The Promise to Push Yourself

We are nearing the halfway point of 2021.

It is highly likely a few of those New Years resolutions are either accomplished and filed away as a part of your History of Awesome, or they are long forgotten and will be reset next January.

It doesn’t matter the time of year, or the phase of life, I wonder where you’re at in terms of pushing yourself.

For me one year ago this week I was PUSHING everything to the limit – my virtual office capabilities to deliver content in an entertaining way on a ZOOM call, my body to stay up long enough to do the work required, my credit card to see how long we could last while the money slowly began to trickle in again.

The effects of such a push means other things are neglected: My Family knew I was pressed, and time together was scheduled and not as frequent, my weight went up as I stopped walking and working out as usual, my reading of books temporarily stopped as I focused all efforts on learning my craft through YouTube.

I finally pulled back at the end of last summer and took a minute to breathe.

Refocused to Family, Health, and love of reading entire books.  Having a little more Self-Care after releasing “The Promise To The One” was important, as I had gotten to a place of realizing I was breaking promises to myself in some areas, and really keeping them in a huge way in others.

By October I was ready to begin another push, and without sacrificing what is important to me, such as family time, daily walks, and consistent learning.  So I formed the plan: The Push will be forming a TEAM.

In November I was meeting with business owners whom I admire so much we decided to form a power alliance and create The Promise Institute, which is off to an incredible start, and the new PUSH was on!

We are accountable to one another for keeping The Promise in our businesses, families, and doing what we know the other should be doing.  We have our Signature Moves that make us great, and remind one another if we notice someone isn’t working in their “Zone of Genius” as Gay Hendricks calls it in his landmark book, “The BIG Leap”.

2021 has been a push so far in terms of setting up the business, getting products rolling out, and our processes in place.  It has been a push, but also the right kind of push where we have our family time, reclaiming our health, and keeping things that can often get away from us in check.

But then there is another kind of push that really shoves me into another level of overdrive:

The PUSH of Accepting Speaking Opportunities of Every Capacity!

The final 2 weeks of May include the following events:

• The ICM Process Training Workshop for 25 employees in a 3-4 hour day
• 50-minute Virtual Keynote on The Promise of Credit Unions & Banks
• 60-minute In-Person Community Event for 300+ on The Promise of Business Owners
• 40-minute In-Person Closing Keynote for the National Speakers Association Paid To Speak Event, presenting The Promise To Fail: An Honest Look At Working Through Failure From The Stage
• Teaching my Church’s 50-minute Sunday School Adults about The Light 
• Keynote Speaker for a Virtual Fundraising Event on behalf of SHEROES United
• Speaking in Church about Power & Authority
• 60-minute In-Person Conference teaching Signature Moves in Sales
• 4 Podcast Interviews on various topics from leadership to teamwork, creativity and surviving the pandemic of 2020

I consider all of these opportunities to grow, expand, and really PUSH to a new level a part of my PROMISE to never stop growing.

If they were all The Promise Keynote then it would be less noteworthy, other than to just be thrilled I’m so busy!

Instead, they are ALL unique, customized, require much time to prepare, create, reinvent, strategize with the client, and focus.

This type of schedule being so varied is very rare, and not recommended as “the usual”.  If it were, I’d burn out quickly.  Instead, it is pinpointed to this one time of the year on purpose, and helps me move to a new level of teaching, speaking, presenting to various types of groups, listeners, and thinkers.

And then we have a Summer to do all the fun things with the kids!

Your Promise Prompt This Week

What is your definition of A PUSH for yourself right now? 

If you feel you are in a cycle of never-ending PUSH, then is there a way to step out of that for a moment and evaluate what is out of alignment?

I know when I’m in mine, because the most important personal aspects of my life start to get out of control (weight gain, family time at dinner table, burning out).

If you are experiencing that, can you pull back in some area, in order to reclaim what is lost to any degree?  It might even mean asking a client if they don’t mind forgoing the usual Zoom meeting, and instead join you on the phone while you walk around the neighborhood on your conference phone call.  Something simple, but it works!  And they will admire you for asking.  Trust me, I’ve done it!

If you are READY to make a PUSH, whether in business, health, or other, here are some tips:

1. Notify your Family, Team, and Anyone Else Who Should Know – your relationships could be affected for a brief time, and your availability to connect, so they need to understand what you’re doing and going through
2. Create Space for Yourself to Focus – Turning off notifications on phone, email, social media will make a huge difference in your focus, as will funneling all meetings, interviews, team discussions, to one part of one day of the week (if possible).  This gives you ample focus time to create while moving to the next event.
3. Prepare The Heaviest Burdens First – Get the toughest ones off of your plate.  Brian Tracy calls it “Eat That Frog”.  It’s the same as doing math homework first if that’s what your kid says is the one they struggle with the most.  The quicker you can rid your mind of the heaviest weight the quicker you can fly through creating the easier presentations.

If you aren’t a Speaker, how can this help you? 

Well, think of it in terms of Sales and making that big push through your CRM to drum up business; Perhaps you’re the HR Manager and rolling out a new accountability procedure, this is a formula for getting everything ready to go; Leaders: Use this as focused time to crank out all of the stuff from your never-ending To-Do List!

If doing a Health program, writing a Book, building a Garden, getting that Scrapbook done, or fixing a Relationship with a loved one, it works the same.

It comes down to your PROMISE to finally go for it!

I wish you the best with your Promise to Push Yourself! 

And let me know what you did, that always makes us feel like we did something pretty amazing in the amount of time accomplished, when we have the chance to share about it.

~ Jason Hewlett