How do you sprint through life? Not with your mobile phone, but with your personality? Here’s how to spell sprint:
Get Specific. Life is not lived in general. Life is lived very specifically. Decide exactly what you need to do. You can say that you will have a better marriage next year. Guess what? You won’t have a better marriage. You have to be specific. Decide what will give you a better marriage. For example, spending 20 minutes talking to your mate every night and having a date every other Thursday is a great way to start. If you want your dreams to come true, then wake up and do something specific.
Be Positive. You can’t “not” do anything. The more you try to stop something, the worse it gets. What you resist persists. The more you try to stop a habit, the more you do it because you think more about the habit. Stopping one thing means you have to start something in its place. You must erase and replace.
A peddler went through a western town selling a white powder. He told the people that if they mixed the powder with water it would make gold. However, he told them that while they were mixing the powder they could not think about red monkeys. He made a lot of money! The people asked for their money back after the powder didn’t turn to gold. But he asked if they had thought of red monkeys while mixing the powder. Of course they had.
You have to replace the negative with the positive or you will end up like the Australian aborigine who got a new boomerang. He spent the rest of his life trying to throw away the old one. By the way, what do you call a boomerang that doesn’t come back? A stick.
How does this relate to our world? Your problem might be handling anger. You decide that you will not get angry anymore. That is too general, and it is also negative. You need to replace your anger.
An example: “When I get angry this year, I will count to 10, take a few deep breaths and hum some silly song that makes me smile.” Now this is a strategy that is specific and positive.
Be Realistic. Many people get discouraged because they set unrealistic goals. I had a goal of playing in the NBA. Since I was short and slow, I had to change the goal. I played college basketball.
When I was in private practice in Dallas, I saw men who were stressed out about the traffic. When I asked them what they expected every morning, they described a perfect trip: no traffic jams and no crazy people cutting them off. That’s very unrealistic. There are no perfect trips in a big city. There are benefits, but traffic is not one of them. So I told them to be realistic about their drive. They should expect two traffic jams and five crazy people each time they drove into Dallas. It was amazing how their attitude changed. They called and said they were having a great day: They had just one traffic jam and two crazy people.
Involve Others. When you make changes, you need someone who knows what you’re changing, someone to encourage you and hold you accountable. There’s something about going public that puts positive pressure on your performance. Sprinting alone is more difficult than sprinting with people cheering for you.
That brings us to the next term: Nice Reward. Sprinting for a touchdown is easy because there is an immediate reward. Overall, people do what is rewarding.
A grandmother who sang in the church choir told her grandson that she would pay him 50 cents if he would poke his grandpa every time he went to sleep in church. Grandpa dozed off and slept through the whole service. After church, she asked her grandson why he didn’t do what he was supposed to do, especially since she paid him 50 cents. His response was that Grandpa had paid him $1 to let him sleep.
Choose a great reward in advance. Be careful about rewarding yourself with what you’re trying to change.
If you’re changing your eating habits, do not reward yourself after four weeks of good eating with a trip to the Donut Palace.
Finally, set a Time Deadline for your accomplishment. In other words, a dream without a deadline becomes a nightmare. If you have a dream, you need discipline and a deadline to accomplish it. Your accountability person should know when to expect your changed behavior.
Spell S.P.R.I.N.T. the way I’ve taught you: Specific, Positive, Realistic, Involve Others, Nice Reward, and Time Deadline. You will discover that it can be an enjoyable way to make progress in life.