Pep Rally To Kick Off 2014!

December 16, 2014

Football season is one of America’s favorite times of the year. Remember those chilly fall nights at your high school football stadium? In preparation for those gridiron battles, schools hold “pep” or “spirit” rallies to fire-up the team and their fans. The opposing team is often symbolized as an effigy who is attacked and destroyed, bringing the crowd screaming to their feet. The hope is the team and the fans will carry that “spirit” all the way to kickoff.

Let’s take a moment to compare that with pep rallies in the business world:

• What are their tactics?
• What exactly are they attempting to accomplish?
• Are they trying to overcome “bad” spirit, or, are they trying to create “good” spirit?
• Or, is it just an excuse to scream at the top of their lungs, act like fools, and then convince themselves how productive the entire process was?

When your team wins, be it in business or in sports, it’s easy to accept that the pep rally was part of your success. But what about when you fail? What happens to the up-beat spirit when everyone is hanging their heads in defeat? Throughout the game, any extreme shift in momentum can create a change in spirit that is felt among the fans and the players. What are those forces at work that appear to actually influence our emotions in both a positive or a negative manner and even influence the outcome of the game?

I’ll start by addressing what I believe is most obvious: positive thinking will most often result in a positive outcome! However, there are times that we stay upbeat and the end result is still not positive. When that happens, it can be hard to keep the right mindset and push through the next project or deal. But, staying positive, even in the face of defeat, will always get better results. No one ever wins without first believing they can!

Zig Ziglar got it right: “It is your attitude, not your aptitude, that determines your altitude.”

Here are a few tips for maintaining a positive attitude:

• Wake up early – this allows you to get a jump-start on the day. There’s no need to rush and you can get a head-start on projects and tasks before the rest of your peers have gotten up.
• Exercise – this helps combat depression and maintain a positive mood. It has significant benefits on both your physical and mental well-being.
• Plan your day and your week – in the words of one of my employees who learned about the (7) “P’s” in Marine Corps boot camp: Proper Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance!
• Understand that things won’t always go as-planned – things will go wrong! You must learn to improvise, adapt, and overcome.
• Be thankful – the very act of focusing on what you’re thankful for helps maintain a positive attitude.
• Surround yourself with positive people – the people around you impact how you think, who you are, and what you value.

If you’re not a naturally positive person, you should begin retraining your mind to think positive thoughts…even when you don’t “feel” positive. If you do not create a pattern of positive thinking, you will always be ruled by negativity and fear.

Next time, we’ll talk about what I believe to be the most pervasive and powerful deterrent to success:FEAR