Speed #550

Your Mindset Mentor

Make this force your friend. This is message 550 and day 17 in the New Year Resolution Challenge and this message is dedicated to Marianne Lesh.

John Maxwell tells this story in his book The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth. I recently saw a clip from Brian Tracy that tells a similar story if you do a search for "Brian Tracy Do it Now". Maxwell writes,

“In 1974 I attended a seminar at the University of Dayton, where W. Clement Stone spoke on the subject of having a sense of urgency. Stone was a business tycoon who had made his fortune in insurance. His session was titled ‘Do It Now,” and one of the things he told us was this: ‘Before you get out of bed every morning, say ‘do it now’ fifty times. At the end of the day before you go to sleep, the last thing you should do is say ‘do it now’ fifty times.
I’m guessing there were about eight thousand people in the audience that day, but it felt like he was talking to me personally. I went home and, for the next six months I actually followed his advice. The very first thing every morning and the last thing before I went to sleep, I repeated the words ‘do it now.’ It gave me a tremendous sense of urgency.”

It sounds ridiculous but is powerful. We think we have all the time in the world. It's like the person who said, "My teachers told me I'd never amount to much because I procrastinate so much. I told them you just wait." Phil Stuts says "Speed is a force." Simply moving faster gives you an advantage. It can give you an advantage over others, but more importantly the personal benefit is the mental freedom it provides. The longer your mental to-do list is the worse you feel. It's like your brain gets clogged.