Tony Whatley

Stop Being a Spectator

Remaining a spectator in life and in business, creates no individual results, and procrastinates the potential you have within.

One of my favorite speech passages is "Man In The Arena" by former US President Theodore Roosevelt. It reads like this:

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming;

but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause;

who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat." -T. Roosevelt, 1910

My business coaching clients have heard me advise them not to be spectators. When we have meetings, they should come prepared with questions and challenges that need to be overcome.

If you participate without any questions or challenges, you are merely a spectator. It indirectly tells me that you believe you already have everything figured out, and nothing left to learn.

Understand this, the highest level performers in any area, always have something new to learn. They crave new knowledge, new experience, new strategies. It's an eternal drive to improve daily.

I want you to step into that arena, onto the field, and pay attention to the game. Focus on what the best do, and how you can learn from them. Look for weaknesses in your opponent, and capitalize on them. Grow a mindset so strong, that you take actions without intimidation or fear.

You'll never win by sitting in the stands. 🏆

-Tony

by Tony Whatley

Happiness Should Never Be Sacrificed

Happiness should never be sacrificed.

Most people take time for granted, until they are faced with an event or diagnosis that presents them with limited time remaining.

I tend to surround myself with other highly-driven people, who strive to achieve success. I've never been one to tolerate excuses from myself, or others.

In our pursuit of success, however we may define it, we sometimes make sacrifices and self-justify it as "paying our dues". Sometimes it even comes across as self-punishment, whether physically or mentally.

Here's the hard reality that nobody wants to discuss; Not everyone will become successful. Very few actually achieve the big goals that they set out to accomplish, in life. Many of those you perceive as winning today, will experience crashing downfalls only months later.

This is why happiness shouldn't be part of your sacrifice to achieve success. If you are going to put in hard work, dedication, and consistency into achieving success - do something you genuinely enjoy doing. Something that is backed with your purpose that makes you happy.

If you don't understand why, consider this; The worst regret of your lifetime may occur years down the road, once you've discovered your time is limited, and you haven't come close to achieving your goals of success.

In that moment, will you look back on years and decades of doing something you loved doing, and were happy doing, even without the goals being achieved? Or will you look back on decades of unhappiness and misery, because you placed your goals above your happiness?

Have a happy day.

-Tony

by Tony Whatley

Lose The Underdog Mindset

People are fascinated by underdog stories, but they usually get the mindset all wrong for themselves.

The masses will cheer the underestimated challenger, as he/she takes on the predicted winner. Movies love this theme. Sports fans love this theme. David vs Goliath. We even enjoy when small business owners take on industry titans. When the underdog pulls off the upset victory, it instills a sense of hope among the people. It challenges their beliefs about what is possible.

Here's where the people get it wrong, however. They adopt an underdog story for themselves, and label themselves as such. They feel proud about being the underdog, and sometimes even use it to validate their lack of results. Someone is holding them down.

What these people fail to realize is that those who won victories as underdogs, never believed themselves to be underdogs. Sure, there may have been history, data, or stats that could present a case of them being an underdog.

But these underdogs never once believed they were lesser, not good enough, or didn't deserve to be in that arena. They were on a mission, despite what external data or stats might suggest.

I grew up without money, and had to figure out much about life and success on my own. I could have adopted an underdog narrative in a few ways, but I never wanted to be an underdog. Why would I purposely label myself the predictable loser in anything?

Whenever I needed to perform, I never worried about comparing myself to others. There isn't any upside benefits to doing that. I simply focused on the game, the rules, and becoming my best. Sometimes I'd lose, many other times I'd win. I always play to win.

People spectating outside the arena may choose to label you as the underdog, but the voice inside your head should focus on winning without that narrative. It doesn't help you, when you give yourself reasons to fail before you even start the game.

Tony

by Tony Whatley