Are You Unknowingly Dismissing Life-Changing Advice?
I recently choose to review two occasions where I received life-changing advice to alter the direction of my two careers—as a speaker and masters track athlete. It’s the first time I’ve taken a careful look at the phenomena of “life-changing advice.” Here’s my biggest insight. There’s a huge risk that potentially life-changing advice will be dismissed as not relevant.
What if your advisor spots capabilities you’ve never fully acknowledged or a new direction to channel your strengths? Will you be intrigued to pursue the advice or dismiss it as a departure from the future you already feel comfortable pursuing?
Take notice! Advice is merely an emerging opportunity. Your response to advice is the life-changing element.
Let’s examine my response to two pieces of advice.
Situation 1: In the early 1980’s, I’d led plenty of workshops for hospital personnel but never delivered a speech to a corporate audience.
Advice from Ken Blanchard, author of The One Minute Manager: “Art, you ought to give speeches to corporations. I love your model that describes the difference between having interest and being committed to achieve results. You’ll have more impact on business leaders and get paid a lot more.”
My initial dismissive response: “I have no idea how to market myself to get selected to speak at corporate meetings. Besides, I hate being rejected while making telemarketing calls. I’ve never actually given speeches. I might be lousy.”
Taking extreme accountability: I will hire a strategic marketing expert. I will make as many weekly telemarketing calls as it takes to get 15 meeting planners to say, “Yes, we’re interested in seeing if you’ll be a good fit for our program.” I will join Toastmasters to develop my skills for giving keynote speeches.
Result achieved: After 5 months of telemarketing, I delivered my first speaking engagement to the National Association of Home Builders. Over a 40-year career, I was privileged to speak to 125 Fortune 500 companies.
Situation 2: I failed to medal at major meets as a sprinter, finishing 10th in the 200-meter dash at the USA Track & Field National Masters Championships in 2011.
Advice: From outstanding Masters Track Athlete, Charlie Brocato, “Art, you’ve got a strong upper body. What if you took up pentathlon?
My initial dismissive response: “I’ve never touched a javelin or a discus. I’d need to recruit coaches. I won’t have enough time to practice when I’m on the road doing speaking engagements.”
Taking extreme accountability: “I will recruit great coaches. I will shift from being a speaker to orchestrating year-long Mission Unreasonable Projects, which features coaching clients from my home office.”
Result achieved: After 5 years of training, I won silver and bronze medals in pentathlon at the national championships.
Do you see the moment of truth in these life-changing experiences? Instead of dismissing the potential life-changing opportunity, I took extreme accountability to take the actions required to achieve my desired results.
Life-changing advice provides the opening to produce fulfilling achievements but may not be comfortable to pursue. When you hear advice, are you listening with a dismissive attitude to take only reasonable action or with an extreme accountability mindset to bring your absolute best effort to achieve life-changing results?
Ruthlessly Honest Question
What advice have you dismissed or procrastinated on pursuing that has the potential to be life-changing if you were to take extreme accountability to do what’s required? Look for several examples, current ones and from years back.
Your Heroic Experiment for This Month
As an experiment, follow my case examples and write down 1) the dismissive language you will stop contemplating and 2) the required actions you will implement by taking extreme accountability.
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