Think Tuesdays is designed to leave you inspired and motivated to make a difference. But to do that, you must first open your eyes to accept a different perspective.I’m in the process of making a few changes in my own life. And whilst I believe that I am a good goal-setter and someone that follows through, I have found that I have floundered. Being a long time fan of Gary Vaynerchuck – whose work ethic is someone I admire (the man does 18 hours a day and his social media accounts are rampant with content. Plus he doesn’t let other people do on his behalf and that alone… is staggering.), the one thing that he always mentions is “WORK“.

The man has provided so much value, that there are 3 things that I have distilled for myself that is helping me to keep pushing through the low times and challenges that come with making big changes in your life.

1. You’re Going To Die
2. Fear And Laziness
3. It’s All Your Fault

1. You’re Going To Die

When you put into perspective that you only have one shot at this life, you will start taking more of those risks (calculated ones and not stupid idiotic ones). You will go after your dream job. You will start that business. You would write that novel. You would ask her (or him) out. You get one chance at this amazing thing called life, so why are you spending the time like you are going to live forever. The Romans when celebrating the recent conquest, would hold a parade for their generals. But during that parade, there is a slave walking next to them that says “Memento Mori” roughly translating to “Remember Your Mortality”. When you realise you are going to die, what would you do?

I find this to be really helpful. I now ask myself, “what would I do if I knew I could not fail?” With that behind me, I now push forward. I’m looking forward to sharing this part of my transformation journey with you and all the lessons that I have learned from it.

2. Fear And Laziness

Gary mentions that the only reason that you are not doing or executing on your plans and your dreams is because you are either Fearful or Lazy. And fear can be either a fear of failure or a fear of success. And heck, the other side is that you are just too lazy to do it. You would rather spend your time playing videogames (yes, I am guilty of this) or binging on the latest series on Netflix (again guilty). Heck, it’s because of this, I now cut back on all these activities.

Cut back, not cut out. Because I enjoy these things and use it as a way to relax. And so, I use it as a reward. If I don’t do the work that I have outlined for myself today, I will not get to enjoy the downtime of Netflix or videogames.

3. It’s All Your Fault

Now depending on where you are on your own journey, you could have two very different responses. And you know what, I did too.

I raged first! Did I ask for things to change so drastically in my life? Nope. But as Gary mentions, we do have a chance to control the way we respond to the circumstances in our lives. So once you take on that responsibility, it’s up to you on how you respond. Do you mope around and focus on what happened? Or do you take the lessons you have learned and apply it to the next situation ensuring that this does not happen in the future?

Besides, my other favourite quote from him? “The past is just a story that we tell ourselves”.

Taking all of this into account, I now move forward with full steam towards my own goals and dreams. If you do need a hand working through these, then send me a note, reply with a comment and I will point you in the right direction.

For now, this is my favourite Gary Vaynerchuck video. It is packed with so much advice that I have 2 pages worth of notes and it keeps extending every time I rewatch it.