The egg, not the chicken, came first
Written by Tom Richard | | tom@tomrichard.comWatching people succeed in life can create strange feelings. Outwardly, you appear supportive and congratulatory as you hear the news of their success; inwardly, you shake your head as you take inventory of your own ideas, goals and plans for the future.
How did they do it? What did they do differently than you? After all, you have ideas, too, but you don’t have the time for the extra work. You know how to grow your business, but you don’t have the money to put things in motion. If you only had more time and money, you, too, could finally hatch your ideas, grow your business and grab success with both hands.
To reach new heights in your business, you need to be able to answer the age-old question, “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?” Dissect any success story and you will learn that the egg came first, not the chicken. While some may argue that you need a goose to lay that golden egg that goose did not fall out of the sky; its life began from a carefully nurtured egg.
Evolutionists will tell you that species adapt to their changing surroundings by mutating and changing. Why would you be any different? You mutate, you evolve and you change and adapt to your changing surroundings, too. Restructuring a business, launching a new marketing plan or pulling together new ideas to grow your business is the result of a mutation in your thinking — mutation born out of necessity.
Before you take action, you decide to take action — you are inspired. This inspiration is the egg that precedes the chicken; this inspiration causes you to see things differently. The moment you see something differently, you have mutated your thinking. These mutations are irreversible. When you learn a new skill, see a new perspective or try something new, you have taken a permanent step forward. You cannot unlearn information and you cannot undo a new experience.
The more you allow yourself to mutate, the stronger you grow, the faster you evolve and the smarter you become. Honor your ideas by giving them the action they need to grow, instead of excusing them away or shrugging them off. Honor them by learning something new today or by doing something outside your comfort zone. As you expose yourself to new experiences, you evolve and grow.
There are two ways you can react to new experiences. You can dig in your heels and resist a changing world or you can expand your horizons and allow yourself to evolve. You are the only person who can control how you react to changes in your environment. When you seek and embrace newness as a part of your life, you are creating a personal system of growth that will open doors for you.
Proactively working newness into your daily routine is easy. Take 10 minutes each morning to read a section of a book that was recommended to you, accept the next invitation you receive from a friend or bite your tongue when a colleague shares a crazy idea with you. Exposure to newness allows you to prosper, to think new thoughts and to see the world differently than you did yesterday.
With your increased exposure, you’ll start seeing new opportunities all around you. These opportunities will hit you in the form of ideas and pure inspiration. This moment of inspiration is the moment of conception — the moment the golden egg arrives in your life.
Your golden egg precedes your golden opportunity, so stop waiting for a chicken to walk through the door and provide you with something you already have in your possession — the ability to change, evolve and succeed.
For easy ways to evolve and grow as a business professional go to www.boltfromtheblue.com and enter EGG into the blueprint box.
Tom Richard is a Toledo-based sales and marketing consultant, keynote speaker and owner of Bolt from the Blue direct response advertising. For more information, visit www.BoltFromTheBlue.com or call (419) 441-1005.
