Hector Ray shares a key principle of success.
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Think about the times when you said, “I don’t need to do that because it may not matter.” This kind thinking—if it becomes a habit—could be detrimental to your success and future. Did you know that what you don’t do counts as much as what you do? Many times, I have avoided certain things that I later thought I should’ve done. It could be as simple as making one more phone call to get the sale; one more “I will try it” to see if I can learn something from it, or as simple as letting someone through in a traffic jam. These are simple but powerful actions.
Wayne Dyer, who recently passed away, wrote about the power of our intentions. It’s like a turning signal you give to others, letting them know that you are about to make a left or right turn. Not doing it and doing it—they both count.
Someone once asked me “How can I have more success or opportunities come my way?” It is a great question to ask—the answer lies in doing the things that we may often believe don’t matter but doing them anyway. We are one thought, one question, one phone call, one “I am sorry,” one “Thank you,” one more follow up from changing everything in our lives. The problem is that we continue to wait for the next time and convince ourselves that they don’t matter.
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Many times, it’s what we don’t do that will make the biggest difference.
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I am here to tell you they do. We need to be the ones to take the action and not wait for others to take that action, or for the circumstances to change by chance. Many times, it’s what we don’t do that will make the biggest difference. Remember, everything counts, even what we don’t do.
Here is a formula that’s been around the world of personal development for a while. I have taken the liberty to “Hectorize” it a bit to help myself and others realize the power of understanding that everything we do and don’t do counts.
Every day we encounter various situations wrapped around change. Change is really a series of daily events that will happen with or without us. The challenge is getting better at the way we respond to our daily events. There are hundreds or thousands of events that come our way every day, and many are unpredictable. If we want to produce better outcomes from our daily events, we have to work on how we respond to those events. When the response is not producing what you want, you must step back and evaluate how you are responding. More than likely, your responses have become conditioned in nature, meaning that whatever event is happening now, your response is the same or conditioned, i.e. the language or actions you are using to respond have not changed.
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We need to learn how to make adjustments in order to produce better outcomes.
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We need to learn how to make adjustments in order to produce better outcomes. When the response is out of whack, I strongly recommend that you review where you stand on your Principles, Purpose, Preparation, and People. Principles = values, Purpose = intentions, Preparation = consequences and People = consideration. Thinking that it’s not you or it does not matter how I am applying my “Ps” is a recipe for disaster. Thinking that our “Ps” don’t matter diminishes our chances of producing the outcomes we are capable of. Saying to yourself and others that it “does not matter” is largely the reason why you are not producing the outcomes you are looking for. A conditioned response to every event is not a good approach. I have been there and done that, and before I started to analyze my “Ps,” my outcomes did not change.
Keep working on refining your “Ps.” Believe that they do count—this will make your character and your attitude more attractive to others, thus producing more opportunities. When you believe this matters, you get an instant connection from whatever it is you want in your life. This is so powerful when you believe that it counts.
All of the possibilities and outcomes we want to produce are there for all us if we genuinely believe that everything we want in life is related to understanding that what we do or don’t do count and they are both equally important. Of course we ALL need to practice this because as the saying goes, “It takes two to tango.”
Remember the Chinese proverb: He who says he can’t and he who says he can, are both usually right.
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Photo: Flickr/Masa Sakano
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