, so we can grow into it. Because when you’re acting as if you’re being your best, or in other words, you think someone’s filming you so you’re going to eat healthier because you said you would. You think someone’s filming you, so now you’re going to sit and read, or you’re going to get up at 4:30 in the morning and foam roll while watching Gary Vaynerchuk, or you think as someone’s watching, so you’re really going to be really honorable in your relationships, you’re going to be extra-nice to everybody that you encounter. You know, you’re going to hold the door open for everybody you walk by. You’re going to do all these little things that maybe you do today and maybe you don’t. But you’re going to make sure you do them. And you’re going to do them extra special, right?
In your business, you’re going to nail it. You’re going to be great to your staff, you’re going to be great, if you’re an employee, you’re going to be great to your boss and all your co-workers. You’re going to get your deadlines done ahead of time, you’re going to be proactive, all about everything that you’re up to.
What if everybody was watching? Now imagine that if you did this day in, day out, and you had this mentality for a week, maybe a month. This is would become who you are. Your practice will become habitual. It’s like brushing your teeth. Hopefully, when you get up in the morning, you brush your teeth, it’s just something you do. And maybe you’re like me and you also work out, and that’s just something you do. Or you also spend time with your family, it’s just something you do. Because over time, you’ve done it so often, it just becomes who you are. And the reason that it happens is probably when you were a kid, you know, for example with the brushing of your teeth, your parents had you brush your teeth every morning. You probably fought it and resisted for a while, but now that we’re older, you just do it, you don’t even have to think about it. So you want to put this kind of mentality in the brushing your teeth category, and not the getting a massage, or going on vacation category, that every once in a while category. This has to be a category that allows you to pole vault into it. It just becomes a habit for you.
What I ask you today, is the insight and a question. Grab your journal, what would you do if everybody was watching? Or act as if everybody is watching. So I want you to write out, what are the things in your life you would change. And I highly encourage you to write out your Five to Thrive. Your mind, your body, your soul, your relationships, and your business. If people were watching you, if you were your own reality show, a whole crew came in. They also knew the things you’ve said, they knew the things you said you were going to do, now they’re going to watch you. How would you act differently? Now if you were going to act differently in any of those five categories, what I encourage you to do now is break it down to those micro-steps, what’s the one thing in each area you can do right now. Right now you can commit to, as soon as you’re done hearing this, and after you’ve journaled, what can you do right now to move forward?
That’s what I want to leave you with today. Remember, act as if everybody’s watching, and go out and be the author of your own story. One of the things you can do on top of that is going to the Author of Your Own Story website, and make sure you get on to our newsletter. Why? Because you’re going to get more tips, tricks, and techniques right to your inbox. Plus you’re going to know about our scheduled events, and I want to make sure you have an opportunity to get these. Like a link to Gary Vaynerchuk’s talk, and specifically, the points that I feel that will actually uplevel you, and you can take those conversations, share them with other people, and have conversations that matter.
That’s it for me today. Remember, I’m watching. Go out and be the author of your own story.
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