Instead of Waiting Until Damage is Done—Generate Your Own Wakeup Calls
Wakeup calls usually happen when unpleasant situations force you to make more effective choices and actions. Proactive wakeup calls occur when you stop deceiving yourself that “all is well,” and take accountability to do what’s required to achieve your desired results.
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In the case of a cancer diagnosis, you have no choice but to rise to the occasion and develop more healthy lifestyle habits. After you receive a poor performance review from your boss, you have no choice but to start performing the uncomfortable tasks required to succeed in your job.
Comfort zones be damned! Full speed ahead in course correction.
“After the damage is done” wakeup calls occur when you go unconscious and choose to evade reality until the damage can no longer be ignored. Course correction is now a vital and urgent priority.
What if you could develop the habit of generating “proactive wakeup calls?”
Proactive wakeup calls originate from two hard to face realities:
- Acknowledge you’ve repeatedly made choices to gain immediate comfort instead of taking steps to achieve your heartfelt goals.
- Take accountability to shift priorities in your choices–from pursuing guaranteed comfort to doing what is required to achieve long term results.
The notion of “required action” comes from Winston Churchill’s quote: “Sometimes doing your best is not good enough. Sometimes you must do what is required.”
Example of a Proactive Wakeup Call
Daphne Scott is a rare college professor who’s transformed the typical curriculum in her freshman math classes. After years of watching her college students shy away from working on calculus problems in front of the entire class, she decided to teach practices for developing an accountability mindset in the course curriculum. I was honored to offer a class on “Mindset Mastery” which Daphne followed up with practice drills the rest of the semester. Right away, there was a big increase in students who volunteered to perform math equations in full view of their classmates.
In a course evaluation, one student wrote, “I think it’s important to take every opportunity you can to succeed, because even though it’s scary, you will feel so much better afterwards, and it will lead to a better future for you.” Looks like the teacher and her students had major wakeup calls.
Pause now: Wake up to the opportunity to make this not only a newsletter you read, but one you apply to provoke wakeup calls.
Ruthlessly Honest Question
What’s an example of a proactive wakeup call where you noticed undesirable consequences of your choices and made necessary changes to gain unexpected benefits?
Heroic Experiment for This Week
What is an important goal where you’re not making your desired progress and you will now declare yourself ready for a proactive wakeup call?
Create your proactive wakeup call:
1. Pick one comfort-driven behavior you will stop doing.
2. Pick one required behavior you will start doing.
Begin these behavior changes this week. Enjoy being fully awake!
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