"Attempt easy tasks as if they were difficult..."

"Attempt easy tasks as if they were difficult, and difficult as if they were easy; in the one case that confidence may not fall asleep, in the other that it may not be dismayed." - Baltasar Gracián y Morales

I just got back from New York...the City that never sleeps...and when it suddenly snowed 1/2 a foot, the City went to sleep. A snow-covered sleep. It was funny because they declared a state-of-emergency in parts of the NorthEast USA and on the tv news they were calling it the Storm of the Decade! And who knows, perhaps it was in some places. DC apparently had the most snow since they began recording snowfall. But to me growing up in Eastern Ontario where we'd have snow (thanks in part to snow plows) piled higher than I stood, this was no big deal.

The City did rally and woke-up again the next day. :)

I was there on my third weekend of my ILP training and the big DISTINCTION of the weekend was: PERFORMANCE! And the secret of performance is: ACTION. And the big pitfall of PERFORMANCE/ACTION is REASON and FAILURE. It seems we have tons of reasons NOT to perform or take action and all or often in protecting ourselves against the threat of FAILING...or ultimately: LOOKING BAD or NOT LOOKING GOOD!

We have COLLAPSED failing to perform with failing to be. In otherwords, if I take action and fail, I don't have it that my actions failed, but rather that "I" failed and/or that I am a FAILURE. And this keeps us manufacturing compelling reasons not to take action. Yet only in action is there any chance to fulfill on what we say we want to be/do/have.

Funny, I am almost through reading BORN TO RUN by Scott McDougall and by the end of the book it is making very similar points from a different perspective. It's talking about the evolutionary purpose of the brain towards efficiency. Which I posit also has a vested interest in NOT failing. There are survival instincts in not failing. Historically, if you failed, it could mean the end of your life. But not, we are living pretty cozy/comfortable lives and there are few pursuits or activities that as Westerners we are up to that are life or death. And yet, we still have this biological/human being impulse to NOT FAIL.

That aside, I am taking on this coaching which is to ever fulfill on anything/everything I say I want to be/do/have requires ACTION. Lots and lots of action.

It's funny too how often inaction consumes so much more time than the action it is designed to thwart or interrupt. I guess that's why...its counter-intuitive, but by taking more time it is more frustrating and decreases that likelihood of any further action because of the increased frustration and the decreased amount of time available or left for action. The old knowing when to hold 'em and knowing when to fold 'em!

In short...2010 is my ACTION YEAR and the beginning of my ACTION DECADE!!!! Let the games begin!!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR/DECADE!!!!